How to Do SEO in a Competitive Industry When You Have No Money

They say it's impossible to rank (SEO) for competitive terms on Google unless you have a big marketing budget.
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They're wrong!

Whether you have a big marketing budget or not, you want to rank high organically because roughly 70% of the clicks go towards organic listings while 30% go towards paid ads.

Step #1: Write roundup posts. Interview everyone within your space. Ask them each the same question and create a very detailed roundup post. When you publish it, let them each know through email and ask them to share your content.

Some of them will link to your roundup post and others will share it on the social web. This will help increase your rankings.

Step #2: Use the SEObook Keyword Density Tool. Put in your competitor URLs that rank for the terms you want to rank for. That tool will show you all of the keywords that your competition is using.

Do this for the top 10 listings for the keyword you want to rank for. Look for all of the common terms these top 10 URLs are using and use them within your web page as well.

This will ensure your content is more thorough, which will help boost your rankings. Make sure you don't just stuff in keywords, it has to flow naturally.

Step #3: Google the term you want to rank for. Look at the paid ads and read the ad copy. A lot of the listings for paid ads are at the top because their ad copy is appealing.

Consider making your title tag similar to the ad copies that are at the top as they tend to be more appealing. By making an appealing title tag more people will click on your listing and over time this will cause your rankings to increase.

If you want to make your title tag more appealing consider adding the date to it, or use adjectives. I've also tested the words: get, now, free, and try. Those words tend to generate more clicks when they are used within a title tag.

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Leave a Reply 41 comments

Asjad Khan - June 2, 2017 Reply

what’s your favorite link building method ? how do you scale link building process?

what are some SEO hacks that you think are underrated ?

    Neil Patel - June 2, 2017 Reply

    My favorite method is infographics. I scale it by creating one a week and then emailing the same list of marketers each week. A lot will link back and share the content.

    Asjad Khan - June 2, 2017 Reply

    Neil Patel is it still works I have heard from my many of friends that infographics nowadays didn’t work,

    but I loved the way you have created the advanced SEO guide article with graphics on Quicksprout, would you like to share with us how you designed it and uploaded it on WordPress ?

    Neil Patel - June 2, 2017 Reply

    It doesn’t work if the infographic isn’t good quality.

    I pay designers on dribbble.com to design and upload it to WordPress for me.

Peter Lawrence - June 2, 2017 Reply

Is the wordpress theme essential when trying to rank higher organically ?

    Neil Patel - June 2, 2017 Reply

    Nope, you can use any platform or any theme if you are using WordPress.

Nirmal Kant - June 17, 2017 Reply

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing valuable informations

    Neil Patel - June 18, 2017 Reply

    You are welcome. πŸ™‚

Nidhal Shaikh - June 25, 2017 Reply

In such a short video you cover a lotπŸ‘πŸ». Keep up the good work and help us just like you are doing.

    Neil Patel - June 25, 2017 Reply

    Glad you liked it πŸ™‚

    Nidhal Shaikh - June 25, 2017 Reply

    Neil Patel it’s obvious✌

    Neil Patel - June 25, 2017 Reply

    πŸ™‚

Nikhil - July 6, 2017 Reply

Neil,..its been a great learning experience with your video tutorials

    Neil Patel - July 6, 2017 Reply

    Thank you. I’m glad you found them useful Nikhil!

Haroon Waqas - July 17, 2017 Reply

Thanks, Neil !!! I can easily learn from your video. thanks again. keep doing this <3

    Neil Patel - July 17, 2017 Reply

    No problem. Glad it is making learning easy.

Geoffrey Ashok - August 6, 2017 Reply

Great content, Neil. Just subscribed to the channel πŸ™‚ Keep more coming!

    Neil Patel - August 7, 2017 Reply

    Will do. Uploading a video right now. πŸ™‚

Vitor Leandro - August 7, 2017 Reply

oh Neil finally you create a youtube channel I was missing it… great! sucess!!

Idris Fashan - August 30, 2017 Reply

This is too juicy! Thanks, Neil. ☺️

    Neil Patel - August 30, 2017 Reply

    You are welcome.

Digitalood Blog - September 6, 2017 Reply

Thanks a Lot, Neil Once Again right on the target. Just made my SEO Concepts bit more clear. Surely going to try it out

    Neil Patel - September 6, 2017 Reply

    Let me know how it works for you.

Rohit Sharma - September 10, 2017 Reply

You’re genius man
God bless you..
Thanks for all help.

    Neil Patel - September 11, 2017 Reply

    You are welcome πŸ™‚

Vidsoul - October 12, 2017 Reply

I think you should apply for next Google CEO. My vote is confirm. BTW thanks for this video, keep doing awesome work.

    Neil Patel - October 12, 2017 Reply

    I don’t think I’m cut out for the job, but thanks! I appreciate your support. πŸ™‚

Senanur Duran - October 17, 2017 Reply

thank you so much u the man πŸ™‚

    Neil Patel - October 17, 2017 Reply

    No problem!

Sarah Jack - November 4, 2017 Reply

I watched this video three times, the content is so amazingly awesome that I just want to watch it again….

    Neil Patel - November 5, 2017 Reply

    Thank you, Sarah! I’m glad you’re getting useful information from my videos πŸ™‚

Tech Nik - December 10, 2017 Reply

where do you live

Shoestring To Success - April 9, 2018 Reply

Neil is one of the best for SEO on YouTube!

    Neil Patel - April 9, 2018 Reply

    Thank you my friend!

Rabel Catayoc - July 6, 2018 Reply

Thanks, Neil! Your video contents always want me to stay competitive in the SEO world. This one is tight! I love it! Thanks for doing this, man!

    Neil Patel - July 6, 2018 Reply

    Thanks a lot, Rabel! I appreciate the support!

Iqbal Hariadi - February 3, 2019 Reply

Thanks neil! Your videos helped a lot, really appreciate your content. Any chance coming to Jakarta? I’m marketer based here. Look forward to your reply!

    Neil Patel - February 3, 2019 Reply

    One day!

Eddie Roberts - February 4, 2019 Reply

Incredible! this is so me right now! thanks Neil!

    Neil Patel - February 4, 2019 Reply

    You’re welcome!

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