One of your Web site’s objectives is to always meet and beat the competition in terms of search engine rankings and Web site content. To do so, you must understand exactly what it is your competition is doing. Take the time to research competitors and compare them on an element-byelement basis.

There are a number of ways you can identify your competition online. You can find your competition by conducting searches with the appropriate keywords, seeing which competing Web sites rank highly in the major search engines and directories. Similarly, there are many other resources online you can use to research your competition, including industry-specific Web portals and directories.

Once you have gathered a list of competing Web sites, analyze them element by element to determine which Web elements your competitors include on their sites and how their sites compare to one another. You want to look at what types of content they are providing to your target market. Other components you should analyze include the visual appeal of your competitors’ sites, content, ease of navigation, search engine friendliness, interactivity, and Web site stickiness, or what they do to keep people on their site. This information can provide you with details on what you need to incorporate into your site to meet and beat the competition.

You have to realize that your online competition is different from your offline competition. Online you are competing with all organizations that have an online presence and sell the same products and services you do. When doing your competitive analysis online, you want to select the “best of breed”—those fantastic Web sites of organizations selling the same products and/or services you do—no matter where they are physically located.

When we do competitive analysis for clients, we reverse engineer or dissect the competing Web site from a number of different perspectives. Generally, you will choose five or six of the absolute best competing Web sites. Then you start to build a database using Excel or a table in Word.

Start with the first competing Web site and from your review start to add database elements to the first column. Note any types of content, target markets defined, repeat traffic techniques used, viral marketing techniques used, search engine friendliness features used, download time for different types of Internet connections, cross-platform compatibility, cross-browser compatibility, innovative elements, etc. When you have dissected the first competing Web site and have noted appropriate database elements for comparative purposes, move on to the second competing Web site. Go through the same process, but adding only different or new elements to what you already have in your database. Continue building the first column of your database by continuing through all the sites you want to include in your competitive analysis.

The next step is to develop a column for each of the sites you want to include in the competitive analysis. Add two more columns—one for your existing Web site to see how your site stacks against the competition and the second for future planning purposes.

The next step is to go back and compare each site against the criteria for column one, noting appropriate comments. For content information you want to note whether the particular site has the specific content and how well it was presented. For download speeds note specific minute and seconds for each type of connection. Tools to help you with this element can be found at:

• • BizLand Download Time Checker (http://www.bizland.com/ product/sitedoctor.html)
• • Calculate Download Times (http://www.sercomm.net/ download.htm).

For each repeat traffic generator, you may choose to include details or just Yes/No. Continue with this process until you have completed the database, including your own existing site.

By this time you should have a good feel for the users’ experience when they visit your competitors’ sites. Now you are ready to do your planning. In the last column of your database, review each of the elements in the first column, review your notes in your competitive analysis, and where appropriate, complete the last column by categorizing each of the elements as one of the following:

• • A—Need to have; essential, critical element; can’t live without
• • B—Nice to have if it doesn’t cost too much
• • C—Don’t need; don’t want at any price.

Now you have done your competitive analysis. Having completed your identification of your objectives, target markets, products and services, and your competitive analysis, you are ready to develop your storyboard or architectural plan or blueprint for your site.