Benchmark Yourself Against Your Competitors' Websites
Using the following guidelines, evaluate your competitors websites. This will give you an idea how well you compare to them and what you can do to improve your service to your customers.
Generating Traffic
- Linking
How many incoming and outgoing links does the site have? The site Link Popularity will tell you how many sites are linking to a particular site.
- Search Engine Optomisation
: : Search the main three search engines, namely Google, Yahoo! and MSN, using the company's name and see does it rank in the top ten hits. For examples: "H. W. Fasteners Ltd"
: : Think of 2-4 keywords that best describe the business and use these words to search for the company on the three major search engines. For example: Garden Accessories, Ireland. Tip: Include the word "Ireland" in your searches because it is virtually impossible to compete for many keywords in the global marketplace.
: : Finally search the three search engines based on the company's main product(s) and see if the company is ranked in the top fifteen for any of them. For example: Lawnmowers, Ireland.
- Banner Advertising/Affiliate Linking
Do you know of any other websites which have banner adverts linking their site to your competitors site?
- Offline Methods
Is your competitors website advertised offline such as on road signs or TV, radio and newspaper adverts? Is the web address present on company vehicles and stationary?
- Viral Marketing
Are your competitors using much viral marketing, that is, encouraging users to tell their friends and family about the website? Tip: You are looking for things like a "tell a friend" option; company branded screensavers and desktop images that people may forward to people they know; online offers that add real value to web visitors etc. Tip: Viral marketing can be quite subtle so try and think like a user of the website and see if there is anything on the site that would make you want to recommend it to a friend.
Section Two: Website Design
- Level of web development
At present, what level is your competitors website at?
: : Level 0: No web site
: : Level 1: No website but the company information is present on directories such as the yellow pages
: : Level 2: Simple website similar to an online catalogue with product information
: : Level 3: Some interaction such as site search, product availability and pricing queries, email queries
: : Level 4: Interactive site which supports online sales, an interactive customer service centre
: : Level 5: Completely interactive site which has web personalisation, customer relationship management and other marketing functions.
- Website Stickiness
How sticky is your competitors website, that is, is there enough interesting, valuable and dynamic content to encourage users to stay on the site for long periods of time and to return regularly? Tip: Imagine you are a customer, would the site entice you to keep going deeper into it or would you be ready to leave after a minute or two? Is there anything in particular that would make you want to return?
- Added Value
What sort of added value are your competitors offering customers? For example: Tesco.com allows you to save your shopping list online to save you time when you shop online in the future; O2 and Vodafone offer you a number of free text messages every month which can be sent from their websites.
- Interactivity
Can you get involved with the website in any way? For example: Is there a site registration, search facility, online forums, newsletters, polls, an area to enter your email address? Are there navigation options such as a menu bar, index, site maps and search facilities?
- Personalisation
Can you join the website? Can you customise the appearance and content of the website to suit your individual interests and preferences?
Please Note: Not all of the above functionality are necessary for a website to be effective and useful to users. The level of complexity is dependant on the company goals, the products/services being sold and the website audience.
