Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

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competitors on your Competition Worksheet. This assessment doesn’t need an exact

value—it’s enough to indicate whether they’re dominant or barely there.

Inbound Links

Uncovering the number of competitors’ inbound links can be a real

eye-opener, especially if they seem to have good ranks without great site optimization.

While you can’t be sure that a large number of inbound links are directly influencing

the ranks, it’s a helpful piece of the puzzle.

Open the same search engine that you used to check your own inbound links in

Week 2 so that you’re comparing apples to apples. Using the specialized link search,

determine how many links each of your Big Five competitors has pointing to their

home page. Then, perform the same check for a few major interior pages of their

site. The worksheet has room for three interior pages, but you can add more if

you want.

Google PageRanks

Using the Google Toolbar that you downloaded on Tuesday, deter-

mine the Google PageRank for your competitors’ home page, and for the same interior

page(s) you assessed for inbound links.

While you’re at it, take your Google Toolbar for a test drive through your own site

today and find the Google PageRank for each of your landing pages.

Now:

Enter the Google PageRank for each of your landing pages on your Rank Tracking Worksheet.

Now:

Enter the Google PageRank for your Big Five competitors on your Competition Worksheet.

Now:

Fill in the number of inbound links to your Big Five competitors on your Competition

Worksheet.

Now:

Open your Competition Worksheet and indicate the ranking status of your Big Five

competitors.

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