Positioning
Positioning is a fundamental business strategy that determines how you present your product or service to the market in order to stand out from your competitors. An excellent market position will often invite less competition and ultimately reduce the availability of substitutes there are for your prospects to choose from. Hence, if there are fewer people that do what you do, in the same location you serve, the fewer competitors for you to compete with.
How does this affect my Google ranking?
The aforementioned concept holds true in the digital world too; the greater the number of players in a given industry, the greater the number of websites vying for the same rankings.
Thus, positioning your business with the most unique and compelling market position will often lead you onto an easier path to a higher Google ranking.
As an example, imagine you’re an aspiring business owner in Sydney, Australia with the intention to open a full-service digital marketing firm. You believe that the more services you offer, the more customers you’ll reach. So, you go ahead and build your website with an amazing UI and UX, and some engaging written content with relevant keywords. It looks amazing. Then you wait. You wait over 6 months and you haven’t received a single email or phone call from a prospect. You eventually view your Google Analytics dashboard to discover merely 17 visits in the last 6 months. And truth be told, those 17 visits were probably yours. You scratch your head in confusion as you do a Google search using your target keywords. Then, you find countless firms in Sydney, Australia that do exactly what you do for the same market, competing for similar keywords.
Lesson learned, specialise.
Let’s continue on from the above example. Let’s be frank, articulating yourself as a full-service digital marketing firm is painting with a pretty broad brush. If you’re new to a market, don’t go competing with the Behemoths of your industry, especially on a digital scale. Specialise. What are you good at? Do more of that which sets you apart from others in your industry. Identify your discipline for market; what do you, and who do you do it for? (Often stated as ‘x’ for ‘y’). I.e. Facebook advertising for retail businesses.
Market research using the very search engine you intend to rank on
Ranking on Google is imperative in today’s digital economy. Most established businesses obtain an online presence. Further, anyone who’s serious about their business has built an online presence dedicated to promoting that business.
Therefore, a Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page) of a keyword search related to a given industry is a reliable representation of its real-world, market competition.
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur who wishes to start a service-based local business in particular, use and abuse Google to research your market. How many competitors are there vying to rank for the same keywords? Is it saturated? Should you narrow your focus?
Build an online presence that’s present to your prospects
In short, there is a direct correlation between your business’ market positioning and your website’s Google ranking. Hence, specialise to avoid oversaturation and a high degree of competition. However, if you do intend on developing a business with a broad positioning, target keywords that are less competitive to rank for. Remember, a Google SERP of an industry-related keyword is a reliable reflection of its market competition, so use and abuse the very search engine you intend to rank on and discover less competitive search terms.
Regards,
Mitchell Robertshaw
