Your buyers rarely look at one website. They compare you with two or three alternatives, often in the same afternoon, and judge which company seems to understand their problem, has done it before, and is easy to deal with. A website competitive analysis puts you in their seat: it compares your site with the ones they also visit, so you know where you are ahead, where you fall short, and what to fix first.

We first published our method in 2023. Here is the current version, including a step for AI search that did not exist then.

1. Decide what you want to learn

A competitive analysis without a question becomes a long list of observations. Pick the decisions it should inform: a redesign, a new service page, an SEO plan, or why leads have slowed. That question decides which competitors and criteria matter.

2. Choose the right competitors

Start with the companies your sales team loses deals to, then widen the list:

  • Direct competitors: companies that sell what you sell to the same buyers.
  • Search competitors: the sites that rank for the searches your buyers make. They may be publishers, directories, or larger firms you never meet in a deal, but they compete for the same attention.
  • AI answer competitors: the companies that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews name when you ask your buyers’ questions.
  • Experience benchmarks: sites outside your industry that do something your buyers will compare you with. A freight company’s quote form may be judged against the booking sites its customers use every day.

Four to six sites are usually enough. More than that and the analysis gets wide rather than deep.

3. Build a scorecard

Score every site against the same criteria, on a simple scale such as 1 to 5, with a note of the evidence for each score.

  • Positioning: does the home page say what they do, for whom, and why them, within a few seconds?
  • Proof: case studies, results, client names, testimonials, and credentials, and how specific they are.
  • Content depth: service pages, industry pages, guides, and answers to common buyer questions.
  • Conversion paths: how easy it is to contact them, request a quote, or book a call, and what they ask for in return.
  • Navigation and usability: clear labels, findable key pages, working search, and a complete mobile experience.
  • Speed: Core Web Vitals from PageSpeed Insights, which reports real-visitor data for most established sites.
  • Accessibility: an automated scan plus a quick keyboard test of the main pages.
  • Search visibility: estimated keywords and traffic from tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs, or Similarweb, plus titles, descriptions, and structured data on key pages.
  • AI visibility: which companies AI assistants cite for your buyers’ questions, and which pages they cite.

4. Walk through each site as a buyer

Pick two or three realistic tasks, such as “find out whether they have worked in my industry” or “get a sense of price and timeline,” and complete them on every site, taking notes as you go. Evaluate competitors first and your own site last: it is the only way to look at your own pages with fresh eyes. Do not submit fake inquiries; note what the form asks for and what it promises instead.

5. Turn scores into priorities

Lay the scores out side by side. The useful findings are usually one of three kinds:

  • Gaps: things most competitors do that you do not, such as industry pages or published pricing ranges.
  • Weaknesses: things everyone does poorly, which are your chance to stand out.
  • Strengths: things you do better, which should be more prominent on your site.

For each finding, estimate the impact on your original question and the effort to address it, and order the list accordingly. Present it as a short summary with recommendations up front and the scorecard and screenshots behind it.

6. Repeat it

Competitors redesign, publish, and change their offers. A light quarterly check of the scorecard, and a full review every year or before a redesign, keeps the picture current.

Where we come in

We specialize in usability and search, which are the two lenses that matter most in this kind of review, and we can carry the findings through to the fixes. Competitive analysis is often the first step of our web development and digital marketing engagements. For an ongoing view of your own numbers, see our guide to website analysis, or ask us for a competitive review.