Proper Competition Analysis

[junilerick]

Maybe it's just me but it seems that doing thorough competition analysis is something that is being severly underplayed in SEO.

Almost every guide tells you when analyzing your competition, besides the usual on-page factors (url, title, h1/h2/h3 tags, etc) you just need to check the quantity of links and their PR.

I find it strange when guides say "yeah, when I see sites with PR0 and only a few hundred backlinks, I know I can beat them easily!" or something similar to that.

But if you don't dig deeper in your analysis, how do you know if they're not using some complex linking scheme such as huge link pyramid or link wheel? Or perhaps all their links are highly relevant to their niche yet are categorized as just "any other link."

Am I missing something here or are these factors just not as important as I think?