marketingskills/skills/competitor-alternatives/references/content-architecture.md

Content Architecture for Competitor Pages

How to structure and maintain competitor data for scalable comparison pages.

Centralized Competitor Data

Create a single source of truth for each competitor:

competitor_data/
├── notion.md
├── airtable.md
├── monday.md
└── ...

---

Competitor Data Template

Per competitor, document:

name: Notion
website: notion.so
tagline: "The all-in-one workspace"
founded: 2016
headquarters: San Francisco

# Positioning
primary_use_case: "docs + light databases"
target_audience: "teams wanting flexible workspace"
market_position: "premium, feature-rich"

# Pricing
pricing_model: per-seat
free_tier: true
free_tier_limits: "limited blocks, 1 user"
starter_price: $8/user/month
business_price: $15/user/month
enterprise: custom

# Features (rate 1-5 or describe)
features:
  documents: 5
  databases: 4
  project_management: 3
  collaboration: 4
  integrations: 3
  mobile_app: 3
  offline_mode: 2
  api: 4

# Strengths (be honest)
strengths:
  - Extremely flexible and customizable
  - Beautiful, modern interface
  - Strong template ecosystem
  - Active community

# Weaknesses (be fair)
weaknesses:
  - Can be slow with large databases
  - Learning curve for advanced features
  - Limited automations compared to dedicated tools
  - Offline mode is limited

# Best for
best_for:
  - Teams wanting all-in-one workspace
  - Content-heavy workflows
  - Documentation-first teams
  - Startups and small teams

# Not ideal for
not_ideal_for:
  - Complex project management needs
  - Large databases (1000s of rows)
  - Teams needing robust offline
  - Enterprise with strict compliance

# Common complaints (from reviews)
common_complaints:
  - "Gets slow with lots of content"
  - "Hard to find things as workspace grows"
  - "Mobile app is clunky"

# Migration notes
migration_from:
  difficulty: medium
  data_export: "Markdown, CSV, HTML"
  what_transfers: "Pages, databases"
  what_doesnt: "Automations, integrations setup"
  time_estimate: "1-3 days for small team"

---

Your Product Data

Same structure for yourself—be honest:

name: [Your Product]
# ... same fields

strengths:
  - [Your real strengths]

weaknesses:
  - [Your honest weaknesses]

best_for:
  - [Your ideal customers]

not_ideal_for:
  - [Who should use something else]

---

Page Generation

Each page pulls from centralized data:

• [Competitor] Alternative page: Pulls competitor data + your data
• [Competitor] Alternatives page: Pulls competitor data + your data + other alternatives
• You vs [Competitor] page: Pulls your data + competitor data
• [A] vs [B] page: Pulls both competitor data + your data

Benefits:

• Update competitor pricing once, updates everywhere
• Add new feature comparison once, appears on all pages
• Consistent accuracy across pages
• Easier to maintain at scale

---

Index Page Structure

Alternatives Index

URL: /alternatives or /alternatives/index

Purpose: Lists all "[Competitor] Alternative" pages

Page structure:

1. Headline: "[Your Product] as an Alternative"
2. Brief intro on why people switch to you
3. List of all alternative pages with:
   • Competitor name/logo
   • One-line summary of key differentiator vs. that competitor
   • Link to full comparison
4. Common reasons people switch (aggregated)
5. CTA

Example:

## Explore [Your Product] as an Alternative

Looking to switch? See how [Your Product] compares to the tools you're evaluating:

- **[Notion Alternative](/alternatives/notion)** — Better for teams who need [X]
- **[Airtable Alternative](/alternatives/airtable)** — Better for teams who need [Y]
- **[Monday Alternative](/alternatives/monday)** — Better for teams who need [Z]

---

Vs Comparisons Index

URL: /vs or /compare

Purpose: Lists all "You vs [Competitor]" and "[A] vs [B]" pages

Page structure:

1. Headline: "Compare [Your Product]"
2. Section: "[Your Product] vs Competitors" — list of direct comparisons
3. Section: "Head-to-Head Comparisons" — list of [A] vs [B] pages
4. Brief methodology note
5. CTA

---

Index Page Best Practices

Keep them updated: When you add a new comparison page, add it to the relevant index.

Internal linking:

• Link from index → individual pages
• Link from individual pages → back to index
• Cross-link between related comparisons

SEO value:

• Index pages can rank for broad terms like "project management tool comparisons"
• Pass link equity to individual comparison pages
• Help search engines discover all comparison content

Sorting options:

• By popularity (search volume)
• Alphabetically
• By category/use case
• By date added (show freshness)

Include on index pages:

• Last updated date for credibility
• Number of pages/comparisons available
• Quick filters if you have many comparisons

---

Footer Navigation

The site footer appears on all marketing pages, making it a powerful internal linking opportunity for competitor pages.

Option 1: Link to Index Pages (Minimum)

At minimum, add links to your comparison index pages in the footer:

Footer
├── Compare
│   ├── Alternatives →  /alternatives
│   └── Comparisons →  /vs

This ensures every marketing page passes link equity to your comparison content hub.

Option 2: Footer Columns by Format (Recommended for SEO)

For stronger internal linking, create dedicated footer columns for each format you've built, linking directly to your top competitors:

Footer
├── [Product] vs               ├── Alternatives to            ├── Compare
│   ├── vs Notion              │   ├── Notion Alternative     │   ├── Notion vs Airtable
│   ├── vs Airtable            │   ├── Airtable Alternative   │   ├── Monday vs Asana
│   ├── vs Monday              │   ├── Monday Alternative     │   ├── Notion vs Monday
│   ├── vs Asana               │   ├── Asana Alternative      │   ├── ...
│   ├── vs Clickup             │   ├── Clickup Alternative    │   └── View all →
│   ├── ...                    │   ├── ...                    │
│   └── View all →             │   └── View all →             │

Guidelines:

• Include up to 8 links per column (top competitors by search volume)
• Add "View all" link to the full index page
• Only create columns for formats you've actually built pages for
• Prioritize competitors with highest search volume

Why Footer Links Matter

1. Sitewide distribution: Footer links appear on every marketing page, passing link equity from your entire site to comparison content
2. Crawl efficiency: Search engines discover all comparison pages quickly
3. User discovery: Visitors evaluating your product can easily find comparisons
4. Competitive positioning: Signals to search engines that you're a key player in the space

Implementation Notes

• Update footer when adding new high-priority comparison pages
• Keep footer clean—don't list every comparison, just the top ones
• Match column headers to your URL structure (e.g., "vs" column → /vs/ URLs)
• Consider mobile: columns may stack, so order by priority