Why compare against a competitor
A score of 72 on its own says little. A score of 72 next to the firm across the street at 88 tells you exactly where you lose the client who is comparing you both. Prospective clients rarely look at one firm in isolation: they search, open two or three results in tabs and contact the one that looks most competent and easiest to reach.
The comparison runs the complete AI & Digital Growth Audit on your website and on the competitor's, one after the other, and lines up the category scores in pairs. Underneath, a list of areas where they outperform you shows the specific checks they pass and you do not, so the gap becomes a to-do list instead of a feeling.
What is compared
Because both sites go through exactly the same checks within minutes of each other, the comparison is fair: same browser, same network location, same scoring rules.
- Website and SEO: titles, indexing, structured data, sitemap and broken links.
- Speed and mobile: Lighthouse performance, Core Web Vitals and layout on phone widths.
- AI visibility: whether ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity and other AI crawlers can reach and read each site.
- Conversion and leads: calls to action, phone and booking options, forms, social proof and tracking.
- Trust, privacy and security: registration details, consent behaviour, security headers, TLS and email protection.
Using the result well
Do not try to copy a competitor. Look for categories where the gap is large and the fix is cheap — a missing phone link on mobile, no structured data, a cookie banner without a reject button, slow images. Those are the quickest way to overtake them in the eyes of a client comparing tabs.
Where the competitor is clearly ahead in content or reputation, the audit cannot close the gap for you, but it will show you what they do differently: client testimonials, visible team pages, published fees or an online booking link.
Run the comparison against two or three firms you actually lose clients to, rather than the biggest name in your market. A local rival with a similar size and offer is the most realistic benchmark, and the gaps you find there are the ones prospective clients notice.