how to beat your bigger, stronger competitor at seo
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When you are in a market with a bigger stronger, entrenched competitor, what can you do to succeed in SEO?TRANSCRIPT
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Click to edit Master title styleClick to edit Master title styleHow to Beat Your Bigger, Stronger Competitor at SEO
Ehren Reilly | Glassdoor.com
SMX München
April, 2014
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Confidential and Proprietary © Glassdoor, Inc. 2008-2013
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Some markets have an Established LeaderIt’s Hard to Out-rank Them
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Users Often Prefer a Familiar Brand
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Sometimes It’s Hard to Rank At All
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Sometimes It’s Hard to Rank At All
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Sometimes It’s Hard to Rank At All
First organic result after ads, Yelp and Google Maps is 1700px down the page!
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Market leaders can get away with stuff that you can’t
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Market leaders can get away with stuff that you can’t
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Market leaders can get away with stuff that you can’t
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It feels unfair
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What Can You Do?
They are better at SEO. Don’t try to beat them at their game. Be different.
Google wants to show diverse results. Be a diverse result.
Users don’t like to scroll down the SERP. Give users a reason to pick #5 instead of #1
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1. Different SEO Ranking Strategy
When the market leader has higher PageRank than you, try winning at Panda.
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Winning at Panda?
One man’s risk is another man’s opportunity.
Better user engagement than the market leader More fun/interesting landing page than the market leader Every user who comes to your site finds exactly what they
expected and more
Videos > Photos > Text
Interactive > Static
Entertainment > Information
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Airbnb – Winning at Panda
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Airbnb – Winning at Panda
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Pinterest – Winning at Panda
Zero original content, very little relevant text, mostly pictures…
SEO champion!
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2. Different-looking search result
When the market leader ranks better than you, try to have a different looking result on the SERP.
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Different-looking search result
1. Rich snippets
2. Videos
3. Authorship with image
Which of these does the market leader have?
Have a different one.
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Different-looking search result
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Different-looking search result
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3. Different Product & Marketing Strategy
When fighting a stronger opponent, don’t attack your opponent head-on. Attack from the flank.
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Don’t attack head-on
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Glassdoor vs Indeed – Attacking from the Flank
✔ Paid & organic jobs ✔ Paid & organic jobs
✔ Comprehensive coverage, all jobs that are posted online
✔ Comprehensive coverage, all jobs that are posted online
✔ 50 million+ pages of jobs ✔ 50 million+ pages of jobs
✖ 25K linking root domains ✔ 50K linking root domains
✖ PageRank 7 ✔ PageRank 8
✖ Since 2007 ✔ Since 2003
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Glassdoor vs Indeed – Attacking from the Flank
Ehren is not winning at SEO for “jobs” queries
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Glassdoor vs Indeed – Attacking from the Flank
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Confidential and Proprietary © Glassdoor, Inc. 2008-2013
Glassdoor vs Indeed – Attacking from the Flank
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Glassdoor vs Indeed – Attacking from the Flank
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Conclusion
Don’t try to be better, try to be different
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Thank You!
Ehren Reilly
@ehrenreilly