As with any website, a connection with the audience is key for your content.  With so many sites out there, it is oftentimes hard to distinguish yourself from your competitors.  In an article posted by Arc Intermedia titled “How to Mine Fresh Backlinks for Resonant Content Creation”, we can learn a few helpful tips about using the competition to strength our own profile. The article used a financial blog as a test client, but the steps outlined can be applied to any company or organization:

• Utilize site searches to widen your knowledge and gain initial results.
• Check out social media to identify key topics.
• Use your findings to distribute your own content.
  

Site searching

Utilize Clique Hunter to compare competitors

The tool Clique Hunter proved to be a valuable asset in the experiment conducted by Arc Intermedia.  By entering similar sites, the tool helps to determine the big sources in common.  For the finance example, sites like Business Insider, Mashable and Lifehacker all linked competitors.  If your company is not referencing content from the big names you find, it is definitely time to join your competitors and start reading up.

Using social media

Identifying common themes amongst these sites

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Once you have identified the common sites between competitors, it is time to take a look at social media, and see how these big names are utilizing platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.  The study sites that Business Insider (identified earlier as an important source and link between topics), utilizes ads and sponsored content.  Even if you don’t have access to these resources, you can still scan their social media to look for trends in topics.  Again, finance examples include “Retiring Under 30” and “Renting vs. Buying”.  If countless companies are writing about these things, then you should be too before it’s too late.

Distributing content

Still staying smart once you have the ideas

Even after successfully stacking up against your competitors, you still have to look out for yourself.  Be sure to find the right time and day to post your content, keeping your audience and customers in mind.  Just having the data isn’t always enough, you need to post it properly so your site can have success too!

In conclusion, no matter your site’s content, it always helps to check out others to see what works and doesn’t work in your industry!  Identifying what content is most popular, engaging and resonating can make the difference in site traffic and overall success.