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?
-
It depends on what your end goal is.
The #1 position will always get the lion's share of traffic. If getting more revenue is the end goal and moving from 30 to 2 has been profitable for you, then it will likely remain profitable for you to go for 1.
Not all competitive terms are profitable so you should monitor the performance of your search term to help you decide what to do next.
-
I agree with Egol - if you can provide an enticing Title Tag people may want to click your link over the first. Maybe pose a question or again offer a deal.
-
Use your title tag to steal clicks away from them.
offer free beer
tell them you have Secrets
shout a kickass price or free delivery
make your title tag so much more interesting and enticing than theirs.
-
Very good question and becomes a discussion over time and resource management.
It should be said - you will usually see a marked increase in click-through rates even between #1 and #2. So on that basis, always go for #1.
Whether or not to spend most of your focus improving this ranking to #1 or whether to improve some other keywords will depend on a few things - competition for those other keywords, what's their estimated search volume, can you attribute different levels of searcher 'intent' (eg 'red shoes' versus 'buy red shoes in london' - second one has much more intent to convert).
What I would do over the coming weeks is monitor your traffic and conversion rate in analytics. Look out for any significant improvements that you can attribute to this higher ranking term - either through direct last-touch channels, or indirectly through increased brand search and/or conversions where organic search was a touch-point. If you see a big increase, it may be worth pushing for the number one spot. However, if you don't see a decent increase, even when ranking at 2, then it might be better to focus on your other keywords instead.
Hope this helps, would be good to get other feedback as well.
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 -
Abnormally high number of root domains linking to root domains
My client runs a very small business hiring out space in a single warehouse and rarely adds content to his incredibly badly optimised wordpress site. Can anyone make any wild guesses as to why my client has 2.9 million root domains linking to root domains? He also has a domain authority of 100. Strange when the number one competitor in warehouse space in this part of the world is Gumtree (equivalent of Craig's List) and that only has 9.25k root domains linking to root domains and site authority of 80. Is there any way of finding out where these links are coming from via Moz? Thanks
Competitive Research | | SocialStreets.Co0 -
How does my competitor website jump from a natural ranking of 10 to 1 in a matter of days?
OK this has really got me baffled, and I really hope the MOZ community can give me the answers I am seeking.... My statements and queries below are my own opinions and thoughts. I am not an experienced SEOer and I am learning all the time, so if I have written something incorrectly, please feel free to correct me 🙂 I have been told that natural rankings take time, and I have read with the recent algorithm changes from Google, that purchased links do not have an effect like they used to. I have also read somewhere that google has clamped down on bogus article writing (MOZ please clarify) But what I am seeking some clarification on is, how does my competitors website, that has had a natural rank of #1 in the past, suddenly drop off; for a lengthy period of time, then suddenly re-appear at #10 on page #1, then some three/four days later, hit #1? I have read that natural rankings are purely natural. I.e. a domain owner cannot pay google to boost their natural ranking. But is this really true? Why is it when I speak to a close colleague of mine in the same industry, he mentions that his maps listing has dropped off, and after making a couple of phone calls to his SEO guys in India, maybe a day or two later, magically his maps re-appear? I really am starting to question is a "natural ranking" really "natural?" I have heard that some of these SEO agencies do have some tools that dramatically effect the natural ranking of a domain. What are these tools?
Competitive Research | | Giorgio680 -
My (properly optimised) webpage outscores page#1 ranked competitors on page/domain authority ... but I'm only on page#2\. Huh?
I'm puzzled. I've optimised a particular page for a particular search term, and the SEOMoz tool gives me an A for on-page optimisation. So no problem there. I can understand why my webpage/site is being outranked by pages from (for example) the Guardian and Oxford University, but there are several sites that Google is ranking on page #1 though their page and domain scores are well below ours. Specifically: my page/domain authority scores are 46/52, compared with 22/46 for the competitor that Google is ranking #5 - yet we only rank a lowly #12. And it's not as though the particular page in question isn't an obvious and appropriate part of our site. We work with new writers and the page in question offers a selection of creative writing courses. It's not like we're a writing-related site that suddenly has a page advertising fake rolexes. It's not a timing issue either, as most of our links have been in place for a couple of years at least. So I'm puzzled. And concerned. This page of ours was a reliable revenue generator for us and it's dying out there on the page#2 wilderness. If anyone can help, I'd be massively grateful. I don't know if this is helpful, but the page in question is http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/Creative-Writing-Courses.html and the search term is ... well, heck, you take a wild guess. We're a British firm, so the only search engine that really matters to us is google.co.uk
Competitive Research | | harrybingham0 -
Www.seoprofiler.com - anyone knows the service? worth the investment?
A little help just to check if the service worth the money spend.
Competitive Research | | Naghirniac0 -
How hard could it be to outrank a huffington post article with PA:1 ?
or what would be the quick way to find out? Page Authority 1 mozRank 0.00 mozTrust 0.00 Total Links 0 Internal Links 0 External Links 0 Followed Links 0 Nofollowed Links 0 Linking Root Domains 0 On-Page Analysis Grade A Broad Keyword Usage in Title Yes Broad Keyword Usage in Document Yes Keyword Used in URL Yes KW in Domain No KW Exact Match No Exact Anchor Text Links 0 Linking Root Domains w/ Exact Anchor Text 0 Partial Anchor Text Links 0 Partial Anchor Text Root Doms. 0 Domain Authority 100 Domain mozRank 7.6 Domain mozTrust 7.9 DmT/DmR 1.0 External Links to this domain 40443657 Linking Root Domains to this domain 223797 Linking C-Blocks Domains to this domain 40697 Tweets 6 FB Shares 20 Google Plus One Shares 0
Competitive Research | | antoniorigo0 -
How a site only with Frame can be at #1 google in a competitive keyword?
Guys, I need help. I have a company in Brasil and due to lack of budget, I'm doing the SEO for my self. And for two years Im reading everything that I can to do my best in my website. I worked very hard, but the #1 in the most important keyword for my company is a very bad website only with frames. What they are doing? Could anyone give help? Keyword: "acampamento"
Competitive Research | | Naghirniac
Google Brazil (www.google.com.br)
#1 website: www.acampar.net My website: www.acampamentoaguiasdaserra.com.br Thank you in advance Miguel0 -
Does SEOMoz (or anyone) offer a measurement of "overlapping" links between 2+ domains?
I'm trying to judge how much incremental value we'd see from 301'ing an old domain vs. revitalizing the old domain's content. My gut feeling is that most of the links to the two sites are from the same set of websites so it wouldn't add much value to 301 the old domain. I've seen the opposite of this done with Competitive Link Analysis (e.g show links that you don't have that your competitor does have). Is there a tool available that can take 2 or more sites and tell me for instance - 72% of the inbound links or linking root domains are the same?
Competitive Research | | Jeff_DomainTools0