Competing with the Big Names by: Derek Croote :: WebsiteDevelopmentNews

Search Engine Optimization: Competing with the Big Names by: Derek Croote
Friday, April 29, 2005 - 05:55 PM

If you have ever been in an industry with long established, big name companies then you know it is hard to beat them in the search engine rankings. So you go to their pages to see how they are ranking so high, but they are not using the techniques you were told to use. Furthermore, they only have the word you searched for displayed once in their body text, not in their title tag, heading or meta tags. This can't be right! However, it is. The only possible way to compete with the big names is with links, frequently updated content and name recognition.

The long established sites have received so many links over the years they don't have to plaster their pages with certain keywords for high rankings.

Links can be hard to come by, especially if your site is new. There are countless ways to get them, but here are a few that will get you high quality links:

Writing articles
Reciprocal linking to relevant sites
Participating in forums
Frequently updating content
Creating free tools
Submitting to directories
Buying text links
Frequently updated content will generate a large number of one-way links, if people know about it. For people to find your compelling content, you have to get your site name out there. If no one knows about your content, how will you get links? To get you name out there you have to:

Become the leader in your industry
Write press releases, articles and free ebooks
Use paid advertising
Start a newsletter/e-zine and a blog.
Target the right keywords
Beating the leading names may be difficult, but it is achievable. Gaining links and getting your name out there will be key in competing with these powerful sites. You will get to the top of the rankings in the search engines with time and hard work.

Note: Derek Croote is a SEO, web design and usability enthusiast. Derek is the webmaster of http://www.saratogalakesideacresassociation.org, a small homeowners association. You can reach him at dcroote@gmail.com.