Comparison pages

What a comparison page is

A comparison page sets what you sell beside one named alternative and says, in plain terms, which buyer each one suits. The alternative can be a competitor, a different way of solving the problem, doing the work in-house, or doing nothing at all. The page exists because the reader is already making that comparison in their head, on partial information, and would rather have it laid out.

It is not a sales sheet with a tick-box table where every tick is on your side. A reader who has used the other product knows the table is dishonest by the third row, and once one row is wrong the whole page is discounted. It is also not a why-choose-us page, which argues for you with nobody named on the other side. A comparison page names the other side and treats it seriously.

When you need one

You need one when buyers routinely mention a specific alternative on your sales calls. If you hear the same name three times a week, that conversation is already happening and you are not in the room for most of it.

You need one when the real alternative is not a competitor at all. Many small businesses lose to the in-house option, the cheaper tier, or the decision to wait another year. Those deserve a page as much as a rival does.

You do not need one if you cannot name who the other option is better for. A comparison written by someone who believes they win every case produces a page nobody finishes. In that situation a look at what the alternative actually claims comes first, so the comparison has something real to compare.

What goes in it

Fairness is the mechanism, not the manners. Every part of the page is arranged to earn the reader's belief before the page asks for anything.

• The honest summary, first. Two sentences at the top: who should choose you, who should choose them. A reader who finds themselves in the second sentence leaves, and that is the page working.
• The concession, named and specific. The buyer the alternative genuinely suits better, with the reason. "If you need a crew on site five days a week, they have the staff and I do not." Vague self-deprecation does not count; it has to cost you something.
• The differences that matter. Three to five real differences, each described in a paragraph rather than a tick. Price model, speed, who does the work, what happens when something goes wrong.
• The things that are the same. Saying so is what makes the differences believable. Most rivals in a trade share most of their features.
• The objections. The three doubts a reader holds after reading the above, answered where they arise rather than at the bottom.

Every factual claim about the other side has to be checkable and dated, taken from their published material, never from what a customer told you they charge.

What you get

The page copy. Eight hundred to twelve hundred words in the order above, with headings, the summary block, the comparison section and the closing action, plus the title tag and meta description.

A source note. Each claim about the alternative listed with where it came from and the date it was checked, so the page can be defended and refreshed without redoing the research.

The short version. A paragraph your salespeople can send in an email when the name comes up, saying the same thing in the same words.

A review date. Comparison pages go stale faster than anything else on a site, because the other side changes its prices. You get a date and a short list of what to check again.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A four-person bookkeeping firm in Manitoba loses most of its quotes to national accounting software sold on a monthly subscription. The owner has been answering the same question by phone for two years and has nothing written down.

The page is called "Us or doing it yourself in the software", and it opens by saying plainly that a business with under forty transactions a month and an owner who enjoys admin should use the software and keep the money. Below that, four differences are set out in paragraphs: who catches a coding error, what happens at year end, who talks to the auditor, and what the true cost is once the owner's evenings are counted. One section lists what is genuinely the same, including the bank feeds and the reports. Three objections follow, the first being that the firm is obviously not neutral. Quotes now arrive from people who have already decided, and the owner stops giving the same speech.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. Which alternative keeps coming up, what buyers say about it, and where you honestly lose. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope, price and dates agreed before anything starts.
3. Research. Three to five working days reading the alternative's published pages, pricing and terms, and your own sales notes or recordings.
4. The concession, agreed with you. I bring the buyer I think the other side suits better. You either accept it or give me a truer one. Nothing is written until that sentence is settled.
5. The draft and one round of changes. Read it as the reader who is leaning the other way.
6. Final copy, source note and review date. Delivered together.

Two weeks from first call to final copy is typical for one comparison. A set covering three alternatives takes three to four weeks.

What it costs

A comparison page is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on how many alternatives are covered, how much of the other side's material has to be read and verified, and whether your own sales calls have to be listened to first. The number is agreed in writing before anything starts, and the pricing page shows the four ways of working and how quotes are built.

What happens next

Three things usually follow. The salespeople want the argument in a form they can hold in a meeting, which is a single sheet per rival. The doubts the page raised but did not settle become a written set of answers the whole business uses. And because a comparison sends people to check the money, the page carrying your numbers is often the next thing rewritten. None of that is assumed. A comparison page is complete on its own and earns its keep unaccompanied.