We recently lost the #1 spot for one of our keywords to a huge, multi-million dollar competitor. We're in the #2 spot now... but what should we do? Do we attack other keywords that are currently ranked lower (2nd and 3rd page), or go after the #1 spot again for this keyword? They've launched a pretty large SEO campaign over the past year, but we have been working on it longer than they have. However, they VASTLY outbudget us, and VASTLY outsize us (by nearly 10,000%). Can we even compete? They've got huge brand recognition and market penetration, so I believe that people will grow tired of them, and perhaps prefer the #2 result - though the #1 result is always a better place to be. Any help or suggestions?
Wow, that sucks. What is the difference in traffic between #1 and #2? And will getting onto page 1 for the other keywords offset the traffic loss? It may be a better idea to go after the other keywords as a short term strategy while working on getting back to #1 as a long term strategy.
Analyze the competitors backlinks and compare them to yours. See where you fall short. Go and try to get backlinks from every single one of their backlinks. Sure, you wont get them all, b ut it helps to get as many as possible and then analyze why you might have got your spot taken. Is it number of links, is it the trust they have links from, is it related to how many links have high PR.....just see what you can figure out and try to correct it asap.
Tell them you will sell them your site for $1million. Ya never know. You can tell them they can save money since they will have their #1 competitor out of the way. Cant hurt!
To be honest I would not be bothered the amount of traffic difference between 1st and second is near enough nothing in most cases as most people who are looking for things will checkout the top few anyway, I know 99% of the searches I do I look at the top 3 out of the results so I can compare and such. I would definatly just look at doing better in other search terms for your trade as doing better in all search terms to do with your site will get you much more traffic than the difference beteween 1st and 2nd on one search term.
Make sure customers notice your titles over your competitors... Whatever they offer, try to beat their price... Build up on links on subpages and for other keywords... Ad content and keep on working on those importants keywords...
We lost about 46% of the traffic when we moved from #1 to #2. Yes, it looks like the total volume for multiple #1 rankings will exceed the volume for this one particular ranking, even though it's a pretty prominent keyword. Thanks for the idea, ShaunG - I've used this technique for some of our other less prominent competitors, to make sure that we stay ahead of them. Unfortunately, this one has well over 50,000 inbound links according to Yahoo, and it's tough to sort them by order of importance. Anyone have any suggestions about tools to use for this?
I recommend installing SEOQuake for mozilla or IE.....this way when you pull your competitors backlinks, at least you can see the PR, amt of links, age of domain, etc for all of their backlinks.
sometimes losing the traffic is not losing the revenue. first site gets lot of impulse clicks and people get out to vist the next one. it is actually the 2nd and 3rd results which make more sell than the first one. there are exception tho. i see you lost traffic, but how about sale? is it possible to beat your competitor and retgain your previous spot?
lost 46% traffic is normal. The traffic difference between the first and second position is always high
I've seen some blatant algorithm changes w/ google...I know exacty what they are and what needs to be done to get into that next spot.
Shaun, link building is much more difficult than this. My seo got a site ranked no one for a very tough business related keyword and if you look at his links they dont look like anything special but he has a talent for uncovering the true worth of a link and he does it at a reasonable price. Im planning on a huge project with him and as soon as im done we both retire. When he talks about search engines its as if they are his girlfriends lol. checking a competitors links is good but to take it to the next level is much more complicated.
pingpong, i agree. I was just recommending something to do for losing 1 place in the search engines to a competitor if he has not already done it. i did not mean it to be the only solution for link building.
When this happens to me here is what I do. Declare war. Know you are the better player; outsmart them at their own game and do it with less money and more brain power. Get more one-way relevant links, but take a look over your content. Content is KING. I would also go after the long tail searches. There is more money to be made in the long tail than for the main KW. Take a look at what they are doing "better" and strive to make your site outshine theirs. What do they have for title, description and page content? How does your's compare? If I'm a consumer what would make me pick their site over yours?
I would attack other keywords that are currently ranked lower I would also slowly keep fighting for #1. The big competitor may slack off over time and you may be able to regain the #1 spot.
It really depends on how that traffic is converting, just because it's sending you tons of traffic doesn't mean you should be focusing all your efforts on that keyword. Big companies generally go after the big keywords and forget about the long tail (in their eyes that traffic is so minimal it's not worth it.) so perhaps you should still target that main keyword with your on site SEO and focus your link building attempts on the long tail. (Generally with search terms only getting a few hits a day, a few solid links with targetted anchor text will do.) You'll probably find that those keywords will convert better for you as well.