Your business doesn’t operate in a bubble. There are many outside factors that can determine whether or not your business will turn a profit – and one of the biggest factors is your competition in the market.
You are also competing with companies all over the world, not just in your backyard.
Positioning yourself as unique compared to your competitors is only part of the solution. An equally important part is monitoring their growth and hacking their strategies.
There are many online tools that can help you do just that. Below is the list of 10 most helpful ones.
1) Google Alerts
Any list of online monitoring tools is incomplete without the Google Alerts tool, primarily because it’s one of the easiest tools to use. All you have to do is sign into your Google account, and you’re good to go.
Simply enter the names of the competitors you want to track, and the tool takes care of the rest. Depending on what you want to track, you can set up the tool to monitor their online mentions, links, and keywords.
Every time one of your competitors gets a mention, you will receive an email report with the latest relevant information. The fact that it’s a free tool makes it even more enticing.
2) Social Mention
Tracking your competitors on social media. Social Mention can help you with that.
Just search for keywords or brands on it and the tool will show you what people are saying about them. It also informs you about how often a brand earns a mention.
3) Google Ad(Word)s Keyword Planner
Everyone uses Google Keyword Planner for their keyword research. But not everyone is aware of how to leverage it for competitor analysis.
There’s a lot of insightful data you can find on your competitors if you know how to use the tool well. One place to start is by plugging in their URL in the landing page field. This way you can retrieve the keywords they’re using and the average traffic they’re earning.
4) Pro Rank Tracker
Pro Rank Tracker does for you automatically what you need to do manually in the Keyword Planner.
Just input your competitors’ websites and the tool gives you a group of keywords and their rankings. You can even decide which search engine you want to track these keywords on.
5) Alexa
Many people are familiar with Alexa and its ability to rank websites and display their traffic-related data, but very few people realize that it has competitor analysis functionalities too.
Not only can you track other websites in real time, but you can also compare your site to industry benchmarks. Additionally, you can leverage it to discover sites that would be a good fit for you to partner with or write a guest post for.
6) SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb helps you keep an eye on your competitors’ online strategies and analytics.
Compare statistics from multiple competitors, identify emerging industry trends, and understand customer behavior.
7) SEMrush
One of the most difficult parts of competitive analysis is converting data into actionable insights. With an all-in-one tool like SEMrush, competitive analysis is a piece of cake. It covers PPC, SEO, content, and more.
You can also compare different sites, including your own, side-by-side to see where you’re leading or lagging behind.
8) Ahrefs
Ahrefs strength lies in analyzing link targets and backlinks.
9) Woorank
Use Woorank to check which keywords your competition is targeting, their bounce rate, users, page views, and session durations. The tool also gives you week-to-to week reports so that you can track how your site is faring against your competitors.
10) SpyFu
When you type in your competitor’s domain, SpyFu reports on the keywords that they’ve bought on Google Adwords in the past.
You also have access to their organic search rankings and the variations of their ads. Information like how many clicks they earned, or how much they pay for each key phrase can prove very valuable.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, your competition is one of the biggest factors that influences your business. If you want to stay ahead of them, you need to know what they’re up to.
Now it’s up to you to figure out which of these tools can help you monitor your competitors. Building and improving your marketing efforts accordingly will help your business grow.
10 Tools to Monitor Your Competitors’ Growth and Hack Their Strategies
PS. My favorite tools from the list: SimilarWeb and Google Alerts.
