Looking for a way to elbow ahead of your competition online?

One way to do that is to learn everything you can about their search behavior, said Allan Dick, general manager of Vintage Tub & Bath, a small company in Pennsylvania.

First, search for your domain name on Alexa.com, he said. There's a portion of the results on Alexa that reads: “People who visit this page also visit…” and then competitors are listed.

Vintagetub.com's biggest competitor is a marketer called Clawfootsupply.com.

Dick — who spoke at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York last month — next checked out Clawfootsupply's pay-per-click ads on Google to learn what terms were important to his competitor. Then he scanned the natural — or free — listings which appear in search results.

He visited Marketleap.com to get a description of Clawfootsupply as well as detailed information about the company. That information led to a listing of manufacturing contacts and links to distributors and suppliers.

It can also lead to newspaper articles about the firm that may contain a nugget of financial information, such as the average amount spent per sale, or the results of an online campaign.

These nuggets, spread around various news reports, can help a marketer figure out how much his competition is spending and his return on investment.

Many small companies can't afford the big search engines like Google and Overture, so they use eBay, “the forgotten search engine,” Dick said.

So it can be rewarding to use your company's top keywords and search through the listings to find new product offerings. Look at eBay's feedback page to see what your competitors' customers are saying about the company — and what your customers are saying about you.

“My rule of thumb is that 30% of the entire customer base leaves feedback,” Dick said.

Find out what your competitors' keywords are, said David Williams of 360i, a search marketing firm that represents Vintagetubs. Just key in whatever search terms make sense and see what terms bring up the competitor, and in what order, he added.

Clawfoot has 200 keywords that are important, and 104 first positions, Williams said. Vintagetubs has 117 firsts.

Performix's Cam Balzer suggests you take those keywords that work for your company by outbidding your competitors or placing the keywords throughout your site.