Do Small Organizations Have A Chance In Competing With Large Companies In Search?

In the Google SEO Office Hours episode last February 4, a user asked if small organizations have a chance in competing with large companies in search. This question stems from how in some industries, Google shopping ads run alongside the ads displayed on the top of the search, which then pushes down the organic search results and smaller organizations lower down the page.

John Mueller mentioned how it is almost like a philosophical question. From Google’s point of view, it’s definitely not the case that they are trying to focus on the big websites, or anything like that.

From a practical point of view, if you’re a small company trying to compete with larger companies, it’s always going to be hard, especially on the web.

One thing that Mueller noticed over time is that in the beginning, a lot of large companies were incompetent with regards to the web and had terrible websites, which made their visibility in the search results bad. During those times, small websites were able to get in and gain visibility to a large amount of users.

But overtime, as larger companies started seeing the value of search and of the web, they have grown their websites and they have started having competent teams that work really hard on making a fantastic web experience.

For smaller companies, it became harder to gain foothold especially in a very competitive market.

It is less about large companies or small companies, and it’s really more about the kind of competitive environment, in general.

Mueller advised that as a small company, focus should probably be more on the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and trying to find an angle where you can shine, where other people do not have the ability to shine, as well as you do.

For example is specific kinds of content or specific audience to target, anything along those lines, similar to how you would do it in a normal physical business.

Google is a business and it makes money through ads, which explains the visibility of different kinds of ads in search, that in turn, drives organic search lower down the page, with people more likely to click on the top parts showing the ads.

This has been a concern of a lot of businesses. SEO is a competition and aside from competing with other businesses, sometimes bigger businesses, it’s also a competition with Google itself.

Can smaller organizations have a chance of competing with larger organizations? Yes, of course. It all depends on how you look at things, how you go about making your business visible, and a whole lot of strategic planning.

In a previous article, Google has talked about not just focusing on search but also looking towards other traffic sources.

In a competitive niche, where the big players dominate the search, it’s also a good idea to check out other traffic sources such as ads, social media, video platforms, etc., make yourself different from the big players, find your audience, make yourself known to them, find your particular niche, be great at it, that despite being a small business among big businesses, you’d get to shine and be noticed.

Check out the Google SEO Office hours episode at: