Know your competitors' Web strategy

When designing your website, taking a look at what your competitors are doing is a great way to identify what works and what does not. In addition, it allows you to take note of ideas for interesting features or tools for your website. This is called competitive intelligence: monitoring and analyzing your competitors' web/social media strategy to pick out the best and the worst in order to positively differentiate yourself.

The idea is of course not to copy, but to stand out, by taking the best of others and adding your personal touch, to make the whole better than all the rest! Don't try to create a site to exist among the others, but to distinguish yourself, above the anthill.

You don't become the best by "crushing" others (80's marketing warfare), but you do become the best by being closer to people, by offering them more personalized answers, by offering them a better experience and by answering their questions. Your customers are not just wallets, they are individuals with desires and it is up to you to understand them.

For example, feel free to browse user or consumer forums to learn from their comments.

In the world of the Internet, this surveillance is made easy thanks to the multitude of information exchanged, and by some very practical tools. Here are a few places in the webosphere to look:

• Their websites
• Their social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube...), but also consumer groups. For example, if your online store sells skateboards, following the skateboarders pages would be a good idea! This is usually where new products, promotions or news are announced. You will always be on the lookout for their advancements and news. Because you are not the only one in your market with good ideas and experience. We grow and evolve by remaining reactive and dynamic.
• Sites referencing company balance sheets and professional directories
• The discussion forums
• The job offer platforms
• etc.

This is probably the key to a successful site. Operating in a large market with many competitors and a multitude of offers does not prevent you from standing out. Focusing on a unique message and content will help you gain the attention of users and search engines like Google for example.

Imitating your competitors' strategy and speech would be a mistake. But knowing their moves or tactics is a huge advantage since it will allow you to always be one step ahead and to be able to propose counter-offers for example. As the saying goes: "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"!

Now that you have the data and information you were looking for, and have made an analysis of what your future site should look like, you have the difficult task of creating/improving it.

Here are some tools that will help you know where to focus your efforts in order to get your project done quickly (and correctly).

Google PageSpeed insight

The Google PageSpeed Insights test analyzes the content of a web page and provides suggestions on how to optimize it, so that it runs faster on all devices (computers, tablets, smartphones).

This is an excellent test of mobile usability, given that most Internet users now surf on their smartphones.

SimilarWeb (Chrome extension)

Downloading a browser extension (here for Chrome) like SimilarWeb, will allow you to view a competitor's website benchmarking and analysis data (such as rankings, engagement and monthly visits) with a single click.

Alexa

Alexa will help you determine approximate traffic, statistics and ranking of your keyword competition. The tool will also help you with your organic SEO. Which keywords are driving traffic to your competitors' sites? Which keywords have low competition? On which sites have your competitors bought or exchanged links? etc.

The methodology to keep in mind when doing competitive intelligence is to answer this question: how can I be different or do better than competing websites? The goal here is to innovate.

Here are some tips and aspects to focus your analysis and guide your web design team:

• Do my competitors display all of their products or services or do they focus on a particular aspect of their offering?
• Do they charge web rates?
• Do they have an online chat/help service?
• Do they publish customer reviews?
• Is their referencing paid or organic?
• Where do they get their visuals?
• Do they introduce their team?
• Do they provide access to product sheets, PDFs or tools?
• Do their blogs or social media partner with other sites (links)?
• Do they seem to have a dedicated team
• etc.

Knowing your competitors' strategies is a key step if you want to stand out in your market. Check out our web tips page to learn more about how to make your website project a success, or talk to one of our experts if you need a more in-depth analysis.