As Online Searches moves from novelty to a very high standard feature, the popularity of search marketing increases. Almost all business in world regardless of the industry and size has some web presence, all are competing or top positions in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). Large companies and Corporations have decades of contents, thousands of inbound links and huge online visitors, there is no wonder in their top ranking position when customers search for their commercial products. You will have at least a competitor who tried more harder than you to build a strong website presence in Search Engine Result Page, this is regardless of what industry you are in.
Lets us see how a small startups with limited resource and experience can compete with the giants in SEO.
Search Engine Optimization is not about who is having a great library of content, who is been longest on the web, or who has more inbound links. It is all about the website or page relevance of the searcher.
Specialize in a Niche – The best thing that you can do is give a Category focus. Cover many areas of expertise and this will be the best option for search engine visibility. Take for an example if your business if focusing on plumbing, construction, cooling, roofing, heating, and all home related works then you can able to visible for all the above-related keywords. If you want to beat your biggest competitor then spend more on focusing your niche. Many regions of specialization give relevance for a wide range of keywords. Put all your efforts into a handful of relevant keywords to get higher visibility.
Use Long-tail Keywords -Long tail keywords are more extended words such as “interior designs tips for home” instead of “ interior designs”. We can easily rank for all long-tail keywords when compared with short keywords, though they results in low traffic they give valuable results. Long-tail keyword optimization is very easy, and you can make a research for long tail keywords in Google Webmaster tools.
Local Optimization – Local audience targeting is another best way to push back your competitor. In Today’s context, local SEO is more important. Though if your business is an national level, it can capture your market at least in the local area by optimizing.
Related: Why Small Business and Startup Need to Invest in SEO
Follow the below three steps to improve your local presence
- Local review – Aggregation sites and directories such as TripAdvisor, Yelp is one of the essential sites. Website with a large number of positive results ranks higher when compared with sites with negative reviews as per Google’s Pigeon Algorithm. Yelp ranking boosts the website’s visibility. Without focusing on building links and content focus on getting more positive review from your visitors.
- Community building and event attendance – Get involved in your community. Attend all the major events such as community gatherings, events, festivals, fairs. This helps in getting more leads by offering discounts at the events and promotions. Post a unique and excellent content on your website about your press release, company attendance, inbound links.
- Hyper local Unique Content – Google is getting more better at categorizing and identifying your neighborhoods. SEO is becoming more local and this leads to a larger competition.
Social Engagement – Apart from Local Optimization, Social engagement plays an vital role and you can also improve the chances overcoming your competition by improving your personal factors in brand promotions. Large Companies when they hit a growth point they lose a small part of their own personalities, but in small business, it gives more advantages. Increase your following in social media and as a result you will get more followers, post reach and a high social presence.
Become an authoritative unique Content Publisher – Improving Trust, brand awareness, credibility, and trust requires quality contents. Many Companies use blogs to promote, and other use podcasts, videos, webinars and other ways of content with the aid of many channels. Increase your ROI – return on investments by improving your contents.
There is no shortcut for reach top in search engine rank Pages (SERP), when there is a huge competition. But with your location, you can easily beat competitors in your specific areas.
