Competition Analysis

While most organizations have a basic understanding of how their customers interact with their own Web site, few are aware of exactly how their online business compares to that of others in their industry. "Web site-centric" information is crucial to your Internet marketing strategy, but it is equally important to be able to benchmark your Web site against other players in your industry. Knowing the context for your online business gives you the opportunity to learn from your industry's best practices.

How do I analyze competition?

There are several ways to measure your Web site's performance against your online competition, including analyses of the following:

• Amount of traffic to your Web site, as reported by third-party sources
• Size of your search engine index, including the number of links to your Web site from search engines and other external sites
• Inclusion of your Web site's URLs in popular directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ
• Search engine keyword rankings for popular terms in your industry

Crucial to the success of your analysis is the selection of comparable competitors-you want to ensure that you are comparing your business to competition that is relatively similar in strength to your own site. For example, an upstart Web site cannot compete with major sites like Yahoo!, Amazon, or Wikipedia. In addition, online competitors may be much different than real world competitors-it is important to take into account your competitors' own marketing strategies along with their products and services.

Market Vertical Partners works with your company to identify three to five appropriate online competitors, developing a high-level competition matrix and performing a detailed site analysis to find new opportunities for your Web site's development and promotion strategies.

Learn about Market Vertical Partners additional Internet Marketing research services.

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