The internet is crowded. Your website does not exist in a space on its own, waiting to be found by your perfect customer. It exists in a crowded space, with many other websites that are competing for exactly those same customers.

How can you set your website apart and be found?

The answer is not just SEO techniques, but SEO strategy. This strategy is the important planning and analysis that should preceed any implementation of any changes to your site. This strategy will focus on your goals for your website and how these goals translate to SEO.

There is an important step in this strategy that should never be overlooked when planning your SEO changes - competitor analysis. It is my belief that any SEO strategy needs to have a considerable focus on the competitive landscape - the results for your business will speak for themselves.

How do you evaluate your competitive landscape for SEO?

1. See how your competitors place

Simply perform searches as a user on search terms that you have identified as important to your business. You will easily find the most prominent online competitors - and may even be surprised to discover a few new ones. Better to know who you are up against in order to better understand how to set yourself apart.

2. See what your competitors are doing well

The search results page itself will  shows trends itself. For example, the top ranked sites will likely have the keyword in their page title. If you look at the first page of search results, and click off to each site, you can get a glimpse of the true competitive landscape. Learn from your competitors and you can level the playing field.

3. See what your competitors are doing poorly

Each competitor site can offer a good list of 'don'ts'. Perhaps a competitor has focused too much on SEO techniques, rather than SEO strategy, and the professionalism of the site has eroded. Always remember that SEO is the first step to get visitors to your site, but once there, they need a reason to stay.

4. Identify the opportunities for your site

Perhaps a known competitor does not appear in the first few pages of results. Perhaps you notice a trend in the SEO techniques of successfully ranked companies.  These scenarios are opportunities for your business.

As in all other areas of business, competitor analysis is exceptionally powerful. Learn from your competitors, and continue to learn about SEO, and you are already on your way.

Effective search engine optimization is based on understanding your target audience - not the target audience you have, but the target audience you want.

For example, I may have a website that gets reasonable traffic, but doesn't seem to be driving my business. I try SEO to improve website traffic, but still do not get the benefit that I seek for my business. What's wrong with this picture? I am not accurately targeting the website visitors that I want with my SEO efforts.

So today, I have two simple questions for you about SEO for your business:

1. "What keywords do your current visitors search on to find your website?"
2. "What keywords do the visitors that you want search on to find the website they want?"

The contrast in these two questions will make all the difference in your SEO strategy.

Step 1 - Find out what keywords visitors use to find your website

The easiest way to do this is to add Google Analytics code to your website. Once this simple code is added, you can monitor your website traffic patterns - and learn from your visitors. You can see what search engines they are using, what keywords they searched on to find your site, how long they stayed once they arrived at your site, and even the path that they took through the content on your site. 

Critical information can be gleaned from this very simple step. For example a peripheral keyword may be driving most of your traffic, but the keyword is not central to your business goals. Thus website visitors arrive at your website, then realize they are at the wrong site, 'bounce' off to the next one.  You can view this scenario as an opportunity to refocus - either capitalize on the current patterns by shifting your business offerings, or replace your SEO efforts with keywords that your desired website visitors actually use to find websites like yours.

Step 2 - Identify the visitors that you want, figure out their goals, and most importantly, speak their language.

Essential to this exercise is that you know which website visitors you want. Once you know this, you need to figure out what goal they seek to achieve. By understanding their goals, you can view the search from their perspective, and then you are that much closer to understanding their language.

How do you learn to speak their language? Try to use words that your customers would use to describe your business. Would they call describe it by its official term, or would they use more informal casual language? Ask your current customers how they would describe your business  - you may be surprised by the answer. Also try variations on the theme to see where the competitors are grouping, and where they may be gaps and opportunities for your business.

In summary - Build the right audience

SEO is not about simply increasing rank and building website traffic, it is about increasing rank for the right keywords that will build the right kind of website traffic that will help your business.