Are you the type of person who is obsessed with checking in with your competitors? Do you stalk their website on a regular basis to see what new ideas they’ve come up with and what new features they’re learning to use. Not only is this okay, it’s exactly what you should be doing. However, you need to make sure that you’re doing it in the right way. Instead of letting your competitor’s website make you feel like you’re always two steps behind, you should be using it to learn lessons that will slingshot your organization to the head of the pack. When looking at the website of your competitors, there are always a few key things to keep in mind.

1. Competition is Healthy – To an Extent

To embrace the healthy side of competition, make a list of three to four competitors that are a reasonable comparison to your own. Check their websites every so often to get an idea of what they’re up to, what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong. Don’t check too often, however – you’ll only drive yourself crazy.

2. Think of the Visitors

If the websites of your competitors are doing better than your own, put yourself in the shoes of those visitors to think about why that might be. Is it too confusing to navigate? Does your site take far too long to load? Does it include too many tabs, making it difficult to quickly find information? These are all important questions that you need to be asking yourself on a regular basis.

3. Content

In the age of digital enterprise, content is king. All of the content that you post to your site should be easy to digest – meaning that you should avoid huge walls of text and instead include information in short, easy-to-manage bursts.

You also need to go out of your way to make sure that your website is of value to your target audience.

4. Strengths and Weaknesses

When looking at the websites of your competitors, don’t forget to think about all the things that they’re doing wrong along with the things that they’re doing right. Evaluate both your competitors and yourself at the same time. Create a plan of attack regarding how you’re going to target the weak spots of those competitors and fill those holes when it comes to your visitors. Track and re-evaluate those competitor sites over time to see your improvement.

5. Inbound Marketing

One of the keys to success in the 21st century involves utilizing inbound marketing. you should always have landing pages, for example, complete with calls to action to help direct your visitors throughout all parts of the sales funnel.

 

Checking out the website of your competitors on a regular basis isn’t just healthy, it’s actually recommended. Doing so lets you see how they’re displaying content, look at their visual design and see their strengths versus their weaknesses. These are all lessons that you can take with you to help make the best possible site for your organization that you can.