You’re already probably thinking this is near impossible, well that’s almost true and it’s what 99% of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) experts would safely advice to any SME.
The questions I would like to answer in this article is WHY 99% assume this is the case and HOW can the 1% make this possible and out of this 1% WHO are the people that have achieved this result.
WHY NOT?
Secondly, the costs and for most SME’s it’s the one factor that easily puts them off as running such a campaign may not be feasible for an SME’s to compete on these big high street brands. You’d be advised that you need to acquire 100’s of high quality relevant links every month through top bloggers, influencers, magazines and other high authority websites which would costs tens of £1000’s of pounds to get on the same level.
Finally, the time it will take you to get your ROI. You will probably be told that it will take years and I am not talking about 2 or 3 to build up your website’s credibility to rank anywhere near the top 3.
All true but not entirely if you use the right strategy to work around your competitors.
HOW TO?
The million-pound question.
The answer lies in a smarty formulated SEO strategy.
You don’t have to spend the likes of these huge brands that have teams churning out content and links but pick and choose carefully where and how you spend that money you have budgeted.
I am not going to bore you with the usual principle activities and give you a basic action plan which you can Google™ online. However, I will tip you some key differentiating pointers that can transform any SEO strategy and make a difference in your results.
So we’re not going to beat around the metal and go straight for the jewel in the crown and give you tips on two of the most valuable factors that determine how you rank on Google.
#Link Building Strategy
We all know this is the single biggest contributor to improving your page’s rank on Search Engines we also know that the higher the authority and relevance the source has the better the result.
Well that’s true but given that you can only afford 4 to 5 good publications per month as oppose to 100’s compared to the big brands you need to be careful what and where you to choose to publish your content containing that silver lining bullet link going back to your website.
The trick is gold mining the best link building opportunities and discarding the little pebbles to bring high value to your small but rich back link profile.
#Spotting the missing links
Say if you’re currently positioned on the 2nd page for a given keyword and you’ve researched your no.1 ranking competitor has a back link from a source that you can afford to work with which hardly any other competitor above you haven’t acquired – this could be a golden opportunity to get closer to that no.1 competitor and maybe one of the missing links you need.
So get on this and influence the blogger to write strategically better content than the no.1 competitor and then make it viral by using the best blogger outreach tactics making this link really work to push you up the ranking ladder.
#Inheriting the juice
This one is my favourite but the hardest to get.
If you can find a domain/source that 1 or more of your competitors are linking to and then try to acquire a back link from that domain/source you will in fact inherit your competitors link juice.
We call this the “golden bullet link”.
#Content
Many of the big branded website will have 100’s more web pages than your SME website and they’re not always keen on flourishing them with too much content because they are more focussed on getting the product up the page.
You may also find that a single competitor page is ranking higher for a range of different products or services but their content is generalised and not distributed evenly or specifically for your target keyword.
If you can identify a few of your competitors that lack a good proportion of keyword relevant content, then there’s your opportunity to score a brownie against them.
The aim here is to find competitors above you with a content gap and what you want to do is fill that gap on your website with keyword relevance
WHO HAS?
I think you all know the answer to this one.
Yes, it’s us – The Website Company.
We have successfully spear headed and marketed a SME named “Floors Direct” based in the West Midlands with a fine tuned SEO strategy to get their website to be ranked on position no.1 for the entire U.K. above Wickes, B&Q, Homebase and CarpetRight who were firmly positioned in the top 4 for over 10 years running with the 2nd most search competitive home improvement key-phrase “Laminate flooring” and “Laminate Flooring Sale” with a combined search volume of 100,000 !!!
N.B. That’s not page no.1 but position no.1
Outcome: Taking the largest slice of online traffic for “Laminate Flooring” related keywords with an above average retail conversation rate of 3.5%
CONCLUSION
Don’t be afraid to take on the big brands.
Using the right SEO Strategy, you can aim for that no.1 position no matter who the competition is.
If you get the strategy right and have that eye to notice a difference and take advantage, you can surely out rank ALL your competitors.
After all Google’s ranking strategy is an algorithm that can be reverse engineered using a systematic process.
If you’re clever enough to analyse our strategy deep enough you may be able to take that second position J
If still in doubt, talk to us.
