Knowing how competitive your field is and where you stack against the competition (online) up is an important first step. This will allow you to set realistic expectations and get an idea of time frame and cost associated with your online marketing efforts.

A couple of great tools (also see videos below) you can use to help with this are www.spyfu.com which allows you to spy on competitors who are advertising with Google Adwords and also the Google Keyword tool so you can work on which keywords drive the most traffic and have the least amount of competition.

In our initial consultation we can give you an idea …

• How competitive your space is and strategy options
• How much your main keywords are worth if bidding on Google using Adwords
• How much traffic each keyword is driving on average month/month
• What the daily budget of your competitors in on Adwords
• What type of SEO work your competitors are using, how to beat them
• What sites are linking to your competitors and which ones are passing most link juice. Back linking break down.
• What it will take to get you to #1 on Google.

The other major part of keyword research is studying your competition. After all rankings are based on competitive scales and some terms are easier to obtain than others. We recommend using www.spyfu.com to do your competitor analysis or www.compete.com. Both offer free searches and an unbelievable amount or valuable free data for you to use and create your own competitive advantage from.