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BOOK EXCERPT
📖 How To Research Your Competitors Online
Excerpted and adapted from 21+ Ways To Spy On Your Competition book by Bart Smith
Reprinted by Permission
If you want to know where your competitors are headed, what appears to be working for them and where they may be vulnerable, online research is one of the fastest places to start.
The internet leaves clues everywhere: websites, keywords, content, backlinks, reviews, ads, traffic sources, social activity, media mentions and even hiring patterns.
The purpose of researching competitors online is not to copy them. It is to improve your clarity, positioning and decision-making.
START WITH SIX QUESTIONS
1. What are they doing exceptionally well?
Their strengths show you what customers in your market may already expect.
2. Where are customers frustrated?
Complaints, returns, refund issues, bad reviews and unanswered questions can expose opportunities to do better.
3. What appears to be driving attention?
Look at search visibility, popular content, social engagement, backlinks, ads and media mentions.
4. How are they positioned?
Are they premium, budget-friendly, exclusive, accessible, specialized or broad? Their messaging and pricing usually tell the story.
5. What are they changing?
New products, new pages, different offers, fresh content and new hires may signal where the business is headed.
6. What seems to be missing?
Ignored audiences, weak content, confusing offers and poor service areas can become openings for your own business.
HOW TO DO THE RESEARCH
1. Act Like A Customer
Subscribe to public email lists, download lead magnets, watch webinars and, when appropriate, purchase products or services so you can experience the customer journey firsthand.
2. Analyze Their Website
Study the pages, calls-to-action, offers, lead-capture methods, navigation, branding, resources, social links, legal pages, media room and overall user experience.
3. Study Their Search Presence
Look at which pages appear in search results, the subjects they rank for and the phrases customers seem to use when looking for solutions in the market.
4. Read Customer Feedback
Search reviews and public comments. Look for patterns rather than isolated complaints. Repeated praise shows strengths; repeated frustration shows gaps.
5. Search Their Name With Complaint Terms
Search combinations such as the company name plus words like reviews, complaints, refunds, returns or scam. Public third-party discussions can reveal customer experiences that polished marketing never mentions.
6. Watch Hiring Activity
Job listings can reveal internal priorities. A company hiring for new technology, sales, content, AI, product or support roles may be signaling expansion or strategic change.
7. Set Alerts
Use alerts to track competitor names, products and important people. New mentions can reveal press coverage, partnerships, launches or other shifts.
8. Monitor Traffic & Visibility Tools
Traffic-estimation, SEO and social-analysis tools can help you compare trends, content performance and audience growth over time.
9. Track Changes Over Time
A single snapshot tells you less than a pattern. Revisit the same competitors regularly and note what changed in their products, prices, messaging, content and visibility.
10. Keep A Competitor Research File
Save screenshots, notes, links and observations in one place. Research becomes far more valuable when you can compare what you saw last month with what you see today.
USE ONLINE TOOLS AS CLUE-GIVERS, NOT ORACLES
Search engines, trend tools, backlink tools, traffic-estimation services, social analytics and review platforms can all help you see patterns.
No single tool gives you the whole truth. Use several signals together, compare what you find and then make your own business judgment.
Online competitor research turns random browsing into strategic intelligence gathering. The more consistently you observe, the more quickly you notice patterns, gaps and changes before they become obvious to everyone else.
(THIS CONTINUES IN THE BOOK)
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