I dedicate at least 120 minutes each regularly reviewing our competitors':
- Online architecture and UX
- Blog posts and content calendar
- Online platforms engagement
- User feedback and assessments
- Keyword approach and rankings
For a high-end retailer, we identified that visual and ephemeral platforms dramatically surpassed Meta for engagement and git.Agusandelnorte.Gov.ph conversion, resulting in a strategic reallocation of effort that improved overall performance by 167%.
When I established my e-commerce business three years ago, I was convinced that our unique products would sell themselves. I overlooked market research as superfluous – a decision that nearly destroyed my entire business.
Recently, I was helping a major e-commerce business that had invested over 200,000 SAR on a beautiful website that was failing miserably. The reason? They had merely transformed their English site without addressing the fundamental UX differences needed for Arabic users.
A few months ago, a store group invested over 200,000 SAR in conventional advertising with minimal outcomes. After shifting just 30% of that budget to smartphone advertising, they experienced a three hundred twenty-eight percent increase in foot traffic.
For a medical clinic in Jeddah, we boosted their geographic discoveries by nearly one hundred percent by verifying their business information was perfectly identical in both Arabic and English on all platforms.
Last week, a restaurant owner in Riyadh complained that his business wasn't visible in Google searches despite being well-reviewed by customers. This is a typical challenge I observe with local businesses throughout the Kingdom.
- Moved product images to the left side, with product details and purchase buttons on the right
- Adjusted the photo slider to progress from right to left
- Added a custom Arabic font that maintained clarity at various scales
Using detailed analysis for a retail brand, we identified that content published between evening hours dramatically surpassed those shared during typical optimal periods, producing 143% better response.
Not long ago, I observed as three competitors spent significantly into expanding their operations on a certain social media platform. Their efforts flopped as the medium proved to be a poor fit for our market.
I presently employ several resources that have significantly improved our competitor analysis:
- SEO tools to analyze other companies' SEO strategies
- Mention tracking software to monitor rivals' digital footprint
- Site monitoring tools to track updates to their online presence
- Communication monitoring to obtain their promotional messages
I use a straightforward spreadsheet to track our competitors' costs modifications weekly. This recently allowed us to:
- Discover cyclical promotion cycles
- Detect package deal approaches
- Grasp their pricing psychology
Initiate by identifying ALL your rivals – not just the major ones. During our research, we found that our largest competitor wasn't the established company we were tracking, but a emerging startup with an novel strategy.
A few weeks ago, a apparel company approached me after spending over 150,000 SAR on online marketing with disappointing outcomes. After restructuring their approach, we produced a dramatic growth in return on ad spend.
- Distinctly specify which language should be used in each form element
- Automatically change keyboard layout based on field type
- Locate input descriptions to the right-hand side of their connected inputs
- Ensure that system feedback appear in the same language as the intended input
I advise organizing competitors as:
- Primary competitors (offering equivalent offerings)
- Secondary competitors (with partial similarity)
- Emerging challengers (new entrants with innovative potential)
Throughout my latest project for a financial services company in Riyadh, we found that users were frequently selecting the wrong navigation elements. Our behavior analysis demonstrated that their attention naturally progressed from right to left, but the main navigation components were located with a left-to-right emphasis.
As someone who has developed over 30 Arabic websites in the recent years, I can assure you that applying Western UX practices to Arabic interfaces simply doesn't work. The distinctive elements of Arabic language and Saudi user preferences require a specialized approach.
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Use fonts purposely developed for Arabic screen reading (like Boutros) rather than traditional print fonts
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Expand line height by 150-175% for better readability
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Use right-oriented text (never center-aligned for body text)
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Avoid compressed Arabic fonts that diminish the characteristic letter forms
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Shifting CTA buttons to the right-hand portion of forms and interfaces
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Reconsidering content prioritization to flow from right to left
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Adapting clickable components to match the right-to-left reading pattern
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Place the most essential content in the right upper area of the screen
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Organize content blocks to flow from right to left and top to bottom
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Use heavier visual emphasis on the right side of symmetrical layouts
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Ensure that directional icons (such as arrows) direct in the appropriate direction for RTL designs