Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful marketing strategy that enables online businesses to get their website on display to scores of monthly visitors. However, there’s a catch: Since users usually click the first link they see in SERPS or search engine results pages, it really means that even one competitor is enough to outrank them entirely to kill their potential.
But on the other hand, what if you could use your rivals to your advantage? Here are a few ways by which you can gain a lot of SEO traction from your largest competitors:
Optimize your product reviews:
Getting good reviews for your business can help you get a higher search engine ranking in local searches. If your customers give you positive and detailed reviews, it could help you rank for certain keywords related to those products.
See how your rivals are using this reviews format to better their SEO campaigns and see if you can somehow do better than what they are doing.
Link building with better strategies:
Unfortunately, it now comes to light that building links manually isn’t a piece of cake. It’s better to use a tool such as Moz’s Open Site Explorer to check what other sites are handling this aspect. Once you have this information, you can do exactly what they do or modify your strategy for better results.
Find out how they build inbound links. Use all the free online tools to find out as much about your competitors and their style of functioning and use them to give you an idea or direction for establishing your links.
Write industry-related informative articles:
You can provide helpful information to users who are probably looking for companies in your field. Write honest details of each company, its brand and its pros and cons, etc. The visibility this will give you on search engines is unimaginable, so you won’t have to depend on advertising your services in the article.
Write articles using long-tailed keywords:
You can get good rankings for long-tailed keywords quickly by writing articles on your industry in your geo-location. This will give you twin benefits of writing in your niche and in your area. This will give you a competitive opportunity to get a good ranking on Google.
For this to happen, write objective articles that are honest and useful about the competition in your area. Depending on how well-written your articles are, your website and your brand could be in for some exciting times, considering the results of search engines.
Choose keywords not picked up by your competition:
Are your competitors gunning for particular keywords? Let them. You choose the ones they haven’t picked up yet and use them without delay. Not only will you stand out against your competition, the keywords you use will be like a breath of fresh air to your readers.
Engage with your audience on social media platforms:
By now, you obviously have already got a sizable following of your partners, vendors, customers, just like your competitors. You also know that your competitors’ followers are interested in knowing about your business, so reach out to them with articles that you write.
Obviously, a good number of them will actually show interest in your brand, as a result, thereby increasing your audience substantially.
Update your audience regularly:
Now that you’ve done so much to capture a larger audience to read your articles and be more visible to them, it’s time for some maintenance. This means that you keep writing at periodic intervals without a gap so that you and your site are both relevant.
Work on your competitors’ weaknesses:
Keep an eye and a ear out to find out about your competitors’ weaknesses so that you can work on them and make them your strengths. This will give you quicker results with minimal effort and competition.
Build relations with your competitors:
Believe that there’s enough room for everyone under this big, vast blue sky. Use this belief to work with your competitors, at least in a limited way. For instance, since your area of business is the same, you already have something in common.
So, you could well offer your competitors a guest posting opportunity on your site concerning industry matters. You can also amass both your social media resources so that your combined social circles will increase substantially and increase the chances of your content being not just seen but talked about too.
To start with, you can comment on each other’s posts, share them, retweet them and even make jokes about them. Not only will your competitors love the new and vibrant visibility, but they will also respond similarly.
This activity will lead to much more exposure for both your brands and more relevance in terms of search engines. It will also give you a new platform for creating more back links, greater interactions and engagements.
Consequently, you will have a lot more domain authority now and with better rankings and a far better knowledge of your customers and how to reach them. Though this means giving your competitors more exposure, yet the long-term benefits for you are far more than what you give them.
Conclusion:
Now that you know the full scope of SEO, you can take control of your website and use all the pointers given here to gain better visibility online and on search engine rankings. But if you are a bit puzzled about how to go about it, take that first step by getting in touch with a good SEO company. Then, leave the rest to them.
About the Author: Maulik Patel is the managing director at Blurbpoint Media. His passion for helping people in all aspects of online marketing flows through in the expert industry coverage he provides. In addition, Maulik also run the HireSEOAgency, helping businesses with local SEO, link building, content marketing and paid advertising.