Stalk your competition online with these 5 tools!

• We have a competitor that we are "neck-and-neck-with" in a very competitive niche. It's imperative we know when they make any big changes and counter them. Are there any tools you can recommend that will monitor both on-page changes they may make as well as any big moves in social media they may make?

One of the most important aspects to staying competitive online is the ability to effectively track and monitor what your competition is doing and match their movements in an instant. By staying vigilant, you can respond to your competitors in smart ways that will help you compete more effectively.

Fortunately for you, we do a lot of competitive stalking at our end to assist Planet Ocean in-house clients. Here are five recommended tools, broken down among four major categories, that we use ourselves to help our clients maintain their competitive online edge.

• 1. Stalking with Google - Google Alerts
  
  

  One of your first stops should be Google Alerts. This free tool keeps you updated on a daily, weekly or "as it happens" basis for your tracked keywords and phrases. Use your competitor's name as a keyword (make sure to use quotes to get targeted results) and then set up your delivery email address or favorite RSS reader. Google Alerts will send you a message containing new blog posts, Web sites, news stories, etc, on your keyword term at the frequency you request. You can also add alerts for common search terms that apply to both of your companies so you can keep track of who is having a better reach in your market.

  
  
• 2. Stalking their Web site - Change Detection
  
  

  This tool has been reliably monitoring Web site changes for over 11 years. ChangeDetection.com is completely free and you can use it to be alerted on any changes to your competitor's Web site. I...