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I wasn’t a search engine marketer 10 years ago, but from veterans in the industry, I learned that it was much easier to rank back then. There was less competition and the search engines were fairly simple.

All you had to do was insert keywords in the meta tags and the content to do well on the search engines. Then, Google arrived to the scene and revolutionized the industry with PageRank and a strong link based algorithm. Search engine marketing (SEM) became a little harder but search experts were able to figure out the shift and adapt.

Today there is a lot more competition as many new companies and individuals have created commercial sites. Also, the search engine algorithms have gotten more complex. It is harder to succeed as a search marketer these days. Still, SEM is a relatively new industry, so there are opportunities you can take advantage of.

Right now I believe using competitive research is one of the best strategies out there. I’ve used it to great effect to increase the traffic and income of my sites.

With the rise of social media, SEM has become less technical and moved closer to branding and public relations. If you can stand out from your competitors, you will gain many quality links and reap huge benefits on the search engine rankings.

That’s where competitive research comes into play. It’s hard to stand out in your industry if you don’t understand your competition. Here’s a four step process that I go through to make sure my sites provide at least one or more unique features to differentiate them from the competition.

Step 1: Identify and research the top sites.

Most of the traffic in an industry is going to a few top sites. This is just the 80/20 rule in action. Because of this, I don’t think it’s necessary to research the lower or middle tier sites. To identify the top sites, I look at stats like PageRank, Alexa ranking, Compete ranking, RSS subscribers, and number of comments.

Once you’ve figured out the top sites, your goal is to get a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses. Which topics do they cover well? Which topics get less coverage?

This research gives you a good foundation for gaining a competitive advantage. You can leverage the information you learn by competing at their points of weakness instead of their strengths. In other words, fill gaps that are being ignored by the top sites.

The next step is evaluating which gaps are the most profitable within the industry.

Step 2: Find out which needs are not being met.

Just because a topic is not covered doesn’t mean there is a market for it. In this step, you do market research to find out which topics are viable.

I like going to Yahoo Answers and niche forums to see which questions keep coming up. These questions are evidence of needs not being met in the niche. Hopefully, you’ll discover some topics that are not covered well by the top sites.

These topics are some of the best opportunities in SEM. That brings us to step 3, where you target those areas with great content.

Step 3: Create quality content that answers relevant questions.

During this step, you create content to answer the questions from your market research. The higher quality the content, the greater benefit you will receive. Therefore, if you want maximum success, expend the necessary effort and resources to produce great content.

Do in-depth research. Hire the best writers. Hire experts. Interview experts. Become an expert yourself. Do whatever you need to do to create superior content.

Step 4: Promote the content.

You probably anticipated this step. The top search marketers understand that great content doesn’t market itself. You need to give your content a promotional push so that others know about it. Then, hopefully the content will go viral and you’ll receive links from quality sites.

My favorite marketing tactics are forum marketing, pitching bloggers and reporters, and marketing on Yahoo Answers.

With these four steps, you can compete in just about any industry and have success.