How to compare your website with competitors

Key takeaways

Compare your website with the three competitors buyers actually mention, on a phone, as a buyer would. Score eight things: clarity, proof, pricing guidance, speed, mobile ease, enquiry options, content depth and freshness. A gap in one or two areas needs fixes; a gap across most of them justifies a redesign.

• Pick the 3 competitors your buyers mention, not the biggest names.
• Score 8 areas from 0 to 2 on a phone.
• A gap in 1 or 2 areas: fix those pages.
• A gap across 5 or more: consider a redesign.

Why compare your website with competitors?

Buyers rarely judge a website in isolation. They open several in tabs and compare them, often on a phone. A competitor website comparison shows your site as buyers see it: one option among several, judged on clarity, credibility and ease of enquiry.

• Signs your business needs a new website

Which competitors should you compare?

The ones buyers actually consider. Ask recent customers who else they looked at, and check who appears alongside you in local search results for your main service. National brands with large budgets are rarely the right comparison for a local SME.

• Local SEO for a small business website

What should you score?

Score each area 0 (weak), 1 (adequate) or 2 (strong) for your site and each competitor, using a phone.

• Clarity: is it obvious what they do and for whom?
• Proof: reviews, case studies, accreditations near the call to action.
• Pricing guidance: ranges, minimums or 'from' prices.
• Speed: how quickly the main content appears on mobile data.
• Mobile ease: tap-friendly buttons, readable text, short forms.
• Enquiry options: phone, WhatsApp, form, booking.
• Content depth: dedicated pages for each service.
• Freshness: recent work, reviews and dates.

• Website trust signals that make visitors enquire
• Should you show prices on your website?

How do you read the gap?

Look at where you score lower than the best competitor, not at the totals. A lower score in one or two areas, such as proof or pricing guidance, means fixing those pages. Lower scores across five or more, especially clarity, mobile ease and content depth, suggest the site's structure has fallen behind and a redesign is justified.

• The website redesign scorecard: score your site in an hour

Can you compare speed objectively?

Yes. Run each competitor's homepage and main service page through PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Where field data from real Chrome users is shown, it gives a fair comparison against Google's Core Web Vitals thresholds, including Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds.

What should you not copy?

Their design. Copying a competitor's look makes you harder to tell apart and can raise copyright problems. Copy the principles that work, such as clear pricing or proof beside the form, and express them in your own brand and words.

• Inconsistent branding across your website and channels

How often should you repeat the comparison?

Once a year, and whenever a new competitor starts winning work you would expect to win. Competitor sites change, and a gap that did not exist last year can open quickly when a rival invests in its website, reviews or content.

Keep the scoring sheet from each round so you can see movement over time. If your scores hold steady while a competitor's rise across several areas, that is an early warning worth acting on before enquiries start to fall, and it gives you specific areas to improve rather than a general sense of being behind.

• Repeat the comparison annually.
• Repeat when a new competitor starts winning work.
• Keep each year's scoring sheet.
• Act on areas where a competitor improved.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern in UK trades: a firm scores itself against three local rivals and finds it wins on reviews but loses on pricing guidance and on dedicated service pages. Adding 'typical jobs from £X' and splitting one long services page into five closes most of the gap without a redesign.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Competitor comparison checklist

Allow about 90 minutes.

• Ask 5 recent customers who else they considered.
• Pick the 3 most mentioned competitors.
• Score all 4 sites on the 8 areas using a phone.
• Run PageSpeed Insights on each homepage.
• Note where you trail the best competitor.
• Fix page by page, or plan a redesign if you trail on 5 or more.

Next step

If you want to see your site the way buyers compare it, we will score it against your three main competitors with you in 30 minutes.