In Search, Your Competition Isn’t Who You Think
Posted on 04. Aug, 2011 by Lee Odden in Blog, competition, Search Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
“Who are your competitors?” asks the Online Marketing consultant to the new SEO client. “Company XYZ and 123″ says the VP of Marketing. The consultant goes to Google and does a few searches on the key solutions offered by the client’s business. Company XYZ and Company 123 are nowhere to be found in the search results.
This situation happens a lot in the search marketing world. Companies tend to see competitors solely as who they bump up against when going after new business, or who prospects say they are also considering. But in the search world, the competition extends beyond other companies in your industry. It also includes any kind of content or information source that appears in search results wherever prospects are looking.
Accounting for the fact that search results or SERPs can vary by your location, logged in/out status and other settings, let’s say that a search for the new SEO client’s key topics reveals that the “competition” in search results includes lesser known players who have invested smartly in good Search Engine Optimization as well as entries from 3rd party information sources like Wikipedia, Videos from YouTube, News items from Google News and a smattering of Government and University websites. That’s not the competitive mix the sales team is thinking of, but content that can attract prospects away from discovering and consuming your marketing content is potentially a lost sale.
If your search competition isn’t your competition in the industry, what do you do differently?
Understanding and tracking the landscape of search results can reveal numerous opportunities to gain visibility on the first page of Google while the brand’s SEO effort optimizes, socializes and builds links to achieve it’s own top organic search visibility. While it always makes sense to pay attention to industry competition, if those same companies are not your competitors within Google search results, don’t get distracted. Focus on the SERPs!
How to gain to benefit from other people’s SERPs:
For example, let’s say the search results distribution is as follows:
- #1 – Wikipedia entry
- #2 and #3 are industry competitors
- #4 and #5 are news stories on the topic
- #6 and #8 are blog posts
- #7 is another industry competitor
- #9 and #10 are articles from a Universities.
If the company has a page on Wikipedia already with citations on the topic in question, then there may be a potential edit possible on the page for the search term citing the brand’s blog or more likely their contribution to research published in a mainstream media publication (or similar). Companies are not supposed to edit their own pages. Also, if your company doesn’t have top shelf, third party citations, move on.
The news story pages should be checked as well as the blog posts to see if commenting functionality is enabled. If so, the brand marketer might add a highly valuable comment with a link back to the corporate blog or to a specific piece of useful content about the subject that they’ve published. The objective is to create awareness and for relevant referring traffic. Example: Someone searches on a keyword phrase, they visit the article page, see your comment and click on the provided link and are now on your website. All without your website itself ranking well for the target phrase.
Further, on the blog it may be worthwhile to see if there’s a guest posting opportunity. If the blog has a post that’s already doing well on the topic, another compelling post on the topic may have an opportunity to do well also. You might even consider hiring the blogger to write an article for you and you can give them the OK to cross post to their own blog, as long as they link to the version on your own site.
The University articles are trickier, but imagine one of them is rather out dated. It’s possible that the brand marketer could create an updated version of the article following the same writing style and include an author bio or credit that links back to deeper resources on the brand’s blog or resource center. This has to be very non-commercial.
These are just a few ideas to get mentioned on the pages that already show well for important industry search terms, ie your “search competition” while the SEO effort works to Optimize and Socialize brand content to rank well on its own.
Understanding the difference between Industry Competition and Search Competition is key to taking effective SEO strategy. The things a brand marketer can do with their SEO program to gain visibility on competing, non-commercial web pages can attract direct traffic as well as provide signal that will be useful in building top visibility for brand content in search.
Have you ever had challenges with defining the competition in an online marketing effort? Have you encountered brand marketers that refuse to accept the difference between search results competition and industry competitors?
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. |
In Search, Your Competition Isn’t Who You Think | http://www.toprankblog.com
In Search, Your Competition Isn’t Who You Think
Posted on 04. Aug, 2011 by Lee Odden in Blog, competition, Search Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
“Who are your competitors?” asks the Online Marketing consultant to the new SEO client. “Company XYZ and 123″ says the VP of Marketing. The consultant goes to Google and does a few searches on the key solutions offered by the client’s business. Company XYZ and Company 123 are nowhere to be found in the search results.
This situation happens a lot in the search marketing world. Companies tend to see competitors solely as who they bump up against when going after new business, or who prospects say they are also considering. But in the search world, the competition extends beyond other companies in your industry. It also includes any kind of content or information source that appears in search results wherever prospects are looking.
Accounting for the fact that search results or SERPs can vary by your location, logged in/out status and other settings, let’s say that a search for the new SEO client’s key topics reveals that the “competition” in search results includes lesser known players who have invested smartly in good Search Engine Optimization as well as entries from 3rd party information sources like Wikipedia, Videos from YouTube, News items from Google News and a smattering of Government and University websites. That’s not the competitive mix the sales team is thinking of, but content that can attract prospects away from discovering and consuming your marketing content is potentially a lost sale.
If your search competition isn’t your competition in the industry, what do you do differently?
Understanding and tracking the landscape of search results can reveal numerous opportunities to gain visibility on the first page of Google while the brand’s SEO effort optimizes, socializes and builds links to achieve it’s own top organic search visibility. While it always makes sense to pay attention to industry competition, if those same companies are not your competitors within Google search results, don’t get distracted. Focus on the SERPs!
How to gain benefit from other people’s SERPs:
For example, let’s say the search results distribution is as follows:
- #1 – Wikipedia entry
- #2 and #3 are industry competitors
- #4 and #5 are news stories on the topic
- #6 and #8 are blog posts
- #7 is another industry competitor
- #9 and #10 are articles from a Universities.
If the company has a page on Wikipedia already with citations on the topic in question, then there may be a potential edit possible on the page for the search term citing the brand’s blog or more likely their contribution to research published in a mainstream media publication (or similar). Companies are not supposed to edit their own pages. Also, if your company doesn’t have top shelf, third party citations, move on.
The news story pages should be checked as well as the blog posts to see if commenting functionality is enabled. If so, the brand marketer might add a highly valuable comment with a link back to the corporate blog or to a specific piece of useful content about the subject that they’ve published. The objective is to create awareness and for relevant referring traffic. Example: Someone searches on a keyword phrase, they visit the article page, see your comment and click on the provided link and are now on your website. All without your website itself ranking well for the target phrase.
Further, on the blog it may be worthwhile to see if there’s a guest posting opportunity. If the blog has a post that’s already doing well on the topic, another compelling post on the topic may have an opportunity to do well also. You might even consider hiring the blogger to write an article for you and you can give them the OK to cross post to their own blog, as long as they link to the version on your own site.
The University articles are trickier, but imagine one of them is rather out dated. It’s possible that the brand marketer could create an updated version of the article following the same writing style and include an author bio or credit that links back to deeper resources on the brand’s blog or resource center. This has to be very non-commercial.
These are just a few ideas to get mentioned on the pages that already show well for important industry search terms, ie your “search competition” while the SEO effort works to Optimize and Socialize brand content to rank well on its own.
Understanding the difference between Industry Competition and Search Competition is key to taking effective SEO strategy. The things a brand marketer can do with their SEO program to gain visibility on competing, non-commercial web pages can attract direct traffic as well as provide signal that will be useful in building top visibility for brand content in search.
Have you ever had challenges with defining the competition in an online marketing effort? Have you encountered brand marketers that refuse to accept the difference between search results competition and industry competitors?
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. |
In Search, Your Competition Isn’t Who You Think | http://www.toprankblog.com
There is No Place for SEO Complacency
Posted on 20. Jul, 2011 by Jeffrey Smith in Blog, competition, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
For every dollar you spend on SEO, there is a competitor spending 10 to 1000 times that amount to neutralize your efforts and own the most coveted top 3 spots for that keyword.
Are You Serious About SEO?
This leads to the next question. Are you serious about SEO? If so, then how serious are you? Do you have what it takes to chip away at competitive keywords inching your way to the top?
Despite the fact it was created over 2 years ago, this old article from the archives still holds true to this day. Follow the link and enjoy the post >>> Are You Serious About SEO <<<
Stay tuned for other blog highlights this week as we showcase some of our stellar posts from the past.
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A Disturbing Trend in Internet Marketing
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Michel Fortin in affiliate, behavior, Blog, commentator, competition, controversy, failure, fake, focus, FTC, guru, Joel Comm, Opinions, pressure, question, racketeering, ray edwards, responsibility, Ryan Healy, scam, scarcity, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, success, training, transparency
A recent blog post has stirred quite a lot of controversy. It specifically made some stark accusations about a certain number of marketers who appear to be colluding.
Some call it unethical. Others call it smart business. And a few go as far as calling it an illegal cartel that should be charged with breaking racketeering and anti-trust laws.
I don’t know if it’s true or not, so I won’t comment on it directly. And I’m not a lawyer by any stretch.
But I can comment on what we observe. And we can certainly observe a few things that are rather obvious. For example, if you’re subscribed to several of these marketers’ lists, even if only a handful, then I’m confident you’ve noticed some recurring trends.
(Let’s call them “musical-chair product launches.” Oh, and let’s not forget the once pricey product you paid a marketer just a few weeks ago now being given away for free as a bonus to buying from their affiliate link during someone else’s product launch.)
Personally, I don’t think it’s wrong for competitors to partner up as to time their product releases separately. (I’ll come back to the term “competition” later, as it is important.) To a certain degree, this is definitely smart business.
The question is, at which point can this specific situation be deemed illegal or not? The answer is arguable — and by arguable, I mean in a court of law. But blogger Antone Roundy said it best, when he shared the following insight, which I agree with…
“But if they’re promoting each other regardless of product quality or value for the price, that’s unethical at best. And if they’re agreeing to a pricing scheme or taking products off the market during other peoples’ launch periods to reduce competition, I’d expect the FTC to be breathing down their necks really soon.”
This is what seems to be happening here. We can debate the legality of it. But illegal or not, it’s definitely unethical. Even if it is legal, the appearance of impropriety alone is enough to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths. It certainly does in mine.
After my wife’s controversial report, Internet Marketing Sins, which she released over two years ago, you can say that a line in the sand has been drawn. Since then, a number of marketers have expressed on which side of that they now stand.
To name a few — I’m linking to their specific posts wherever possible — there are people like Joel Comm, Ryan Healy, Ray Edwards, Dan Gallapoo, and many more. (Funny how many of them are copywriters, eh?) The numbers seem to be steadily growing, too.
(If you have 45 minutes, listen to this podcast by Randy Cantrell.)
We’ve also seen the emergence of a growing number of consumer advocacy and personal opinion blogs that are entirely dedicated to being critical of unethical marketing practices, and exposing deceptive and dishonest business activities.
Aside from The Salty Droid mentioned at the beginning, others include Patrick Pretty, Lost Ball In High Weeds, Dont Step In The Poop, and many, many others.
Do I like them? To be candid, some blogs — and especially some of the commentators on these blogs — are caustic, jarring, and vile. Some are a bit too toxic for my taste.
But while I may not like them, I don’t necessarily blame them. After all, they didn’t just appear out of nowhere with the sole intent to make marketers’ lives miserable. Many of these types of anti-scam blogs were created as a result of a personal, bad experience.
Plus, they can easily polarize people.
Many disgruntled consumers who are attracted to these blogs have grown highly cynical, suspicious, and resentful. So it’s only natural they voice their grievances on them.
But what frightens me is that the voice of genuine scam victims are muffled by a small yet vocal minority of anti-marketing extremists who spew their venom senselessly.
These pitchfork-wielding protesters seem hellbent on destroying any levelheaded discussion. They flame anyone who voices any opposing views, and rabidly pounce on anyone who might want to take a stab at having an intelligent, sensible argument.
I’ve seen some bigoted commentators bash others in an attempt to manipulate, irritate, and denigrate. This is childish behavior, and it defeats the purpose. They should focus on the issues, and not on whether someone is overweight, effeminate, or disabled.
Focus on what they do, not who they are.
Nevertheless, I often want to join in on the conversation myself, but I stop short of doing so because I fear what I say will fall on deaf ears — if not get drowned by a handful of witch-hunting McCarthyists who trawl around for any faint smell of blood.
Now, this doesn’t mean the other side is innocent, either.
Namecalling and ad hominem attacks occur on both sides.
I’ve seen a lot of venom spewed from proponents of these marketers. Genuine scam victims continue to be victimized through what appears to be concerted efforts of another vocal minority who feel that some of the marketers singled out are beyond reproach.
Some have gone to the extent of saying that scam victims are really the ones to blame. They say things like “caveat emptor (buyer beware),” “they’re jealous or envious of those who make money,” “they need to take responsibility for their actions,” etc.
Sure. Just like women wearing provocative clothing are looking to get raped, right? Ugh.
Granted, the market should bear some of the responsibility. Plus, I definitely agree there are trolls out there who just want someone to blame for their failures and inadequacies.
But caveat emptor is a weak argument when it seems to be used as a means to exclude the responsibility of others. Counter-blaming your customers should never nullify your actions when you blatantly prey on the market’s relentless dream for the magic pill.
Caveat emptor is not some loophole to take advantage of the vulnerable.
Just because you robbed a bank that had no alarm system doesn’t mean the bank is in the wrong because they lacked security. A robbery is still a robbery.
And it’s still wrong.
The question is, where does the vicious circle stop?
If the blame should be split 50/50, then so should the solution be split 50/50, too. Marketers should stop selling magic-pill solutions to a market who’s desperate for help. And the market should stop chasing the dream by buying into magic-pill solutions.
As we know, there is no such thing as a magic pill. If they keep chasing it, they will murder any chances of achieving true success. And sometimes, that can be quite literal.
As long as there will be a market for magic-pill solutions, there will always be marketers willing to provide it to them. So aside from more laws and regulations, which I’m not a fan of, achieving a compromise is a challenge, particularly when both sides are greedy.
So another and perhaps more effective solution is: education.
Educate the market on what to look out for and avoid, as well as educate those who are learning how to market and may think of modeling such unethical practices.
In my estimation, too many marketing products out there are just snake oil. Period.
I understand and appreciate that buyers should beware, that they should do their due diligence, that they should take their time and investigate before jumping in. Agreed.
But fake scarcity ploys during high-pressure product launches remove any chance for the market to appreciate what exactly is being sold. It reduces their ability to think critically, investigate the offer adequately, and make an intelligent buying decision.
So education is powerful. And these blogs, while harsh in some cases, are vital.
Let me end with this. Antone Roundy’s comment about gathering with other marketers to time product releases being a smart business practice is right. After all, that’s why many associations exist. But I agree this works only up to a point.
I’m far from being a lawyer, but if it is unacceptable when products are taken off the market, as Antone said, then that’s exactly what seems to be happening here. In fact, these are not “product releases.” They are not even product launches, for that matter.
They are simply close-ended sales events.
But let’s take a closer look at what constitutes “competition,” and how it applies, here. Defined, competition is: “the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favorable terms.”
Whether the people in this group of marketers are acting independently is debatable. The question is, are they truly competing against one and other? In other words, are these guys truly competitors? This is something I think any court will need to define.
But here’s my take. They sell information, true. And it can be argued that information is not really competitive. For example, just because I bought a Stephen King novel doesn’t preclude me from buying an Anne Rice novel at the same time.
One can sell information on, say, affiliate marketing while the other on, say, traffic generation. So they are not quite “competitors.” But herein lies the problem…
Marketers are not authors selling their information. They are more like publishing houses selling information products. Yes, products. And as publishing houses — and again, I’m no lawyer — they seem to be colluding to some degree.
Even the term “information products” is debatable, too. Because the “products” most gurus sell today aren’t really information. In actuality, what they’re selling are business opportunities packaged as information and sold under the guise of training systems.
Again, this is just my opinion. I always want to look at both sides of an issue before I form an opinion. And in this case, after everything I’ve seen, all I can say is that the whole musical-chair product launch game just doesn’t smell right to me.
A Disturbing Trend in Internet Marketing originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
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