Competition are SEO experts

How on earth to beat them?

[davewray]

Just a little musing here. I am in an industry where competition is feirce, and not only that, very educated in the world of SEO and optimization. They've got everything accounted for, you name it! For now, I think they've got the upper edge based on two factors. They have more incoming links to their pages with the right anchor text. And, they've been around longer than I have (age factor). Is there anything I can do besides wait and add more links to have a better chance at moving up in the SERP's? The top 20 spots are all taken by "SEO experts". TIA!

Dave.

[deejay]

"An EX is a has-been and a SPURT is just a drip under pressure"

So said someone to me many years ago when I was feeling a bit intimidated by an expert.

All things are relative, Dave... they look like experts to you now, but if your skills were that much better and you were beating them they'd be just another SEO, right?

So get better than them. Study them, study here, and work on your site. No reason why you can't beat them.

<add> Should also have said study your own site. It's the only place where you have true control and understanding of the variables. Very, very valuable. </add>

[digitalghost]

>>besides wait

Yes. Don't go head to head on the top phrases. Instead, go after all those second-tier phrases and capture all of them. Keep adding content, study your logs and expand on every phrase you see that nets a few referrals per month.

You want traffic that converts, and you don't need to capture all the traffic for the most popular phrases. You can smoke the competition and never appear in the top ten for those "glitter words".

<edit_typo />

[edited by: digitalghost at 4:37 am (utc) on Sep. 29, 2003]

[buckworks]

You can smoke the competition and never appear in the top ten for those "glitter words".

So true, so true! Something else to consider is that traffic from a broad base of little terms will tend to be more stable, less vulnerable to algo shifts or new competitors arriving on the scene.

[davewray]

Wow, great advice guys! I will definately try and hit "lesser" keyphrases now. You know, not only do I have logs that indicate what keywords people are using to find my site, I also have a search box on my site where I can log in and see what people are looking for when already on my site. I really should use that information to my best advantage! Thanks again :)

Dave.

[sun818]

Hi Dave, here's a related thread that gives you a concrete example:

How do you beat heavy competition...
...for relevent search phrases? [webmasterworld.com]

[davewray]

Sun818...Great thread, thank-you for sharing that! :) Exactly what I'm looking for.