• Future Now , Wednesday, October 8, 2008 2:15 PM

On the hunt for quality competitive analysis tools? Bryan Eisenberg reviews 14 "ways to spy on your competitors' web sites, without breaking any FISA laws," in this post.

He discusses a trio of no-brainers from Google: Alerts, Insights for Search and Trends for Websites, as well as proven tools like Websitegrader (and its sibling Twittergrader). But Eisenberg also digs into lesser-known gems like Web Page Readability, which helps you compare the density and complexity of your page's copy to your competitors', and Attention Meter, which pulls ratings from across Alexa, Compete and Quantcast into one dashboard.

Also, try using the Wayback Machine to see how your competitors' sites have evolved over time, Xinu Returns for a view of your search and social media benchmarks, and FeedCompare to gauge how you stack up in terms of subscribers.

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