Analysing thousands of websites develops your mind and you start to see campaigns and industries less as numbers (competitiveness, links, keyword reach and social) and more as illustrations. These illustrations have become clearer still since we produce industry reports.
I have developed a few examples of how I see a industry online.
Each circle in these examples shows the respective size of a website influenced by links, keyword reach and social. The center is the epicenter of the industry, being closer to the center shows that you are progressing well and becoming very influential in the industry.
Proven Industry Leader
This example of an industry shows that one company within is leagues ahead from the rest. In essence the company that makes up the epicenter cannot be beaten in the short term period.
The biggest but need to continue
As you can see in this from example, the biggest circle in the industry is within the epicenter. However, as you can see the smaller companies in the industry are a lot closer to the epicenter. This shows that even though the biggest company is still ahead they are in danger of being overtaken by others in the industry.
Opportunities in the Industry
As you can see a trend starting to appear here. The biggest company in the industry is now seeing smaller business start to become more prominent. The smaller companies are really getting under the feet of the big player. This would allow for a smaller company to become one of the biggest.
The Industry is Wide Open
This shows a industry where the biggest player in the industry is not doing it right. They are letting all the smaller companies get past them and overwhelm them. If I was the biggest player in the industry I would be very worried. You have to work 10 times hard to cement your place as number one.
Summary
These are only a few examples of what we see as we complete our insights reports. However, the overall summary from these example are that even though on paper you may be the biggest. Sometimes that does not mean anything when other smaller companies are able to do more will less presence online.