Industry and competitor analysis is key to identifying gaps and opportunities. Fleshing out the relationships, content topics, campaigns, and keywords of my competitors can all be used to supplement a content strategy.
In this post, I?m going to discuss how I use SimilarWeb to find and identify new content opportunities both for topics and publishing.
Let?s pretend I work for a home remodeling and restoration company that receives quite a few qualified leads from their Houzz.com profile. While Houzz is not a direct business competitor, many pages, posts, and forum topics align with the needs, pain points, and interests of my target audience.
Topics
To begin my research, one of the first reports I’ll look at in SimilarWeb for new content topic opportunities is the Search > Organic search keywords report. Specifically, I?m looking for phrases that are relevant to my services and that are driving traffic back to the website I?m analyzing.
I can take these phrases, flesh out the main topics, and do additional research (related subtopics, search volume, competition, etc.) to create a post that?s unique and covers information that may not be included in the post/page that’s getting clicks for the phrase.
Tip: Make sure to take advantage of filtering out all branded terms to keep the report clean and actionable.
Using SimilarWeb for Question Research
With the rise of answer boxes in Google?s search results, I like to perform question research along with topic research to get a feel for what questions potential customers are searching for online. To perform question research in the organic search keyword report, simply add a question mark to the search bar (thanks to Roy Hinkis for the tip).
Relationship Building
Now that we have a full list of topics, it’s time to find new publishing opportunities. My company is interested in providing thought leadership and reaching a wider audience, so I?m always on the lookout for relevant websites that would be interested in allowing us to share our expertise with their readers.
The first SimilarWeb report I?ll look at to help me find new relationship building opportunities is Outgoing Links which lets me see who the website I?m analyzing is linking out to. In order to get the most relevant results, I?m going to filter the category to Construction and Maintenance.
In browsing through the list, I?m able to identify many 3rd party websites and blogs that publish content on topics that align with our core services.
To quickly vet through the list, you can reference the Global Rank column to get a feel for how much traffic a website receives. After I find new websites that are getting notable amounts of traffic, I?ll do some further investigation to see what type of engagement their content is getting. To me, the most valuable types of publishing opportunities are going to be on websites that have an active, engaged audience.
Referring Websites
The next report I?ll want to check is Referring Websites to understand who is sending traffic to the website I?m analyzing. This report provides me with more 3rd party websites and blogs to look at for potential publishing/thought leadership opportunities that I?ll again filter by category.
Audience Interests
Another useful report I use to find new relationship opportunities in SimilarWeb is Audience Interests. In here you?ll find data on other websites that were visited by users that also visited the website you?re investigating. It includes visits via bookmarks, direct visits and type-in traffic. This report provides me with new prospects I can add to my outreach list. Nice right?
Website Not Accepting Guest Authors
If a publisher doesn?t allow guest contributions from industry experts, but does use Google AdSense, there are still opportunities to get your client in front of their audience via Google?s Display Network.
Using these reports in SimilarWeb should provide you with enough data to not only identify potential topics, but also find relevant 3rd party websites and blogs that serve your target audience. Let me know in the comments below how you?re incorporating SimilarWeb into your content marketing strategy.
