5 ways to beat the SEO competition in Google

If you are wondering why your competitors are ranking above you in Google on highly trafficed keywords, it is probably because you are missing a key part in the SEO equation.

To start outperforming your peers on the search engines, I suggest following these five steps:

1.    Build credibility with Google

Before attempting to rank on a highly trafficked keyword (i.e “Furniture”) you first need to build your credibility with Google. This means you should be seen as relevant source for “furniture” and gain rankings on related niche keywords. Niche keywords have lower SEO competition, hence are easier to rank on.

2.    Find the niches in Google

For furniture, among the many possibilities, we would suggest going for “Ducal Furniture”. This is because it attracts a good number of searches and only has 16,000 sites competing for this keyword in Google UK, compared to 1.3m for “Furniture”. This will be a lot easier to rank on with the right on-site optimisation techniques (i.e meta tags, keyword themes, article marketing).

To find this competition information, look at the number of results that appear for a keyword in Google. This can be a time consuming process, but something that can be outsourced these days.

3.    Produce unique content

To get a ranking on these niche keywords, or any keyword, you must obey the golden rule: produce unique content. Otherwise Google will penalise your site. I have spoken to a lot of webmasters who have moaned about their Google rankings dropping, until I have pointed out the duplicate content on their site.

There are ways to scan for duplicate content on your pages by cutting and pasting your sentences into Google, or using bespoke software systems to automate this for you.

4.    Get technical

Search engine optimisation is certainly not a dark art - it is a science, and you just need to make sure that technically all ticks are in the right boxes for SEO. Given the SEO detail involved on each page on your site, we suggest upgrading to a Content Management System (CMS) that can easily be managed and allow you to rapidly create content.

Within three months of setting up a website using our CMS solution, a client of ours, thejetskireview.com, attracted 3,000 visitors. A CMS  can be seen as a rigid system by some because of its standard templating system, but it can sit in a directory on your site like ours which allows you flexibility on other parts of your site. We use Dreamweaver for the front pages.

5.    Keyword Links, Keyword Links, keyword Links

It is important that you are seen by others as the expert in the field for a particular subject. To do this use keyword links, which are the most powerful form of links available. Instead of a link like www.webefforts.co.uk, a link on a keyword like search engine marketing company will produce far better results. Getting these from other high ranking sites is very important, and will help you pip your competitors at the post in Google. There are various techniques we use to do this, but these are beyond the scope of this article.

I hope this guide helps you identify any part of SEO equation that maybe missing for you, and hopefully achieve the desired result of ranking your site above the competition’s on Google.

This is not a definitive guide, but more search engine marketing techniques can be learned by reading a sample SEO report at http://www.webefforts.co.uk/WebEfforts_Report.pdf.

Related links:
Video: Dr Dave Chaffey talks about SEO quick wins

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