Tweet

Dominate Your Online Competition through Espionage

Written by: Pete Brand

Article Overview: Typically when we hear the word espionage we don't think of it as a strategy to legitimately increase your business. The word always seems to accompany an image of someone being led away in hand cuffs on their way to a long prison stay. Well I am hear to tell you espionage isn't always an unethical way of doing things. In fact, I think you'll find that the leading companies and organizations take part in this type of business strategy every day, and they do it without the fear of being locked away in a prison cell. Let's take a peek at the true meaning of the word...

Dominate Your Online Competition through Espionage

Dominate Your Online Competition through Espionage

Typically when we hear the word espionage we don't think of it as a strategy to legitimately increase your business. The word always seems to accompany an image of someone being led away in hand cuffs on their way to a long prison stay. Well I am hear to tell you espionage isn't always an unethical way of doing things. In fact, I think you'll find that the leading companies and organizations take part in this type of business strategy every day, and they do it without the fear of being locked away in a prison cell.

Let's take a peek at the true meaning of the word...

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, as the legitimate holder of the information may change plans or take other countermeasures once it is known that the information is in unauthorized hands.

The two sentences above are directly from Wikipdia and if you notice it doesn't say anything about being illegal, and in fact it discusses implementing countermeasures once you know your information is in the wrong hands. I've often found myself wondering what it would be like to sneak in under the radar to gain access to TOP SECRET information. Well the Internet allows us all to live the fantasy and do just that, and it's completely legal and ethical. The only thing it requires is for you to have the desire to gain access to this information, and a couple tools.

Identifying Your Competition

The first step in online espionage is identifying your online competition. This competition isn't simply companies that offer competing products or services. It is any company that is showing up in the search results for keyword phrases you are working to rank highly. Since most companies won't pay as much attention to you if you leapfrog them in the search results unless you offer a competing product or service, these are easy targets. Today most companies don't pay attention at all, so if you are, you will almost most definitely win. You should identify the top ten profitable keyword phrases you'd like to eventually rank number one for, and conduct searches. As you review your list of search results, create a list of the top ten competitors, and their website addresses, for each phrase.

Search Engine Optimization Strategy ID

The second step in the process is to identify the search engine optimization strategy of each competitor. You can accomplish some of this manually by taking a good look at the page which turned up in your search results. You can do this by looking at the on page elements and see if each of these competitors have optimized their site 100% correctly. If you need a quick refresher on what you need to check, refer to Eight Key Elements to Get to the Top of Google. Make sure you take note of every element they didn't address since this can be your road map to domination. Once you've done the manual analysis you can also use another tool which is SEM Rush. This tool will quickly show you what other keyword phrases each of your competitors are ranking for. You can potentially uncover keyword phrases that you didn't even think of that can add a significant increase to your revenue.

Pay Per Click Strategy ID

Is your competition using PPC advertising to drive traffic to their site? If so, what keywords are they using and which words are giving them the best return? Believe it or not you can gain access to this information as well with the proper tools. Think about how powerful this can be. You can literally tap into their most effective traffic source, identify the words that are delivering results for them, and then insert your website in front of theirs to essentially steal their traffic. Again, sounds sneaky, but you gotta love it! If you'd like to download a free tool to constantly monitor this information without leaving the Google results page you can download PPC Web Spy. You can also use a nifty little tool called Spy Fu. Make sure you visit these sites and try out the tools. You'll be amazed at the intelligence you can gain, and it is all absolutely anonymous.

Interactive Strategy ID

Engaging visitors once they arrive on your site is critical to any company's online success. You will need to spend some time thinking like your buyers so you can, at least temporarily, think like they do. Once you've got yourself in this frame of mind, visit your competitor's website and look closesly at the interactive strategy they have in place. Do they have a blog? Can visitors submit a question? Is there video on the site? Whatever they are doing to engage the visitors, it's up to you to decide whether that strategy would be appealling to you if you were a potential buyer. Going through this process will help you improve your website by simply taking the time to think like your buyers and make sure you are delivering an experience that would leave them the most satisfied.

You now have the road map to conducting effective competitive espionage. If you follow these steps and take action on the intelligence you gather, you will quickly be on your way to dominate your competition. Plus you may just add some excitement to your work as you begin to anticipate your competition's next move and remain at least one step ahead of them at all times. Isn't competition fun!

Related Articles
  Creative Online Business Ideas for Beating Your Competitors
  Dominate Your Market By Creating An Authority Site | Great Tips!
  Discover Hidden Online Business Ideas in Your Niche
  Competition Is Not Healthy
  How many times should you "touch" your customers?

Article Tags: business strategy, espionage, leading companies



Related Forum Posts
Re: Congratultations to GT! - Hi GT, Competition is great and i know I wouldn't be here without it, but it is not the main reason for posting and participating. But I admit, it is the trigger I need to get some work done. If there is none, i create one for myself and try to make it. First prize is ice cream.
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Re: Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - [quote:31qpen1j]This is just my opinion, but I consider the prospective categories, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing and Online Promotion, as being pretty much one and the same - just different words that different people use.[/quote:31qpen1j] I completely agree! Those are all just "internet marketing" as far as I am concerned. And I normally would have voted for internet marketing, however I chose social media marketing simply because there are more than enough IM forums out there already.
Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - Hi Everyone, 2009 is a new year and I'd like to create a new forum category to jazz things up! In the past, there's been some interest voiced about adding a "Social Media Marketing", "Online Marketing", "Internet Marketing" or "Online Promotion" category. I'll implement [u:1g2tv6tf]ONE[/u:1g2tv6tf] of those new categories, but can someone first tell me what the difference would be between the existing "Marketing" section and one of those new options mentioned above? Thanks
Re: The Best Method for Online Marketing - we must choose the most suitable one to use.. there are so many diffrent strategy here.. 1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy. 2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques. 3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively. 4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs. 5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant. 6. Build a responsive opt-in email list. 7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories. 8. Write and publish online press releases. 9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site. 10. Blog and interact with your visitors.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

SEO Link Popularity and the Home Business Website

Bootstrapping Your Start Up Business.

Google Panda and Your Search Engine Rankings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.