Navigating High-Competition Keywords For SEO: Strategies For Your Business
Want to know more about how you can compete with bigger businesses in the search engine results pages? Take a look at this blog.
In an ever-evolving digital world and constant changes to search engines such as Google, standing out to potential customers, or even being visible at all, can be a huge challenge. This is especially true if you’re operating in an industry with much larger competitors.
When it comes to SEO, high-competition keywords are often dominated by big players with hefty marketing budgets, which can make it seem impossible for smaller businesses like yours to gain visibility.
However, with smart, strategic SEO practices, even SMEs can successfully navigate these challenges and drive significant results. Let’s have a look at the SEO strategies you can utilise to help your business thrive in a highly competitive keyword environment.
High-competition keywords are the search terms that many businesses target due to their high search volume and relevance to lucrative markets. While these keywords can drive substantial traffic, they are difficult to rank for without strategic planning and execution.
These keywords are broad and often consist of one or two words and could drive a huge amount of valuable traffic to your website if you were able to rank highly for them.
However, everyone’s after these keywords - that’s why they’re so valuable!
Ranking for high-competition keywords is going to take time and effort, but it’s not impossible. Just be realistic and know that you’re going to have to build visibility and authority with low-competition keywords first before you can move onto these.
Let’s have a look at the tools and strategies you can implement to get the most from your SEO strategy and start gaining visibility for the most valuable keywords for your business.
Start with comprehensive keyword research to identify high-competition keywords relevant to your business. Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush to find relevant keywords, along with their search volume and competition level.
Think about how the keywords you find fit with your business and the type of content suited to each keyword.
For example, ‘seo agency’ is likely to have a huge amount of competition and high search volume and would be best suited to a service page on your website. On the other hand, a keyword such as ‘how does seo work’ is likely to have less competition and will be more suited to a blog post.
Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that typically have lower search volume but also less competition. They often reflect the searcher’s intent more accurately and can be easier to rank for. For example, instead of targeting ‘digital marketing’, aim for ‘digital marketing strategies for medium-sized businesses’.
While these keywords may not help you to drive as much traffic, ranking for these can help you build authority for your website which will help when you’re also trying to rank for the higher competition keywords.
On-page optimisation is anything you do on your website that can be seen by both you and the search engines. It helps search engines to understand and rank your site, along with your website visitors who are looking for information about what you do.
Let’s take a look at the on-page techniques you can utilise to start ranking highly in the search engines and build visibility for your business.
Content is king in SEO. As part of your SEO strategy, you should always create comprehensive, high-quality content that addresses your audience’s needs and pain points. Ensure your content is well-researched, informative, and provides real value to your target audience (alongside being optimised for relevant keywords). This not only attracts visitors but also encourages them to stay on your site longer, which can positively impact your rankings.
The skyscraper technique involves finding top-performing content in your niche and creating something even better. To outrank the existing content, add more value, update the information, and present it in a more engaging format.
Meta tags and descriptions are displayed in the search results, letting potential visitors know what to expect when they click through to your website and helping search engines understand its content.
Make sure you optimise these with your chosen keywords as they can be a ranking factor.
Internal linking means linking to other relevant pages on your website to improve navigation and spread link equity.
Linking to other pages helps your users to navigate their way through and take the next steps in their journey with you. It also helps to keep them on your website for longer and keep them engaged with your business. In addition, these links help search engines to navigate your website and understand the content and how it relates to each other.
Linking from a page that’s already ranking well and has built authority to another, new page that’s relevant can help to pass the authority down and will give the new page a boost too.
If you want to rank for the high-competition keywords that others are after, your competitors are the best place to start.
Analysing their strategies will give you a good idea of what works and what doesn’t in your industry. Of course, every business is different, but looking at your closest competitors can help you understand how your own strategy should be structured. Let them do the hard work and testing so you don’t have to!
You don’t need to copy them directly, but you can learn from what they’ve done before and what they’re currently doing to inform your own strategy.
Backlinks from authoritative websites signal to search engines that your content is trustworthy and valuable. Focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks through:
For small to medium-sized businesses, local SEO can be a game-changer. If you’re looking for customers in a local area or have a physical location, this can be a great way to increase your business's visibility online while targeting more niche but still valuable keywords.
You can optimise your website local searches by:
Claim and optimise your Google My Business listing. This will display all of the details of your business, where customers can find you, and how they can contact you. This appears in the search results when potential customers in your area search online.
Add local keywords to your website, content, meta descriptions and tags to help ensure you’re found when your local customers are searching.
Ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across any platform you’re advertising your business.
List your website in local directories and relevant industry sites to further build authority locally for your business,
SEO is an ongoing process. Use tool such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your site’s performance, track keyword rankings, and identify areas for improvement. Regularly update and optimise your content based on performance data to maintain and improve your rankings.
While high-competition keywords present a significant challenge, medium-sized businesses can successfully navigate this terrain with the right strategies. By focusing on long-tail keywords, creating high-quality content, optimising on-page SEO, building backlinks, leveraging local SEO, and utilising social media, your business can achieve impressive results even against larger competitors.
As a digital marketing agency in the UK, we specialise in helping businesses like yours navigate the complexities of SEO. Our tailored strategies are designed to maximise your visibility and drive sustainable growth. If you need expert advice to boost your SEO efforts and outshine the competition, request a free digital marketing audit today.
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At Logica Digital, we take the time to understand your business and customers to create a bespoke marketing plan that will deliver the best return on investment for your business. We always get results.
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