Search engines like Google, rank websites on the basis of a lot of parameters such as the relevance of content, user and platform-friendliness of the landing pages, backlinks, etc. While some of the things website owners can tweak or optimize to improve the ranking of their websites such as the website content, user experience, and generation of authentic backlinks, there are other things that they can not always have control over.
Search engines give a higher weightage to the searcher’s intention while deciding the order or ranking in which to list down websites relevant to the search query. The search engine can never know the intention of the searcher thoroughly, so it makes guesses and predictions based on the probability of a particular case as being the intention of a searcher’s query.
What this means is that it may be suggested that it seems to be next to impossible algorithmically to get your website to rank at the top of the search engine results page if yours is a new, unranked or a low-rank website. It does not mean that SEO is not of value for your website. It is in fact, just the opposite.
The main purpose of SEO is not just to improve the ranking of your website on search engine results pages but also to provide your website organic exposure via the search engines. To achieve this you can also use the ranking authority of other websites which are highly ranked to redirect referral traffic which is organic in nature to your website.
Let us see in detail as to when you should do it and how you can achieve this:
A smart strategy to deal with highly competitive keywords
Trying to rank a website while targeting highly competitive keywords is a very uphill task especially when the website has no ranking authority for such keywords. But that does not mean that you should give up on these keywords. These are competitive because these are extremely valuable.
Instead of giving up, try opting for workarounds that can help you achieve your goal which is primarily to drive organic traffic to your website for keywords relevant to your business. There are two tactics that you can adopt:
- Sponsor the content: Reach out to a website which has a high ranking authority on the keywords you are targeting and offer to sponsor one of their posts. Negotiate and zero in on a monthly payment rate in exchange for them allowing you to tag the contents of that post with a call to action that links back to your website.
- Guest posts: The trick mentioned above may not work every time as some of the websites you approach for such a negotiation may refuse. So, to give yourself another option, you can offer to write a guest post for their website. You will have to justify that move by substantiating how it will be relevant to their website and why people will find it engaging. You can again, tag the content with a relevant CTA that should redirect to an appropriate landing page on your website
Using these tactics not only gives you immediate ranking authority for competitive keywords but also helps you expand your reach and enhance the credibility to business or brand by providing you with good and genuine links.
Target ‘brand-alternative’ keywords
A big brand in any segment will always dominate search engine results pages for keywords relevant to that segment. If you have to compete with that brand for similar keywords, you will find it hard to improve your website’s rank vis-a-vis that brand by adopting conventional SEO techniques.
Being a big brand has drawbacks as well. People are often found looking for alternatives. They actually search for terms such as ‘XYZ brand alternative’. They can also be found searching for alternative to specific services or products a big brand offers.
You need to capitalise and cash-in on such brand-alternative keywords and base your content strategy around projective your brand as an alternative. It will be a good idea to approach high-ranking websites or authors who post ‘listicle-style’ articles focused on brand alternatives and to try and convince them to add you to relevant posts.
Doing so will let you target such alternative keywords really well and increase the chances of your website showing up higher in search results for those keywords. Such a pitch, usually has low success rates and hence you may look at including a value proposition while making the pitch to make it more appealing.
Target the ‘best’ keywords differently
Ranking high in search results for the keywords such as “best pizza place” or “best gym in New York” will be a dream-come-true for relevant businesses. However, since these are highly competitive keywords, it is going to be extremely difficult and may take you years to rank higher up if you are just starting up.
So, how should you target these keywords? Since conventional SEO strategies will not work here, you need to innovate and there are a couple of tactics you can try:
- Target “best of” keywords: Look for existing articles and posts which are ranking for the “best of” keywords you are targeting and approach them to include you in them. You will have to make a pitch that should have some value proposition for the other party too such as a fee, free meals or discounted meals if you are in the food industry, gifts or discount offers if you are into e-commerce etc.
- Local PR for links: You will have to approach authors who write on relevant topics and local journalists to request them for future inclusion in their relevant posts or to feature in newsletters that contain listings that target “best of” keywords.
Make use of the techniques that we have explained above in detail to improve organic traffic on your website. Stay tuned to our blog to get more such content. We regularly post SEO related blogs for people who want to learn its intricacies.