Before They Buy

Your competitor has a page comparing themselves to you. You don't.

Listen Later
What's happening when buyers search your name

When someone types "[your product] vs [competitor]" into Google, three things show up — none of them you:

  • Your competitor's page — they picked the features, framed their strengths against your gaps
  • G2 or Capterra — stale pricing, checkbox feature lists, descriptions nobody updates. They call this brand squatting.
  • An affiliate blog — written by someone who's never used any of these tools, optimized for referral clicks, not accuracy

    • That's the only story your buyer gets.

    The conversion data

    Grow and Convert tracked 95 articles across SaaS clients — 123,000 page views, 4,687 real signups:

    • Alternative/comparison keywords ("brand alternative", "X vs Y"): 8.43% conversion rate
    • Vs keywords specifically: 5.45%
    • Category keywords ("project management software"): 4.85%
    • Generic blog content: significantly lower

      • Geekbot found their bottom-of-funnel content converted 2,400% better than top-of-funnel posts.

      Backstage SEO had a client build 50 comparison pages: 1,000–2,000 visits/month, 5–10% conversion rate. On a $500/month product with 25 pages, that's $243k return on $89k invested over three years.

      Companies that did this
      • ClickUp — built comparison pages against Monday, Asana, Jira, Basecamp. Bootstrapped to $20M ARR in two years. All organic, all high-intent.
      • Missive — 3 founders, went from $2M to $6M ARR. They openly say what competitors do better. That's why buyers trust the rest of the page.
      • Storylane — 25,000 to 150,000 monthly visitors in 6 months building programmatic comparison and tutorial pages.
      • Teamwork.com — hired GetUplift to rework comparison pages. Got 45% more conversions and 170% more signups from their highest-value segment.
      • Groove — tiny helpdesk, built a comparison page against Zendesk anyway. Worked because prospects were already considering both.
        • What goes on the page
        • Frame it as a buyer's guide, not an ad. Asana's comparison against Monday reads like "here's what to evaluate" — not "here's why we win."
        • Acknowledge what the competitor does well. Missive does this. Metadata's page against Sixth Sense says the two tools are complementary. UserEvidence compares itself to TechValidate and still says what TechValidate does well. Buyers notice.
        • Use specific numbers. Not "we're faster" — "8x faster in this scenario" or "saves you 7%."
        • Switcher testimonials, not generic quotes. Klaviyo puts migration guides directly on their comparison pages.
        • Side-by-side comparison table — scannable for humans and AI alike.
        • One CTA. Demo, trial, or call. Pick one. Don't give people five options and no direction.
        • Write simply. Unbounce found pages written at a 5th–7th grade reading level convert at 12.9%. Professional copy: 2%. Your buyers are skimming 10 pages — don't make them work.
          • One thing to do this week

          Open Google. Type your product name, then "vs", and look at the autofill. Click the first three results. If your competitor has a page and you don't, you've found the gap. Build one comparison page for a single competitor — honest positioning, one clear CTA, written simply. That's the highest-ROI page you can ship this month.

          ...more
          View all episodesView all episodes
          Download on the App Store
          Before They BuyBy Deian Isac