Beating your competitors with search engine rankings.

In theory, to beat your competitors, you need more quality inbound links. (note quality, not quantity) and better content. (unique)

However its not that simple, because website age, website authority and trust is also an issue. But without going into too much details, its still a great idea to track down your competitors inbound links and try to get your links on the same websites and pages. 

Check your competitors back links and try to get your links on the same pages, use  yahoo back link checker