Do you own or manage a business?. Do you regularly analyse your competitors' websites? Lets look at what benefits this simply weekly task can do for you:
1. When you're scanning your competitors' website, make sure you look for that first impression presented by the website ... is it professional looking and appealing to the eye? Compare it to your website with the same questions in mind. A good web design is supposed to be attractive and appealing to the eye. This catches your clients attention and makes them inclined to spend more time on your website. Now that you've studied some competitor websites, is your competitors website more appealing than yours?
If so, what makes it so appealing and what are you going to do to fix that? Also, rate all your close competitors websites on a scale of 1 to 10 ... are they professionally designed, average or armature? What about your website? Make your website the best amongst your competitors and your new and existing clients will notice this and return more often.
2. Is your competitors website user interface easier to use than yours? Get someone who has never been on your site to surf your site and your competitors sites at the same time and give you their verdict. Ease of use is very important ... especially to new website visitors. One characteristic of a good website is that it should be simple to use if you've never been on the site before and are not the most computer/web literate.
Try and minimise the fancy website features if they are going to confuse new web visitors. A good user interface (design, layout and navigation) enables clients to browse with ease, make their enquiries and get the information they need in the minimum amount of time, and this will result in more sales. Websites that are difficult to use / browse tend to make the potential clients move to your competitors' websites.
A good web design will ensure that visitors to your website get the information intended for them without excessive effort. This is through the use of relevant graphics, a good navigation system and good pieces of summary text and "read more" text. Good website planning with a professional web design company will achieve all of this for you.
3. It is also important for you to frequently analyse your competitors' products, special offers, news articles and their pricing catalogue. Once you find a new product on their site, it's useful for you to research its commercial viability and decide if you can add the same to your stock. You may be surprised what you find. What if you find out that you are the most expensive of all your competitors? This is both good news and bad ... but at least you know and can make a concrete decision based on full information.
4. It is also crucial for you to analyse how your competitors communicate with their clients. What methods are they using and how effective are they e.g. Facebook, twitter, Skype, e-mails, telephones / cellphone, blogs, mailing lists, website shops etc. You may find out that in your line of business clients prefer a specific means of communication that you don't make use. So you are thus shunning away many of your potential clients. But by keeping an eye on your competitors' sites you can keep an eye on all of this.
Do your business a favour and start analysing your competitors websites. You'll find them all on page 1 of Google and no doubt they're analysing your website too. Contact MyIT Website Design Crumlin Dublin 12 if you have any questions and we'd be happy to answer them for you.
