In today’s landscape—where AI tools, search engines, social platforms, and ads across the web shape buying decisions—you can’t just outperform your closest competitors. You need to show up at every stage of the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, and decision. Otherwise, someone else will.
Competition Isn’t What It Used to Be
Traditional competitors are easy to spot—they sell the same products or services you do. But in digital spaces, your competition is anyone who captures your buyers’ attention before you do.
That might mean:
- A thought leader’s LinkedIn post that dominates the conversation even though that company only sells a portion of your solution.
- A niche blog that ranks above you for key awareness-stage keywords.
- An AI-generated search result that points users to a website that answers a key question many of your audience members ask.
These need not be direct rivals—but they are your visibility competitors. And they’re stealing the attention that could have been yours.
Are You Focused on Every Step of the Buyer Journey?
B2B buyers don’t start by calling your sales team. Research shows that 70–90% of the buyer journey happens before ever speaking to a vendor. That journey takes place across three stages—and visibility matters at each one:
- Awareness: If you’re not showing up here, they may never know you exist.
- Consideration: If your voice isn’t there, you’re not in the running.
- Decision: If you weren’t present earlier, you may never even make the list.
Who’s Really Competing for Your Audience and What Are They Doing Right?
Let’s break down the types of competitors that often fly under the radar:
- SEO Competitors: Review sites, affiliates, and publishers who outrank you for critical keywords.
Use a tool like Moz or SEMrush to find them and discover what they are doing right. - AI Competitors: AI-driven search tools (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity) that suggest alternatives, answer direct challenges—or leave you out entirely.
Check traffic from various AI platforms, and you’ll see a range of landing pages they send traffic to, so it’s important to note that they don’t necessarily pull from the same sources as one another or offer the same answers. Start by focusing on one platform and doing your own queries to check what sources the platform uses – you’ll undoubtedly find some new ideas of where on the web you want your brand mentioned. - Social Competitors: Influencers, industry experts, and content creators shaping the narrative on LinkedIn or YouTube.
Again, each platform has its own algorithm, so start with the platform most important for you. Do your own research on the platform and gather some new ideas – it’s easy to see metrics like the number of views or comments that indicate a successful post. - Marketplace Competitors or Award Sites: Third-party platforms like G2, Capterra, or Clutch that frame the conversation before a buyer ever visits your site.
Find the sites and awards that are important in your industry and trusted by your audience, as well as those that are frequently referenced in search or AI results. Start a list of possible sites where you want to put a free or paid listing so you can prioritize from there.
These players might not sell what you sell—but they absolutely compete for eyeballs.
Why Visibility Competitors Matter
If your brand isn’t visible early and often, you’re invisible when it matters most. Buyers are self-educating in more spaces than ever, which means more places that may not even include your website. Could you be losing deals before you ever knew you had a chance at them?
Visibility isn’t just about being present at the decision stage. It’s about being discovered in the right context—through the right content—at every phase of the journey, and as that journey has more forks than ever, there is more to consider.
How Digital Marketers Can Respond
To stay competitive, broaden your definition of “competition” and your digital strategy.
- Map your full-funnel competitors. Don’t just watch industry rivals—track who’s outranking you in search, social, and AI results for your top queries.
- Invest in top- and mid-funnel content. Use your blogs, guides, videos, and thought leadership that answer early-stage questions across platforms.
- Optimize for AI discovery. Use structured data, build topical authority, and format content for conversational, question-based queries.
- Strengthen your presence on review and comparison sites. Make sure your voice is represented where buyers are evaluating options.
- Activate your people. Encourage executives and team members to share insights on LinkedIn to capture visibility in social feeds.
- Measure visibility, not just leads. Look at impressions, rankings, and share of voice to understand where competitors are edging you out.
The Bottom Line
Your closest competitors aren’t going away—but they’re not the only ones you should be worried about. The real competition is whoever’s winning buyer attention.
Digital marketers who focus only on the companies they’ve always seen as competitors risk missing the bigger picture (and new revenue). To win today, you need to expand your competitive lens, build visibility across the entire funnel, and optimize for platforms your target audience is already on.
