How important is it to make the site look like competitors in the TOP?

Question

Search Engine Optimization

I often heard before - if you want to do well, look at the first five competitors in the TOP-5 and do something similar. And there is logic in this - since they are in the top, then everything is fine.
My case: there are categories of requests for which sites with huge articles in which there is a lot of other information (other categories of requests) are in the first positions of Yandex. Topical and possibly useful information. But to find the answer to your question, you need to look through and search.
I want to make sure that there is a separate page for each group of requests. And immediately a double-edged sword:

• On the one hand, it will definitely be more convenient for the user - text on his specific request + links to pages with similar groups of requests in a convenient and visible place, but not interfering with the main article. In addition, the title, x1 and keywords on the page will be 100% relevant to the query. In appearance - all the benefits on the face.
  
• On the other hand - what I wrote a little higher. Almost all pages in the TOP contain all the information at once in one place and there are no sites with a split, which I write about. Perhaps, in this case, search engines give preference to such articles, because they fully cover the topic (similar queries, synonyms, etc.).
  

What can you say on this topic and advise on implementation?

Answer 1

In your case, you need to:
1- see if there are sites in the top 20 with an answer to a specific request (about the same as you want to do), if there is, then most likely you will not rise above those sites that have text footcloths.
2- if there are no adequate sites in the search results with an answer to a specific request without unnecessary information, then you have a chance to appear in the top for the desired requests with the strategy you have chosen. I recommend reading the article on Habré how to format articles so that they appear in the top .
3- there is also an option that you will make a more competent page or place the answer to the user's question at the top of the page, and below place a piece of information related to related issues, thus implementing your strategy (by placing the answer to the question at the top) and satisfying the ranking algorithms for these queries.
4- there is an option that following the article, the link to which was provided above, even without a footcloth of the text you will go to the top, I would stop at this option. If it doesn't work, then go to step 3.

Answer 2

First and last: Look at the site from the user's point of view, show the site to mom, dad, cat, hamster, take into account the wishes, implement a user-friendly interface, convenient search for information so that this information fully reflects what a person needs and may not need, he until he knows it. Develop, create more complex functionality that, to one degree or another, will help the user in what he wants.
What can be taken from competitors? Ideas, if there are no ideas of your own, rub them so that it is no worse than theirs, and even better.
And this, in fact, is the most basic, everything else is already a technical component and dancing with a tambourine with links and near-site space

Answer 3

Previously, mb .... now the top ten are not even links, they are behavioral. and jump a day and change .... so you should not focus on this. because they already have pf, but you won’t have it and won’t shoot. They no longer have SEO as such, but behavioral usability and content. google on the topic of cheating pf and results. and think that tops without cheating have them. Better pay more attention to the snippet to get these pfs from the search