Although my niche is not highly competitive, its still competitive, and in 2 years time, my site took the bulk of the overall high search keywords results. Afterward, I wrote an advice page about what I did to reach that stage. Lately, I replaced that page with one about organically driven traffic... Business cards, Radio ads, Flyers, Brochures That's if there are an abundance of competing websites in the city, for the same trade or business. Because the rush for search engine ranking has become like the gold rush of the old days. Suppose 80 companies are hire the same "best" webmaster of them all, who of them will get the top 4 positions, if the same genius tweaks all of their pages to the max. The key with the organics, is to make it an art, and its the most underestimated and least written about strategies. Take business cards. I have a huge folder of business cards, and only 1 in 100 businesses has the URL printed large. Usually, its small and last. My website has so much info, I'm almost considering omitting my phone number from my business cardes once I move back to Portland, where virtually everybody is internet Saavy. At minimum, I'll do my URL in like 24 point font, and my phone numbers in tiny 10 point Arial / Helvetica. It also requires a "one liner" on what will be found there, at least for flyers. This organic strategy is where many service oriented businesses botch driving traffic. They botch it by... 1. Not holding-forth the URL as a gem of the advertisement. 2. Not having a valuable page or benefit on the website that people SHOULD go to. 3. Not using an easy URL Not knocking Search Engines for some folks. What I found out - if you got to be the "King of the Hill" early in the game, its fairly easy to hold and fight for the top slots. And if a town's niche is barely on the radar in the SERPS - go for it. Early bird gets the worm. Or the example I use - the first ones who mined gold, got the gold. All the rest got there late and were used by the successful people. I pulled my this article off my "Advice" page and stuffed it in my "Links" page.
Well, there is a reverse way to look at the terminology or ideals behind the searches. Search engine traffic can be very remote from qualifications or experience of the site owner. Printed ads with URLs printed, can draw people to the web via credentials, whereas the internet draws them in from short keyword phrases.
serps are not fixed just because company a has the number 1 slot this week doesnt mean it will be there for all time its a dynamic situation However the truth is it will go to the knowledge masters so finding one can be very very profitable to you how many business cards can you hand out with your website address on in a day? Now how many people are searching for good or services in your niche on google everyday? As time goes on online marketing will replace most other forms period