Sometimes the best way to improve your own business is by taking a hard look at your competitors. By understanding their most and least effective strategies, you can fine-tune your own marketing efforts. Here is a list of competitive research tools. There are tools to research your competition’s keywords, linking strategies, traffic metrics, and more. There are both free and paid tools. If you have any other favorite resources to research your competitors, be sure to add them in the comments below. Free Tools Alexa. Search Alexa by keyword or category for traffic trends on competing sites. Get rank, related keywords, and site analytics for free. Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Plug in a URL and get the keyword ideas Google thinks t...

Trends in online commerce, content marketing, and advertising sales may have set the ecommerce and publishing industries on a collision course as both strive for trust, relevance, and profits. U.S. online sales in just the first three months of 2012 were more than double American newspaper ad revenues for all of 2011. As publishers seek new revenue sources, magazine and newspapers might turn to ecommerce. Online Sales Are Growing Online retailing is booming, with trend-tracking firm comScore reporting that U.S. retail ecommerce spending reached $44.3 billion in the first quarter, up some 17 percent from the same three-month period in 2011. “The first quarter of this year was especially strong for retail ecommerce as we returned to y...