Business Web Site Competitive Analysis

Keeping a keen eye on your business web site competition can yield rewarding market insights. Of course, while it’s tempting to view any local merchant in your industry as a potential rival, remember that competitors can also prove to be useful sources of information and assistance in tough times. While the web may be a “Wild West,” it’s not a dog-eat-dog world. Befriending your competition can neutralize rivalries and help both parties involved divvy up the customer markets more efficiently.

That said, you can’t be a friend to everyone. Here are some keen ideas for how to peek at the web site marketing and service tactics of rivals.

Check out a competitor’s web site meta tags by taking a snapshot of the source code on the company’s page. Do you utilize similar key words in your meta tags? Alternatively, use online resources to determine who is linking to your competitors and what your competitor’s keyword bids are. Often times, this information is public knowledge. You can also use legal “espionage” tools to examine competitor web site habits in more detail.

Another tactic is to employ something called an ego search. Whenever a trademark, brand name, or competitor name gets mentioned in the major search engines, your ego search reports will alert you. You can then use this information to adjust your Pay Per Click bidding tactics, for instance. Or you may alert your affiliate marketing partners to competitor moves and create a mutual cross-promotion adjustment.

You can additionally find data on the search engine optimization histories of competitors in the public domain as well as HTML snapshots, Alexa rankings, Link lists, and other metrics. Of course, data farming aside, you need to know how to respond to whatever tactical maneuvers your competitors make. In some cases, you might want to ignore web site challenges altogether to avoid tipping your hand as to your data mining insights.

You might also gather information from the “real world” to inform your web site battles. Don’t forget to canvass your industry for new potential competitors every month or so. Given the rate of web site-based IPOs and the technical legerdemain necessary to keep track of new players, however, piecing together a list of competitors and a comprehensive catalog of their motives could take weeks.

Synthesize your competitor reports into information you can use. You might have an associate or a consultant do this work for you, so you can take action to staunch your competitors’ moves into your territory rather than just observe their strategies in trepidation.

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