Comparing Yourself to a Competitor Fairly

They are comparing regardless

Somebody choosing a supplier looks at two or three, opens their sites in tabs, and forms a view.

That happens whether or not you address it, and mostly they do it with incomplete information and guesswork.

A page that helps them do it properly is useful to them and puts you in the room during the comparison rather than outside it.

The obstacle is that most attempts are written to win, which readers detect immediately and which produces the opposite of the intended effect.

Choose criteria the customer would choose

Rather than the ones you happen to be strong on, which is the usual failure.

The criteria a customer actually uses are price, availability, whether you do the specific thing they need, how long it takes, and whether they can get hold of somebody.

The criteria businesses reach for are years established, certifications, and range of services, which matter less to a buyer than they do to the seller.

Ask a few recent customers what they compared, which produces a better list than any internal discussion.

A comparison built on the customer's criteria is useful even where you lose on some of them, and one built on yours is transparent.

Concede something real

• Something they do better, named.
• A customer type better served elsewhere.
• A price point you cannot match.
• A service you do not offer.
• A limit on your capacity or coverage.

The second is the most useful to a reader and the most credible. Saying that a particular kind of customer would be better served by the other option tells somebody that this page is trying to help rather than to close.

Naming names, or not

A practical decision with arguments on both sides.

Naming a competitor directly is what a reader is searching for, since they will type your name against theirs.

It also requires accuracy, must be kept current, and can produce friction in a small market where everybody knows each other.

The alternative is comparing types rather than businesses: a national chain against a local operator, an owner-run business against one with employed staff, a specialist against a generalist.

That is safer, still useful, and frequently more honest, since the real differences are structural rather than between two specific firms.

For most small businesses the type comparison is the better choice, and naming names suits markets with a small number of well-known players.

A worked example

A local business wrote a page comparing an owner-run operation against a larger regional firm, without naming anybody.

It said plainly that the larger firm would usually be quicker to attend, had cover when somebody was ill, and could take larger jobs.

It said the owner-run option meant the person quoting was the person attending, that scheduling was less flexible, and that the price was usually lower for straightforward work.

It ended by saying which situations suited each, including two where the reader should choose the larger firm.

The page produced enquiries that opened with the customer explaining which situation they were in, which made every subsequent conversation shorter.

Their competitor's site had no such page and the customers had done the comparison anyway, in their heads, with worse information.

Accuracy is a real obligation

Since a comparison makes claims about somebody else.

Anything you state about a competitor must be true, checkable, and current, and their prices and services change without telling you.

Prefer stating your own position precisely and describing theirs in general terms, which is both safer and usually more accurate.

Avoid anything that could be read as disparaging rather than comparative, since the line matters legally as well as reputationally.

Review the page whenever you learn something has changed, and date it so a reader knows how current it is.

Where you are unsure of a fact about a competitor, leave it out rather than qualifying it, since a hedged claim about somebody else reads worse than no claim.

Say who each option suits

The structure that makes a comparison useful rather than a verdict.

Finish with two or three short descriptions: if you are in this situation, this option suits you better.

Include at least one where the answer is not you, which is the item that makes the others believable.

That also does practical work, since the readers it sends away were the ones who would have been dissatisfied.

A comparison ending in it depends on your needs, without saying how, has avoided the only useful part.

Where the page belongs

A note on placement, since these pages are frequently buried.

Link it from the service pages, where somebody deciding will be, rather than only from a menu.

It is also the natural page to send somebody who asks how you differ, which happens in most enquiry conversations.

Having it written means answering that question consistently rather than differently each time depending on who is asked.

That internal benefit is frequently worth more than the traffic, particularly where several people handle enquiries.

Watch what people search alongside your name

A source of material worth checking before writing anything.

Your search reporting shows the terms people used before arriving, and a comparison intent is visible in them: your name with another business, or your name followed by reviews, alternatives, or a price question.

Those tell you which competitors you are actually being weighed against, which is frequently not the ones you assume.

Businesses regularly find they are compared against a type of supplier they do not consider a competitor at all, such as a national service or a do-it-yourself option.

Write the comparison against what people are actually weighing you against rather than against the firm down the road you think about most.

The counter-case

Comparison pages are not right for everybody.

In a small local market, publishing a comparison against a named competitor can damage a working relationship, and referrals between local businesses are worth more than a page.

Where you genuinely are the more expensive option with no clear advantage, an honest comparison makes that plain, which is a reason to fix the offer rather than to publish the page.

And the maintenance obligation is real, since an out-of-date comparison is worse than none.

Compare types rather than names where you can, concede something real, and say who each option suits.

What to do

1. Ask customers what they compared.
2. Use their criteria, not yours.
3. Compare types rather than named firms.
4. Concede something real.
5. Say who each option suits.
6. Include a case where it is not you.
7. Date it and keep it current.

Step six is what converts a comparison from an argument into a tool, and it is the reason the page gets believed on everything else it says.

Understanding where you stand against them is covered in why a competitor outranks you.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.