Web design
Something no automated tool can tell you is how your web design stands up creatively next to your competitors. Our creative team will compare your competitor’s websites with what you currently have, taking notes on typography, colours, tone of voice, animation and interaction, general layouts and overall user experience.
We use our skills and experience to paint a picture of who is doing what, well. There’s normally one or two sites in any sector that sit above others, creatively speaking. Finding them and setting a benchmark for your own web design doesn’t just set the bar creatively, it helps us (as your web design team) to make sure we do not accidentally create something similar. If an idea has been done by one of your competitors, we do our best to avoid it - nobody likes a copy cat!
Content
Content goes beyond words on page and includes other assets like photography, illustration, video and anything else that makes up a page or asset available for download. Understanding your competitors content strategies and finding what content types, phrases and subjects they are pushing helps to form our own content strategy for you. Alongside keyword research, industry trends and of course your own expert knowledge, we can make sure you don’t miss any opportunities, especially when it comes to search engine optimisation.
Social
Tied very closely with content strategies, looking at what is getting most traction for your competition on social channel gives us an insight into what your customers are looking for. Having insight into competitor followers and general engagement helps to find the leaders and set targets for your own brand to rise to the top. Having the most numbers doesn’t just look cool though, it’s an SEO signal, shows your authority and builds trust for anyone comparing you. Finding who has the biggest digital footprint and coming up with ways to overtake them will see rewards in the long run.
Security and Speed
Something that doesn’t naturally go hand in hand but nevertheless we like to pair these up when doing our competitor research in web design. We all know Google is pushing for speed in its mobile first world, and security is becoming more and more important. We’ll be writing a post soon about how website security doesn’t stop with an SSL (https), but I’ll try and stick to this blog topic right now.
To be truly sector leading, it’s not just about aesthetics and content, what sits under the hood is just as important. Development methodologies, server configurations and third-party marketing software is always something we look at even though they are not part of traditional competitor research. Hands up we’re just being a bit nosey when it comes to some of this stuff.
- Built With https://builtwith.com/ - it’s kind of addictive if you are sad like me and shows all the tech a website is using. Perfect to get an insight into what website marketing tools people are using in your industry.
- Google PageSpeed Insights https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ and Lighthouse https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/ - shows us how optimised your competition are for speed and search engines.
- SSL Labs https://www.ssllabs.com/ - lets us see how well configured SSLs are. It’s something we use more during our own website testing but worth mentioning as a tool.
Marketing & SEO
Analysing data from Google Search Console, Analytics and other platforms we start to understand how people find your current site and interact with it. We then turn to other tools to start competitor comparison. Looking at things like social influence, search rankings, reviews and advertising channels, we can put a strategy in place together and ensure you are not missing out on traffic your competitors are capitalising on.
Competitor Research in Web Design Conclusion
Conducting thorough competitor research makes sure a proper digital strategy is put in place to make you stand out from the crowd, achieve better results, and ultimately drive business growth. We conduct competitor research on every web design project we take on from our studio in Basingstoke, Hampshire and our customers see the benefit. The websites we launch do not look like any other in the industry whilst being super intuitive, creative and appropriate for the target audience.
Speak to us today on 01256 845818 and arrange a visit to our Farmhouse web design studio in Basingstoke, Hampshire.