| Does this describe you? You're working hard. | | | | extremely valuable for investigating any website |
| Having moderate success and generating some | | | | you are interested in. On their homepage you will |
| income from your home based network | | | | see a yellow Lookup Sites button. Enter your |
| marketing business. You're starting to see some | | | | domain name. |
| results in terms of lead generation and growing | | | | The top bar that appears shows data, with |
| your team. You're frustrated because you know | | | | buttons below to access additional information. |
| others are doing better than you | | | | Only a few things are important to look at here: |
| You've been watching your Google natural search | | | | A) Traffic Rank in U.S.: This shows the website's |
| position constantly and doing link exchanges, | | | | status in the U.S. compared to all other websites. |
| updating content, submitting articles for back links, | | | | As a value, it's not worth much but it's a good |
| blogging and a whole suite of other monthly | | | | way to compare your website to others. The |
| activities that you were told were necessary. You | | | | farther the gap between your rating versus |
| weren't misinformed, but you're constantly | | | | others, the wider the gap in traffic. |
| worried that you're targeting wrong or missing | | | | B) Sites Linking In: This shows how many outside |
| something. | | | | websites link into a given site. If you click the |
| The real beauty of the Internet as a forum to | | | | number, you actually see the links coming in! |
| connect buyers with sellers is that you can see | | | | C) Search Analytics: If you hit this button, you'll |
| exactly what your competitors are doing at any | | | | see the Top Keywords from Search Engines |
| given time. The competition that is more | | | | hitting your website or others. Ignore the Search |
| successful than you typically is going to be listed | | | | Terms With a High Web-Wide Ranking Driving |
| ahead of you for various keywords. This is a | | | | Traffic. It's diluted information and not completely |
| simple, rough indicator of who is getting more | | | | relevant to what I'm going to show you in the |
| website traffic than you. | | | | next article. |
| You don't need to use guesswork when studying | | | | If your website is new or has not been up that |
| your competition, however. There are several | | | | long, you may find that some of the data is |
| ways online you can investigate what others are | | | | unavailable. You can still use the information on |
| doing. Set aside a little bit of time on an ongoing | | | | your competitors to your advantage, however. |
| basis to do some real, competitive analysis. Here's | | | | Now that you've collected data on your own |
| some things you should consider doing. They don't | | | | website and competition, get it into an organized |
| take long and utilize some of the same | | | | format. We recommend setting up a spreadsheet |
| approaches you'd see if you paid thousands of | | | | in Excel for reporting purposes. Set up columns |
| dollars out to a strategic advertising and consulting | | | | for your own website and your competitors, with |
| agency. | | | | rows used to display the Keywords you've |
| First, identify your competition. Take the | | | | targeted, your Google position versus their |
| keywords that you are targeting for strong | | | | position, the Traffic Rank in U.S., Sites Linking In |
| organic position for your website and choose 5 | | | | and the keywords driving traffic as listed in |
| websites that are listed ahead of you in the | | | | Search Analytics. |
| results. If you're on Page 10, choose 1 website | | | | In my next article, I'll explain to you how to |
| from varying pages. Don't just look at Page One. | | | | analyze and draw conclusions from the results, |
| You need to see how things change in terms of | | | | and more importantly, how to take action. There |
| what we're going to show you for high ranking | | | | is a video that accompanies this article available on |
| sites vs. underperforming sites. | | | | my blog. In the video you'll see me navigate to |
| Second, use your own websites as a basis for | | | | spy on the successes of MLM Lead System Pro |
| comparison. Visit Alexa.com, "the web information | | | | leaders Cedrick Harris and David Wood. |
| company." Alexa.com's data mining tools are | | | | |