In Google Chrome, there are several useful extensions that you can use to spy on others. Here is it:
1. Web developer toolbar
This is most useful for Web developer. It used to be available only for Firefox, but now has been ported over to Google Chrome. Basically if you love the design of your competitor’s site and you want the same design for your site, you can use this toolbar to analyze the html element of the site. It is able to list everything from CSS, stack levels, to even the javascripts and meta tags.
So if you are wondering why your competitor is ranking high in the search engine, check out their design structure and see what they are doing correctly.
2. BuiltWith Technology Profiler
BuiltWith Technology Profiler is a scaringly useful tool for analyzing the backend structure of any site (except https site). It can expose almost everything that you are running in the backend, from the OS you are using to host your server, the programming framework, the software you use to run your sites, the advertisement network you are running, the analytical tool you are using, the widgets that you placed in the sidebar and many more insidious information.
3. Chrome SEO
When you are done with the backend, it it time to go to the frontend. ChromeSEO allows you to find out the SEO aspect of a site. It shows a list of results, including number of pages indexed, ranking in Google pagerank, Alexa ranking, quantcast, number of backlinks, number of bookmarks etc.
4. Ka: The Keyword Analyzer (Update: no longer exist)
Now if you are trying to win the top spot of the search engine result page, you might want to check out the number 1 result and see what keyword they are using to win them the top spot. On any page, you can use the Keyword Analyzer tool to analyze the keywords use on a particular page. You will need to register an API key before you can use it. It allows you to scan 30,000 pages a day, so it should be more than enough for your daily usage.
5. RSS Subscription
The best and easy way to spy on your competitor is to subscribe to their RSS feed and find out what they are writing and doing everyday. Google Chrome currently does not come with a RSS subscription option, so this extension will play its part at least until Google Chrome include this basic feature in.
6. SEO SERP
SEO SERP is a good tool for you to monitor your competitor site performance as well as your own search engine result performance. It allows you to list a keyword and see the search engine ranking for a specific website. You can list multiple keywords or multiple websites.
What other tools do you use to spy on your competitor?
