For many small business owners, especially women, “competition” is a dirty word. We’re not sissies—we just prefer to create win-win situations, rather than think of business as an arena with clear winners and clear losers.

This mindset makes it easier for small business owners to create good customer relationships and business partnerships … but we can’t forget about the competition entirely.

Thankfully, the web has made it easy to spy on your market. Doing so on a regular basis can not only help you maintain an edge. It can also clue you in to untapped niches, identify your own strengths and weaknesses … even give you great ideas for blog posts and e-mail newsletters.

Your super-sneaky online spy kit

Every good spy needs a toolkit. That’s why I’ve created the following list. When used correctly, it will tell you everything you need to know about your competition.

•     Blog Catalog.  This online directory of blogs will let you  know which competitors are blogging, and what they’re talking about. Use it to identify customer gripes, generate ideas for your own blog, and get an idea of which topics generate the most buzz, so you can write about them too.

•     Alexa.  Want to know how much traffic your top competitor gets? Type its web address into Alexa. If it ranks within the top 500,000 sites, Alexa will show you its traffic rank, trends, visitor statistics, related sites, and the sites that link back to it.

•     Google.  You may be thinking, duh! But you may not know that spying on the top listings for your market’s keywords can give you valuable marketing information.

Print out the top 10 or 20 listings, including the text ads on the right-hand side of the page. Then check back in a month or two, and see how things have changed. The ones that show up repeatedly over time are the ones that are doing something right. Study them.

•     Google Trends. Want to know what topics are getting hotter? Or perhaps you’ve spotted a trend, and you want to make sure it’s going up and not down. Google Trends will let you know. Just type your keywords into the search box to get detailed information divided by country.

•     Google Alerts. Perhaps this is turning into a Google love fest. But Google Alerts is an ESSENTIAL tool for women in business. It not only lets you spy on your market, but your own brand. I blogged about Google Alerts in an earlier post.

•     PRWeb.  Want to know what’s newsworthy in your market? PR Web lets you search recent headlines and check out press releases written by your competitors.

How do you keep tabs on your competition? Have any other sites I can add to the list? Let me know by leaving a comment below.