Fully legitimate, yet incredibly groundbreaking… With the range of online tools available today, you will be floored at the extent of competitive and industry intelligence that is available within the public domain. At WYK Web Solutions, we employ the latest methods to provide extensive market and competitive intelligence to support your online (or offline) marketing strategy, enabling you to make better decisions than ever before.
Research begins with a review of your existing business and marketing strategy so that WYK Web Solutions has a clear picture of your clients, offerings, and growth priorities. We also examine your industry and community and your place within it to search for possible alliances which can be built to boost your online authority.
1. Online Authority Audit
WYK Web Solutions begins with a comprehensive analysis of your online profile:
- Link Profile – We assess where your site is linked to, who is linking back to you, and the degree to which these links are driving or detracting from your traffic flow.
- Domain Authority – At WYK Web Solutions, we profile the current rank and ranking rationale of your site as seen by search engines and the entire online community. What kinds of content may drive traffic? What is popular content in your field?
- Social Networking Profile – We will examine social networking sites you and your employees are actively using, and which ones are driving traffic to your website. Are they well subscribed to by your “fans”? How many people have joined recently? What attracts them to “like” or “follow” you? Are the pages well-designed and in harmony with your branding? Each of your social networking sites is carefully and fully analyzed.
- Website Assessment – Regarding your main website, we determine how easily the content is found on your site. Is all of the content focused, or spread into different canonical domains? Is the content structured properly? Is content appropriately labeled? Is the content relevant to users? Is it current and prolific? Do you have a blog? Is the blog content being shared with online users who may be interested in it?
- Online Outreach Activities – We also consider the direct communication you are making using a database. Do you have a newsletter? Is it integrated with management software? Is it effective in driving traffic? How is it distributed? Is the quality of the content relevant and succinct? What type of online advertising, Pay Per Click, or banner advertising have you done? How was this executed? was any of it effective?
- Analytics Tools – WYK Web Solutions will carefully review all of your existing website analytics. We will also uncover the most critical Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for your type of business.
- Online Reputation Audit – WYK Web Solutions will conduct a full online reputation audit to see if any online reviews or comments have been made that could enhance or damage your reputation. This includes bloggers and traditional media who publish online. This also helps us to uncover any good reviews of your company or its offerings that could be promoted. We will also determine key industry influencers online whose attention you may wish to gain as a part of your outreach program.
- Keyword research – WYK Web Solutions will determine all of key search phrases on which you are currently ranking (including product names, product uses, perhaps manufacturers whose products you resell.) This is compared to the keywords you have been targeting, and the keywords used by qualified prospects whom you wish to attract.
Once the online authority audit is complete, we will present a comprehensive report of the results. Depending on the size of the organization and its complexity, such reports run from 6 – 100 pages of solid, useful data.
2. Competitor Authority Audit
At WYK Web Solutions, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the online presence of your major competitors, using similar criteria as that analyzed for your own site:
- Link Profile – This provides a summary of where your competitors are linked to, who is linking to them, and the degree to which these links are driving or detracting from their traffic flow.
- Domain Authority – This refers to the rank and ranking rationale of their website as seen by search engines and the entire online community. What kinds of content are they using to drive traffic? Are these areas you might wish to compete within?
- Social Networking Profile – This determines which social networking sites your competitors are actively using, and which ones are driving traffic to their websites. Are they well subscribed to by “fans”? How many people have joined recently? Are the pages well designed and in harmony with their branding?
- Website Assessment – What is the overall quality and messaging of your competitors’ websites? Is the content focused, or spread into different canonical domains? Is the content structured properly? Is content appropriately labeled? Is the content relevant to users? Is it current and prolific? Do they have a blog? Is the blog content being shared with online users who may be interested in it?
- Online Outreach Activities – Assuming subscriptions to competitor newsletters are automated, it is possible to analyze their database outreach program. We can also see what types of online advertising, Pay Per Click, or banner advertising they may be using. How was this executed, and was any of it effective?
- Analytics Tools – WYK Web Solutions can use tools to determine the overall traffic being received by your competitors, and its sources. This helps to enlighten you on their business strategy, and which areas are pockets of untapped opportunity.
- Online Reputation Audit – Competitors sometimes “educate” your clients before you can; WYK Web Solutions will conduct a full online reputation audit to see if any online reviews or comments are being made that affect the “thought direction” of your industry. This includes bloggers and traditional media who publish online. We will also determine key industry influencers online whose attention you may wish to gain as a part of your outreach program.
- Keyword research – WYK Web Solutions will determine all of key search phrases on which your competitors are currently ranking (including product names, product uses, perhaps manufacturers whose products they resell.) This is compared to the keywords you have been targeting, and the keywords used by qualified prospects whom you wish to attract.
Once the competitor authority audit is complete, we will present a comprehensive report of the results. Depending on number and variety of competitors, such reports run from 6 – 500 pages of solid, useful data that is immensely useful in strategic decision making.
