In business, it is important to understand your competition. Part of this understanding comes from analyzing their website. By looking at a competitor’s website, you can understand their strengths and weaknesses. You can also learn about their target market and what methods they are using to reach that market. Here are things to look for on rival websites:
1. Look at the overall design of the site. Is it professional? Easy to navigate? User-friendly?
2. Examine the text on the website. Is it easy to read? Does it contain spelling or grammatical errors?
3. Read through the site’s content. What is being said, and how is it being said?
4. Examine the site’s structure. What is the layout of the site; is it easy to find information?
5. Check the “about us,” “contact us,” and “privacy policy” sections.
6. Check out the site’s social media links. What do they say about the company?
7. Does the site contain a blog or other type of content that is frequently updated? How often are posts made?
8. Does the company accept blog/social media comments?
Is there a site-related forum?
9. Does the site have a “sitemap” that is easy to find and use?
10. If the site is a paid subscription or requires registration, do you see any advertisements on the site?
11. Open the “footer” link and check the company’s privacy policy. Is it straightforward and easy to find?
12. If you are trying to contact the company via email, what is their response time? Did a live person or automated system reply?
13. Check out the site’s “About Us” page for more details about the company and its history. Is it easy to find?
14. Check out the site’s “Terms of Service” page. Is it easy to find?
15. Check out the site’s “Customer Service” or “Contact Us” page, if available. Does it provide an email address?
16. What is the company’s reputation online? (Check out the company’s profile on review sites like Yelp, TrustPilot, and RipoffReport.)
17. Is the company a member of any trade organizations? What kinds of certifications does it have?
Why Bother Analyzing a Competitor’s Website?
Knowing your competitors’ moves is crucial for any business owner. By evaluating their website, you can thoroughly understand their marketing strategy, including what works and doesn’t. This data can be utilized to enhance your own website and marketing efforts.
When assessing a competitor’s website, there are a few crucial elements: traffic, engagement, conversion rates, and backlinks. Google Analytics, for example, can be used to track traffic. Average time on site, pages per visit, and bounce rate can all be used to determine engagement. Conversion rates are based on the website’s leads or sales. Finally, backlinks can be examined utilizing tools such as Moz or Ahrefs.
What To Look For
Examining a competitor’s website requires several important considerations. Consider the design and usability. The information should be well-written and helpful but not overly ‘salesy.’
Finally, the user experience should be favorable, with no noticeable problems or bugs and a smooth checkout procedure. By considering all of these criteria, you can clearly understand how your website compares and where you might improve. Remember that even minor modifications can hugely impact your bottom line.
Sites like Comscore can tell you which organizations receive the most traffic, and Alexa can inform you about the relative traffic. It is a free browser add-on that ranks the traffic for each site you visit and tells you if it is in the top 100 or the top 1000. This offers you a general notion of where your competitors rank in the rankings.
Examine the Leaders
The next stage is to thoroughly research the top 5 or 10 competitors.
Looking at and evaluating competitors’ websites can teach you a lot.
What you should look for are the following:
1. Examine your competitors’ products or services and note any differences from your own.
2. Look for any gaps that could be filled.
3. Consider the design, feel, and functioning of your competitors’ websites.
4. Examine their current advertising strategies and offers.
5. Examine their strengths and flaws through the eyes of the customer.
6. Try to figure out their approach. When dealing with a public corporation, you can obtain extensive information from reliable sources and make a list of their important participants. Then you can check for any interviews, articles, or speeches they may have given about their website.
How To Use Your Findings
Any business owner or marketing manager worth their salt understands that evaluating the competition is critical to understanding how to enhance your own website, marketing strategy, and overall business.
But what do you do with all of that data once you have it? How can you utilize it to better your website, marketing approach, and so on? Here are some pointers:
1. Examine their strengths and weaknesses. This helps you find website and marketing plan improvements. Do they have a lot of high-quality content? Are their products superior to yours? Do they have a solid social media presence? Identifying their strengths and shortcomings will assist you in developing a more well-rounded approach.
2. Use their keywords. Look at the keywords they use on their website and marketing campaigns. You can then take these keywords and use them on your own website. Also, consider creating content around these keywords.
3. Interact with them. Don’t be afraid to comment on their blog articles or posts! Engaging in a conversation with the competition can help you identify what’s working for them and what isn’t. You can then replicate the best parts of their strategy and modify the parts that aren’t working as well.
4. Be unique. It is vital to have a different approach than your competition. If you replicate what other businesses in your space are doing, you will get lost in the shuffle. Instead, create a strategy that is unique and different from theirs. Work on your strengths and don t be afraid to try something new.
The Benefits Of Analysis
Businesses must analyze their website and marketing approach to stay competitive. To do so, create a competitor analysis report. It helps you understand your audience and what they want. You’ll also uncover website weaknesses to exploit. Follow these steps:
Step 1: Find 5-10 of your top competitors (you want to look at their top 10 competitors) and write down their names.
Step 2: Take a screenshot of their home page and all other pages you want to look at. Save the images somewhere on your computer.
Step 3: Find good reviews of your competitor’s products/services in your industry.
Step 4: Download the reviews, and write down any specific phrases to describe them.
Step 5: Take notes on any good practices they are using and keep track of your competitors strengths and weaknesses.
Step 6: Put all this information together in an easy-to-read format (i.e., Excel), and you should have a good idea of your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.
Step 7: Identify your competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Step 8: Use the information from your competitive analysis to help your business plan.
Step 9: Find weaknesses in your competitors and work on these and improve on their strengths. Make a list of the methods you’ll use to counter your competitor’s offering. Now, summarise the facts you’ve gathered into a few phrases for each rival, emphasizing their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Based on your research on your competitor’s websites, you must either compete with them or exit the competition and focus on other areas. You can use this study to design or adjust your marketing strategy. Include how you propose to cope with competition and what steps you believe will be required to achieve high search engine rankings.
But don’t be scared off too soon – make sure you know what you’re getting into before you start, and don’t let giant companies intimidate you. Remember that you can go quicker than your opponents if you believe in your talents. You must provide your customers with something they can’t get anywhere else.
Conclusion
Analyzing a competitor’s website might help you learn what they do well and where there may be room for improvement.
You may get a good sense of how they are appealing to their target audience and what they may be doing better or worse than your own site by looking at the website’s general design, navigation, content, and functioning. Which of these strategies will you begin using right away?
I’d be delighted to hear from you!
