Before They Buy

Which competitors should you compare yourself to? (It's not all of them.)

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The problem with building everything

Founders go one of two directions: build nothing, or build 20 thin pages where they just swap out the competitor name. Generic pages don't rank. And if they do, they don't convert.

The question isn't "who's in my category?" It's "which comparisons can I win, and is anyone searching for them?"

The four filters

1. Is anyone searching for this?

  • Type your brand name + "vs" into Google. See what autocomplete fills in.
  • Also try "[competitor name] alternatives"
  • Low volume ≠ no volume. Keyword tools show each variation separately — "X vs Y," "Y vs X," "X alternative" — but they all point to the same buyer intent
  • Grow and Convert tracked 6 comparison articles with fewer than 20 searches/month each. Those 6 articles drove 149 organic signups at 4.5% conversion

    • 2. Does this name come up in real conversations?

    • Ask your sales team. Check support tickets. Pull transcripts from demos.
    • If no prospect has ever said the name out loud, don't build the page
    • Cloudways built 40+ comparison pages starting with the competitors that kept showing up in actual sales calls. Their Cloudways vs WP Engine page saw click-through rate go from 8% to 21%

      • 3. Can you tell an honest story?

      • You don't need to be better across the board. You need to be better for a specific buyer.
      • Penfriend CMO Tim Hansen rebuilt a SaaS client's content strategy around 15 competitor comparison pages. Traffic went from 14,000 to 82,000/month. Trial signups went from 47 to 342.
      • Their best-performing page: "Why this product might not be right for you." It converted at 13.8% — because being honest about who you're not for builds trust with the people you are for.

        • 4. Are users unhappy with this competitor right now?

        • Watch G2, Reddit, and Twitter for patterns: a price increase, a forced redesign, support going downhill after an acquisition
        • Someone searching "[competitor] alternatives" has already decided to leave. You just need to be there.
          • Two objections

          "We're too small / we don't have competitors"

          You do. Your buyer is comparing you to a spreadsheet, to hiring a VA, to doing nothing. "Tool X vs spreadsheets" and "tool X vs hiring an agency" are real pages worth building.

          "Nobody searches our name"

          Borrow someone else's traffic. Grow and Convert did this for Circuit (a delivery route tool) — nobody searched "Circuit vs OnFleet," but people searched "Postmates vs OnFleet." They wrote a three-way comparison and ranked #1 with the smallest brand in the article.

          Companies and sources mentioned
          • Grow and Convert (client: Circuit, delivery route optimization)
          • Cloudways (hosting) vs WP Engine
          • Penfriend / Tim Hansen (case study via Featured.com)
          • G2, Reddit, Twitter (for competitor review monitoring)
          • ClickUp (used as autocomplete example)
            • One thing to do this week

            Go to Google and type your brand name + "vs" — right now, before you do anything else. Write down every suggestion that autocompletes. Then ask one person on your sales or support team which competitor names come up most in conversations. Those two lists are the start of your shortlist. Build the first page for whichever name appears on both.

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            Before They BuyBy Deian Isac