What are some good SEO tactics to defend our position against an upcoming competition in a near monopolistic market?

[iQuanti]

I'm doing SEO for a medium sized client whose area of business is targeting a very niche audience, in an almost monopolistic market. We're currently in top 3 ranks in our head terms. However, market research has indicated the threat from an upcoming competitor. The competitor is relatively larger and is well established in other countries.

Is there something I could do from my end to defend/maintain our current position?

[Christy-Correll]

Hi iQanti! You've received some wise advice from several long-time members of our amazing community. I just wanted to make sure you saw their thoughtful responses to your question. We'd love to get an update from you on how things are going!

[MikeGracia]

Some awesome answers from folks here - Giving them all a thumbs-up now!

Just to add a bit to the above (so meant as suggestions in addition to the above)... I'd also monitor the up-comers backlinks, press mentions etc. (Patrick mentioned checking what they are doing... I'd go a step further and monitor it on-going as some stuff may not be showing if it was done recently).

Of course, it's important not to be too 'copy-cat', I wouldn't focus JUST on this, but if you listen to the advice above, I'd mix in some competitive analysis of PR (public relations/press, not the old green bar!) of the competitor, mentions and links etc.

• You can use Moz's, like OSE (https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/) and look for 'just discovered' and also 'link opportunities' (to find mentions etc of your competitors)
• Set up a Google Alert (https://www.google.co.uk/alerts I like to do an alert for their brand name, minus their domain, set to 'as it happens', and be sure to set to 'all results' rather than just what Google thinks is the best of the results) - See screenie added to this post for an example. You can also opt to publish this to an RSS feed, rather than get emails - then use a feed reader (Chrome dashboard plugin with a few feeds is what I use! - Handy for the start to the day with a coffee, just review the updated RSS feeds).

Keep an eye on them, see what they're up to and figure out if any of it can feed into your work. Maybe they register on a decent industry site and start contributing content, can you do the same, only publish better content & promote it? Perhaps they get links from a supplier - do you use the same supplier? Don't copy them for the sake of it of course, just where it makes sense. It can also help to inform your strategy.

It sounds like you have your SEO pretty well sorted (ranking high for head terms), so how about reviewing:

• CTR from SERPs... can you optimise your click through by tweaking title tag (carefully! don't lose rankings) and/or meta description
• Page speeds - can you get the pages that rank to load faster?
• Internal links - when did you last run an internal link audit? Remember, when it comes to the top-slots in the SERPs, little things matter! If you've published any content in the last few months, see if it makes sense for internal links from there to the ranking pages (don't force it though!).
• Can you rank in position 0? < Are there any SERP features for the keywords (or related ones - Keyword Explorer to the rescue!) If there are SERP features, can you optimise for them?

Hope that gives a few things to think about?

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[dohertyjf]

There are definitely some good answers here already from Kevin and Patrick, though I think I'm going to go a bit more general.

It sounds to me like you have been concentrating heavily on your head terms. So you're singularly focused on a small subset of terms that you now rank quite well for, but does not leave you in a very defensible position. Let's say you have 4 SERPs that are driving you most of your traffic. You get pushed down even 1 spot in each and you've lost a ton of traffic.

If I were you, I'd look at a few things:

• What are other sites in other niches doing that you are not? EG building links via strong content, receiving a ton of referral traffic, building partnerships with other sites in their niche, etc.
• From a pure SEO perspective, do what Kevin has suggested and look at how you can build out longer tail pages (which you should have been doing all along to minimize what you're currently about to face) as well as building links that these competitors have no hope of getting.
• Diversify your traffic sources. Referral, social, etc. If you're local, look at local advertising options to solidify your brand in the minds of your potential customers.

I do want to leave you with a bit of hope, though. I used to work for a big PubCo, and when they went to enter new markets or expand offerings they, as most big companies do, found it quite challenging to unseat the incumbents. So being in there already is to your benefit and hopefully you won't actually face too much of a challenge from them.

Good luck!

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

There are a few things you should be doing at the moment:

• Review, update, and create consistency in citations / local listings
• Create strong content that actually solves problems or provides information
• Look into paid search opportunities and sponsoring industry events
• Engage your audience on a more personal level (social media is a great way!)

Doing these things will help keep you at the top of mind from both a local and industry standpoint, while also ensuring that you as a medium sized business take advantage of your ability to engage your audience at a more intimate level than a larger business can. What you're doing is creating a unique selling proposition without selling your audience - you create accessibility, something that audiences want in a brand.

Beyond that, what I would also do is the following:

• Conduct a solid SEO audit on your site to tie up potential loose ends
• Conduct a backlink audit on both your website and your competitors - what links do they have that you find valuable? What's their strategy in getting them? How can you obtain similar links? Are there links you should remove?
• Conduct a content audit of both your website and your competitors - what content do they have that their audience finds valuable? How can you create more engaging content?
• Review the marketing tactics they are using that you may not be incorporating into your marketing campaigns

The goal here isn't to copy your competitors, but rather look for opportunities they are taking advantage of that you aren't, or finding patterns in their marketing that you could build upon or make better. Your business is unique and valuable in it's own right, your goal is to find opportunities that allow you to market these areas in a much more brighter light.

Let me know if you have any questions, there is a lot here, but your goal is to build your brand not just through SEO, but multiple digital marketing channels where your audience is. Hope this helps!

Good luck,
Patrick

[KevinBudzynski]

We had the same thing happened a few years ago. We had top 3 organic positions for many competitive keywords when Amazon, Home Depot and Lowes unseated us and pushed further down on the serps. We implemented many new useful landing pages focused on the high-converting longer-tails keywords that had guides, white papers and etc. Although we didn't regain these competitive positions, it greatly lessened the impact.  My suggestion is to do your best in solidifying these positions (freshness, speed, testing content & etc.) to lessen any impact, but devote resources in a similar strategy described above (if they are not currently doing it). Be straightforward with your client on what potentially might happen.