How Does Your Website Compare? A Simple Checklist for Small Businesses
Have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing right? You’re not alone.
As a small business owner, it’s natural to be curious about how your website compares to your competition. Thankfully, comparing websites doesn’t need to be complex or intimidating.
Throughout this blog post, I’ll share a simple checklist for comparing your website to your competitors.
Think of the checklist as a simple tool. There’s no technical jargon or complicated metrics. I’m sharing straightforward things you can look at today to see how you compare. Everything has been broken down into simple sections that anyone in your team can understand and use to evaluate your progress.
Most importantly, no special software or technical knowledge is required to use this checklist. All you need is your computer or phone, a notepad, a pen, and 30 minutes of your time.
By the end of this post, you’ll have a clear picture of where your website shines and where it may need a little extra polish.
So, if you’re ready to get started, grab a coffee, and let’s go over the checklist together.
Preparing for your website comparison
Do you know who your customers are? Have you ever been to their website or facebook page or know what they’re doing online to steal away your potential customers. There’s a few things you can do here to keep your eyes open on what your competitors are up to. Generally a good place to start is to search for your area and add a service name you offer. For us “Web Design” is one of our core keywords we target and while we’re located in “Wagga” and “Cairns” we generally append this to the search criteria and write down where everyone ranks. Once we have a list of competitors we can create a spreadsheet and start to collect some data about what they’re doing that may or may not be effective and things you might like to do yourself.
Checklist items:
First impressions
A first impression can be super important for any website visitor, they come to your site and it doesn’t work or it’s slow, too bright or any number of there visual objections will bounce them straight away within 10 seconds or less. Website loading speed is obviously one aspect that is important which you can measure by right clicking your website browser and choosing to “inspect”, go to network and you should see in the footer or status bar down the bottom of this a page load timer. If not try to reload the page by pressing command+r or f5 if you use a PC. A nice well thought out web design will also help to keep your customers engaged, visual appeal is important but as is messaging, imagery and ease of use navigation. How does your site stack up in all of these area’s against your competitors.
Content review
Content is king, well that is what designers who build websites want you to think. Really that’s not entirely accurate when considering your website authority really being the king. However I still think your customers need to good quality content and making it accessible for everyone.
Check to see if your messaging is clear. Does it tell the customer who you are, what you do and what problem it solves for them. So many websites focus not on solving the customers problems but telling the customer about how wonderful they are all providing vague messaging that leave you scratching your head. Clarity of messaging on the homepage is super important at a minimum, product or service information is still important but less so, blog or news sections will help over time to build authority. Blogs with thin content or AI generated content will eventually be penalised while they just provide noise and nothing from the companies experiences. Content always needs to be fresh and with it your rankings will level up. On your spreadsheet you should note when their competitors published a blog post. Another good topic to add would be the clarity of any CTAs (Calls to Action). I have a full list of different types of designers and agencies here.
Trust and credibility
People buy from those they know, like and trust. Word of mouth is by far the biggest influencer but this isn’t something you can necessarily put into your checklist. Do your competitors have testimonials, reviews, certificates and accreditations or any numbers illustrating how awesome they are? Social proof is a thing you might hear a lot about but what is it and how can it help you? It’s all about confidence!
Number of Customers: x number
Years in business: y
Increased revenue by: z last year
Employees: another number
Areas serviced: another number
Customer experience
This follows on from the call to action and messaging and if you’ve been successful how easy have your competitors made it for your customers to take the next step. Easy to find phone numbers or contact details. Easy to use form that is on the same page as the page you were reading. It’s not only about easy of use but accessibility. Is there a live chat available or request callback? What about a map to get to the business or to figure out where they are?
Backlinks & Authority
At Get Leads we use tools like Keywords Everywhere to find out how many backlinks our competitor has and the unique domains driving this traffic. You could however use Moz which will give you some results for free. Remember just because your competitors are posting backlinks on a spammy Private Blog Network (PBN) it doesn’t mean you have to. The quality of the backlinks matter and eventually those competitors using PBN’s generally they turn into what’s called bad neighbourhoods and eventually get penalised by Google. Collect a few backlink sources you can easily get using one of these tools and go and submit.
The extra mile
This section covers the features that can really make a website stand out from its competition. For example, you might talk to your readers about online booking or scheduling, live chat, support knowledgebase, special offers, easy-to-understand pricing, and more. You could also discuss different types of unique content, such as videos, audio content, guides, etc.
Taking action
How can you make the changes you need to your website? Do you have time or do you have the knowledge you need to implement these or are they still going to be on your checklist at the end of next year waiting for action. If you take action now and make the changes what could your sales look like if you’re successful? A new holiday or car purchase. Sometimes you may even find some really easy quick updates you can make with content. Things that might only take 5 minutes for you to fix. If it all seems overwhelming then you could take each area form above and schedule these in once a week on Friday mornings from the coffee shop down the road away from everyone. You’ll be done in a month or two.
Final thoughts
Last of all if this all seems like something you shouldn’t be doing or don’t enjoy doing then contact me and i’ll go through your list with you, prioritise the things that will make the biggest changes and get them done for you.
