At WebStarts, we understand that creating a website and getting on the search engines can be hard. Designing the site, finding photos and other graphics, creating logos, writing content, and marketing the site on the search engines can be a daunting task. Luckily, WebStarts takes care of a lot of that for you and is very easy to use to build the website and get online. For all other in between decisions, look to those who have come before you. I'm going to give you three things to remember when looking to your competition for inspiration on the web.
1. Your competition has already started.
The other names in your business have already been there and done that. Provided that you're looking at business that have been around for a little while, you can guarantee that they have already thought about 90% of what you need to think about. This works for their website and marketing as well as their business model. If they are offering things for more or less than what you offer them for, its worth looking into why or how they are able to do that. Maybe they've found that they can get a lot more money for certain services. The point is, they've done some research and trial and error to get where they are, why not take advantage of that information?
2. Inspiration is easy when critiquing others.
Of course its always easier to find the problems in others' work than finding the problems in yours. You need to leverage this fact to make your product, service, and website great. Sift through every page of your competitors' websites. Find out what you like about their design and what you hate. If your competition is very professional, then most of the things they do on their website are for a reason. Take note of where their ads are, how you contact them, what design elements they're using. You don't have to copy what they're doing, but it is extremely helpful to shop around before you make your own website.
3. Your competition isn't necessarily your competition.
Of course if you copy your competitors from across the street, people are going to take notice but often times, your 'competition' isn't actually competing with you. What I mean is this_ if you are selling tires in Lansing, MI, feel free to take all the advice you can from the guy selling tires in Little Rock, AR. This will allow you to get inspiration from all over using the internet and never be afraid of copying your competition. It may sound a little shady but there are no new ideas under the sun.
I hope you're able to take some good advice away from this. WebStarts makes it easy to make a free website and get online but there are a lot of parts in between that you may want some help with. I suggest looking to your competition.