Sometimes it can be frustrating to see that one of your competitors are constantly ranking above you for some of your major search phrases. It may be that they are a relatively new business or that they have no other employees and are smaller than your company, but somehow they are still able to appear above you.
Carrying out competitor analysis is very important in marketing as not only will you be able to see what they are offering their customers on the front end of the website, but if you know where to look and have the right tools, you can also see how they are competing in terms of search engine optimisation etc. It may be that they are building up a huge number of quality, relevant links that is helping them or that they have micro sites for their main products or services. With this information, you can then compare the sites and marketing to see how you may be able to improve yours.