Competitive analysis is otherwise known as Competitive Intelligence (CI) which is an ethical business practice that focuses on external business environment. This process of gathering information and then utilizing it in business decision-making can make an organization more competitive.

Apart from producing usability metrics a good competitive analysis

Aids decision makers to set a proper strategic goal-setting and planning.

Just like your business depends on your business reports, it should also be concerned with your competitors' business reports as well. This will give you an idea of where you are and how you can scale up your level to that of your competitor. It's important to monitor your competitor’s ' websites in the following areas:

• Sites that rank in the top 10
• Important keywords and phrases used
• Amount of good content and content per page
• Sites that rank well for your keywords
• Sites available in second and third pages of search results with good SEO strategies
• Link Intelligence
• Referrer Intelligence
• Ranking Intelligence
• PPC Campaign Intelligence
• Search Term Intelligence

When selecting the competitors, try to stay away from the one-hit-wonders. If your client offers more products to markets, try to find the most well-developed competitors that offer a similar number of products to the same market. It will be useless to analyze one such competitor who just does 10% of what your client offers.

Furthermore, analyze the level of success the competition has acquired over time. Look at the competitors and select those that offer information about their company size, stature, and goals.If you are lucky and search for more information about another organization - you can even acquire the business plan of your competitor.