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You are looking to stand out from your competitors and find new ideas to boost your business?
What if the key was found... In the past ? 🕰️
Thanks to a little-known but devilishly effective tool, the “Wayback Machine”, you will be able to go back in time and analyze the evolution of your competitors' websites.
A real “digital” journey through time to identify what worked or did not work for them!
Ready to play the Marty McFly of marketing to boost your growth?
Let's get started.
Why Use the Wayback Machine?
Before looking at how to use this tool, let's recall why it is so valuable:
💡 You identify winning and losing strategies
By analyzing the changes on a competitor's site over time, you will easily identify what worked for them... or not! The functionalities that disappear have certainly failed, those that persist are synonymous with success.
In short, you can be inspired by their best ideas while avoiding reproducing their mistakes. Smart!
🕵️ You anticipate market trends
The evolution of a site also reflects the major trends in the sector.
Highlighted flagship products, new services, changes in positioning... By observing these changes over time, you will have a head start to adapt your own strategy.
😲 You make amazing discoveries
Did you know that Amazon was formerly called “Cadabra”? That Facebook was called “The Facebook” and was reserved for Harvard students?
Or that the name of twitter It was originally spelled”Twttr“?
These are the kinds of gems you can find by exploring the Wayback Machine archives. Something to impress your friends in the evening!
How do I use the Wayback Machine?
Enticing isn't it? Now here's how to unearth this valuable information from the depths of the web!
Step 1: Go to Archive.org
The Wayback Machine is part of a larger project, the Internet Archive, which has been saving billions of web pages since 1996! A nice touch of old...
Go to archive.org and click on “Wayback Machine” in the top menu.
Step 2: Enter the URL of the site you are interested in
Type the address of the website to be analyzed in the field provided for this purpose and click on “Browse History”.
You can enter the domain name of your choice: competitors, partners, inspiring brands...
It's up to you to see which sites will be the richest in insights!
Step 3: Explore archived versions of the site
The machine will present you with a calendar with the dates on which it registered the website.
The older and more popular a site is, the more screenshots it will have available.
Click on a date to see what the site looked like that day. You can navigate to different periods in time to see how it evolves.
In particular, observe:
- The content highlighted on the home page
- The products or services offered
- The design, the visuals, the tone used
- The functionalities present
- The conversion tunnel and calls-to-action
List what has changed or disappeared from one period to the next. You will thus be able to reconstruct the “movie” of the evolution of each key player in your market!
Step 4: Analyze and learn from it
Now that you have all this data, try to understand the logic behind each evolution:
- What seems to have worked well?
- What features have been discontinued, why?
- How did they adapt to current trends?
- What messages and arguments have they put forward over time?
You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to draw relevant conclusions from these observations!
Always keep this question in mind: what does this teach me for my own business?
Concrete Application Examples
You have understood the principle, but what exactly is the point of all this? Here are some use cases for using the Wayback Machine strategically:
For an online bank 🏦
By analyzing the archives of neobanks and mobile banks, you could identify:
- The functionalities that took off (account aggregation, prize pools...) to deploy them too
- Those that have disappeared (mini-games to earn money for example) and that are best avoided
- The evolution of their brand image and their target to inspire you
For an e-commerce site 🛍️
As you explore the past of the industry's giants, you could observe:
- What levers they have activated over the course of their growth (marketplace, subscriptions, outlet...)
- How they highlight their competitive advantages (price, delivery, after-sales service...)
- Their content marketing strategy with the appearance of a blog, guides...
For a mobile app 📱
By looking back at the history of leaders in your niche, you could learn:
- How did they present their added value at the beginning vs. today
- What features did they capitalize on or, on the contrary, abandon
- What pricing strategy did they adopt: freemium, premium, integrated purchases...
As you can see, the possibilities are endless! Regardless of your sector, looking in the rearview mirror of a similar player will give you valuable insights for your own roadmap.
FAQs
Does the Wayback Machine archive every page on a website?
No, it usually only archives the home page and a few other top-level pages at regular intervals. But that's enough to see major developments and learn a lot of lessons!
Can you have archives removed from your site?
Yes, site owners can request that certain captures be removed if they feel that they damage their image. But don't worry, it's very rare for relevant archives to disappear.
What are the limits of the Wayback Machine?
Like any public source of information, it depends on available data. The older and more popular a site is, the more captures it will have. On the other hand, a small recent site may have a limited history.
Conclusion
La Wayback Machine is a real gold mine for any curious marketer!
Thanks to it, you will be able to monitor the strategies of your competitors over the long term, identify emerging trends and be inspired by best market practices.
The whole thing for free and without moving from your couch. Pretty cool isn't it?
However, keep in mind that each business is unique.
What has Market for a brand at a moment T won't necessarily work for you today.
But by wisely combining this valuable feedback with your own strategic thinking, you will undoubtedly be able to make the best choices for your business.
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