spying my compatition

i am advertising in a very competitive niche online and i just can't get something..
there is one competitor that on almost every keyword in every location will be at the first 3 spots on big G and sometimes 2 or more times on the first page. I'm trying to learn what is it that he do, i got all the funds and time to imitate his methods i just need a help understand what is it exactly? what he know that other don't?
what will be the best way to spy after competitors websites, find out their footprint, find out their sem techniques etc...

tnx

You can just pull the backlink reports from ahrefs or majestic SEO to see what happens in terms of off site SEO. It will have a small delay since those services sometimes take a while to index backlinks, but it will give you a general idea of his strategy. It's not a 100% thing, but it's a good start.