Ten years ago a leading bank took me in as a customer and gave me a stack of marketing literature and business guides and one immediately caught my eye – it baldy advised me NOT to waste my time and money on engaging SEO experts to get my website ranked more highly because my website (if I had one) would rise to the top “naturally” as long as I had a good site offering what visitors wanted.
Today, whoever wrote that drivel would either be (a) fired, or (b) given a bonus from the bank bail-out monies.
Getting to the top of the search engine rankings is mission critical for almost every business out there – business 101 is simple, get yourself seen, get yourself heard and get yourself customers.
Any business which has eschewed the web is either (a) subsidized by taxpayers, (b) enjoying a state-sanctioned monopoly, (c) failing or (d) bust.
Real-world business has embraced the web in a way many could not envision 20 years ago, and still suspected would never happen 10 years ago, and only started opening their eyes to the very real potential of the web five years ago.
The web has been embraced by real-world business but this has brought real-world business sense into the mix, particularly after the dot com bubble burst after geeks with bad skin could pry $10 million out of a venture capitalist for lunch.
The old names have come to dominate the web – Amazon, Google, AOL (in whatever guise), Yahoo!, and eBay, but they are not alone. Big blue chips and household names with marketing budgets born from deep pockets have also moved in, such as Wal-Mart, Costco, CVS, Barnes & Noble and almost every Fortune 500 you can name, and with them come management philosophies emanating from gilt-edged MBA’s across the country and beyond, espousing the latest from Tom Peters or Michael Porter.
“Competitive Advantage” was what it is all about, and today it still is, though “CA” hides behind other labels such as “BI” (Business Intelligence), strategic planning and whatever other buzzword management thinkers have come up (acronyms are particularly loved by management “specialists”).
What is a competitive advantage?
Simply put it is a talent or feature or process which you are leveraging to create business success. Typically, it means doing or offering something your competitors are not; perhaps a unique product or service, or simply dropping the cost of a generic offering to undercut the competition.
Big retailers like to throw buying power around to get a lower cost per unit which they pass on in reduced prices for customers – this undercuts the local stores and puts them out of business. That buying power is a competitive advantage.
Is that unfair?
In business there are only two sets of rules: those you have to comply with (paying taxes, the law) and ones which are generally encouraged (being socially responsible, environmentally friendly, being nice).
As long as you comply with the first set of rules you are OK, but transgressing the second set can backfire in your face – Wal-Mart has a lengthy history of customer and employee issues because of its corporate behavior for instance, and this has certainly lost sales and value for the company.
But squeezing out your competition and giving a better deal to consumers is not unfair – it is the American way!
Can SEO Give You a Competitive Advantage?
Of course it can!
The proof is two-fold.
First, ask yourself how much Amazon and Barnes & Noble are paying to ensure top page rankings – put “book” into a search engine and see who comes up. Do you believe Amazon ranks third in Google for “Angels & Demons Book” as a search because they have a good website, a good offering and they have “naturally” risen to the top page of the Google rankings?
Of course they are spending money faster than most small to medium companies can make it in order to ensure they get top billing. They are doing this only because they perceive a competitive advantage in ranking so highly. Businesses are rational creatures (so management theorists tell us) and they don’t spend money unless they are going to make more back.
Second, sticking with the “book” example, type in this search “book Richmond Virginia” and sure enough you see Amazon ranking highly (results may vary depending on where you are because of local search issues if you are using Google). You also see a lot of local book stores ranking highly too – Fountain Bookstore, Inc. outranks Amazon in our localized search, despite the millions spent by the big fish on SEO and marketing. In any event, there are a dozen or so, local book stores ranking with Amazon on Google and getting that front page ranking is worth sales. Gain a front page ranking and you will experience an increase in sales by factors of ten and more compared to a ranking on page 2; the factor increases to 100’s if you compare to a page 3 ranking and 10,000’s thereafter.
The only question you need to answer for yourself in this regard is whether gaining high search engine ranking delivers more sales revenue from which profit can be derived. If the answer is “yes”, then you need SEO to provide you with the virtual competitive advantage which high search engine rankings provides because there is no other effective way of doing it.
Takeaway
A competitive advantage is anything your business can use to generate more sales and increase profitability. Whether it is unfair or not is irrelevant – a competitive advantage almost always means a benefit for the customer to in terms of increased consumer choice, reduced pricing, better services and products.
A high search engine ranking is essential for generating e-business success and gaining a first page or even better, a top ranking for your search terms represents a significant competitive advantage. Gaining high rankings is firmly within the province of SEO and a high rank is a competitive advantage.
Having gained a competitive advantage does not mean you will enjoy business success; once you have achieved a competitive advantage it is up to you to press home that advantage to the fullest extent possible and maximize the sales and profitability.
