Kicking Ass When You Are Stuck At Position #2
-
You sell a great selection of books but your site always ranks in the SERPs at Position #2 - right below GoliathPublishers.com. You will probably never rank higher than their PR8 domain.
But you can still beat them.....
How? With a value proposition that you SHOUT in your title tag.
==================================
<title>Mysteries of Atlantis only $(kickass price)</p> <p>You will take all of their sales because they sell everything at MSRP.</p> <p>==================================</p> <p><title>Mysteries of Atlantis | Download or Immediate Shipping</p> <p>Everybody wants fast service</p> <p>==================================</p> <p><title>Mysteries of Atlantis | Free Shipping</p> <p>Everybody loves free shipping</p> <p>==================================</p> <p>The examples above will help you deal with a stodgy retail company. But what if you are stuck at #2 below a site like Wikipedia or WebMD? You don't have price or shipping to use as a weapon. Now you have to get clever at eliciting the click. Here are a few title tag samples for eliciting the click..... </p> <p>Wikipedia has a sleepy title tag that reads <em>"Atlantis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"</em></p> <p>You can beat that! Here are some ideas....</p> <p><title>Atlantis: Why the Mystery is a Pile of Baloney</p> <p><title>Atlantis: The Evidence that Convinced PhD Skeptics</p> <p><title>Secrets of Atlantis Discovered in the Ruins of Pompei</p> <p>==================================</p> <p>Next time you are stuck at #2 decide how you can put up a fight!</p> <p>Think about your value proposition, a catchy question, an easy solution, something seductive or even provocative....</p> <p><title>Brass Widgets | Best Selection on the Web!</p> <p><title>Brass Widgets | Lowest Prices that We Have Seen!</p> <p><title>Brass Widgets ! Every Size and Shape Imaginable!</p> <p><title>Brass Widgets | Free Beer with Every Purchase! :)</p> <p>===================================</p> <p>OK... you probably can't deliver on the Free Beer... but you are probably getting the idea. Those are some of the tricks that I have used.</p> <p>Remember to test and watch your analytics!</p> <p>What ideas do you have? How have you kicked ass from Position #2?</p> <p>Actually, these methods can work from any position in the SERPs... but the #2 probably pulled in your click. ;)</p></title>
-
LOL That is the funniest title tag I have ever seen! Thanks for the laugh!
-
Click Here! .... I think that will work great. Thank you, Michael!
-
How about,
<title>Brass Widgets | Our site is waaaaaaay better than the one listed above</title>
J/K....great post EGOL!
-
I have often used the phrase "click here" on the meta description. I know Google tends to use it's own chopped up version of the content that you place here but I thought I'd test it to see what happens. It is early days and the results are not yet in but I have placed the words "Click Here" at the start of the text.
The title tag is a great place to convince people to click your listing rather than your competitors.
-
Thank you Steve. I know that "Genuine" will pull in some clicks and probably convert some customers. Nice!
-
lol... "Travel Details!"..... That might pull some traffic for real destinations.
Thank you, Ryan!
-
Great idea... Lists like that are supposed to be popular. Thanks bemcapaz!
-
Dude... that's an awesome post!!
I love it!!
We've got a site at position two, it sells something to do with Swarovski crystals. I haven't measured the effects yet but we did put the word "Genuine" in recently in the hope that it might have such an effect.
Also, in some instances you could maybe (if you can use is legitimately) use the word "Official" too
-
Your Wikipedia comparison has worked for me. Figure out what they don't ever offer from their title tag and write against that. Another is the title tag loaded with info like, "Atlantis: Lat, Long, Current Temp, and Travel Details."
-
Very interesting idea.
I also would add some numbers, they attract a lot of attention also. In the atlantis example
<title>Atlantis: 10 Evidences of its Existence!</p> <p>Some sites rely a lot on this technique, for the instance, cracked.com comes to my mind, and as a bonus I think that this type of title also atract more attention when it comes to social sharing</p></title>
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
2 Urls rank on page one, what should I do?
Hey Mozzers, I would like some input from you guys please. For keywords "car service dc" "dc car service" "car service washington dc" my site ranks in positions 7, 8 . My home page www.dcacar.com and also a landing page for washington dc: https://www.dcacar.com/washington-dc-car-service.html Is there something I can do to rank higher? Should I 301 redirect the landing page to the home page? If you have any suggestions and have experience in such cases your input will be greatly appreciated. Our home page also ranks for almost 20 other very important keywords that drive a lot of business to us. So I am a bit scared to touch the title tag on the home page. 2nd question. It's been almost 2 weeks that the local pack is showing 2 results for the same keywords. We are #3 lost our space from the result. Are you noticing any changes to your local packs? Why are there 2 results and not 3? When I search for similar keywords but in other cities I usually get 3packs even now. Any suggestions on making into the top two? We have 3 times more reviews than the other 2 companies the only thing I see that makes them rank above us is their company names are almost exact match with the keyword. Thanks in advance for your time and help.
Competitive Research | | Davit19850 -
What are some good SEO tactics to defend our position against an upcoming competition in a near monopolistic market?
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?
Competitive Research | | iQuanti0 -
Currently Number 2 - Worth Shooting for 1?
Hello SEO Community, So I was able to rise to #2 in a highly competitive search term after a guest blog post that I wrote really took off (wish I could recreate that for my other terms, haha) Anyway, I steadily rose from 30ish to number 2 and have obviously seen more traffic, which is awesome and I'm happy. But still, in terms of the amount of traffic that google estimates the keyword gets, and the amount I'm getting at #2, it seems like #1 is getting the VAST majority (I know this is how most markets work). Judging from my link profile compared to #1, it would be extremely difficult to dethrone them. So what do y'all think? Is it worth spending time and resources shooting for the glory and traffic of #1 and potentially never getting there - or focusing my efforts on my middling keywords and getting those on the first page as well?
Competitive Research | | CleanEdisonInc0 -
One client - 2 domains / same business - good or bad idea?
This is a follow up to a previous question actually: My client has one domain that has 'hardwood flooring' in it and one that has 'concrete polishing' in it - both services they offer. **Would it be wise (for seo purposes) to have them both point to ONE domain (more general of course) ** **- They only have a few local competitors that aren't doing anything to rank well. ** **- They aren't trying to rank nationally. ** If the smart thing to do is to have them point to one (more general) domain using a 301 direct will there traffic drop significantly? (at least for a short time) Does it matter if they continue to keep the existing domains they are using now on their literature, business cards, etc. and let them continue pointing to the new domain or should they really start promoting the new domain name? (They do NOT want to do this). My only concern is saving them time and money by not having to build links, submit articles, social media, on and on for two different sites OK, that's like 3 questions Thank you VERY much for any thoughts or opinions on the matter! 🙂 Have a great week everybody! Matthew
Competitive Research | | Mrupp440 -
My average visit duration is UP by 110% from 2 minutes to 4 minutes... and my visits (rankings) are down by 6 %.... I would have thought to see more positive ranking affects from that..
Latttteee last night I asked this question Just like the question says, I would have thought that Google would reward a site with more traffic that clearly has a growing level of user engagement. I can't imagine that there are other sites in my niche that are having a longer rate of user engagement... Well, since I can't guarentee that, let's not debate what we don't know.. But shouldn't SOME benefits be seen for a 110% increase? I mean shit, if I could replicate those results with sales, I would really be able to afford higher rankings... Maybe that's how they feel? If I get longer duration, I should get more sales, which means I should be able to afford to pay a professional more to get me to rank higher....? A nice guy Marcus Miller(http://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/78416) answered by saying Hey Tyler Google analytics data is not used in anyway in the search ranking algorithm. It's a great thing that your user engagement is up, but it will not benefit you with a better rank on the back of that. That said, if people are enjoying your site more, it should be easier to generate more links and sharing to get more traffic and hopefully boost your standing in search. This is worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg... Hope this helps. Marcus I was still a little unsure though, so I said Solid answer man, I really appriciate the youtube link too, gotta love when an answer is chizzled in stone. I was thinking though.. Google does track data for bouncing back to search for similar queries, and some types of time on site, etc, right? Do you, or does anyone else know the specifics about the data that Google tracks, in relation to how a user interacts with your site?
Competitive Research | | TylerAbernethy0 -
How did this little site rank #2?
Keyword: "adoption agency" Site: http://www.opendooradoption.org These guys are ranked #2 for this very competitive term in all US regions. They're beating Bethany (and my company) who are orders of magnitude larger in both company size and link profile. Their domain authority is 40, and they have less than 200 links pointing to them with "adoption agency" in the anchor according to OSE. Their on-site is pretty much nonexistent. Does anyone have any theories as to how they accomplished this?
Competitive Research | | AdoptionHelp0 -
The starter crawl is going on 2 days and no results
Does the starter crawl work in the first 30 days? Mine has been going 2 days and still no results, has finished yet??
Competitive Research | | WalterW0 -
How do I get listed in DMOZ? I have submitted 2 times, but no luck..
Hi All, How do I get listed in DMOZ? I have submitted 2 times, but no luck.. Is there another way besides the site? I have not even received a reply from them.
Competitive Research | | doctormac0