In a discussion, Google’s John Mueller spoke about what might prompt a search engineer to consider including a different website in search results. During a webmaster hangout, Mueller noted that a site could be on par with the top ten sites, but being just as good might not suffice.
Site is Just as Good But Still Doesn’t Rank
John Mueller observed that while some sites are comparable to others in quality, they might not offer anything superior.
"…for a large part it comes across as your site being kind of as good as a lot of the others out there. …I think that’s a good step.
But on the other hand at the same time because it’s kind of as good as all the others, from a user point of view, why do we especially need to have your site in there as well?
If we go to the search engineering teams and say, well the ten search results we’re showing now are pretty good but here is this other one that is just as good. They don’t really have any incentive to say okay we’ll swap out those search results and use this one because it’s just as good as the other one."
John Mueller sharing insights about how being as good as current top-ranking sites might not be adequate. He suggests exploring ways to excel beyond those already top-ranked.
How to Rank Better than Other Sites
Competitor Research to Identify the Positives
When developing or revising a site strategy, it’s crucial to assess competitors. A useful exercise is listing the commendable qualities and features that make a competitor’s site popular and beneficial. Consider user experience aspects like download speed, ease of navigation, and ad placements.
Conduct an analysis of competitor sites to see how they utilize title tags and which types of sites they link to. This will provide insights into their editorial focus and hint at their SEO strategy.
When evaluating editorial focus, try to ascertain the problems they aim to solve for their visitors. Are they merely targeting keywords, or do they genuinely understand their audience’s needs? It’s important to grasp their approach to SEO and content planning.
Competitor Research to Identify the Negatives
Next, conduct the reverse exercise by documenting all the site’s negative aspects. Competitor strengths represent challenges, whereas weaknesses present opportunities to stand out.
Non-Competitor Competitor Reviews
An insightful variation in competition research involves analyzing non-competitors with similar business models. Often, valuable insights can be gleaned from successful non-competitor practices. For example, if you run a movie review site, examining top music review sites might reveal new strategies. This research can help uncover unique angles outside the norm within your niche.
Now, here’s advice on finding a unique angle to set your site apart.
John Mueller Discusses Unique Angles
So the more you can really kind of take a step back and try to find an angle that significantly sets your site apart from all of the others so that when we go to the engineering team we can say well these ten results are pretty good but this one is the one that should definitely be number one for this kind of query.
Then that’s something they can take into account and say, Oh, yeah you’re right, this is really clearly the best out there and we need to make sure that it’s on top.
We’ll take some time to figure out what is actually happening here in our algorithms to treat this site, this content that it’s producing appropriately.
And those are things of course when you’re in a niche like this that is very competitive, that that’s very hard to do but it’s not impossible.
So I really recommend trying to take a step back and thinking about what you can do to significantly take your site to the next level.
Which might be new content that you produce, new angles that you kind of look into. Maybe less content that’s already out on other sites… all of these things to really kind of make sure that your site is really unique and not just similar to the other ones.
Be the Only One
The New York Times once interviewed celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, who shared an insight into success. Although Zimmern isn’t an SEO expert, his approach to success is illuminating.
Andrew Zimmern’s observation on success:
“I always say I don’t want to be the best. I want to be the only,” he said…
“You want to bust your ass and make the perfect hot sauce and market yourself against 300 other brands of incredible hot sauce? You’re a schmuck.
You actually want to go out and make something different. Be the only.”
Zimmern exemplifies being the only with his Chinese restaurant venture, focusing on the food he enjoys and grew up eating while also offering tiki drinks, adding a social dimension to dining out.
How to Rank Better in Google
According to John Mueller, being as good as existing sites in search results might not be sufficient. Developing strategies to surpass simply being good is crucial.
Screenshots by Author, Modified by Author
