Reporting and analysis are crucial parts of any successful digital marketing strategy. Competitive metrics can help identify gaps in that strategy, areas for improvement, and tactics that already work well and should continue to be invested in.
SEO, advertising, and social media are all key areas that can benefit from monitoring competitive metrics. But your metrics can only help you if you know what information to monitor and measure for your business.
Your competitive metrics definition may be different from other businesses. You need to identify the competitive metrics most relevant to your business and find ways to measure that data. Here are a few examples of metrics you may have overlooked and how to track this important data.
9 Competitive Metrics You Should Be Tracking
Competitive Metric No. 1: Your Alexa Rank
As your business grows and establishes a stronger online presence, one of the competitive metrics that can help assess your digital authority is your Alexa Rank. Alexa Rank is a metric that rates your site’s performance relative to other sites. The higher your Alexa Rank, the more authoritative your site is (it has high traffic, a lot of pageviews, good impression share metrics, etc.). Conversely, the lower your Alexa Rank, the less influential your site is. Monitoring your Alexa Rank and seeing it go up the rankings will help indicate that your business is growing authority online.
If you have a higher Alexa Rank, you’re also likely to have a healthier impression share on Google for your target search queries. A strong organic presence on search engines can reduce the dependence on pay-per-click (PPC) to drive website traffic. That said, any search terms that are too competitive for a first-page Google ranking can open an opportunity to create an ad group in Google Ads for that target. Focusing on specific exact match keywords in your ad group should increase resonance with your target audience and achieve a high CTR and overall ad rank.
To check your site’s Alexa Rank, use the free version of our Site Overview Tool. You can also sign up for our Advanced Plan to get more detailed website traffic stats that include Alexa Rank as well as metrics on the number of pageviews, bounce rate, time on site, search traffic, and more.
Competitive Metric No. 2: Number of Backlinks to Your Site
Another competitive metric that helps you measure and monitor online authority is your number of site backlinks. Backlinks are a vital part of an SEO strategy. Search engines like Google typically give better rankings to sites that have a diverse and large portfolio of backlinks. You can monitor your number of backlinks to see if you’re succeeding in making your site more authoritative and improving your SEO.
To conduct a backlink analysis, use Alexa’s Sites Linking In Tool. The report shows you the number of sites linking back to you as well as their Alexa Rank. The Alexa Rank of each site helps you gauge the value of each link, as links from sites with strong Alexa rankings are more valuable than links from sites with poor Alexa rankings.
Competitive Metric No. 3: Number of Backlinks to Competitors
Your backlink portfolio shares important growth metrics information, and so do the backlink portfolios of your competitors. The number and authority of backlinks you have should ideally match or surpass your competitors. Because of this, it’s also important to track and monitor information about your competitors’ backlink portfolios.
To find competitor backlinks, use Alexa’s Competitor Backlink Checker. Enter up to 10 competitors to get a report on the links pointing to the list of sites. Use the information to compare your backlinks to your competition to see how you measure up to similar brands and sites. Backlinks can also contribute to a higher estimated number of impressions on search engines, meaning increased brand awareness.
This information is one of the most useful competitive metrics for startups because it helps you understand your market share and any specific backlinks that may be generating significant referral traffic for your competition. The analysis helps you find backlinks and see which sites are linking to your competitors. You can then use that information to create a plan for getting those sites to link back to your website, too.
Competitive Metric No. 4: Your Keyword Share of Voice
Another competitive metric that helps you measure influence online is your Keyword Share of Voice. Share of Voice is an Alexa metric that shows how much organic traffic a website owns as it relates to a specific exact match keyword. It represents the percentage of searches for a particular keyword that is sent to a website.
For example, contentmarketinginstitute.com has a Share of Voice percentage of 43.15% as it relates to the keyword “content marketing.” That data indicates that 43.15% of people who search for “content marketing” visit contentmarketinginstitute.com.
Researching your Share of Voice percentage for the top keywords that relate directly to your industry will help you see how much authority you have on a specific topic. To find your score, use Alexa’s Share of Voice Tool. Enter your target keyword, and review the list to see where you rank as well as where your competitors rank.
Another way to measure your Keyword Share of Voice is by using Alexa’s Competitor Keyword Matrix. Enter your site along with up to nine of your competitors. Once the report populates, use the filter to narrow down your results. Enter one keyword (that relates specifically to your business or industry) in the “Include terms” field. Once you’ve done this, scroll up to see the Share of Voice percentage your website has versus your entered competitors. This information allows you to see how you compare with direct competitors on Google while also giving insight on how impression share is broken down.
You should also take time to create a keyword-level tree. Start by mapping out high-volume parent terms such as “content marketing” and work your way down to list any broad match variations, eventually leading down to exact match longtail keywords, such as “free content marketing software for grammar.” This presents a full scope of parent keywords, or target search queries, you can easily use for optimizing landing pages, blog posts, etc.
Additional Competitive Metrics: Onsite Engagement Stats
Popular competitive metrics often include engagement metrics.These are important for the ranking algorithm of search engines like Google, which uses a similar metric called Quality Score within Google Ads to rank high-performing ad content.
We broke down this category to list the best engagement metrics for measuring the interest levels of users on your site. You can gauge website audience interest by looking at:
5) Daily pageviews per visitor
6) Bounce rate
7) Daily time on site
8) Pageviews
9) Unique visitors
Each of these metrics offers insight into how engaged people are with your site. If they view a lot of pages or return frequently, they are highly interested. But if they bounce at a high rate, don’t stay for very long, or view only a few pages, they are not engaged or interested, and you will lose impression share.
You can find daily pageviews per visitor, bounce rate, and daily time on site using Alexa’s free Site Overview Tool. Enter your site URL and receive a report that includes these metrics. Pageviews and unique visitors are also available when you certify your site metrics through your Alexa account.
Uncover These Competitive Metrics and More
Reporting and analyzing competitive metrics is an important part of strategic digital marketing planning. As you put together a list of data to collect and review, be sure to include the new metrics listed in this post to get a well-rounded view of your growth, impression share, and results. (Want a head start? Check out this competitive analysis example.)
To get tools to help you extract this data, sign up now for a free trial of Alexa’s Advanced Plan. It includes all of the tools listed in this post, along with Alexa’s full suite of other SEO, keyword research, and marketing tools.
