website-logo-dark website-logo-light
  • Services
    menu-item-icon
    SEO Services
    Become unmissable in search results.
    menu-item-icon
    Local SEO Services
    Start dominating your local market.
    menu-item-icon
    Ecommerce SEO Services
    Sell more products with SEO.
    menu-item-icon
    Website Design Services
    Make your website a memorable experience.
    menu-item-icon
    Link Building Services
    Build authority with high-quality backlinks.
    menu-item-icon
    Franchise SEO Services
    Grow and protect your franchise brand .
    menu-item-icon
    PPC Management Services
    Reach consumers when they’re ready to buy.
    menu-item-icon
    Facebook Ads
    Target your ideal audience on Facebook.
    menu-item-icon
    Google Ads
    Dominate with targeted search and display.
    • menu-item-icon
      SEO Services
      Become unmissable in search results.
    • menu-item-icon
      Local SEO Services
      Start dominating your local market.
    • menu-item-icon
      Ecommerce SEO Services
      Sell more products with SEO.
    • menu-item-icon
      Website Design Services
      Make your website a memorable experience.
    • menu-item-icon
      Link Building Services
      Build authority with high-quality backlinks.
    • menu-item-icon
      Franchise SEO Services
      Grow and protect your franchise brand .
    • menu-item-icon
      PPC Management Services
      Reach consumers when they’re ready to buy.
    • menu-item-icon
      Facebook Ads
      Target your ideal audience on Facebook.
    • menu-item-icon
      Google Ads
      Dominate with targeted search and display.
  • About
    menu-item-icon
    About Us
    Learn what HigherVisibility is all about.
    menu-item-icon
    Management Team
    Leadership helping to drive our clients success.
    menu-item-icon
    Contact Us
    Need to get in touch with us?
    Client Reviews
    See what our clients are saying!
    • menu-item-icon
      About Us
      Learn what HigherVisibility is all about.
    • menu-item-icon
      Management Team
      Leadership helping to drive our clients success.
    • menu-item-icon
      Contact Us
      Need to get in touch with us?
  • Learn
    menu-item-icon
    Blog
    Learn tips, industry news, and research insights.
    menu-item-icon
    Free SEO Tools
    Access our public facing tools for better SEO.
    menu-item-icon
    SERP Snippet Optimizer
    See how your webpage looks in Google SERPs.
    menu-item-icon
    SEO CTR Grader
    Write Title Tags that increase your CTR.
    menu-item-icon
    Bulk Keyword Generator
    Automatically generate localized keywords.
    menu-item-icon
    Keyworddit
    The only Reddit keyword research tool.
    What is SEO?
    The Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization
    • menu-item-icon
      Blog
      Learn tips, industry news, and research insights.
    • menu-item-icon
      Free SEO Tools
      Access our public facing tools for better SEO.
    • menu-item-icon
      SERP Snippet Optimizer
      See how your webpage looks in Google SERPs.
    • menu-item-icon
      SEO CTR Grader
      Write Title Tags that increase your CTR.
    • menu-item-icon
      Bulk Keyword Generator
      Automatically generate localized keywords.
    • menu-item-icon
      Keyworddit
      The only Reddit keyword research tool.
  • Who We Help
    menu-item-icon
    Franchise Brands
    We produce results for your brands!
    menu-item-icon
    Lawyers
    Get more clients for your law practice!
    menu-item-icon
    Ecommerce Businesses
    We can grow your Ecommerce sales!
    menu-item-icon
    Automotive Companies
    We drive new customers and revenue!
    menu-item-icon
    Financial Services
    Banking, Personal Finance, or Fin Tech!
    menu-item-icon
    Home Builders
    Sell more homes with our digital solutions!
    Other Businesses
    A sustainable future for your website.
    • menu-item-icon
      Franchise Brands
      We produce results for your brands!
    • menu-item-icon
      Lawyers
      Get more clients for your law practice!
    • menu-item-icon
      Ecommerce Businesses
      We can grow your Ecommerce sales!
    • menu-item-icon
      Automotive Companies
      We drive new customers and revenue!
    • menu-item-icon
      Financial Services
      Banking, Personal Finance, or Fin Tech!
    • menu-item-icon
      Home Builders
      Sell more homes with our digital solutions!
phone-icon
888.598.4449
Get a Free Quote
  • Home
  • SEO
  • Insite Blog

How to Take Full Advantage of Your Indirect Competitors

Adam Heitzman
Adam Heitzman
August 3, 2015
magnify

Most businesses put a huge focus on competitor research, and for good reason. Your competitors can tell you a lot about your industry, your progress, and give you ideas about where you want to be in the future and how to get there. However, what many don’t consider are their indirect competitors. It’s true that they are not quite as important, but if you’re looking to get more advanced in your online marketing and want to get creative, analyzing your indirect competitors can offer you a lot of great information.

How to Find Indirect Competitors and the Benefits

Of course before understanding what you can gain from your indirect competitors you have to actually find them and know what “indirect” means in this context. Essentially, an indirect competitor can be considered someone who is in your industry, selling and marketing to your same audience, but they are not selling the same product or service as you.

For example, if you offer dental services an indirect competitor may be a toothpaste brand—same audience, different services. An article on Search Engine Watch discussed two major reasons why looking at indirect competitors could be beneficial:

  • Find untapped opportunities. Because direct competitors are doing similar things to your business, they don’t offer as much inspiration or new ideas as an indirect competitor might. This is where you’ll find new link building ideas, outreach opportunities, etc. that your competitors have not yet found; helping to set you apart. It’s also a great way to find new influencers when looking to build relationships online.
  • Understand your audience better. Part of success is understand how your product or service fits into a consumers overall plan. In many cases, your audience will be interested in your business and your indirect competitor’s simultaneously, so it’s important to see how you can compliment that and make the most of it. As Search Engine Watch states, “indirect competitors provide a larger test bed to see what has and hasn’t worked.”

So how do you find indirect competitors exactly? Your best bet is to simply think outside the box and consider what other products/ services your audience would be interested in your industry. A little bit of research and you should find a lot of examples. You can also ask yourself what alternate products/ services your audience may consider aside from whatever it is that you offer. When it doubt, search for competitive broad terms to see which companies are ranking well for your keywords.

Of course, these benefits don’t come without a little bit of work on your part. You have make sure you’re gathering the right information about these competitors and then analyzing it and using it in the right way.

How to Use Indirect Competitor Information to Your Advantage

Much of the information you’ll want to gather from indirect competitors is very similar to what you’re probably already collecting from your direct competitors—backlink profile, content types and successes, social media considerations, keyword information, etc. You can learn more about how to gather information from a direct competitor (which also applies to an indirect competitor) here. How you analyze this information ill also be similar, it’s what you might find that differs.

A few steps to getting the most from this data from indirect competitors includes:

  1. Make a list of all of the indirect competitors you find.

As discussed above, this could take some time. You should have a much larger number of indirect competitors than you do direct because the spectrum is so much broader. You have those who offer a similar product or service, a complimentary product or service, those that use similar keywords, and even those in your industry with a similar business model could sometimes be considered complimentary. Take some time to identify those who may be worth taking to step 2 below.

  1. Rank your list based on those with the best SEO.

This is where that research comes into play. Use tools like Open Site Explorer and SEMRush to help you see the SEO success of all the companies you’re thinking about for your indirect competitor list. It’s not going to be worth it to spend a lot of time on smaller businesses (although it never hurts to look), but some of the larger indirect competitors should help give you a lot of ideas and a lot of data to work with when analyzing and trying to think of new opportunities for your own company. You can learn more from an Inc. Magazine article found here about the kinds of information you can grab from competitors.

  1. Consider reaching out for a partnership.

Finally, the more you understand your indirect competitors the more you may get ideas about a partnership—a referral partnership to be exact. This works particularly well with complimentary companies. For example, a car dealership may want to partner with a car insurance company and hopefully each will offer referrals to customers for the other. A smaller scale example might be a flower shop partnership with a tailor. If you see an opportunity, reach out and talk!

Have you ever analyzed your indirect competitors? Did you find any new information or inspiration that you hadn’t found when analyzing your direct competitors? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Table of Contents
  • How to Find Indirect Competitors and the Benefits
  • How to Use Indirect Competitor Information to Your Advantage
chart-bar
Want a Free Digital Marketing Strategy Customized to Your Business?

Enter your email to get strategic insights, a plan of action, and pricing options.

Please provide a valid email address.

From Our Insite Blog

We believe that SEO requires an all-encompassing approach to ensure a sustainable future for your site and achieve your goal…. conversions.

magnify
SEO
Adam Heitzman
SEO Trends 2019: The Latest & Most Current Tactics that Actually Work
browser
Guide
Adam Heitzman
How to Market Your Franchise Business: 6 Winning Strategies
swatch
Web Development
Adam Heitzman
Web Design RFP Template With Sample Questions
magnify
SEO
Adam Heitzman
SEO Without a Website: Wait, What?
chart
Facebook, Social Media
Adam Heitzman
12 Facebook Advertising Tools to Improve Sales and ROI in 2018
microscope
Research
Adam Heitzman
Small Business Digital Marketing: 2019 Research Study & Statistics
avatar

Our company has benefited greatly by using HigherVisibility. Most noticeably, is the amount of leads we now receive. A great group of people to work with.

Brent Simmons, President
Get My Free Quote

Want a Free Digital Marketing Strategy Customized to Your Business?

Enter your email to get strategic insights, a plan of action, and pricing options.
Please provide a valid email address.
Send My Custom Strategy
check-yellow
Talking with other Digital Marketing Agencies? Contact us to learn what makes us the best!
facebook twitter LinkedIn youtube
website-logo-dark
HigherVisibility’s focus is to drive conversions through laser-focused targeting combined with an optimal post-click experience.
Get a Free Quote
Services
  • SEO Services
  • PPC Management
  • Website Design
  • Local SEO
  • Link Building
  • Ecommerce SEO
Services
  • Franchise SEO
  • Facebook Ads
  • Google Ads
  • SEO Auditing
  • Conversion Optimization
  • Reseller Program
Company
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Blog
  • Free SEO Tools
  • Memphis Location
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • Contact Us
Who We Help
  • Franchises
  • Lawyers
  • Ecommerce
  • Automotive
  • Financial Services
  • Home Builders
  • Other Businesses
Call Us Toll Free : 888.212.4458
Email Us : info@highervisibility.com
6070 Poplar Avenue, Suite 760, Memphis, TN 38119
© 2022 HigherVisibility · A leading digital marketing agency.

phone-icon Prefer to call?

888.212.4458

Feel confident in the process and proud of the results. See why 100’s of businesses have trusted HigherVisibility since 2009. Our digital consultants are ready to discuss your needs.

You’re Custom Strategy is
One Step Away

Complete the form and get strategic insights, our plan of action, and pricing options.