<img class=" wp-image-9883 alignleft" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/competition.jpg" alt="5 things to steal from your competitor's website" width="389" height="310" />Originality is highly valued in our society, and for many business owners, there’s nothing better than being the best at something unique or offering an original service no one else is providing yet.

<span style="font-weight: 400;">But the reality is that sometimes, the person with the original idea isn’t always the best at executing the idea--getting great results from it--and the idea goes to waste. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">And sometimes, you’ll notice that no matter your efforts to be original and unique, your competitors are doing a wonderful job with a certain keyword, type of promotion, or customer niche. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Don’t be a martyr for originality. Steal your competitor’s best ideas right from their website and put them to work at your business! </span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Give away what they’re charging for.</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">I recently read about Patrick Griebel, an attorney at Albuquerque Business Law, P.C. and an interesting tactic he uses to bring new visitors and leads to his </span><a href="https://www.conversational.com/legal-receptionists/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">law firms’ website</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. He simply makes the information that most firms charge a fee for during a consultation available on his blog for free. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">And although it might seem that </span><a href="http://www.albuquerquebusinesslaw.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Patrick</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is giving away his expertise for free and gaining nothing from it, the complete opposite has happened. He connects with new customers every week through these blog posts, and has even reported clients coming to his firm with a printed blog post in hand for reference. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Additionally, the “top secret” information his competitors want to keep quiet so they can charge clients for it is now publicly available, removing one of the reasons clients would depend on his competitors to begin with. </span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spy on their keyword strategy.</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Even if you’re already working on <a href="https://itxdesign.com/three-tips-to-help-you-boost-your-websites-search-engine-ranking-with-cutting-edge-link-building-strategies/" target="_blank">optimizing your rank in search</a>, you should pay attention to the keyword strategies your competitors are using on their websites. You could find niches and keywords you hadn’t considered in your approach.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">To find out their keywords:</span>
<ul>
	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit your competitor’s website. </span></li>
	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Identify the focus keywords on the homepage and make note of them.</span></li>
	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Explore internal pages, making note of obvious keywords.</span></li>
	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pay attention to longtail keyword phrases, too! These are often the best to target because there’s less competition.</span></li>
</ul>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Imitate their best ideas.</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">You’re not blind--when your competitor has a good idea, it’s not your job to laugh it off or project its’ imminent failure. Just <a href="https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/how-to-steal-customers-from-your-competitors/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">take the idea you like</a>, tweak it a bit to fit your business, and get busy. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Good ideas aren’t protected by law unless they’ve been patented. And unless your competitors are keeping the idea secret or otherwise protecting it from use, you’re free to steal it and make it your own (and you totally should). </span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Take some cues from their branding.</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">If your competitors are having more success with <a href="https://itxdesign.com/how-to-connect-with-your-target-audience-through-content/" target="_blank">your target audience</a> than you are, branding could be part of the issue. Check out your competitor’s websites. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Does it look like their branding (color scheme, fonts, logos--the general visual vibe of the company) is far different from yours? What is different--and this is the hard part--why is it better than yours? Take some of that and work it into your branding.</span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Study their pricing structure.</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">How is your competition laying out their pricing page? Is their pricing similar to yours? Is it lower? What do they offer that you don’t? </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">In some cases, you won’t need to change your prices, but simply offer something additional, like flexibility. Conversational wanted to stand out from other virtual receptionist companies, so they created a monthly plan pricing structure with 3 levels of service to appeal to their customers. They were the first virtual receptionist company to do so.</span>