What if you could steal your competitors’ customers right before they buy, so they buy from you instead?
Well you can!
So here’s the deal: Every day, there are people searching for alternatives to products they already use, or doing that last bit of research before they decide what to purchase.
Comparison guides let you get in front of them at that exact moment, with their credit card in hand.
But that’s not even the best part because a lot of these searches for these guides have surprisingly little competition, simply because very few people create them, which means they are some of the easiest high-buying-intent traffic to go after
Better still, you can literally be a brand that someone has never heard of, but be the one they buy from, simply by piggybacking off the traffic of much bigger competitors.
In this guide, I’ll show you the four types of comparison content you can create, how to find the easiest opportunities from these, and how to turn those visitors into sales.
So let’s get into it…
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How to find the best comparison topic opportunities for your business
When you look at the searches people make while comparing products, there are four main types of comparison content you can create.
And rather than just going through each one, I’m going to show you how to find them at the same time.
Step #1. Start with broad “Best X for Y” searches
The first type of comparison keyword we want to find is the broad “best X for Y” search.
Why?
Well, someone making this search knows what they want to achieve, but they don’t necessarily know which product they should use yet. They’re looking for a shortlist of the best options so they can compare them and make a decision.
These can be valuable keywords in their own right, but I also like starting here for another reason and that’s the fact that they give us a ready-made list of competitors that we can use to target.
For example
If I sold email marketing software, I might jump across to a tool like ahrefs and start by researching for “Best email marketing software”.
This would be the first keyword I would add to my list. From there though I would then open up the top ranking posts and see who they are recommending.
For email marketing software, that might give us companies like Mailchimp, ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign as well as some smaller options.
Make a note of all of them because we can now use these as seed terms to find other keywords.
Step #2. Look for “X Competitor alternative” keywords
While still in ahrefs take each of those competitors and now search for each different Competitor, along with the word ‘alternative’ attached to it.
For example
- Mailchimp alternatives
- ConvertKit alternatives
- ActiveCampaign alternatives
- ActiveCampaign alternatives
Why?
Well this is where things start to get particularly interesting because someone making one of these searches already knows a major product in your market, but for whatever reason, they’re looking for something else:
- Maybe they’re an existing customer and they’re unhappy.
- Maybe the price is too high.
- Maybe it’s missing a feature they need.
- Or perhaps they were about to buy, spotted something they didn’t like, and decided to see what else is available.
Whatever the reason, they’re actively looking for another option and are very close to buying. So go ahead and search each of the competitors you have and add what you find to your list.
We haven’t finished yet though, as we can still use that list to find even more terms.
Step #3. Look for "competitor vs competitor" searches
The third type of search we can do is Competitor X vs Competitor Y.
Why?
Well this search is slightly different because someone making one of these searches has usually narrowed their decision down to two products and wants to understand the differences before choosing one.
They’re comparing things like features, pricing, pros and cons, and which option is going to be the better fit.
Now, you might be thinking:
But neither of those products is mine. Why would I write about them?
Simply because you can introduce your product as a third option and they buy that instead.
Why?
Well if someone is searching for X vs Y, there’s a decent chance they’re struggling to choose between them because neither option is an obvious yes for them.
Your option might be exactly what they want; they just don’t know about it yet. So you can explain the trade-offs between X and Y honestly, then introduce your product where it’s genuinely a better fit.
Suddenly, someone who had never even heard of you has a third option to consider.And some of these specific comparison searches can have surprisingly little competition.
The big broad keyword in your industry might be incredibly difficult to rank for, while a comparison between two popular products could be searched hundreds of times a month with much weaker sites competing for it.
That’s exactly the kind of opportunity we’re looking for.
So go ahead and search again but this time change it from :competitor alternative” to simply “competitor vs” and see what comes up:
Notice how it also brings up ones you might never have even thought to search for, and how low the competition is.
Super easy to get these sales if you make these posts, so make sure to add them to your list, and go through and do this for each of the major competitors you used in the alternatives section.
Once you’ve done that we have one more search that can help you make even more sales, and that’s ‘you vs competitors‘
Step #4. Look for comparisons with your own products or services
If you already have some brand awareness, you might find people have discovered your product and are now checking how you compare with an established competitor, before they decide to buy.
These are obviously incredibly valuable because someone making this search is already considering buying from you but they are not quite sure yet.
So simply search for ‘your brand vs” or “your product vs’
Don’t worry if nothing shows up yet. You need to be fairly big before this starts to happen.
I will say though, that even if you don’t see any, it’s still worth adding this to your list as topics so you vs x competitor, you vs y competitor and so on, until you’ve done a post for each major competitor.
Simply because you might not get a lot of traffic for this, but a potential customer might find this and it gives them the last push they need to buy.
Step #5. Prioritize writing these guides by buying intent, NOT traffic volume
Once you’ve got your list, it’s almost time to write your guides.However, most people automatically see the biggest traffic keyword and write that first, but don’t do that.
Instead prioritize the opportunities based on how close that searcher is to buying and how well your offer fits what they’re looking for.
For example
Someone searching for “Best email marketing software” is interested in buying at some point soon, but they’re still exploring the market. While someone searching for “Mailchimp vs ConvertKit” has narrowed their options down and could literally be making their final decision today.
So generally, the closer the search is to the buying decision, and the better your offer fits what they’re looking for, the more valuable that traffic is.
As a rough rule of thumb I create them in this order:
- Us vs competitor guides because these are the people considering you right now
- Competitor x vs competitor y because these are doing the last minute buying decision
- X competitor alternatives because these are looking for options and usually more people search for this
- Best x for Y is the largest volume but also the most competitive and furthest away from a sale
All you need to do is write them all one by one.
That being said, you do need to do some specific things when you write these guides for them to work best and convert to sales, so let’s break that down.
How to write comparison guides that actually convert
The first point to remember is you need to be honest.
Why?
Well, first off be a good dude. But also, the person reading this is actively trying to make a buying decision, and they’re looking for someone to help them figure out which option is genuinely best for them.
- So if your competitor does something better than you, say so.
- If they have a feature you don’t have, say so.
- And if there are certain people who would genuinely be better off buying from your competitor, say that too.
It might feel counterintuitive when you’re trying to make a sale, but being honest about where your product isn’t the best option makes everything else you say far more believable.
You’re not trying to convince everyone that your product is the best. You’re trying to help the right person realize it’s the best option for them.
And sometimes, what initially looks like a weakness can actually help you do that because you might not have a specific feature on purpose.
You could try to gloss over it and hope nobody notices, or you can explain why you don’t have it and who that’s actually better for.
For example
When I first made my AI writing course, most of my competitors were selling one-click AI article writers.
You gave the software a topic, clicked a button, and it generated the entire article for you.
My system didn’t do that.
It still required you to actually write the article with AI helping you through the process.
On the surface, that sounds like a disadvantage, because why buy something that takes an hour when another tool can supposedly do the whole thing in a few minutes?
But there was a reason I’d designed it that way. I didn’t think one-click AI content was good enough (and I still don’t).
If you want something that actually sounds like you, includes your expertise and was worth reading, you still need a human involved in the process.
So rather than hiding the fact that my approach required more work, I could make that difference part of the comparison. And for professional writers who want to keep their quality but not get left behind by AIs speed, this is the perfect fit.
Make sense?
Now the missing feature isn’t necessarily a weakness.It’s a reason the right person might choose my product instead.
And you can do exactly the same thing with your own comparisons.
Don’t just ask:
- What does my competitor have that I don’t?
Go further and Ask:
- Why don’t we have that/do it that way, and who might actually prefer our approach?
You don’t need to twist every weakness into some magical benefit. Sometimes a competitor really is just better at something, you can be honest about that too.
But where there’s a genuine strategic reason behind the difference, explain it.
Give people enough information on each option, so they can decide
The other big mistake is going incredibly deep on your own product while giving every competitor a two-paragraph summary.
It’s obvious what you’re doing, and it makes the guide less useful.
If someone needs more information about one of your competitors before they can make their decision, and you don’t give it to them, well now they’re going to leave your site to find it.
Which means you’ve lost control of the buying journey because they’re warmed up then gone elsewhere.
So don’t skimp here and treat all the options the same!
- Do the research
- Cover the important features
- Pricing
- Pros and cons
- Key differences
- And who each option is best suited for
Your goal should be for someone to reach the end of your comparison and feel like:
“Okay. I understand my options. I know which one is right for me, and I trust this person who wrote this guide.”
Sometimes they’ll choose your competitor and that’s fine. Because when your product is the right fit, you’ve made it much easier for them to choose you.
And for the people who don’t buy?
Chances are high they know people just like them who your offer would be a good fit for, and now because they trust you, they’ll recommend you to them.
And you who doesn’t like referral sales right?
All you need to do now is smash out each of these posts on your list and see the traffic and sales come in.
However, this will take a little time to do as you probably have 12 posts to write, so if you want help writing these guides faster, check out this video next where I break down my full AI writing process.
It’s the complete AI writing course I mentioned before, but you can watch it for free.