5 Ways to Spy on Your Competitors

We’d like to assume that you’ve asked yourself any of these two questions before:  

“What are my competitors doing to gain more visitors, more leads, and more social media followers?”

Or….

“Why do my competitors have more online success than me, even if the content I produce is much better?”

Well, what if we told you that one surefire way to find out is by stalking them? Don’t worry, we don’t mean it creepily. It won’t get you in trouble. Plus, they’re likely doing it on their rivals, perhaps even including you, too!

It’s also something we do from time to time, and we gotta say, it’s actually among the reasons why we’re a leading Miami SEO agency today!

Knowing your competitors and how they operate is essential to the growth of your business. Once you’re able to obtain valuable perspectives on profitable strategies, you can apply them to your advantage. Sure, it might be a bit sneaky, but hey, as long as it’s not illegal, you might as well go for it.  

So, how can you spy on your rivals and take a page or two from their playbook? Let’s take a look at five techniques below:

5 Ways to Spy on Your Competitors

1. Follow Them on Social Media

Social media is the best place to be when you’re studying your competitors.  

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram present an excellent opportunity for you to snoop around and get the latest scoop on their business. These channels are pretty much where companies announce new products, updates, and other important news.  

At the same time, you’ll find out what their customers have to say about them, giving you an idea of their strengths and weaknesses as a brand. You can easily turn their failures into your wins once you discover their weak points.

If you’re currently using certain tools to build and monitor engagement on your social media accounts, you should know that you can use them to track those of your competitors as well. Those same tools will provide you with everything you need to know about their social media activities.

Aside from social media, you can also pry on your competitors by subscribing to their blogs, email lists, and newsletters. That way, you keep yourself posted on their promotional campaigns and product launches.

2. Monitor Their Website

There’s no better way to uncover the secrets behind the success of your rivals than by thoroughly exploring their website.  

Going over their “About Us” or “Products” pages isn’t the only thing we mean here, you have to do more than that. You need to dig deeper than merely familiarizing yourself with the content. You need to monitor specific website elements.  

While careful perusal of their website can no doubt educate you about their background, mission, culture, product and service lineup, and target market, you should go beyond that.  

Paying attention to their SEO efforts is a good place to start. If you’re wondering how thousands of users are visiting their website every day, knowing their SEO strategy is the way to go.  

You can begin by studying the keywords they use that bring organic traffic. Consider adding them to your content to increase your chances of ranking high on search engines. SEMrush, BuzzSumo, and SpyFu are three of the best tools for finding competitor keywords.

Next, take a look at their backlinks. Backlinks play a crucial role in establishing you as a thought leader in your industry. They basically tell search engine bots that your website is deemed valuable by other websites. The more quality backlinks you get, the higher you’ll rank on Google.  

As with keyword research, there are numerous tools available to allow you to analyze backlinks. Be sure to take advantage of them.  

However, if you feel like you don’t have enough time to learn about the ins and outs of search engine optimization, you might as well just hire a Miami SEO company to do the job for you.  

3. Check Their Ads

Observing what display ads your competitors are running can help you come up with your own campaign strategy, as it gives you an insight into their strengths. You might also spot some discrepancies in their message, or perhaps get an idea of where to place them to drive more qualified traffic.  

Spying on their ads gives you an understanding of what they’re doing to attract their target audience. You’ll learn what works for them, apply it to your own business, and beat them at their own game.  

Since it’s impossible to visit all the websites on which your rivals are advertising, you’ll need a tool for it. WebFX shares its top six picks here.  

4. Leverage the Power of Google Alerts

Thanks to Google Alerts, tracking anything online is no longer a stressful job.  

Whether you need to keep tabs on what your customers feel about you, or what people are saying about your competitors, you can count on them. Type in any words or phrases, and you’ll be bombarded with notifications about them. It’s that easy.

But first, you have to sign up. After that, fill out your search query with the name of your competition, and anything related to them or your industry. Choose how often you want them to deliver the results to your email.  

The fact that monitoring mentions of your competitors gives you a strong insight into what folks online think of them makes it easier for you to tailor your services to appeal to more customers.  

5. Compare Your Performance with a Grading Tool

Marketing Grader is a free HubSpot tool that lets users assess websites in various areas - including SEO, social media, blogging, mobile, and lead generation - after which they show the overall score.

It’s a great tool for businesses who are eager to find out how well their competitors are performing in different aspects. By determining the areas your rivals excel at and struggle with, you become more motivated to do better and outperform them.  

Simply Measured is another grading tool you can use, and it’s more comprehensive than Marketing Grader. Combining numerous tools into one, it offers detailed analyses of brands, trends, traffic, conversions, competitors, influencers, and more. The only catch is, you’re gonna have to pay for it.  

Tired of Your Competitors Constantly Stealing Your Spotlight?

As a Miami SEO company that has its share of setbacks along the way, we know exactly how it feels to be overshadowed by a competitor. But, instead of backing down, we rose to the challenge and came out victorious.  

Spying on them is what made it possible. As soon as we acquired all the information we needed about them using the five techniques, we went on to apply them ourselves.  

From targeting the right keywords and running ads similar to theirs, to developing a social media marketing plan inspired by them, we were able to put ourselves a step ahead of them.  

And, guess what? We can make that happen for you too!

Partner with Digital Resource to become the next big thing in your industry. Book a consultation now!

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