I was wondering if there's a way to check what your competitors are doing in terms of SEO and advertising, see if they're using Adwords, etc? (if you have a specific site you want to check)
Well I mean, if I know about 3 sites in my niche that are doing really well, is there a way I can check on their methods/Adwords?
there really is no way, beyond creative google searching and looking at their site structure/source code info.
spyfu is worthless, data is too far off to even be considered. SEOdigger is ok - although its data is not very accurate (old) and it uses a lot of worthless keyword string SERPs
Why do you want to spy on them? Be original, don't be a copycat, no one likes those kind of people. You copying someone elses work shows that you have no creativity and it proofs you shouldn't even own a website.
keywordspy.com supposedly offers a peek at what they do in adwords. However, a more reliable source would probably be to look at their backlinks. It is a good way to see where they might be advertising their services.
I've been using this site: http://www.iwebtool.com It allows me to look up backlinks (to see who is linking to my competitors), search engine rank, link popularity and more. It's definitely not all inclusive in terms of competitor research, but it does seem to work pretty well. Also, you can search google with the string "competitorname link:competitorurl.com". This will give you a list of all the sites that contain a link to your competitor's URL. If you visit a page that shows up on the google search but don't actually see the link in the content of the site but there are google ads on the page, you can usually safely assume that your competitor uses adwords (i.e. the search picked them up in an ad bar but when you visited the site, it was a different set of ads). Hope that helps!
Well, for me, personally, I don't care about seo. It is overrated. And most who come in from a search rarely buys. They are just looking; they are tire kickers. For advertising, word of mouth, and whatnot, I just look at compete.com and their backlinks. Compete isn't an accurate reading, of course, but it puts you in the ballpark. I also type their site in a search, leaving out the www. For example: Joe's Place. I also look at their site and their advice within. If it is pure crap, then no worries on this end. To check on their adwords, type in the keywords they will most likely be under. But, if they have a lot of affiliates, their ad(s) can be up all the time, giving the impression they do quite well. DoubleYourDating is a good example. For him, I also typed DYD in a search, because many are too lazy to type in the whole site's name, so they will type that in. The bottom line is...have a nice site, good info people like, and...ADVERTISE! You'll be just fine.
Faganfinder.com is pretty useful. I have been an internet spy over the years going there. This url is good for seeing backlinks, page count, traffic numbers, blog info etc. http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo