With more than one billion websites in existence today, ranking for the same phrases in a competitive niche has never been more difficult than it is right this very second. The Big Four search engines – Bing, Google, Baidu, and Yandex search – keep changing the rules constantly. This quest for the top positions in SERPs (search engine results pages) becomes even more challenging for local businesses, so it becomes a race against time for businesses, particularly small businesses, in highly-saturated online markets. How can we aim to win this titanic battle for your brand to rank in a competitive niche, for the most competitive keywords? You’ll be surprised to discover that we have some powerful tips and strategies for your search-optimisation journey to help you achieve your Sergeant Google-ranking goals despite up against the highest competition keywords and dead-on-arrival phrases. If your website is struggling to rank for tougher keywords, it’s time to learn how to do it right or, at least, better than you’ve been doing it. Here are some valuable tips on how to rank in a competitive niche.
Being number one in a niche/SERP is not about reading the right keywords – it’s more about reading the nuances of SEO/content/audience. The tips laid out here are geared towards basic and intermediate SEO but my intent is that they help you build your initial SEO pyramid upon which you can pyramid and pyramid again, reaching for that realm’s peak. And let’s be honest, for many of us, it’s about multiple topics! For each sliver of a niche’, we’re trying to be crowned rulers of any given search engine’s results pages (SERP). I’m going to try to walk you through the first crucial step: competing, and then honing in on exactly who you’re competing against and the next step, researching the competition.
Comprehensive Keyword Research and Analysis
This foundational concept of effective keyword research applies to any SEO campaign, but particularly one with tough competition within your niche. To start, identify the most appropriate keywords for the goals of your business. Long-tail keywords, which typically contain three or four words and have lower search volume than head terms (or ‘short-tail’ keywords such as ‘shoes’), often make sense to target in a highly competitive market. Long-tail keywords, which place clear focus on a topic, are often least targeted. Despite lower search values, these well-differentiated keywords can help you circumvent the severe competition of broad terms, and act as a form of pirate flag, signaling your site as a valuable resource for a particular theme.
From there, you use her list of keywords to play around on tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz to figure out how competitive a keyword is going to be for you to get into search results. You see how difficult it is to get results for a keyword (in some tools, it’s called keyword difficulty) as well as how many searches, on average, the keyword gets and compare it to the ability of the pages that rank for the keyword to keep their footing. Prioritise the most viable keywords that, roughly speaking, have the best chance of getting you the highest search volume for the best competition. Finally, take a closer look at the intent behind the keywords to make sure that what’s coming up is actually what your prospect would be looking for. A person who searched for ‘grilled cheese’ typically also looked for ‘grilled cheese recipe’, unless their intent is to buy cheese, not make it.
Creating High-Quality, Engaging Content
Content is king, particularly when it comes to technical SEO, and it takes excellent content to trump your competition. Figure out what pains, questions and interests your customers have. Use this information to write for your audience. Make your content answer their desires, offer unique insights and deliver value. Exceptional content isn’t only about writing well, but about creating something that your competitors can’t. What could you offer readers that could cement your authority as the premier expert in your niche? This could be long-form guides, original research, in-depth reviews or fun content like videos and infographics.
Engagement (the time it holds the reader on the page, and that it inspires readers to respond with comments and shares etc) is the final prong of Google’s ranking strategy for content. The easier your content is to read, the less jarring it is to the eye, the more logical its structure for leading the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, and page to page, the longer it will hold a reader, and the more likely readers will be to comment. In other words, the more pleasant and efficient your site is to read, the better it will perform. Regular updates further improve your odds, because content that at least appears fresh attracts more traffic over time. In a contested niche, the webmaster who consistently publishes the highest-quality content – and who thereby breaks through the Google barrier – has a major advantage over the competition.
Building a Strong Backlink Profile
With a niche where the keywords you compete against have the highest levels of competition, backlinks are still one of the most influential ranking factors. A good backlink profile shows search engines that your site is trustworthy and authoritative. Build yourself quality backlinks by earning links from respected sources within your industry. You can do so through guest posting, writing shareable content, or through partnerships with niched influencers or other businesses.
But remember, all backlinks aren’t created equal. More important than quantity is the quality. The higher the quality, the higher the authority, so higher quality links on higher quality websites have more SEO weight than a higher quantity of low-quality or spammy links. The roles are essentially reversed, so building those higher-quality links can add a serious amount of weight to your search-engine rankings. It’s also imperative to audit your backlink profile regularly for any bad eggs, and submit a disavow of any links that might harm your position. You can also incorporate internal links to add strength to your site structure and give search engines an easy, logical path through your website. An effective strategy built on these key elements can set you up to outrank your competitors in a high-stakes niche.
Optimizing Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the backbone of ranking in a competitive niche but is often forgotten. Think of it as optimising your website’s infrastructure so that search engines can easily crawl and index your website, like how a paved path makes it easy to reach a cabin from a car park. Technically, this includes the speed your web pages load, removing broken links, image optimisation, ensuring your pages have canonical tags and schema markup. Get also get some help via some tools such as our Google PageSpeed Insights.
One aspect of technical SEO is to ensure mobile friendliness. Every year a higher percentage of internet users access sites from their phone, so having a mobile-friendly site is no longer nice to have, it is essential. Make sure your site is responsive (meaning that the content adapts dynamically to different screen sizes). Focus on the site architecture and URL structure – those need to be logical and easy to navigate. Add schema markup to give an indication on what your content is all about and to help search engines better understand it. Rich snippets based on schema markup can encourage people to click on your site, so they can be very valuable. Using schema markup can significantly raise your chances to rank for rich snippets. The better the technical foundations of your site the better change you will have for ranking in a competitive niche.
Leveraging Social Media and Online Communities
Social media and membership sites are great ways to drive traffic to your website because your content is out there and you can interact with your audience directly. It works best if you’re in a highly competitive space. Write for the audience where they hang out. Some work better on Instagram or Pinterest than they do on Twitter or YouTube. For example, a video might not do very well on Pinterest, but an infographic just might, depending on the subject. A 1,500-word article wouldn’t perform well on Instagram or Pinterest either. Same with in-depth discussions. LinkedIn and Twitter are great outlets for that kind of thing.
The other winning tactic is to participate in the online communities of your niche. The most popular and successful ones have a forum or page where you could provide answers to questions from the audience, show off your knowledge and put out your content. This could be a subreddit on Reddit, a Quora page or even a niche-specific forum. However, the key in all of these cases is to be in it to help, not just to shout at everyone about your business. Once you get to know the rules of these communities, people can start tracking the links you use to promote your business, and might visit your site at their own will. You will have pursuit more than just a backlink. The relationship you build in these communities, your thoughts and expertise that are genuinely helpful, will bring you an improvement of your brand awareness, a steady flow of targeted traffic to your website and eventually will bring you more clients. While most competitors are shooting arrows in the air, you can already have these people in your community, knowing exactly what they want and how to give it to them.
Monitoring and Adapting Your Strategy
SEO changes all the time, especially in highly competitive niches, where the algorithms and market climate can change very quickly. As a result, it’s crucial to regularly check on your SEO performance, and make the necessary changes or adaptations to maintain a high search position. If you use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console, be sure to track your rankings, traffic and user stats regularly, so that you know what is working and what is not.
Sometimes, this can take the form of expanding your keyword research, maybe refining or updating old content, experimenting with different kinds of content or different marketing avenues, or taking stock of the developments in your niche and your competitors. If a rival is launching a new campaign, or starting to rank better for certain keywords, examine their approach to find what kinds of tactics you can learn from or apply. Be proactive in adapting to the changes in your SEO environment, and you’ll be able to preserve an adequate rank in a highly competitive niche.
Conclusion
Ranking in a competitive niche requires a multifaceted approach that combines thorough keyword research, high-quality content creation, a robust backlink strategy, technical SEO optimization, and active engagement on social media and online communities. These strategies are not just about achieving a higher ranking; they are about building a sustainable online presence that can withstand the pressures of the highest competition keywords. As you implement these tips, remember that SEO is a long-term game that requires patience, persistence, and adaptability. By staying committed to these principles, you can successfully rank in a competitive niche and achieve your digital marketing goals.