NYC Highly Competitive Market

[lileng]

Hey there everyone! So i’ve got this new client who hired me to do some web design and offered to pay me to do some seo work for them. Im not really new to paid search marketing. I also am pretty familiar with the basics of seo and have had some minor successes in the past. However, a lot of those successes were attributed to low market competition and really strong and pertinent urls. As I build sites and come up with content, its all thought out for what these companies are selling. So content is optimized for keywords as well as images etc.

Here’s my current issue. I am really not great at backlinking.

First off, let me tell you how I found this client. Lets say this particular client is in real estate in new york city (which is very close to the market theyre in.) Lets also assume I typed into google “the best apartment buildings in nyc.” Now, I come across an article from a site with a very high page and aite authority (over 90) and the article, lets say, is a “Top Ten Apartment Buildings In NYC.”

The very first building on the list (the presumed best) is obviously the one most people are going to check out. The page for that building is so keyword optimized and the content is relevant. Turns out, this building is the creator of this article. Naturally, they add 9 more buildings to the list and my client falls at number 7. Now, they ARE getting some traffic from this article, but not nearly as much as number one.

I did some investigative work and went into the building who created the article. Turns out they have a barter partnership with the website the article was published on. This gives them a complete competitive edge. (This website is like the TECHCRUNCH for apartment buildings.)

Right now, my client is spending huge amounts on ppc and unfortunately, dude the competitive nature and the amount of options in the market, doesn’t necessary see roi its needing to. People will come into the building and check it out (but of course, in the back of their mind there are always the other 6 rated buildings ahead of it.)

I am trying to develop a strategy to win here. My client doesn’t have a very strong social presence, which is an easy fix and something i’m working on. Their site has some duplicate page errors and simple title tag fixes but is built with squarespace and overall is very comparable to the competition.

What do I do next? Even if I guest blog on some other sites, their competition is already a huge step ahead because they have an article out on the MOST authoritative site in the space.

Thanks for the help!

[MiriamEllis]

Really nice discussion going on here. Just want to add one quick tip, regarding some of the advice about focusing on Local. Be sure the business meets Google's Guidelines, which describe this as an ineligible business model:

Rental or for-sale properties, such as vacation homes or vacant apartments. Sales or leasing offices, however, are eligible for verification.

See: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

[lileng]

Thanks very much! I will check out schema.org/localbusiness as this is news to me. As far as Mozlocal is concerned, I am just trying to spend as little cash right now on products as possible. Im all for the tools but I am currently ramping up my business and so the most cost efficient and organic methods are the ones im shooting for.

While I have your attention...

It seems as though I have done this freelance web-design stuff for so long now that I get stuck in my own process. This is even the first time im engaging with the moz community. I sit here and I wonder: What do all these SEO guys do all day?

I used to work for a bigger company and I focused on design and branding and we had a team in india doing SEO for some of our clients. some of them would rank pretty fast so I dont know if their tactics were white hat/black hat/brown hat or whatever. I just remember thinking to myself. "What are these guys over in India doing all day?)

Technically, this could be a whole other discussion. But if SEO is your main gig (different from me, where I am more design centric) then how any clients do you have to manage to have a sustainable business and what do you do all day? Haha. Thanks so much guys

[lileng]

Thank you for the advice the issue is that the blog in question actually has a vested interest in said company. So they aren't going to change or add to it. (Though I could contact them directly about some of the missing data that could generate higher converting visiters looking to buy.)

Even if I COULD write another article about my client I couldn't do so with this particular blog anyways because the article in question is not even a month old.

Regardless, I do really appreciate the advice

[MoosaHemani]

This is what I get from the details you have provided. The competitor of your client is getting lot of traffic from an article that is ranking number one for one of the money making keyword. Your client is getting traffic but not as much as the one that is ranking number one on that article.

If this is the case, here is how you should deal with it.

1. You talk to the blog owner or the author of that blog and see if there is any possibility of you writing another blog or change ranking that they mentioned. As you said they are the tech crunch of your client’s market, this I am sure isn’t really an option you can go for because this can hurt you as well.
2. Another thing you can do is to find relevant blog within the industry that have a similar authority as the blog that is ranking and reach out to them and see if you can create some valuable pieces for them that target the same keyword.

If all goes well, the next thing you should do is to build some links on to that blog post and get it rank number one for that particular keyword.

Why not my own website? As you said the industry is competitive it will be very difficult to beat the blog that have a much higher authority as yours.

Hope this helps!

[Matt-Williamson]

Obviously there is absolutely loads that you could do with this but the place I would start is with a focused local SEO campaign.

Read all you can around local SEO and think of ways you can strengthen your clients online brand - for instance I like to use video and YouTube as part of my marketing strategy.

I would start here - http://moz.com/learn/local

Consider signing up to Moz Local for your client https://moz.com/local/overview as this will help strengthen your local presence as it will help manage your sites local listings

"Moz Local creates and maintains business listings on the sites, apps, and directories that factor most into local search engine results. Once you upload your location data to Moz Local, it’s easy to push business listings to the major data aggregators. You can use Moz Local to create and update your listings, manage your location information at any time, re-verify your listings, and find and resolve duplicate listings."

Also make sure your have structured data in place such as http://schema.org/LocalBusiness

Hope his helps as a starting point..