About Montserrat Cano
In this episode we have Montserrat Cano, international digital strategist and trainer with projects across many industries. She optimises global business outcomes through process improvement. As well as her professional work she speaks at industry events and mentors SEO and industry professionals. She has just been appointed as an ambassador for Google’s Women Techmaker program and is co-authoring two SEO books. Join us as we chat with Montserrat about competitive analysis, what it is and how it affects SEO rankings.
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Who is Montserrat Cano?
Montserrat grew up in Madrid, Spain and moved to London as an adult after finishing her degree. As a child she was interested in writing, journalism, photography and teaching. In London she “cut her teeth” in the digital world taking on various digital projects and learning about HTML, CSS and PHP.
Her first big project was to revamp an intranet for a government job. From there she took on more digital projects around promotion, advertising and changing people’s minds. It was through working with other marketers that she realised what she was doing was communication and marketing strategy.
What Montserrat is working on
Goals and learning. She likes to do things and not just sit and watch Netflix. She is motivated by the possibility of better and more.
Tactical and Strategic SEO Advice from Montserrat
Understanding Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is the process of gathering and analyzing data about competitors operating within a specific market. It involves understanding:
- Who the competitors are
- How they operate
- How their target audience’s buying behavior differs across markets and regions
It’s important to consider both online and offline factors when conducting competitive and market research.
Tools for Identifying Competitors
- Google and Bing search results for your keywords
- Similar Web for market research
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Sistrix
- AI tools with appropriate prompts
Key Areas to Analyze (3-5 Competitors)
- Technical aspects
- Architecture
- Performance
- Indexation
- Content gap analysis
- Comparative performance
- Inspiration for new angles
- Backlink analysis
- Link profile strength
- Trust signals
- Evergreen vs timely content
- Keyword analysis
- Ranking for your target keywords
- Identifying new keyword opportunities
- Mobile experience
- Comparative mobile performance
- Potential competitive advantages
User Experience Testing
When making changes based on competitor practices:
- Test with real users
- Get qualitative feedback
- Form data-backed hypotheses
- Make one change at a time
- Tools: User Testing, Microsoft Clarity, heatmaps
Don’t
- Over-optimize based on competitor practices at the expense of your own brand
- Competitors with more resources can weather failed tests
- Assume correlation equals causation with competitor tactics
- Trust anecdotes and claims from competitor reps
- Rely too much on AI generated content
- Regulatory risks
- Erode audience trust
- Trough of Disillusionment in the Gartner Hype Cycle
Where Does Montserrat See the Future of SEO?
The present and near future of SEO will be AI heavy. As marketers we need to understand:
- What is AI in general
- What can and can’t various AI tools do
- How users interact and buy through new AI driven interfaces
Market and competitor research will be more important than ever as the pace of change is so fast, as seen with Google’s AI overviews and generative search experiences.
Key takeaways for now and future:
- Adapting to AI tools
- Doing market research regularly
- Trust data
- Testing consistently
Conclusion
Montserrat’s points highlight the need for a data driven approach to competitive analysis in SEO. By understanding not just what competitors are doing but why and how it affects user behaviour, we can make informed optimisations that balance competitive awareness with brand authenticity. As AI changes the search landscape, we’ll need to keep learning, testing and adapting to stay ahead.
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