Start with the decision, then choose the pages.
Write down the question behind this week’s review. You might be planning an offer, preparing for a sales conversation or checking how nearby brands explain a product. That question helps you decide which pages deserve attention.
Choose three to five relevant competitors as a starting point. Follow the pages connected to the question: an offer landing page for campaign planning, a pricing page for packaging, or a feature page for positioning. A large watchlist can wait until a smaller one is useful.
Check that the evidence is ready.
Confirm that every URL belongs to the intended brand. Check the last successful collection and the source status. A first capture establishes a baseline; it cannot tell you what changed before tracking began.
A failed check needs attention. It is not evidence that a competitor stopped publishing or removed a promotion. If a source is unavailable, put that gap in the review so the next person understands what was covered.
Select the changes that matter to this week’s question.
Open the previous and later captures. Write the specific difference in plain language before adding an explanation. Routine footer edits may not belong in a campaign conversation; a changed promise or offer might.
Keep the public source URL and the collection times with each finding. When a source supplies a publication date, record it separately from when your collector first observed the item.
- Observed: the homepage headline changed from a discount to a routine-led message.
- Interpretation: the brand may be exploring a different way to present the offer.
- Open question: would this framing address a problem our own customers describe?
Leave the meeting with a brief.
Choose a small number of findings the team can actually inspect. In a short brief, record what changed, the supporting evidence, your interpretation and the question you want to investigate. Add who will take the next step.
Decide how your own experiment will be evaluated before running it. A competitor’s visible activity does not reveal its revenue, conversion rate or return on advertising spend. The observation can inspire an investigation; your results decide what to keep.
Use the blank template below for the first review. Keep what worked, remove sections your team never uses and bring the previous week’s open questions into the next meeting.