Spying and copying your competitors?

Cristian Level X³

August 17, 2016, 4:40 pm

Write the reason you're deleting this FAQ

Spying and copying your competitors?

How important is spying on your competitor's websites?

I spend a lot of time looking at what my competitors are doing and what the overall trends are for a certain niche or website I'm promoting or doing SEO for.
Sure, you may say I can use this time for better things like actually improving my own SEO and developing my own ideas but ignoring what your competitors are doing can be a big mistake.

In the online industry, things can change over night and if you are not vigilant enough to notice and adapt to changes you may find yourself out of the game.

What should you look for?

New website functionalities
New marketing campaigns
New SEO and content updates

What should you copy?

Don't just copy a good idea, improve it and adapt it for your own website and clients. You need to make sure the idea is successful, wait a while (but not to long) to notice how things will turn out for your competitor.

What do you think about spying your competitors?
What kind of tools are you using to figure out marketing strategies and SEO techniques when it comes to your competitors?

Comments

Please login or sign up to leave a comment

Join

MusicMoguls

Hey Christian, awesome discussion!

I think it is extremely important to "spy" on your competitors, it helps keep your business going because if they have lowered there prices, people are more likely to shop there because its cheaper....if you were watching your competitors stuff you would be able to change your prices to beat their prices or maybe offer something extra with a purchase.

It is definitely a smart idea to keep up on your competitors and other similar sellers

10 years ago

Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Webguy2024

Hi Christian,
I stopped obsessively looking at the competition back in 2005 - 2006. While it is obviously good to know what your competitors are doing and to keep up on new trends for pricing, technology to stay competitive. I changed my focus from worrying about the competitors to servicing my clients needs through over the top customer support, products and services etc. This had a dramatic effect on sales and my customers were willing to pay considerably more. I was not the cheapest nor most expensive. I also noticed a measurable result in referrals and my website traffic spiked. Another interesting thing I noticed is that the competition started to copy what I was doing.

So now one of my favorite motto's is "Don't worry about the competition, worry about your customers".

10 years ago

Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Lynne

I agree that keeping tabs on what your competitors are doing is always a good thing. However like Webguy2024 says it really is important to keep your main focus on your business and your services. I am sure loads of people have lost sight of their purpose while spying LOL

10 years ago

Are you sure you want to delete this post?

idealmike

If you've already got your customer service sorted and you're already providing an amazing excellent first rate service to your customers/clients, then looking to or even spying on your competitors will help you to know what sort of things they're doing either on their site or to promote their site/business. Which you can then do yourself. Not in the exact same way maybe but in a different way, your own unique way. And doing so can give you a lot of tips and tricks to do things you didn't know were possible to do.

One of the best ways to spy on your competitors is to use Google Alerts. You can even set up a recipe using IFTTT so that any time one of your competitors brand names or website is mentioned somewhere you receive an email about it. This can also help you to see what backlinks they're building, where and what type of links they are which you can then go in after and add your own.

10 years ago

Are you sure you want to delete this post?

Corzhens

It looks like hard work for me if I would be spying and copying my competition. Besides, it is against my religion to do that because it is like cheating or doing something behind the back of my competitor. If they do that to me then it is their conscience that will punish them. But for me I would rather just spread my backlinks or stuff my content with keywords. That will be a decent way of SEO work.

7 years ago

Are you sure you want to delete this post?

SEOClerks

Spying and copying your competitors?

Spying and copying your competitors?

Comments

Please login or sign up to leave a comment

MusicMoguls

Webguy2024

Lynne

idealmike

Corzhens

Invalid SQL

Expensive SQL

Suspicious SQL

Match	Count	SQL	Script
SELECT * FROM `questions` as q JOIN categories_faq as c ON q.catid=c.CATID WHERE (q.status=1 OR (q.status=2 AND userid='') ) AND q.quesid='19012'	1	SELECT q.*, c.seo as CatSEO, c.name as CatName, c.parentid FROM `questions` as q JOIN categories_faq as c ON q.catid=c.CATID WHERE (q.status=1 OR (q.status=2 AND userid='') ) AND q.quesid='19012'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php 496 () ()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='134'	1	SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='134'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/includes/member.php 445 GetAllUserDetails() ()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID=134	1	SELECT googleplus_profile FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID=134	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 16914 GetGooglePlusProfileFromId() ()
SELECT * FROM ratings_faq as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=19012 LIMIT 5	1	SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faq as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=19012 LIMIT 5	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()
SELECT * FROM answers a, seoclerks.members b WHERE a.quesid='19012' AND a.userid=b.USERID and b.status='1' AND a.status=1 ORDER BY a.combined_votes DESC, a.date_answered asc	1	SELECT a.answer, a.USERID, a.upvotes, a.downvotes, a.ansid, a.parentid, a.combined_votes, a.date_answered, b.username, b.userlevel, b.profilepicture FROM answers a, seoclerks.members b WHERE a.quesid='19012' AND a.userid=b.USERID and b.status='1' AND a.status=1 ORDER BY a.combined_votes DESC, a.date_answered asc	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php 1245 () ()
SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=104941 LIMIT 5	1	SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=104941 LIMIT 5	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()
SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=104973 LIMIT 5	1	SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=104973 LIMIT 5	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()
SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=104974 LIMIT 5	1	SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=104974 LIMIT 5	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()
SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=105004 LIMIT 5	1	SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=105004 LIMIT 5	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()
SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=168293 LIMIT 5	1	SELECT m.username FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=168293 LIMIT 5	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() ()
UPDATE questions SET total_views = total_views + 1 WHERE quesid='19012'	1	UPDATE questions SET total_views = total_views + 1 WHERE quesid='19012'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 1765 update_Faqviewcount() ()
SELECT * FROM questions WHERE quesid!='19012' AND status='1' AND (question like '%Spying copying competitors?%' OR question like '%Spying%' OR question like '%copying%' OR question like '%competitors?%') -- ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 15	1	SELECT quesid, question, seo, userid FROM questions WHERE quesid!='19012' AND status='1' AND (question like '%Spying copying competitors?%' OR question like '%Spying%' OR question like '%copying%' OR question like '%competitors?%') -- ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 15	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() ()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='147' limit 1	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='147' limit 1	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='43' limit 1	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='43' limit 1	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='134' limit 1	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='134' limit 1	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='2077' limit 1	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='2077' limit 1	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='18151' limit 1	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='18151' limit 1	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_member_profilepicture()
SELECT * FROM members_ledger WHERE script='/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php' AND querystring LIKE '%id=19012%' AND added>=UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW())-1200 GROUP BY USERID	1	SELECT USERID, username FROM members_ledger WHERE script='/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php' AND querystring LIKE '%id=19012%' AND added>=UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW())-1200 GROUP BY USERID	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() ()
SELECT * FROM categories	1	SELECT * FROM categories	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() parseRedundantQueriesCache()
select * from categories_software order by name asc	1	select * from categories_software order by name asc	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_GetSoftwareCategories()
select * from categories_wanttobuy order by name asc	1	select * from categories_wanttobuy order by name asc	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_wantcategories()
select * from categories_wanttotrade order by name asc	1	select * from categories_wanttotrade order by name asc	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_get_tradecategories()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='139192.png'	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='139192.png'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='29365.jpg'	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='29365.jpg'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='306632.jpg'	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='306632.jpg'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='272.jpg'	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='272.jpg'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()
SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='600657.jpg'	1	SELECT profilepicture FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='600657.jpg'	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() getUserProfileImage()
select * from categories_faq order by name asc	1	select * from categories_faq order by name asc	/opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() insert_GetFaqCategories()