Study Competitors

How much time do you spend studying your competitors and what they're doing in terms of SEO? And what tools do you use?

Personally I study competition more in terms of service not seo. This is a task that has to be done once per month or at least once before launching a new site, and the more time you spend on it, the more results you will have :)

i often regard it part of my SEO work
but what do u mean u   study competition more in terms of service??
could u explain that for me ? ;)

do study your competitos but dont get hung up on it! you need to find your own niche! if you just copy what seems to be working for them your always end up second best

I agree with Nikolas that it's important to focus on your products and services and providing something unique and valuable to potential customers. But you also have to keep up with a changing marketplace. For example, the term "content writing" is being somewhat replaced with "SEO writing". Any writer who does not mention both terms could be losing business to writers who do.

Sometimes I search Google using a phrase that I wish I was more competitive for then take the first result and plug it into Yahoo's backlink tool. Quite often the sites are owned by that competitor but I have also found some real gems.

I used this technique for my free vintage images site. I sent emails to those sites I thought would be willing to add me (most were resource list type pages) with personalized notes that specifically talked about their site and mine. More often than not, they added my site. Happily, several of those sites are now sending me quite a bit of direct traffic.

A new writing client found me via a professional directory site that I found through researching a competitor's backlinks. He's just hired me for a second project.

It is time consuming as you have to research the competitor's backlinks, find sites that you think would link to yours and most importantly send them an email that explains why their site would be benefited by linking to yours.

Taking the time to write a personal letter also makes a big difference...My competitor had a number of backlinks from educational resources providing lists of sites with free images to use in the classroom. (Her site is targeted to educators, mine to crafters.) When I asked to be added, I explained how my site could be used by educators. Even though my site, at the time, made no mention of using the images in a classroom setting, the other site owner sent me a lovely reply and was more than happy to link to me. I would have never thought to approach education-related sites before I did that research.

This technique has provided highly targeted traffic. SEO-wise, I'm sure it has had some impact. How much? Who knows? But I am more than pleased with the results.

as a beginner in SEO, I don't study my competitors haha
my work is my work, I link build but no passion :(

I use softwares like SEO spyglass, IBP for studying competitors and it is very useful.

Then maybe it is not the right thing for u!

Do a thing that u are not interested in is a tortue!

And I agree with NIkolas, it is a thing u have to on a regualar base!

It is good to know what the competitors to do and u can use the data as a reference and also motivation maybe!:D

It depends on the stage.

I study my competitors only when I start doing SEO after that not often.

Not that often, but it's worth the time.

I just check on them every so ofter using Firefox SEO Tools. I remember years ago when I used to be obsessed about it. :D

On daily bases, I try to check out the competitor's site and their back links in order to track back that what kind of seo they are doing?

I spend 1 hour per day to check out my competitors' sites. Detail is checking their backlinks to see their link structure, and link quality. After that fix out plan to do better than them.

I take the studying of competitors as a part of my seo work.

I do it all the time. The tools I use are various. You need to specify what you want to know.