Understanding Competition Overview

How to Read the Scalenut Competition Overview Report?

The Scalenut top page statistics table includes three columns for ranking positions - 1 to 10, 1 to 20, and 1 to 30. The stats in each column are the average of all the ranking URLs and not individual scores. 

Note: This is the case if we consider that you choose to view the competitor overview for the top 30 URLs. This is customizable to the top 10 or top 20, as per your preference.

What Are These SEO Statistics & How Are They Useful?

There are 5 SEO Statistics that Scalenut employs to guide you in your content research.

1. Word Count - Word count refers to the total number of words in a content piece. Through the suggested word count, you, as a content planner, can get an approximate idea of how many words to include in your content to compete with the ranking pieces. Scalenut's SEO Hub suggests a range of ideal word counts by calculating the average of the top 30 URLs.

2. SEO Score - You can take your content to the next level by optimizing it with our Scalenut SEO score. Our powerful AI technology assesses your content to determine how SEO-friendly it is compared to your competitors and then assigns an SEO score. It also lists the top and average scores for that particular keyword. The SEO score is calculated based on 9 parameters - 

• Key Terms

• Content Depth

• Keyword Density

• H1 Heading

• H2 - H6 heading

• Meta Tags

• Featured Snippet

• Links

• URL

The SEO score also takes into consideration your metadata. The tool also shows you the pointers you can follow to improve your SEO score and increase your chances of ranking higher on the search engine result page (SERP). 

3. H Tags - This denotes the number of heading tags used in the content piece by your competitors. It gives you an idea of how many headings you can include in your content piece.

4. Images - Images make the content interactive and easy for the target audiences to understand. Our AI-powered research gives you an idea of how many images your competitors use in their content pieces. 

What are Metric Trends?

Metric trends are a graphical visualization of the content parameters for the top 30 ranking URLs. It allows you to easily analyze and observe a trend for parameters such as the SEO Score, word count, and heading tags individually in a graphical form.

How to Read the Metric Trends?

In the top right of the given graph, there is an option to check the metric trends for each statistic,SEO Score, word count, images, and H tags individually. In the graph, the horizontal axis represents the rank of the article, ranging from 1 to 30. The vertical axis represents the measure of each statistic. You can observe the trends for each parameter by clicking on it. 

You can also click on a single bar to see the statistics for that particular URL, as shown below.

What is the Competitors Section?

The ‘Competitors’ section of our competitions overview displays a list of all 30 top-performing content pages for your primary keyword and the target location, arranged according to their ranks. You can also sort these pages as per their word count, SEO Score, number of images, and number of headers which are visible right next to the name and link of each URL. 

You can click on each URL if you want to visit it separately. However, the view option lets you read the entire article without opening new tabs. It also displays the URL’s top page statistics all in one place. It also offers a brief description of the article, as shown here.

You can also insert the URL you want to use as a reference to your content brief so that you can refer to it directly while creating your content without going repeatedly back and viewing the article in a new tab. All you have to do is click on the ‘Insert as a reference’ option right next to the URL.

How to Effectively Use Competitive Insights in Long-form Writing?

Competitor research is an important step before writing any article. The ‘Competition’ button is placed in the ‘Research’ section to make it convenient for you as a writer or a content planner to refer to the insights from the top 30 competitor pieces at any time. It also helps you identify the gaps your competitors are missing. 

Let us check out the steps to effectively use the ‘Research’ section to write your content piece with all the insights.

STEP 1
Navigate to the ‘Article Writer’ from your Scalenut Dashboard.

STEP 2

On the redirected screen, find the article you want to view the report for and click on its respective ‘Status.’

In this case, we want to view the SEO Research Report of the article ‘Keto Breads’, so click on ‘Editing in Progress.’

STEP 3

Click on the ‘Competition’ tab under the Research tab on the right panel.

STEP 4
You can see the detailed article outline in the box for each top-.ranking article by your competitors by just clicking on the ‘Expand’ option, as shown in the image. 

For example, if you want to ‘Expand’ for the #1 ranked article, this is what your screen will look like -

Click ‘Collapse’ when you are done and want to minimize the appearance of the article outline. Further, if you want to read the article as well for a better understanding of the content, you can click on the ‘Read Article’ option at the end of an outline.

STEP 5
You can click on the ‘Paste Outline’ button to add the basic outline of that particular piece in the AI Editor to create your content according to that brief. The outline is pasted in the AI Editor, as shown in the image below.

STEP 6
You can also view the content covered in any particular heading of a competitor’s article by clicking the drop-down icon. It will be available in the given format.

STEP 7
Confused about what to cover in a heading you liked from a competitor’s article? Click on the ‘robot’ icon button highlighted in the image below. Our powerful AI will then generate content on that particular heading.

Please note:  You can customize your competition benchmarking approach based on your content and marketing strategy in the step where you select your keyword and target location. This feature empowers you to select between the top 10, 20, or 30 ranking pages to focus on. 

The entire article is written considering that the preferred competition overview was of top 30 ranking URLs.

Conclusion - Our competitor overview helps you enhance your business strategy by outdoing your competitors. You can identify areas to gain your customers' attention and gain a competitive edge. Scalenut's SEO Tool gives you the data on your competitors' articles with just a few clicks.