How To Investigate The Competition's Web History
Trace Their Traffic History And Follow Their Footsteps
One aspect of creating a popular website in general is to investigate your competition's website, and more precisely its history on the internet. By doing so you should find/inherit good traits and resources for your own website and therefore improve it and gain more traffic.
In this example (below) I have typed STEP BY STEP COOKING into google to see what comes up.....because I am pretending I have a Cooking Guide website
for this lesson. Once the results came I then went to listing number 7, mainly because the other 6 listings were either commercial websites that could
easily be listed on page 1 of google or because they were not what I was looking for (they either posed no competition and/or were too bland - First
impressions count).
Although I typed STEP BY STEP COOKING into google, the link I chose to investigate was titled ITALIAN FOOD TRADITIONAL ITALIAN COOKING AND ITALIAN RECIPES
with STEP BY STEP and COOKING in its description (google highlighted in the listing). So how did it get placed so highly with these keywords/keyphrases?
Fig 1.2 STEP BY STEP and COOKING are highlighted in the listing
The first step was to look at its Source (HTML) Code using my web browser's Page SOURCE menu. With internet explorer click on the VIEW menu and then select the SOURCE menu-item - Firefox: View >> Page Source. Doing so will reveal a web page's Meta Tags (Keywords and Keyphrases). With this web page (below) the keyphrase STEP BY STEP is in its Description meta tag and the keyword COOKING is mentioned a few times in its Keywords meta tag. But this alone would not be enough to list it on page one of google. Further investigation was needed!
Fig 1.3 The source code reveals the Meta Tags (Keywords and Keyphrases) used in this web page
The next step was to type LINKS: into google followed by the domain name (website address) I was investigating. In this example LINKS: "annamariavolpi.com".
The quotes around the domain name are very important. Without quotes you get search results for ANNA, MARIA, VOLPI and a mixture of ANNA MARIA VOLPI but
with quotes you should only get search results for WWW.ANNAMARIAVOLPI.COM. This tells you which websites have a true link to www.annamariavolpi.com.
From this evidence you can then click on a website link (search result) to see what is going on with the website - In this case I could see where Anna
Maria had marketed her website for example. In which directory listings, classified ads, websites and so on.
Fig 1.4 LINKS: "domainname.com" reveals where a website is being linked from
Investigations showed that she had written Articles, placed herself on numerous Social Networking Websites and Directory Listings and had been around
since 2003. More importantly she has advanced her domain name registration to 2013. The number of years a domain name has been registered for counts
towards a website's position/ranking simply because the search engines acknowledge your dedication and know you have not just set up your website for
one year for example and then given up.
The registration details for a domain name (website) can be found at Domain Tools (WHOIS)
which you can read about in the Domain Name Research section.
Although anna maria's WHOIS record states registration of www.annamariavolpi.com from 2006, investigating with
Wayback Machine (a website that records/archives a website's index web page every month,
usually) reveals that her website was created in 2003 (Fig 1.6). AlexaSiteInfo
also confirms this.
Fig 1.5 Use a WHOIS website to lookup a domain name and view its registration details
Fig 1.6 A history (Archive) of www.annamariavolpi.com from June 2003 to February 2008
Clicking on a linked date from a website's history (above) displays a preview of what that index web page looked like wayback when. One of the most
important parts of the wayback website is not that it shows the look of an index web page but that it reveals how successful a website has been generally.
For example. Has that web page added any Membership Scheme(s), introduced any new Products and/or Services, used any Affiliates and/or Advertising
Scheme(s) between its startup date and its present/last recorded date? If it has stayed the same, Why?
Is The Website Still Giving Support?
Send a bogus email to the owner to see if they still give Support. Ask them directly if they sell an E-Book for example. Even bull**** them and say "I like your website. I am thinking of creating a similar website. Do you have any guidance/tips for me?". I, for example, use a bogus email address with a female name (gets the results I am after!) to quiz people about prices for their services, which they never usually reveal on the internet.
People who do not give full details and support tend to be dinosaurs (old books) that think if they state £25 for their service someone with a similar website and service will state £24.99. OLD BOOKS, Remember. Long gone the saying "If I tell you my secrets I will be out of a job". In today's information society, if you do not pass on your secrets and give your knowledge some other website will. And they will not be out of a job. Quite the opposite! They will be selling E-Books!
Act Upon Your Findings
With all that evidence, and by taking the opportunity to copy ideas from your competition's website, you can build up the same kind of traffic as them.
Just follow their lead. Indirectly they may have given you directories to advertise in, affiliation products to invest in, valuable resources and so on.
In the case of Anna Maria Volpi (annamariavolpi.com); If I really did have a Cooking Guide website I would visit all the websites where she had placed
a promotional advert and then post my own promotional adverts in them. And the same applies to all the other marketing/promotional forums, blogs, etc she
had a promotional advert in.
On top of this; I would copy her keywords/keyphrases and put them into google to see how she ranks. She ranked number 7 (Page 1, Position 7) with the
keyphrase STEP BY STEP COOKING for example. So surely those keywords are popular. Whereas with the keyphrase EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL her website is
nowhere to be seen on Page 1 or Page 2.....simply because the keywords (Extra, Olive, Virgin And Oil) are way too common. It could be argued she wasted
the space occupied by those four keywords.
Finally, I would see what she is doing on her actual website in terms of support, promotions, layout and design. In other words, why people are staying
on her website and making it popular.