Before copying a competitor's new design, check on a phone how quickly each site answers your customers' questions: price, availability, what is included and how to book. Fix what your own site lacks first.

The rival's site went live last week

A competitor launches a new website a few weeks before the busy season. A video fills the whole screen, panels slide past at different speeds as you scroll, and everything sits on one long page.

The owner looks at it on the office computer, then at their own site, and calls a designer the same afternoon asking for something like that, ready for July.

The urge is understandable. It is also aimed at the wrong thing, because what impressed the owner is not what the owner's customers will notice.

Why fashionable features spread

Parallax scrolling, full-screen video and the single long page are the fashions of the moment. They look striking on a large monitor in a meeting room, which is where most designs are first presented and approved.

Customers meet the same site differently: on a phone, often on mobile data, with a question in mind and a few minutes to answer it.

A feature chosen in the meeting room has to be judged again in that setting before anyone copies it.

What the features cost on a phone

Each of the fashionable features has a price that only shows on a phone:

None of this makes the features wrong in every case. It makes them a cost to weigh, not a standard to meet.

Judging the rival by your customers' questions

Write down the questions your customers ask before they book: usually price, availability, what is included, where you work and how to book.

Open the competitor's site on a phone and time how long each answer takes to find. Then do the same on your own site.

The comparison is more useful than the first impression. It shows exactly what each site answers quickly, slowly or not at all.

What your own site may genuinely lack

The comparison often turns up something specific missing from your own site: no prices, no photographs of real work, no service area, or a booking form that is hard to use on a phone.

Those gaps matter whatever the competitor does. Fixing them is quicker than a redesign, and it can be done before the season starts.

Write each fix as something a customer could say afterwards: I can see the price, I know you come to my town, I booked in a minute.

A worked example

A clown and children's entertainer works birthday parties, school fun days and summer fairs across a suburban region, with a balloon show, magic and games, and a partner who paints faces.

In May a rival launched a site with a full-screen party video, sliding panels and every service on one long page, and the owner asked for the same before July.

Before quoting, the designer opened both sites on a phone. The rival's video did not play on the iPhone, no prices appeared, and the booking form sat at the bottom, below six panels.

The owner's site loaded quickly but had no prices either, did not say what a party package included or how much floor space the show needs, and asked for fourteen details to book.

A packages page now lists starting prices, what each includes, length, ages, space needed and the area served. The booking form asks for the date, time, town, number of children and a phone number.

A short clip of a balloon show sits on that page and plays only when tapped. A parent can see the cost and ask for a date in a minute, which neither site allowed before.

Timing a redesign around the season

A redesign rushed out in June is launched just as bookings peak, when a broken form or a missing page costs the most and there is least time to notice.

Fix the content gaps now, while the season runs. Plan the full redesign for the quiet months, with time to test it on phones before anyone depends on it.

When a feature earns its place

A feature belongs on the site when it answers a question. A short video of a real party, on the page where parents decide, shows what the show looks like better than any paragraph.

A single long page can suit a business with one service and little to say. A large photograph can suit a business that sells the look of a place.

Talking to a designer about it

Bring the designer your customers' questions, not the competitor's address. Ask how each proposed feature behaves on a phone, on a slow connection, and for someone who wants a price in a hurry.

A good designer will answer with the trade-offs, and will often suggest a simpler way to get the effect you liked.

Ask to see each idea working on your own phone before it is approved.

The counter-case

Sometimes the rival's new site does show that yours is out of date: a fixed-width layout that shrinks on phones, a Flash introduction, or pages nobody has touched in years.

Then the urge to change is right, and a proper redesign is overdue. The case for it rests on what customers can do on a phone, not on the look the competitor chose.

Either way, the competitor's launch is a useful prompt. It just should not set the brief.

Comparing the two sites

  1. List the questions customers ask before booking.
  2. Open both sites on a phone, away from office Wi-Fi.
  3. Time each answer on each site.
  4. Note what your site lacks outright.
  5. Fix those gaps before the busy season.
  6. Judge each feature by the question it answers.
  7. Plan any redesign for the quiet months.

Step two changes the conversation. A site that impressed on the office monitor often looks quite different on a phone with a weak signal in a parking lot, and that is where customers see it.

When a son or daughter joining the business pushes for a new site, the first question is still which customers it must serve, as discussed in when the next generation joins the family business.

Frequently asked questions

Should I copy a competitor's new website?

Not its features as such. Check how quickly it answers your customers' questions on a phone, compare your own site the same way, and fix what yours lacks.

Does full-screen video work on phones?

Often not. iPhones do not play it by itself, so visitors see a still frame or a blank space, and the file is heavy on mobile data.

What is wrong with putting everything on one long page?

Each service loses an address of its own to share or link to, search engines see one title for everything, and visitors scroll a long way for one answer.

When does a video earn its place?

When it shows something customers want to see, such as a real event, on the page where they decide, and plays only when they choose.

Is it wise to redesign just before the busy season?

It is risky. A rushed launch can break bookings when they matter most. Fix the content gaps now and plan the full redesign for the quiet months.

What if the rival's site shows ours is out of date?

Then a redesign is due. Base it on what customers need to do on a phone, and plan it properly rather than copying the competitor's look.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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