How to Analyze Your Competitions Web Pages

You probably already know that you must use either the latest versions of "Netscape" or "Microsoft Explorer" to browse the World Wide Web -- forget the reasons, just believe us. If you are serious about making money on the Internet, then you must use professional tools -- like it or not, everything else in the realm of web browsers is second rate.

That said, we will tell you how to analyze your competition so that you can build yourself a web site that "goes one better" and will significantly improve your chances of making the top ten "hit" list in your selected search fields.

First, be systematic -- start with a single search engine.

We suggest that you start with Lycos, AltaVista, HotBot and Northern Light, as these are the simplest engines to submit to. Then move on to Excite and WebCrawler, and save Yahoo and then Infoseek for last. They have totally different criteria that we will tell you in a future issue of the Chronicles. In fact, we will save you a HUGE amount of frustration dealing with these engines/directories that will be worth the wait -- and should get you the best possible results in the process.

Then enter, one at a time, each of your keywords and keyword phrases into that SEs search function in order to see what is currently the top ten "hit" list in each particular category.

Next, click on the first URL at the top of the search results list -- go to that website. Once their page has loaded, try to determine what caused it to land on top. For example, look for keywords, invisible text, etc. Use information that you have learned so far through the Chronicles (or from our own private site at http://MarketingChallenge.com/) to analyze their page.

Viewing the Source Code

Next... you need to look at the code behind their page. Click "View", then click "Source". Here you will see if the page contains Meta descriptions, Meta keywords, < IMG ALT= > tags, spamdexing, and so on.

If the page is particularly well done (format wise), save the "source code" to a file. You may want to use it later for a template to build your own page(s). In fact, every time you find a page that works well with a Search Engine, save it in a separate file.

Be sure to keep track of your research as you go. Perhaps the best way to do this is to open the "source code" file that you save and write your notes at the top of the HTML document. Keep track of which SE it appeared on top with and what you think caused it to make the top of the list.

After you have finished the top ten in one keyword search, go to another keyword search with the same SE and repeat the process. After a while you will notice that some pages keep popping up in a variety of searches. Those are the ones that are "well done". They are the ones you should use as a template. Youve found the pages to beat and youve captured the code for the ones that are working! ...and you even know why they are working..... Congratulations!

In highly competitive areas, what you see isnt always what the search engine indexed. Some businesses are using the "Bait and Switch" Trick #11 or the "Food Technique" Trick#12 and you wont be looking at the correct source code. In those cases, you might find a page that doesnt seem to be using the same number of keywords or format that the other pages seem to have. In that case disregard that page and analyze the pages that appear to be similar to one another and score closely. Here are some clues that often are associated with pages of this type:

The title from the search engine listing doesnt match the text within the < title > area of the page.
The summary or description from the search engine listing doesnt match the text within the < meta > description on the page.
The file size may be different.
The file extension isnt .htm or .html.

If one of these four clues applies to the page youre studying, its best that you skip that one and analyze a different page. Its important to note that these indications dont mean that those sites are using special tricks, it just means they MIGHT be.

Now remember, we are being systematic. Completely analyze one SE before you move on to the other... and then, repeat the process until you have finished all of them. Very soon you will become your own expert on what works and what does not work... because you now know what you are looking at -- as well as what you are looking for!!!

NOTE: heres a good tip. While you are doing your research, browse the web with your images turned "off". That way the pages will load much faster! ...and if at any time you want to see the images on the page you simply click the "images" button.

With Netscape, you can turn the images off by clicking "OPTIONS" then make sure the "Auto Load Images" is unchecked (click it to check/uncheck it). Doing this will considerably speed up doing your research. When you want to see the images, simply click the "Images" button on the top bar of the main screen. This is how we frequently view the Internet and we recommend it.

With Microsoft Explorer, click "VIEW" then "OPTIONS" then uncheck "show pictures". If you decide that you want to see the pictures, follow the same path and recheck "show pictures" then go back to the main screen and click "refresh" ....and, yes, Netscape does work easier.

About the author

Harry Pickett founded Headland Financial Associates in June of 1980. The purpose was to establish a group of marketing consultants to assist small to medium sized businesses who wanted to improve their marketing efforts with new technologies that were rapidly emerging.

:To contact see details below.


harry@headland.com
http://www.headland.com