SEO has been a boon for small companies and startups. There are very few marketing techniques that offer marketers maximum reach with minimal resources. SEO is one of them. Since search engines don’t rank websites in their results based on the digital marketing budgets and advertorial investment. Search engines value the relevance of a webpage with respect to the search query.

While SEO is beneficial for small companies, this doesn’t mean that large businesses cannot use SEO. Some of the big brands today have marketing teams filled with SEOs and content writers. FOX Sports, a major sports broadcaster in the US, used SEO to promote the Super Bowl this year (the Super Bowl is an annual sporting event in the US). Thus, even big brands can use the reach of search engines to inform their audience about key details products and services they are promoting.

This presents a problem.

Small companies can no longer think simple SEO tactics will save them. Big brands with bigger SEO teams can outpace any conventional SEO plans a small company might have. Students at digital marketing institutes and SEOs working for small companies need to realize this simple fact.

In this article, we discuss ways SEOs can stave off competition from big brands and compete.

Use Your Strengths Well

What is one thing big brands cannot have, but a small company has in abundance?

Speed.

In a big company, implementing anything takes time. There are a lot of people who have to sign off on a simple measure.

This is even true for something as simple as using an SEO tool or making a slight change to the content strategy.

Small companies can only beat bigger brands if they take advantage of the strengths they have. Speed can be turned into a big advantage by a brand.

This strength can be used by simple implementation – just be fast. Make decisions on keywords, content, and tools on the go. Never fall into the trap by deliberating and mulling over the finer details. SEO is a technique that will always give you second chances. If one blog post doesn’t get a lot of traction, the next one will. Always keep moving.

Don’t be afraid to be Aggressive

Big brands are always skeptical of being too aggressive in their campaigns. This is because the stakes are always high for them. One bad tweet can mean a mass exodus of customers from their brand.

As a small brand, you can be aggressive in your campaigning. Call out your competitors and bigger brands if you feel that is what you need to do. Create campaign slogans that aggressively reach out to your base and excite audiences.

In Conclusion

SEO was not built as a marketing technique. It was meant to be an impartial blueprint of how search engines rank content on their websites. However, the reach and potential of search engines have made SEO a crucial marketing technique.

In this article, we covered how big brands have started moving towards SEO and the steps small companies and startups should take to stop them.

About the Author – The writer, Sheen Ben Philip, is a well-known blogger currently working for DelhiCourses, a best in class and affordable digital marketing institute in Delhi.