clipped from www.bruceclay.com

One of the best ways to fill content holes on your Web site or blog is to do some competitive research to see what others in your industry are writing about. You want to see what they're doing right, where they're missing the mark, and what you could add to your site that they haven't even thought of yet.

Doing competitive research can also be a good way to think up new tools, tricks or toys to add to your Web site to attract links. Often you'll find that your competitors are writing confusing How-To articles that would make a much better video or have an article explaining the latest baby names that could easily be turned into a fun tool - take the initiative and make it. Users love interacting with fun content. You want to be continuously looking for creative ways to make yourself more interesting and more useful to your visitors.

So much of successful search engine optimization is about your ability to product useful content that users will be interested in.