This white paper examines numerous strategies and techniques used in the collection of competitor internet marketing data to be used in your internet marketing endeavors.

1. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
Strategies and Techniques Used
to Collect Competitors’ Data.
01
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

2. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Internet Marketing Spying is exactly what it means and more. This white
paper examines numerous strategies and techniques used in the collection
of competitor internet marketing data to be used in your internet marketing
endeavors.
Internet Marketing Spying
Strategies and Techniques Used to Collect Competitors’ Data.
Section 1: Meta Tag Analysis
Section 2: Paid Search Analysis
Section 3: Comparative Search Engine Ranking Report
Section 4: SEO/Sitemap Analysis
Section 5: Link Popularity Analysis
The information featured within this document is
believed to be accurate as of November 2, 2009,
the date this white paper was produced.
In the event discrepancies are found either in the information or links shared
throughout this interactive document, please contact the author at
danielstpierre@cybergenica.com.
02
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

3. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
Section 1: Meta Tag Analysis
Key Data used in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Meta Tags are HTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a web
page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of an HTML
document. Meta elements typically specify page title, description and keywords. Meta
tags provide information about a given web page, most often to help search engines
categorize them correctly. (1)
Meta tags are meant to be invisible elements to users yet visible to search engine
spiders, notably Google, Yahoo and MSN which constantly index and file the
information contained in each web page’s Meta tags. This information is then used in
the ranking process handled according to specific ranking formulas or algorithms.
Here is an example screen shot of a result web page after a search was performed
on Google:
03
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

4. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
In this instance, using Google to search for a “Christian seo company” we found the
home page of the Cybergenica website. The following information was indexed and
displayed by Google:
Web Page Title
Cybergenica :: Purpose Driven Internet Consulting :: Home Page
Web Page Description
Purpose driven internet consulting company that offers top notch web marketing
services to website owners and/or corporate marketing executives worldwide.
Linked Page (or Identifier-URL)
www.cybergenica.com
Here is the Meta tag encoded this web page:
<TITLE>Cybergenica :: Purpose Driven Internet Consulting :: Home Page</TITLE>
<META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”Purpose driven internet consulting company
that offers top notch web marketing services to website owners and/or corporate
marketing executives worldwide.”>
<META NAME=”Keywords” CONTENT=”Christian online marketing, Christian website
search engine optimization, Christian search engines marketing, Christian website
marketing, Christian web marketing”>
<META NAME=”Identifier-URL” CONTENT=”http://www.cybergenica.com”>
To see this HTML code for yourself simply follow 2 simple steps:
1/. Click here to visit the page mentioned above or go to www.cybergenica.com.
2/. From the top menu of your browser, click “View” then select “Page Source”.
3/. Voila! The web page’s meta tags are displayed right in front of you.
04
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

5. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
Why are Meta Tags important?
Since a good section of the text contained in the TITLE and DESCRIPTION tags is
displayed on the search result page, it is critical this text copy is written to maximize
click through.
Essentially this title and short description (approximately 25-30 words) may be your
only chance to make a good impression, enticing the user to click your link and visit
your web site.
What are your Competitors using in their Meta Tags?
This is when the spying begins.
There are 2 ways to spy on your competitors meta tags.
The first method involves performing a search on a
major search engine using keywords that are
in tune with your business or target market.
For example if you are a wedding
photographer in Dallas, Texas you
could perform a search using the following search string:
wedding photographer Dallas TX
Ideally your web site will rank at the top of the Organic list of web sites found on the
search results page. From this search results page you can see competitors’ page
titles and descriptions to be used in refining your page titles and descriptions.
Another method used in meta tag spying involves visiting competitor web sites and
pulling up the source code of each relevant web page (see page 4).
If you and/or your competitors are doing it right, each web page throughout yours
and their web site has different page titles and descriptions.
05
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

6. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
Section 2: Paid Search Analysis
Find Out Which Keywords Your Competitors are Buying
Paid search or Pay-per-Click advertising has become one of the most cost effective
way to drive targeted traffic to a web site.
While all major search engines offer paid search services, our spying will focus on
Google Adwords since it is the most widely used.
To find out which keywords your competitors are bidding on Google Adwords, if any,
simply follow the link below:
http://www.keywordspy.com/?af=cybergenica
The above web site provides detailed information about paid search campaigns with
Google’s Adwords program. Some of the data available for analysis includes:
> PPC Keywords Purchased
> Daily Ad Budget
> Average Cost/Click
> Total Clicks/Day
> Organic Keywords
> Paid Search Competitors
> Number and Type of Ads
When it come to paid search, a little research goes a long way. Simply type in your
competitors’ website address in the search box and find out how much money they
have been spending on Google Adwords and more importantly, how much business
they have been taking from you.
Once you have accumulated sufficient information about your competitors, use the
data found therein to refine your paid search campaigns on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
06
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

7. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
Section 3: Comparative Search Engine Ranking Report
Find Out Where You Rank on Search Engines vs Your Competitors
Ranking reports are valuable tools used in the collection of ranking data for specific
keywords or search phrases. Ranking reports can also be used as a comparative tool
that provides insight as to the placement of your web site versus your competition.
Ranking reports are produced using professional grade software typically used by
internet marketing companies. One of the leading software used in reporting is Web
Position, a Webtrends, Inc. title currently retailing around USD$400.00.
An alternative to purchasing the software and undergoing training on this complex
reporting application is to retain the services of an internet marketing agency, such
as Cybergenica to produce these reports for you.
Comparative search engine ranking reports display the position of 2 or more web
sites in one concise, user friendly report according to specific keywords.
07
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

8. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
Section 4: SEO/Sitemap Analysis
How Detailed are Your Competitors’ SEO & Sitemaps
SEO and Sitemaps are critical tools to any web site’s organic ranking success. Spying
on competitors’ search engine optimization can be time consuming and often not
provide as detailed a picture as a sitemap.
For example a competitor might use several pages to target a local market, for
example their web site might feature a near identical services page for various cities,
counties and state.
By altering the title and description meta tags as well as the text copy that pertains
to a locality, your competitors could establish a monopoly in your market. If this
were the case a sitemap would be one of the only places where you could retrieve
such valuable information.
Sitemaps are typically found either as a part of
a web site’s displayed content or in some cases,
meant to be crawled by search engine spiders.
Either meant for user convenience or spider
use, sitemaps contain the complete linked
architecture of a web site. To see a website’s
sitemap simply visit any URL and look for a
sitemap link, usually located at the footer of the
page.
Alternatively sitemap files can be found by typing a domain name followed by the
standard text sitemap extension (urllist.txt) per the example below:
http://www.cybergenica.com/urllist.txt
08
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

9. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
How to Process SEO/Sitemap Data
One quick glance at a competitor’s sitemap will tell you wether or not they are
involved in aggressive search engine optimization.
A simple sitemap with a number of links matching the various sections of a web
site means your competitor has not implemented SEO strategies. On the other
hand a sitemap populated with 100’s of web pages means your competitor did their
homework.
To maximize search engine exposure your goal should be to have a more extensive
number of web pages and relevant text content thereby providing a larger sitemap
than your competitors resulting in increased share of the market.
Section 5: Link Popularity Analysis
How Popular are Your Competitors?
Since link popularity is an important variable within all major search engines’ ranking
algorithms, it is critical you find out how popular your competitors’ web sites are
among the web community.
To find out the number of inbound links associated with your competitors’ web sites
simply follow this link or visit http://www.linkpopularity.com, a free link
popularity service that provides linking data from Google, Yahoo and MSN.
To beat your competition your should have more inbound links pointing to
your website than your competitors. There are numerous ways to
increase link popularity:
> Blogging
> Social Networks
> Press Releases
> Ezines
> Link Building Campaigns
09
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com

10. Cybergenica
purpose driven
Internet Marketing
internet marketing SPYING
By Daniel St.Pierre
Conclusion
While collecting competitor data is essential to your web site’s success, processing
this data and acting upon it is critical.
Comparing your web site’s meta tags to your competitors will show you what
potential customers see on search engines.
Finding out how much your competitors are spending on Google Adwords, how many
visitors their budget produces and which keywords they are bidding on is only a few
clicks away and well worth the analysis.
A comparative search engine ranking report tells you where your website ranks
versus your competition. To find out if your competitors are aggressively optimizing
their web sites pull up their sitemap and see for yourself.
Using a free link popularity tool will shed light on your competitors’ inbound linkage
and help you plan accordingly.
Internet Marketing Spying
Produced by Daniel St.Pierre
©2009 Cybergenica
References & Resources
1. Definition Meta Elements
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_tags
010
The Cybergenica Company
Based in Tampa, FL
PH: (727) 674-5681
www.cybergenica.com