John will be speaking about “Competitive Intelligence” at SearchFest 2011, which will take place on February 23rd at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Tickets are available now. To purchase, please click the following link.
1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living.
I’m a competitive web strategy and SEO consultant, working in SEO since 1997 and full-time independent as an SEO consultant since 2003. As an advanced SEO consultant, I provide decision support for smart entrepreneurs and online business executives. I can provide a strong set of technical and professional services to support an online business endeavor, or work in concert with existing teams. I am a trusted advisor for teams chasing significant online goals through web publishing. I have a broad range of SEO experience including fast-growth and competitive industries as well as small, local businesses. I have a strong Engineering background, an analytical mind, a competitive personality, and nearly 20 years of experimental research training and experience prior to SEO consulting. I myself am a web publisher and domain investor, with a portfolio of domain names and a set of active web sites in several industries. I am known for my rather unique perspective on SEO, which comes from my diverse background and my sincere interest in understanding the motivations and intent of the people driving the search engines and web sites ranking in them.
2) What is “Competitive Intelligence” in an SEO context and why is it important?
Well, let’s start with what it isn’t. Competitive intelligence in the SEO arena is not the same as the “competitive intelligence” corporations use for strategic and tactical planning. In the SEO world we really only conduct what is known as “secondary competitive intelligence”; a form of competitive research. We then combine our competitive research findings with other market research, and add a perspective that comes from SEO experience and the relatively advanced technical wisdom that comes with SEO expertise. So SEO competitive intelligence is really mostly keen online market research and analysis.
In the past, researching available information was only a small part of competitive intelligence. Almost everything already published was known to all competitors, since they all monitored the news and relevant publications. These days, because the Internet has advanced so quickly, and because companies and their employees are often carelessly publishing information on the Internet, online research can yield a substantial amount of actionable information all by itself. Perhaps more remarkable than the volume of data published is the lack of tech savvy at many companies, which supports a competitive advantage for those who conduct the online research. Unlike what has been published in the New York Times or company white papers, this information is only available to companies with the tech smarts and SEO abilities to discover it, “see” it, understand, interpret it, and act on it.
Some people will push further and hack at competitor web sites, pose as a potential customer and email companies, plant online traps, interview competitor employees for non-existent jobs, or use other methods to learn what has not been published. Fortunately most of that is illegal.
Companies with strong SEO researchers can gain actionable information via “legal” competitive research, and move on it without risk of having done anything illegal or unethical.
Some of what is available and useful: recruiting trends and related reflections of in-house expertise, online ad spends and budgeting, dynamics of intentional keyword targeting, efforts at advanced SEO and search engine marketing, publication capabilities, industry-specific intentions, internal discord or harmony on teams, and strategic planning and expectations. Of course opportunities can be graded based on competition, so virtually all competitive research provides decision support for investment. Your typical SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) takes on a new luster when driven by online SEO competitive research. And there are many techniques to draw information out of your competitors in a way that is not obvious or even recognized, since they often do not equate their online actions with the associated information disclosures.
3) Can you give us some examples of necessary “Competitive Intelligence” that you deem important that might not be obvious to most SEO’s?
Yes, I can, in the hypothetical of course. What if a web design firm in New Jersey took a rambling customer inquiry and turned it into a nicely formatted specifications document in PDF format, so that the customer could subsequently send that as the Request for Proposals to all potential web design and interactive development firms under consideration? He would get a notice every time one of his competitors opened the document (including their hired expert consultants). That is actionable competitive intelligence for bid preparation, and it was obtained because the various companies reading the PDF were not considering how the opening of the document might reveal their identity, to whom it might reveal it, or how it might be used.
What if a Seattle luxury apartments realtor monitored Facebook and other social media networks for discussions of Seattle neighborhoods or inquires about moving to Seattle? She could engage the users early and provide a relocation guide or offer of personal assistance on the first scouting visit to Seattle, instead of waiting for the employee to visit, decide to relocate, and then do a competitive search for Seattle realtors. The early research potentially short circuits the need for aggressive SEO on the very competitive “Seattle Realtor” search term. It could also lead to referrals if the candidate chooses not to relocate to Seattle, but enjoyed Urban Ashley’s helpful personality and assistance.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.