The business that holds the top position in Google is virtually guaranteed to command the market.
The #1 spot in Google is the result of long-term search engine marketing strategies, powerful business practices, and social media campaigns. The top position in Google reaps many rewards from increased traffic to greater perceived authority.
Your competitors are cut-throat and will do whatever they can to reach the coveted top position in Google. However, you can play the game too; this is how to outrank your competition.
Phase 1: Discover Your Competitors
The first step to outranking your competition is to understand what you’ll be up against.
Start by researching terms that define your industry.
During this search, pay special attention to which of your competitors rank well for the targeted terms. Likewise, check out the ad blocks to see which businesses advertise.
Finally, set up notifications and keep tabs on your competition on social media platforms to see who the major players are in your market are. Note their presence, activity, and engagement.
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Collect and compile the information you’ve gathered into an easily referenced spreadsheet. Include details about your competition such as search positions, keyword usage, product/service offers, social mentions, reviews, and the like.
You can also use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to pull up valuable data about the competition. This dataset, combined with your own research, will give create a complete overview of your competitor’s presence.
Phase 2: Create a solid USP, Mission, Culture, and Website
The next action to outrank your competitors is to optimize your web presence and business practices.
A unique selling point is what defines your products or services; it explains what makes your offerings different from the competitors.
The USP is your chance to declare what you don’t like about your competitors and why your product is the obvious choice for customers. Your USP should also reflect your company culture and share a human side to your business; this lets people create an emotional connection that they may not receive from your competitors.
Secondly, take a look at your mission statement and overall business culture to see if the two are aligned.
Businesses seem to rarely act as how they have outlined themselves in their mission statement. Wouldn’t it be nice to deal with a business that’s true to their cause?
Make sure that your business is remarkable from the inside out; develop a culture that spreads from your employees to the customers. Reinforce your mission statement with examples of your company culture at work. Really go above and beyond at championing what you’re about – because this creates a powerful image for your brand.
Finally, optimize your website for search engines and copywriting. Avoid industry terms that are rarely used by your end-user: the customer. Speak as you normally would. Test and improve your website navigation, design, and copywriting to reflect everything that your customer desires; focus on the benefits, not just the features.
Creating a solid foundation for your business is absolutely crucial to ensure that you stand out from the competition and that any further actions will have the greatest return on investment.
Phase 3: Develop a Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing is the use of multimedia to create a substantial web presence in various mediums and channels on the web. In basic terms, its use of blogging, social media interaction, video production, podcasting, and any other form of media to improve your website ranking in search engines and give your community something to share on social media.
Content marketing is the backbone of the Web.
An advertising campaign, today, will only run as long as you can continue to pay for its budget. However, content creation is a long-term strategy because every piece of content you create, for the web, becomes indexed in search engines, gives your community something to share on social media, and boosts your presence in search engines like Google.
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Content creation, alone, is not enough to outrank your competitors.
A robust strategy is required to tip past your competitors and snag their search engine rankings. A strategy is a publication schedule that gives you insight as to the type of content you will be creating, publishing, and how it all interconnects to give users the ability to explore deep into your website.
A content marketing strategy will be the culmination of feedback and research, from your community, to deliver content that will be attractive to targeted leads.
The content will be used to draw in interested leads, supply valuable information which displays expertise in your industry, and stimulate them to take further action to either buy or subscribe to your business.
Strategic content creation and publication will create additional web pages indexed within Google; these will be additional entry paths for customers to find your business. Likewise, your content will be picked up and shared within social media circles which results in additional brand awareness and website traffic.
Phase 4: Become an Authority in Social Media
Social media is a channel for community interaction that few businesses utilize and even fewer fully pull out the potential. Social media is a revolution for business; it has given the power back to the customer but equally so to the small business owner.
Social media allow you to create one-to-one connections with your community and customers.
Harness it.
Your competition may have a social media presence but it’s rare they fully understand the platform to improve their business. You can use social media to gain an edge against your competition and use the power of the channel to help your business increase its rank in Google.
Google’s initiative, since its beginning, has been to provide its users with the optimal web experience. Since social is so integral to the Web experience – it makes perfect sense that Google would factor that into your online authority and presence.
Here’s another neat thing:
The content you create and share on social media is rapidly indexed and viewed. This is often way sooner than what you’re doing on your site – so if you’re not seeing pages indexed fast then make sure you’re getting them shared on social.
Also, use social media to connect with your community.
Each connection creates a new opportunity to find brand ambassadors which may result in these active community members writing about your business on their websites and sharing your brand within their communities.
Phase 5: Capitalize with Online Advertising and Marketing
Lead the charge in brand awareness while online businesses pull back from advertising.
Your competitor’s lack of marketing funds creates a wide-open road for you to take charge and set yourself out in front of the industry. Capitalize on business with online advertising channels like Google Ads, banners, contextual ads, social media marketing, and more.
Use every channel to reach your market – try new things!
Sign up for Amazon and sell your products on their platform, start an affiliate program to turn your customers into salespeople, develop niche websites to offer your services, use eBay to reach huge market segments; there are hundreds of these types of platforms out there waiting for you.
Get To It!
Every action your business takes creates a cumulative effect.
What you do today will continue reaping rewards whether that’s the content you create, the social presence you build, or the sales you generate. All of it works together in helping you outrank your competition in Google.
That said – get to it!
