So from an online perspective, how do you determine whom you should be measured against? Well the easiest way is to perform a query in Google or your search engine of preference and see who occupies the real estate on the SERP for your important key phrases. Depending on the type of search that you do (i.e. a search for a more general "head" type keyword or a more focused "long-tail" keyword), you may see the same sites showing up or you may see completely unique site showing up. You may see entirely different sites come up than what you expected. The reason for this? Well you can thank SEOs, bloggers, online marketers for this. The process of "optimizing" a web page has allowed Webmasters and site owners somewhat position sites in the search results. The search engines are trying to communicate the most relevant result based on the query, but unfortunately the most relevant results do not always show up.

Before we proceed, we need to define online competiton and offline competition.

Online Competition - these are websites that show up in the search results for a given query related to your busineess or your industry. For example a search for "plumbing supplies" returns sites such as plumbingsupply.com, plumbersurplus.com, and showerbuddy.com. When in fact the user may have been looking for something more along the lines of a plumbing retailer such as Lowe’s or Home Depot. Lowe’s or Home Depot, may not consider "plumbersurplus.com or "showerbuddy.com" a competitor per se, but in reality if Lowe’s or Home Depot is trying to rank for "plumbing supplies" all of the above mentioned sites are examples of online competition.

Offline Competition - offline is the more traditional way we think about a competitor. For Coke it’s Pepsi, for Home Depot it’s Lowes etc. Your offline competitors tend to be the businesses that you are trying to obtain market share from (not that you are not from an online competitor) but think of an offline competitor as the "traditional" competitor of a given business. Depending on the keyword searched for, your offline competitor may or may not show up in the results.

It should be noted that there are also "category killers" in the search results that also become a form of online competition. These might be directories, blogs or sites like Wikipedia that come up for a given term. If they are frequenting the search results space that you should be in, then consider them an indirect online competitor.

Well now that we have defined what an online competitor is, what does this mean for your marketing effort? Well from an SEO perspective it means being aware of the competitive landscape on a search engine results page. Understand who else is positioning for your key phrases that are of interest to your business or your industry. From an SEO perspective there are some simple steps that you should follow in identifying and dealing with your online competition.

1. Identify Your Online Competition - know who you are competing with for a given set of queries. Start with Google and look at who is showing up for a sample of keywords that you are attempting to gain visibility for.
    
2. Identify Relevant Keywords - continue to refine your keyword list to ensure that you are focusing on the keywords that your customer or your prospect will be searching for.
    
3. Review your Online Competitor’s Websites - specifically the site(s) that are rnaking strong efforts and are gaining a presence in the online space. Look at what they are doing right from an optimization point of view. Examine things such as their meta data, page copy, on-page headings and interlinking strategies to identify ways to improve your own web properties.
    
4. Monitor the Search Engine Results Pages - the Internet is a dynamic environment. The search engines results are just as dynamic. Make it a habit to periodically check the search results for a sample of yout key phrases. This will help you determine which sites are making the effort to succeed online. If you are able to identify such sites, you will be able to better compete with this online competition.

When asked about their competitors, many site owners or more importantly C-Suite executives will refer to their traditional offline competition. However the focus needs to change to include being aware of those web sites that have gained great visibility on the Web; the competition that one may not think of as a traditional competitor. Online competitors are websites that are taking eyeballs away from your site and if not addressed, can collectively obtain prospects and customers that you are seeking. Failure to optimize and promote your website in an organic manner could mean that you are missing an opportunity to maintain or gain a competitive edge in your industry. Your online marketing efforts need to target both the offline and online competition. The Internet is a hyper-competitive environment. Understanding who you are competing with for online real estate is something that 10 years ago we never had to worry about. In this day and age, understanding your online competiton is becoming as important as understanding your traditional competitor.


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