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Write an honest comparison with a competitor

A comparison page meets buyers who are already choosing between products. The only outcome data come from Grow and Convert, an agency that sells these posts: comparison and alternatives keywords averaged an 8.43% conversion rate, yet most of the 23 competitor keywords converted under 4%. Naming a competitor is allowed in the US when truthful and clear; in the EU the comparison must be objective and verifiable.

Evidence C, limited evidenceSituational

Stage
Stage 3. Faint pull, earn the right to distributeHow do more of the right people find it?
Category
Search and content
Time
1 to 2 daysAwiser's estimate of the active work
Cash
No cash
Live calls
No live calls
First result
Takes months
Risk
LowA day or two of writing. The real exposure is a complaint over an inaccurate or disparaging claim about a named competitor.
Needs
A competitor your buyers already nameHands-on use of both products, with screenshotsA way to count signups from the page

When does it fit?

  • Buyers already search for the competitor with "alternative" or "vs", even rarely: Grow and Convert reports 149 organic signups from 6 comparison articles that each had under 20 searches a month.[7]
  • You can show both products from your own use: Google asks reviewers for evidence of their own experience, such as visuals.[1]
  • Your brand is too small for its own "vs" query: in one Grow and Convert case, a three-way page on a comparison between two bigger names ranked first for that query.[7]

When should you skip it?

  • You cannot state your own drawbacks: Google asks reviews to discuss benefits and drawbacks and to say which option suits which use.[1]
  • Your keyword list is copied from a competitor's rankings: Grow and Convert warns that a keyword a competitor ranks for may bring it no leads.[6]
  • You need results within two weeks: Google says crawling alone can take from a few days to a few weeks.[3]

How do you run it?

  1. Find the comparisons buyers search

    List the competitors your buyers mention, then check which "alternative" and "vs" queries get any searches. Low volume is fine when the reader is choosing.

  2. Borrow a bigger comparison if yours has no searches

    A small brand can write the comparison buyers already search between two better-known products and add itself as a third option.

  3. Compare on verifiable facts

    Plans, prices and features, each with the date you checked it and a link. State facts about the competitor; never disparage it.

  4. Say where the competitor wins

    Name the buyer who should pick the other product, and why.

  5. Show both products

    Use real screenshots from your own use of each product.

  6. Place the product at decision points

    Mention your product where the reader is choosing, not only in a closing call to action.

  7. Keep the facts current

    Prices and features change: recheck the page each quarter and update the dates.

  8. Count signups from the page

    Read signups from the page over three months, not button clicks in its first two weeks.

What usually happens?

  • Comparison posts convert well once they rank, in one agency dataset: Grow and Convert reports an 8.43% average conversion rate for comparison and alternatives keywords across 95 client articles.[6]
  • Ranking takes time: Ahrefs found that 1.74% of newly published pages reached the top 10 within a year.[9]
  • Indexing alone takes weeks: IndexCheckr, which sells indexing monitoring, reports an average of 27.4 days.[8]
  • Comparison queries were less exposed to Google's AI summaries: Ahrefs found that 99.2% of keywords triggering AI Overviews were informational, a figure measured before later changes to Google's AI features.[10]

Who has done it, and what happened?

Each case is one team's own report: what happened to them, not a typical result.

  • An unnamed client of Grow and Convert2023, Positive result

    Published six comparison articles on keywords with fewer than 20 searches a month each.

    Grow and Convert reports 149 organic signups in total, a 2% average conversion rate and one post converting at 4.5%.[7]

    Reported by the agency that wrote the posts, for an unnamed client, with no dates or traffic per post.

  • Circuit, route planning software and a Grow and Convert client2023, Mixed result

    Published a three-way comparison on "Postmates vs Onfleet", a query buyers searched, because "Circuit vs Onfleet" had no recorded search volume.

    Grow and Convert reports that the page ranked first for "postmates vs onfleet" when the article was written.[7]

    A ranking only, with no traffic or signup numbers, reported by the agency.

What does the evidence say against it?

  • The average hides a skew: Grow and Convert says most of the 23 competitor keywords it analyzed converted at less than 4%, despite the 8.43% average.[6]
  • All the outcome data come from one agency that sells this content; no independent founder report with numbers was found.

How do you read the result?

What to count
Signups from the comparison page, and impressions for its queries in Search Console
When to read it
Three months after publishing
How to decide
Write the next comparison only if this one brings signups. As a reference, Grow and Convert reports a 2% average conversion rate across six low-volume comparison posts it wrote.[7]

What goes wrong?

  • Disparaging the competitor or making claims nobody can check: in the EU, a comparison must be objective and verifiable, and must not discredit the competitor.[5]
  • Comparing on an unstated basis: the US Federal Trade Commission supports brand comparisons when the bases of comparison are clearly identified.[4]
  • Writing to a word count: Google says length alone does not matter for ranking.[2]

How was it graded?

Evidence
C. Limited evidenceThe outcome data come from one agency that sells comparison content, a 95-article dataset and two client cases. Google and the regulators set the rules, but no independent founder case with numbers was found.
Verdict
SituationalWorth writing when buyers already search for a named competitor and you can be fair about it. Like any search page it is slow, and the conversion data come from one agency.

How the grades and verdicts are decided

Sources

  1. 1
    Write high quality reviews (opens in a new tab)Google Search Central. Undated. Platform rules.
    Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with what you are reviewing, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
    Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of something, based on your own original research.
    Cover comparable things to consider, or explain which might be best for certain uses or circumstances.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  2. 2
    Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide (opens in a new tab)Google Search Central. Undated. Platform rules.
    The length of the content alone doesn't matter for ranking purposes (there's no magical word count target, minimum or maximum, though you probably want to have at least one word).
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  3. 3
    Ask Google to recrawl your URLs (opens in a new tab)Google Search Central. Undated. Platform rules.
    Crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  4. 4
    Statement of Policy Regarding Comparative Advertising (opens in a new tab)US Federal Trade Commission. Undated. Platform rules.
    The Commission has supported the use of brand comparisons where the bases of comparison are clearly identified.
    Commission policy in the area of comparative advertising encourages the naming of, or reference to competitors, but requires clarity, and, if necessary, disclosure to avoid deception of the consumer.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  5. 5
    Directive 2006/114/EC concerning misleading and comparative advertising (opens in a new tab)European Union (EUR-Lex). December 12, 2006. Platform rules.
    it objectively compares one or more material, relevant, verifiable and representative features of those goods and services, which may include price
    it does not discredit or denigrate the trade marks, trade names, other distinguishing marks, goods, services, activities or circumstances of a competitor
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  6. 6
    Bottom of the Funnel Content: How to Get More Leads From Your Content (opens in a new tab)Grow and Convert, David Klose. May 5, 2026. Vendor data, from a seller of what it measures.
    First, just because a competitor ranks for a keyword doesn't mean that keyword is driving leads , or that it would drive leads for you.
    To help us find out what type of BOFU content converts the most, we analyzed 95 articles across clients, totaling over 123,000 organic pageviews and 4,687 conversions.
    Comparison and Alternatives Keywords (8.43% Average Conversion Rate)
    Although the average conversion rate is 8.43%, the majority of the 23 competitor keywords we analyzed actually converted at less than 4%.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  7. 7
    Competitor Comparison Landing Pages: 3 Unique Strategies (opens in a new tab)Grow and Convert, Cameron Brown. October 12, 2023. Vendor data, from a seller of what it measures.
    For example, in our post on Mini-Volume Keywords , we show how 6 comparison articles (all with less than 20 searches per month) collectively drove 149 organic signups for a past client, with an average conversion rate of 2% and one post converting at 4.5%.
    For example, here's a screenshot showing no registered search volume for "Circuit vs Onfleet" (Circuit being a past client of ours, Onfleet being one of their competitors).
    At the time of this writing, that page ranks in position one for the query 'postmates vs onfleet' in Google
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  8. 8
    Google Indexing Study: Insights from 16 Million Pages (opens in a new tab)IndexCheckr, Joel Cariño. February 28, 2025. Vendor data, from a seller of what it measures.
    Pages take an average of 27.4 days to be indexed.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  9. 9
    How Long Does It Take to Rank in Google? And How Old Are Top Ranking Pages? (opens in a new tab)Ahrefs, Patrick Stox. May 15, 2025. Study.
    Only 1.74% of newly published pages rank in the top 10 within a year (down from 5.7% in 2017 ).
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  10. 10
    AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5% (opens in a new tab)Ahrefs, Ryan Law. April 17, 2025. Study.
    Sidenote Our research found that 99.2% of keywords that trigger AI Overviews are informational in intent, so we've focused on informational keywords for a better like-for-like comparison.
    Read on October 20, 2026.

Sources last checked on October 20, 2026. First published on October 20, 2026.

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