/suede-competitors

name: suede-competitors
description: "Suede AI comparison-page discipline for accurate, evidence-backed alternative, versus, and competitor-comparison content that wins evaluators and search intent. Use when planning or writing a public page that positions products against named alternatives from verified evidence. NOT FOR: gathering the underlying competitor evidence (use suede-competitor-profiling), internal battle cards (use suede-sales-enablement), or scaled page generation (use suede-programmatic-seo)."
metadata:
  version: 2.0.1

Suede Competitor and Alternative Pages

Use this Suede comparison-page playbook to serve competitive search intent while keeping every product claim current, sourced, and fair.

Initial Assessment

Check for `.agents/product-marketing.md` (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md`) and read it if present: your value proposition, ICP, pricing model, differentiators, and proof decide which comparisons you can win on the evidence, and they are usually already written down there.

Then work the intake list under Task-Specific Questions below; ask only what the context file did not already answer. Current competitor evidence, pricing, features, ratings, comes from `suede-competitor-profiling`, not from memory.

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Page Formats

Format 1: [Competitor] Alternative (Singular)

**Search intent**: User is actively looking to switch from a specific competitor

**URL pattern**: `/alternatives/[competitor]` or `/[competitor]-alternative`

**Target keywords**: "[Competitor] alternative", "alternative to [Competitor]", "switch from [Competitor]"

**Page structure**: 1. Why people look for alternatives (validate their pain) 2. Summary: You as the alternative (quick positioning) 3. Detailed comparison (features, service, pricing) 4. Who switches, and what they gain 5. Migration path 6. Social proof from switchers 7. CTA

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Format 2: [Competitor] Alternatives (Plural)

**Search intent**: User is researching options, earlier in journey

**URL pattern**: `/alternatives/[competitor]-alternatives`

**Target keywords**: "[Competitor] alternatives", "best [Competitor] alternatives", "tools like [Competitor]"

**Page structure**: 1. Why people look for alternatives (common pain points) 2. What to look for in an alternative (criteria framework) 3. List of alternatives (you first, but include real options) 4. Comparison table (summary) 5. Detailed breakdown of each alternative 6. Recommendation by use case 7. CTA

**Important**: Include 4-7 real alternatives. Being genuinely helpful builds trust and ranks better.

**AI-answer expectations by stage**: these pages can earn *citations* in AI answers, but whether AI *recommends* your brand from them also depends on offsite consensus (reviews, forums, analysts). For emerging brands, a self-ranked list may surface competitors while the brand receives only a citation. Treat that as a hypothesis and test it on the `suede-ai-seo` prompt panel before building more.

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Format 3: You vs [Competitor]

**Search intent**: User is directly comparing you to a specific competitor

**URL pattern**: `/vs/[competitor]` or `/compare/[you]-vs-[competitor]`

**Target keywords**: "[You] vs [Competitor]", "[Competitor] vs [You]"

**Page structure**: 1. TL;DR summary (key differences in 2-3 sentences) 2. At-a-glance comparison table 3. Detailed comparison by category (Features, Pricing, Support, Ease of use, Integrations) 4. Who [You] is best for 5. What customers say (testimonials from switchers) 6. Migration support 7. CTA

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Format 4: [Competitor A] vs [Competitor B]

**Search intent**: User comparing two competitors (not you directly)

**URL pattern**: `/compare/[competitor-a]-vs-[competitor-b]`

**Page structure**: 1. Overview of both products 2. Comparison by category 3. Who each is best for 4. The third option (introduce yourself) 5. Comparison table (all three) 6. CTA

**Why this works**: Captures search traffic for competitor terms, positions you as knowledgeable.

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Cliches to Refuse

A comparison page written on autopilot arrives with these already in it. Each one tells an evaluator the page is marketing, not research, refuse them by name:

• **The strawman competitor.** A weakness stated as caricature ("clunky", "built for 2015") rather than a specific, sourced limitation a user would actually hit.
• **A "Winner" row.** No verdict row, no trophy, no score-out-of-10 that resolves to you. The reader decides; the page supplies evidence.
• **Vague superiority.** "Better in every way" or "the obvious choice" with nothing behind it. Every advantage names the specific capability, the reader it serves, and its source.
• **A table built on dimensions nobody shops on.** Pick the rows the reader's decision actually turns on (price, the job to be done, integrations, migration effort) and fill every cell with a sourced fact, so the advantages you show are ones the reader cares about.

For the two remaining defaults, the ✓/✗ feature table and a migration section with no real friction, use the concrete before/after in [references/templates.md](references/templates.md): "Comparison Table Best Practices" and "Migration Section".

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Essential Sections

TL;DR Summary

Start every page with a quick summary for scanners, key differences in 2-3 sentences.

Paragraph Comparisons

Go beyond tables. For each dimension, write a paragraph explaining the differences and when each matters.

Feature Comparison

For each category: describe how each handles it, cite the competitor's documented limitations with sources, and state the specific advantage your product delivers.

Pricing Comparison

Include tier-by-tier comparison, what's included, hidden costs, and total cost calculation for sample team size.

Who It's For

Name the reader your product is built for and the outcome they get: the use case, the team, the workflow, and the result. Specific beats broad, and a sourc