SEO has one batch of moving parts.
You need to worry about your content strategy, keyword selection, Google ranking signals, backlinks and competition.
When clients ask me if they can rank their site for a particular keyword, I do a SERP analysis right away.
You wouldn’t know how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword without first analyzing the Google SERPs.
If you’re not doing basic analysis, you can set your site up for failure if you funnel all of your resources into a primary keyword that’s too out of reach.
Definition of SERP analysis
So what is SERP analysis?
Search engine results page (SERP) analysis is the practice of analyzing the top-ranking pages for a desired keyword, spotting opportunities to rank for that keyword, and trying to identify the difficulties in reaching the top of the search results.
A SERP analysis requires that:
Search for the desired keyword. Rate the top sites. Determine if the keyword is relevant to your site. Determine how you might rank for that keyword.
However, the final item on this list has a big question mark next to it.
you need to go beyond what should you do to get ranked today because your competitors are working diligently to maintain those rankings in most cases.
How to analyze a Google SERP
Learning how to analyze Google SERPs provides insight into a keyword and your ability to rank for the term. However, you will also discover:
Additional keywords you can try to rank for in search engines. Opportunities your competitors are missing out on. Content ideas. And more
You can check the SERPs manually, but when it comes to competitive keywords, you’ll want a tool that helps you see a page’s link profile, number of external links, and other factors.
Some tools work very well for this purpose, such as:
Plug your keyword into these tools and you’ll find a wealth of information on the top pages. For example, on Ahrefs, I just did a search for “SEO” and came up with the following:
What is SEO from Search Engine Land ranks second and shows the following statistics:
Ranking for this keyword will be extremely difficult without a massive budget, a reputable website and an inbound link campaign.
However, it is important to consider other factors in a SERP analysis, such as:
Search Intent Type of content classification. The competition
Search Intent
When searching for your query, search intent can be determined by the different layouts and types of pages you land on. You can indicate the intention because it will be one of the following:
commercial: Users who are researching before making a purchase decision.
Informative: Users who are trying to find a solution to their problem and are educating themselves.
Navigation: Users searching for a brand or website they already know.
transactional: Users who want to buy a product or service.
Considering these four intent categories, you’ll find that the keyword “SEO” has an informational intent, as all of the top results aim to educate their readers. Your goal to beat these competitors would be to educate the user.
Sites might look like this:
Google SEO Starter Guide
What is Search Engine Land’s SEO Guide
If you change your keyword to “books about seo” you’ll find Amazon as a transactional intent keyword because the site is designed for products.
However, if you change the keyword to “SEO Books on Amazon”, it would be seen as a navigation keyword because the user is specifically looking for these books on Amazon.
Search intent is important because it will determine your position:
design Navigation Personalization Common devices used to access the site.
Once you’re past search intent, you can focus on the technical aspects of the site, UI/UX design, and content.
Type of content classification
Often, you’ll find a variety of content rankings for a given keyword. Going back to the keyword “SEO books”, there are many types of content that fall under:
E-commerce stores. lists guides Book reviews.
This keyword is much easier to rank for than just “SEO” and you can create the above types of content to meet the needs of people searching for this keyword.
When you do SERP analysis, you have the opportunity to learn what content is currently working for your competitors, and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Perhaps you can create a video guide on the best books to accompany your list or review article.
Now, you can learn a lot of information with just a few minutes of SERP analysis:
Keyword difficulty. Backlink profile. Search Intent Ideas or types of content to use.
You can even find how videos rank for a given keyword, allowing you to target traffic through YouTube. It can be easier to show up at the top of results with a snippet or video than with informative content.
Note the on-page SERP features you can leverage to create content, such as:
Ratings Shopping results. People also ask. Featured Snippet. images
You can target the keyword from all angles to try to generate traffic from all sources.
The competition
You’ve already done a basic analysis of the top ranking sites, but now it’s time to dig deeper into these sites. You can look at things like:
Keyword difficulty. External inbound links to the entire domain. External entry links to the page. Domain Authority/Page Authority (or similar). Presence of superior domain. Social signals.
It’s worth taking the time to look at your competitor’s page and learn about the type of content created, length, proper on-page optimization, format, images, and use of video.
When you analyze competitor sites, you can get an idea of what’s working and how well the site has targeted the keyword.
You may find opportunities to create better content or use technical and on-page SEO to improve your odds of ranking for your keyword.
Additionally, you can identify content gaps in your competitor’s content strategy that can improve your odds of ranking for the keyword.
However, if your entire homepage is filled with really tough competitors, it might be worth finding a new keyword to target.
For example, if the top results include the own sites of Google, Microsoft, Apple and Wikipedia, it will be very difficult to beat them.
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Use your SERP analysis in your content and SEO strategy
Can you rank for the specific keyword within budget and relatively timely? If so, you can start digging deeper with:
Creating content that is deeper and better than your competitors. Focusing heavily on content gaps that the competition overlooks. Improve your on-page and technical SEO. By looking at the backlink profile of the top ranked sites and seeing if there is any opportunity to replicate the backlinks.
If your search results include rich snippets for your query, you should also embed structured data into your site.
Something as simple as an image from one of the top SEO-ranking books can dramatically increase your click-through rate, even if you’re not as high as some of your competitors.
When older pages or sites rank in the top 10, they often haven’t implemented structured data, giving you a golden opportunity to use it on your page.
Now you can start writing your content ideas and looking for mistakes in the competition:
Maybe all the books listed on the competitor’s site are over 5 years old. You can create a new list of books that are relevant to current best practices. You can create various forms of content such as blog posts, videos and images to improve your chances of ranking higher in the results.
Your content should have its own unique selling proposition. When creating content, it’s important to step back and ask:
Why would people like my content more than what already exists? Can I provide unique information or data? Can I improve readability or add custom images?
If you focus on creating generic content without original data and insights, you may not get the results you were hoping for. You’ll find that adding something “special” is a selling point for readers and search engines.
You should spend time making your content or pages the “best”.
However, when the search intent is transactional or navigational, it can be difficult to make the content the best. In other cases, you can certainly use a solid content strategy to rank for a keyword.
Once you have everything in place and start publishing your content and working on off-page SEO, it’s important to track your keyword rankings.
Many of the tools listed above offer keyword ranking tracking and will allow you to:
Monitor your keyword over time. See when you start to improve your ranking for a specific word. Find out when you lower your ranking
Performance tracking will help you understand what’s working and what’s not working for your site or a particular keyword.
You may need to do another SERP analysis in a few months to see what changes have occurred and how you need to adjust your optimization strategy to see results.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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