Stealing (ideas) from competitors

Last lesson of the module, and it is the fun one: letting competitors do your keyword research for you.

To be clear about what we are stealing: ideas, never words. Copying a page produces a slightly worse version of something Google already has filed — and Module 1 was blunt about this: good content ends the search, and a copy never ends it better than the original. What we hunt instead is the gap.

First: who actually IS your competitor?

Not who you think. Your search competitors are whoever occupies page one for the phrases on your map — and they are often not your business rivals. A one-person blog can be your fiercest rival for "courthouse wedding tips" while the giant studio across town, which never publishes anything, is no rival at all in search.