Competitors visit your website for a range of reasons that mean it would be useful for you to know when they visited and what they looked at page by page.
The links below take you directly to the competitors-tracking information of most interest to you …
When you CAN see competitors visiting your website
When you CAN’T see competitors visiting your website
How and why it’s good to see when competitors have been to your website
The two main reasons competitors visit your website
How you can get alerts when competitors visit your website
What to do when you know a competitor has visited your website
Not knowing when competitors are visiting your website
To see the names of competitor companies visiting your website, you need software that can track such information.
Google Analytics won’t provide you with that type of information – only specialist providers will make that available to you.
As an example of how our own software works, if your competitor was Bartech Marine Engineering and they were identifiable by software, then you could see them (including what they looked at page by page) as in this example below:
We, and many others supply software that allows you to identify competitors, as well as the names of other companies that visit your website. You can get a 30 day free trial of companies tracking on our website here.
This type of software identifies competitors by identifying their IP address (and other information) and linking it back to the name of the company.
However, there will be many cases where you can’t identify competitors that have visited your website …
Even when you’ve got software that identifies the names of companies that visit your website, you won’t be able to identify competitors (or companies in general) in any of these scenarios:
In short: there is no guarantee that you will always be able to identify the competitors that have been to your website.
There are several reasons why it’s useful to know when competitors have been to your website …
One reason they’re visiting your website is because they are trying to work out what you offer and how you present it, normally because they are not selling enough of those products or services and think they can get inspiration from your website so that they can fix their own website or offerings failings.
Another reason is that they may be bidding for the same work you are and so they’re trying to find angles they can use by looking at what you show within your website.
They may be losing potential business to you and so are keen to find out your pricing so that they have the option to undercut you or add additional value to their own pricing (if it is higher).
This could also apply if they are bidding for the same work that you are.
This is what worries businesses most – having case studies and testimonials on the website for competitors to see.
The thinking is that the competitor will try to steal the clients.
The reality is that if your relationship with clients is strong enough then a competitor won’t find it easy to win them from you.
Being able to see your competitors looking at website pages related to your clients enables you to ask yourself this question:
How strong is our relationship with that client?
And if you feel it’s not strong enough then do something about it!
You will always win more business by showing client case studies and testimonials, because that’s what potential clients want to see on your website. If you hide that information because you fear losing any clients to competitors then you will lose out.
Sometimes you have to interpret a competitor going to the staff or about pages of your website.
While it could be someone at that competitor looking for staff to poach, it could equally be an employee there (using their employers computers/network) to see what you could offer them if they moved job.
It could also be a competitor doing more general research about your people and culture as part of their competitive research.
In rare cases it can be a competitor who may want to buy your company and who are trying to get a better feel for the culture of your business.
Overall, there’s usually two main reasons why competitors visit your website …
Whether that’s copying your website strategies, trying to steal your customers, or anything else, the fact that they are visiting your website indicates to you that you’re in a stronger position than they are.
If they were busy enough/doing well enough then they wouldn’t have time to be visiting your website.
They’re looking for an edge – something that you’re doing that they’re not. Something that they find (or don’t find) within your website that they could use to their advantage.
If you are an A1WebStats customer (or take our free 30 day trial) then you can get an instant email alert when a competitor has visited your website. This is how it works:
It’s best to share that information with other key people within the business.
Multiple people will each have an idea about why that competitor is visiting your website, and many of them will be able to play a part in responding in the appropriate way.
Examples could be:
Well, that’s a choice.
Software such as ours is not costly and even though competitors visiting your website will be a small percentage of the overall companies we can show you visiting your website, being aware of their visit can help you take actions that ensure you don’t lose any of your customers to those competitors.
It only takes one customer lost to a competitor to create financial damage that vastly exceeds the cost of the software we provide.
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