Best tips needed to compete in SEO industry? (Thank you in advance)

[asbchris]

Hello Moz Friends,

So I wanted to ask for your friendly tips.

Im in Colorado and my competition has business names like Colorado SEO and then one company owns like 5 of the top 10 Google ranked sites under different names.

Im an honest guy, but how does someone compete in a crazy competitive industry?

How about you? Did you start at the very bottom and never got to the top?

Or did you outrank the leaders?

I know seo people are smart, but it's easy to wonder if there is any room left?

So just wondering your success or failure stories with competing in a competitive market online

Any tips are appreciated!

Chris

[KevnJr]

Chris,

It's the competition that makes SEO great! Embrace this challenge and your rewards will follow.

1. On-Page SEO - use the Moz page optimization tool
2. Quality Content - I know it's an over used term, but it's true
3. Blog - write about what you know, become the expert to your audience by answering questions and invoking responses
4. Back links - this seems to be controversial, but bottom line is: Quality over Quantity

This helped us in 2 very competitive markets for "Signs Charlotte" & "Commercial Printer DC" it may help you too.

KJr

[Chris_Hickman]

Hey Chris,

Fellow Coloradoan here, first I would like to mention it can be very difficult to out rank some businesses no matter what the industry is. Of course SEO is going to be competitive and it can be very difficult to get a new site out ranking businesses that have been around for years. My suggestion would be to look into alternative keywords that you could possibly go after.

I've ran into situations where clients ask about a specific keyword and we have to be honest and tell them it would take quite a while to reach the desired position. Some times you need to come to terms with the competition of a keyword. Now every keyword is possible, the amount of work varies.

Hope this helps.

Nick

Adficient.com

[BlueCorona]

Hi Chris!

I know how you must be feeling—trying to take on a competitor that is ranking very well can be daunting. But believe me, it can be done!

Here are some suggestions to get your company ranking on page one AND outranking the competition:

• Local SEO - I know you know how information this is, but don't push this to the back burner. Get your local citations as tight and consistent as they can possibly be.
• Content - This is an obvious one, but continue creating new and unique content for your website! Make sure you are generating content that is helpful for users and proves that you are THE authority in the area. The more direct your responses, the more likely you are to rank—and maybe even land a Google direct answers spot!
• Videos - Google likes to display a wide variety of media in its search results—including videos. A video is 60 percent more likely to get ranked in a search result than a landing page on the same topic.
• Images - Optimizing the images on your site can help you get on the first page of Google when it displays image results.
• Microsites - A microsite (sometimes called a minisite) is a website used to supplement a company or organization’s primary domain. More often than not, the microsite will have a URL distinct of the primary domain and has its own unique design and navigation. Microsites can help you target different buyer personas, appear more relevant and authoritative, as well as get multiple listings in organic search results.
• News - Putting press releases out for your business can potentially score you a spot in the News section of Google, particularly for branded terms.

We wrote a blog about getting your business on the first page of Google, so be sure to read that for more in depth information than I shared above!

Let me know if you have any other questions—hope this helped!