How to Compete For Search Rankings Against Amazon and Wikipedia

Let’s talk about a real David and Goliath story: you versus Amazon (if you’re in the e-commerce biz) or you versus Wikipedia (if you’re in the knowledge biz).

It’s not impossible to outrank these monster websites, but it will take a top notch SEO strategy. Let’s talk about why you should feel encouraged to compete for search rankings and how to do it.

Why You Should Compete for Search Rankings

…even though it seems like a pointless battle. Thing is, it’s not a pointless battle: people outrank Amazon and Wikipedia every day, and they do it by using a combination of long-tail keywords, local SEO, and other SEO strategies.

It may seem impossible to stand up to the giant, but it’s not. The game is spotting the giants’ own vulnerabilities and using those same spots as your strong points.

Oh—and even if you don’t outrank them, but get pretty dang close? You’ll still reap the benefits, as even the #2 spot on SERPS tends to get 17% of the traffic.

How to Compete with Amazon, The Retail Giant

It all boils down to instilling some exclusivity into your pricing and strategy.

• Proprietary pricing, AKA the flash sale. No one beats Amazon’s prices, but if you can beat them for a short amount of time while you offer deep discounts, you’ll likely see SEO gains.
• Proprietary merchandising, AKA “only on our site.” If you can offer some of your own products exclusively on your website, visitors will have to come to your site to buy them. Even if you both offer the same product, but you offer different colors and sizes, you’re on your way to climbing the SERPs.
• Proprietary experience, AKA the attention to detail. If you can offer something handmade, artisan, home-grown, locally sourced, or anything that reminds your customer that they’re supporting small business, you’re offering something special that Amazon can’t. Great example: subscription boxes like Bookly Box, Blue Apron, and Fab Fit Fun.
• SEO tactics, like long-tail keywords, local SEO, and content marketing. Amazon dominates the generic keyword game, but you can dominate the long-tail keyword game. Likewise, you can set yourself apart with local SEO and offer knowledge resources relevant to your products, all of which can combine to create something powerful enough to outrank

How to Compete with Wikipedia, The Knowledge Giant

To outrank Wikipedia, be everything they’re not: biased, informal, and cutting edge.

Wikipedia has editorial rules in place that keep its content reliable and authoritative, something that you can’t compete with in the SEO landscape. But what you can do—much like the strategy to outrank Amazon—is beat them at the game they aren’t playing: offering brand-fueled, expert advice from an actual human.

Do this by creating a brand around your expertise on certain sets of knowledge and writing about it in a way that will attract people who need more than Wikipedia’s unbiased, possibly out-of-date stance.

Keep up with the SEO news and how algorithms are changing and find holes in Wikipedia’s strategy you might be able to fill. One big hole? social media. As social media becomes more important for ranking, Wikipedia’s monopoly on knowledge results weaken, since they have no social media strategy. What you can do? Get to work on your own social media strategy.

You Can Outrank The Giants

If not on your own, definitely with the help of SEO experts like us, Zero Gravity Marketing. Get in touch now to find out what it’ll take to compete with Amazon and Wikipedia.