Most people rely on Google.

How many times have you heard someone say: “Just Google it.”

People make more than 3.5 billion searches every day on Google!

But even more interesting is that 75% of them don’t scroll past the first page of search results:

In short: people want answers fast!

You may have heard the classic quote from Brian Clark at Copyblogger when he said:

“The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of the Google search results.”

It’s funny, but true. You need to rank on the first page of Google to stand a chance of reaching most readers.

But, the challenges don’t stop once you hit the first page. Google’s front page is becoming much more complex (and competitive) with the evolution of new SERP features such as featured snippets, knowledge panels, local map packs and carousels. 

Once your website gets on the front page you then have to contend with:

1. PPC (Adwords at the top and bottom of the page)

5. Shopping (Paid Promotions)

You can see the proportion of each major SERP feature in the MozCast Feature Graph:

Even though it’s getting harder to rank on the first page of Google, it doesn’t mean you should give up. It’s just a case of analyzing the SERPs and selecting the strategy that gives you the best shot at success.

(Spoiler: your website is not always the best option)

Truth is: you can’t always rank on page one with your own web properties. But this shouldn’t stop your business from getting front page visibility for your most important keywords. 

And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this post – how to tailor your SEO strategy to rank on page one, with or without using your own website.

But before we jump into the tactics for getting your site on the first page of Google, it’s important to understand what signals have the biggest impact on rankings …

Disclaimer: This article does contain some affiliate links. If you purchase a tool through one of my links I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. This is how I fund the blog and its promotion. Thanks for the support.

Now you understand what signals drive rankings, it’s time to dive into the tactics.

Some tactics require a little more time and patience to execute. 

Let’s start with a strategy you can use to get your website on the front page of Google in 24 hours.

#1: Start with Your Existing Keyword Opportunities 

Video: I walk you through the free Google Sheets template that will automate most of the existing keyword research process. A huge time saver!

If you only do keyword research to create new content, this tactic may be a bit of an eye-opener. 

I’ve used this tactic for my own blog on countless occasions:

Increasing traffic by as much as 402% month over month:

The blog post above went from position #8 to #2 overnight, which is why the traffic shot up like a rocket!

This tactic allows you to take existing content that may not be living up to its full potential and optimizing it in such a way that it generates near-immediate traffic gains.

Here’s what you need to do: 

1. Use Semrush to identify content that is ranking on page 2 of the SERPS – the “low-hanging fruit”.
2. Optimize your content to ramp up traffic.

Here’s the process:

Step 1 – Identify low-hanging fruit

In Semrush: 

1. Enter your domain URL – e.g. “beardbrand.com”. 
2. Select “Organic Research” from the sidebar menu.
3. Click on the “Positions” tab:

The results show all your top-ranking keywords:

But you’re only interested in the “low-hanging fruit”, so you need to set a “Custom range”
(6 – 20) in the “Positions” filter:

Now your results look this – e.g. 8.5K keywords instead of 39K:

You can also layer on minimum volume, word count, and other advanced filters to find the best existing keyword opportunities.

For example, you could apply a filter for a minimum 100 search volume, max KD% of 49%, and at least 3 words in the query. 

Now your results look this – e.g. 1.1K keywords instead of 8.5K – as you’ve streamlined the number of queries further:

See what this looks like for your website:

But you can take this one step further and find specific types of keywords.

For instance, you can use URL subfolders like “/collections” or “/product” to return all the commercial intent product-related terms for an ecommerce site. On the other hand, using a URL subfolder like “/blog” would return all the informational or investigational (affiliate) keyword ideas.

Here’s how it works.

Beardbrand houses all of its products under the “/products” subfolder. For example, you’ll find their Beard Wash Softeners here:

In Semrush, add an advanced filter: 

Either search by the subfolder:

Or search by the root domain and add an advanced filter: 

• Include > URL > Containing > “/products”:

Now the results show only the commercial intent product-related keywords in positions #6-20: 

Likewise, you could change the filter to show only informational keywords found in the Beardbrand blog.

In Semrush, change the advanced filter:

• Include > URL > Containing > “/blogs”:

Now the results show only the informational intent keywords in positions #6-20:

By entering these parameters, you’re investing time on those keywords that are most valuable to your business. 

So far, you’ve found keywords with relevant search volume, strong existing rankings, and manageable competition.

Next, you need to prioritize which pages to optimize first.

I prefer to start with the “money” keywords at the bottom of the funnel, and work my way back up to the informational keywords:

Export the results as a “.CSV” file, then copy/paste the data into the sheet labeled “1. Semrush Export” in the Google Sheet below.

In the DONE tab, you should now see something like this:

The rows with the most GREEN in them signify the MOST ATTRACTIVE opportunities.

For example, the queries “free link building tools” and “best keyword tracker” shows an attractive search volume, manageable competition and mid-funnel intent, plus it’s already ranking on the first page of Google. 

On the other hand, the query “link building tips” has strong competition, top-funnel intent and is languishing at the bottom of page two. 

As a result, I’d prioritize the first couple queries for relaunch because they appear to be quick-wins from both a traffic and monetization (affiliate) standpoint. 

Step 2 – Optimize your content:

Here is a quick overview of how I would optimize these posts to move up the rankings:

• Update existing expert contributions 
• Add 10-15 new contributors
• Update the scoreboards and republish 
• Re-promote on social media and mention all contributors 
• Run outreach to contributors and secure 5-10 backlinks
• Add internal links from 3-5 topically relevant posts with high URL ratings

For a more in-depth overview of the relaunch process, check out this guide. 

Video: I’ll walk you through the free Google Sheets template that will automatically find potential keyword cannibalization issues on your website. 

Keyword Cannibalization occurs when two or more pages on your website are competing for the same keyword.

At first, you might think it makes sense to have more than one page ranking for the same keyword.

But it’s not.

For starters, Google doesn’t know which of the pages to rank highest. And in some cases, it decides to ignore both pages.

And second, backlinks and shares get split between the pages, which leads to less authority for each page. (And that’s bad, because we’ve seen, pages with higher authority tend to rank better.)

In short: when your website is competing with itself, you’re significantly diluting your chances of ranking at all!

So how do you find and eliminate keyword cannibalization?

1. Use Semrush (aff) to see which keywords your website is ranking for.
2. Check for keyword duplication (i.e. multiple pages ranking for the same keyword).
3. Resolve the issue by either merging the two (or more) resources or deleting one of them. (Note: only do this if there are ZERO links/traffic/conversions or the page serves a different purpose such as a support resource)

Here’s how to do it:

In Semrush:

1. Enter your domain URL – e.g. “www.robbierichards.com”. 
2. Select “Organic Research” from the sidebar menu.
3. Click on the “Positions” tab:

The results show every keyword and their ranking position: 

Export this entire report to a “.CSV” file:

Next, copy/paste all the exported data into the sheet named “1. Semrush Export” in the Google Sheet below.

It should look something like this:

Then navigate to the “DONE” tab, and it will show you all the keyword cannibalization issues on your website:

Now, based on the results, you have a couple of options:

(a) If the two pages competing for the same keyword are very similar, and both offer unique value, consider merging them into one canonical resource.

Note: Ensure you add a 301 redirect from the unused page to the new canonical resource, especially if it has backlinks.

(b) Otherwise, if the competing page offers nothing of unique value, then you can delete it.

Ranking on the first page of Google is a great achievement!

But it’s only the start… 

What you really want is the top spot. Or to be more precise, you want to claim #Position 0 with a Featured Snippet.

Ahrefs found that the URL in Position #0 steals 8.6% of clicks from Position #1 when the SERPs have a Featured Snippet:

Here are three ways to steal position zero with featured snippets.

In Semrush (aff):

1. Select Organic Research from the sidebar
2. Enter your domain – e.g. “healthline.com”
3. Select the “Positions” tab
4. Open the “SERP features” filter and select “Featured snippet”:

Now you have a list of all the keywords the domain ranks for on the first page with a featured snippet. These are your “quick-win” opportunities.

For example, the keyword “collapsed pancreas” is in position #4, but Medical News Today has the featured snippet:

In Semrush:

1. Select Keyword Magic Tool from the sidebar
2. Enter a seed keyword – e.g. “beard oil”
3. Click on “Phrase match”
4. Open the SERP Features filter and select “Featured snippet”:

From the results, you can click the SERP list icon to open the SERP and reveal the URL currently occupying the featured snippet. For example, Healthline has the featured snippet for the keyword “what does beard oil do”:

In Semrush (aff):

1. Select Organic Research from the sidebar
2. Enter your competitor’s domain – e.g. “healthline.com”
3. Select the “Positions” tab
4. Use the “Advanced filters” to find “Featured snippet” opportunities:

Now you have a list of all your competitor’s featured snippet content, plus the keywords to target.

Ranking in the top ten organic results isn’t the only way to get on the first page of Google.

Nowadays, you’ll find the Google Map Pack at or near the top of the SERPs for any query with local intent.

In fact, you don’t even need to add a qualifier like “near me” in your search because Google filters the SERPs by the searcher’s location.

For example, if you search for “Italian restaurants”, Google shows Italian restaurants near you:

Map results are triggered for more searches than ever – which means, getting ranked in the Google Map Pack is crucial for any local business.

• 97% of search engine users search online to find local businesses. (Ardent)
• 92% of searchers will pick brands on the first page of local search results. (Nectafy)

According to Google’s official guidance, three factors determine how high your business ranks in the local results:

1. Relevance: The more relevant your business profile is to a query, the higher it ranks.
2. Distance: The nearer your location is to the searcher’s location, the higher it ranks.
3. Prominence: The more established your business is, both offline and online, with positive reviews and ratings, the higher it ranks.

#5: Target Low Competition/ High Volume Long Tail Keywords

If you want to get on the first page of Google, then you need to start targeting long tail keywords.

Why?

Because long tail keywords typically have a lower monthly search volume, but a higher probability of conversion.

They get their name from the “long tail” of the search demand graph:

For example, a user wants to buy a specific TV make and model, so they search “Sony 50 inch 4K TV under $1000″ vs “Sony TV”. The intent is typically higher with long tail keywords. 

Here’s a couple of ways to find long tail keywords.

Tactic 1

In Semrush:

1. Select the “Keyword Magic Tool” (aff) from the sidebar menu
2. Enter a seed term – e.g. “tomato plant”
3. Use the advanced filter “Word count” to include keywords with 3 or more words:

Now you have a list of additional long-tail keyword opportunities related to “tomato plant” like “yellow leaves on tomato plants” and “tomato companion plants”:

You can also toggle a switch to get a list of long-tail question keywords like “when to plant tomatoes”, “how to plant tomatoes”, and “how to prune tomatoes”: 

Question-based keywords are popular because people want answers to specific questions.

Here’s another example of long-tail question keywords for the seed term “divorce attorney”:

There’s another tactic you can use in Semrush to find the long-tail keywords your competitors use and rank for.

Here’s what to do:

In Semrush:

1. Select “Organic Research” from the sidebar menu
2. Enter a competitor’s domain – e.g. “healthline.com”
3. Click the “Positions tab”
4. Filter by Top 20 positions for the high-ranking terms
5. Filter for 2+ keywords to show long-tail terms with 3 or more words:

Now from your list of results, you can see the top-ranking long-tail keywords of your competition: 

There’s another tactic you can use in Semrush to find the long tail keywords your competitors use and rank for.

Here’s what to do:

In Semrush (aff):

1. Navigate to the SEO Toolkit and enter a competitor’s domain – e.g. “healthline.com”
2. Select “Organic Research”.
3. Click the “Positions tab”.
4. Filter by Top 20 positions for the high-ranking terms.
5. Filter for 2+ keywords to show long tail terms with 3 or more words:

Now from your list of results, you can see the top-ranking long tail keywords of your competition: 

#6: Use Barnacle SEO to “Attach” Your Website to Pages Already Ranking High in the SERPs

Some big brands dominate the SERPs, even for long tail keywords, which makes it hard for small businesses to rank on the first page of Google.

For instance, big brands such as TripAdvisor, Avvo, and Trulia dominate the holiday, law, and real estate niches.

Here are some examples.

Hotels: TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Timeout.com, etc:

Real Estate: Zillow, Rent.com, Trulia, Zoopla (UK), Rightmove (UK), etc:

Legal: Avvo.com, Superlawyers.com, Justia.com, etc:

There’s no way you’re going to outrank them – at least not to start!

So rather than competing with the BIG sites that dominate your niche, you can attach your own brand to them.

That way, you can effectively piggyback on their success!

It’s a tactic called “Barnacle SEO” – a term coined by Will Scott of Search Influence.

In short: It means you attach your site to the BIG websites to get traction.

For example:

• If you run a hotel in London, then encourage your guests to leave reviews on TripAdvisor, so you get featured on that site for a specific city/town.
• If you run a law firm, optimize your profiles to rank highly in relevant categories on sites like Avvo. Or, pay for a featured listing (more on that later).
• If you run any type of local business, optimize your profile and generate loads of quality reviews to rank highly in relevant Yelp categories.
• If you provide holiday accommodation, you can list it on Airbnb.

You can also look for keywords in your niche where forums like Quora dominate the SERPs.

For example, if you were a lawyer, you could search for forum threads about attorneys.

In Semrush (aff):

1. Enter “quora.com” in Organic Research. 
2. Select the “Positions” tab.
3. Filter by the Top 5 positions for the high-ranking terms.
4. Use the “Advanced filters” to find threads containing the word “attorney”:

This will result in a TON of threads that rank well for attorney-related terms:

Select the ones most related to your business from the list, sign into Quora, answer the questions and link back to a “value-add” resource.

It doesn’t always make sense to wait to rank your own website on the first page of Google. Sometimes the best strategy is to attach your site to those already ranking. 

Note: For more information on how to use Barnacle SEO to get your website onto the first page of Google, check out this in-depth guide. 

#7: Use Parasite SEO to Rank for Ultra Competitive Keywords

As we saw with Barnacle SEO, it’s tough to rank for some keywords.

That’s because the BIG “money” keywords are often super-competitive and ONLY high authority sites stand a chance at ranking for them.

For instance, the search term “SEO tips” has a keyword difficulty rating of 62 and is dominated in the SERPs by big brands with high domain authority:

So, what’s the solution?

Parasite (or Tenant) SEO.

In short, Parasite SEO is where you piggyback on the authority of other websites to rank for super-competitive, “money” terms.

You do this by publishing new content on high ranking sites and publications. (Unlike Barnacle SEO where you get listed in relevant directories and forums).

Here’s how it works:

1. Identify high authority websites in your niche that accept guest posts.
2. Pitch them topics with the competitive keywords you want to rank for.

Here’s a couple of examples of Parasite SEO in action:

Example 1:

Matt Barby used Parasite SEO to rank his client for the keyphrase “app makers” (22,000 monthly searches).

The Business News Daily article generated 74,783 referral visits and almost 4,300 user registrations:

Example 2:

Another way to leverage other sites is to piggyback on existing list posts. 

I wanted to get some quick exposure for my SEO training course. So instead of publishing a new list post on my site where I’d have to link to competitors, I contacted another site that was already ranking for loads of terms such as “SEO certifications”:

The article also ranked for hundreds of other targeted keywords such as “SEO classes”, “SEO training”, and “best SEO classes”:

I gave the author a free license to review my course, and now I’m listed number 5 in their SEO training courses post and get hundreds of targeted referral visits each month:

#8: Match Your Content Type to the SERPs

A common mistake I see many clients make is to target keywords with the wrong content type.

For instance, should you publish:

• Blog posts? 
• Videos?
• Category pages?
• Product pages?
• Government resource pages? 

If you choose the wrong content type, you’re rank potential is dead in the water before you even start. 

Case Study:

I had one client who tried to rank for the keyword “interactive infographic” using an in-depth product page.

It was a great page with a high URL rating (authority) and a good number of quality backlinks. 

But it didn’t rank.

When we checked the SERPs, we found out why:

The top ranking content was all long-form list-type blog posts.

So, we published a massive list post of our own and it now ranks #1 for the target search term, and drives a lot of organic traffic to the site each month:

Over 12-months, the original product page brought in 366 organic visits compared to the list post with 9,565 organic visits.

You can check which is the right type of content for your keywords by simply reviewing the SERPs.

For example: 

The top results for the search term “quadcopter controls” are all “How to” style blog posts:

But the top results for the search term “thrive leads add fields” are videos:

And for a broad query such as “beard oil”, product category pages tend to rank on page one:

Always check the preferred types of content for your keywords before investing resources into content creation. 

#9: (Accurately) Qualify with Page-Level Link Signals 

The Barnacle SEO and Parasite SEO tactics showed that it’s not always possible to rank on the first page of Google for your target keywords.

The terms you can target will depend mainly on your domain rating, plus the competing DR and UR of sites that are already ranking.

A study by Ahrefs shows page-level backlink metrics have the strongest correlation with page one rankings:

Note: In general, it’s better to get one link from 10 different websites than 10 links from a single website.

For example, look at the Semrush SERP Analysis report for the search term “SEO tips”:

In Semrush (aff):

• Select Keyword Overview from the sidebar menu
• Enter your keyword – e.g. “seo tips” 
• Scroll down to the SERP Analysis report at the bottom of the page 
• Click Get Metrics to see the URL referring domain counts for the top 10 posts:

Notice how the Page AS (Authority Score) and Ref. Domains (number of unique Referring Domains to the page) figures are all high.

Unless your site has similar figures, it would be unrealistic to consider ranking for that keyword.

However, sometimes it’s possible to identify gaps in the top 10 positions that you could target, especially if your content is of higher quality and better satisfies the search intent.

For example, Wikipedia – with its high number of referring domains – usually gets the top spot for informational search queries.

But take a look at the SERP Analysis report for the search term “chocolate labrador”:

Notice a few URLs with considerably fewer referring domains rank higher than Wikipedia.

Why? Because their content is specific to chocolate labradors, whereas the Wikipedia content covers all breeds of a labrador.

Here’s another example for the search term “sales techniques” that shows you can beat URLs with a high number of referring domains (like SuperOffice and Inc):

Always check the Authority Score and number of Referring Domains for the pages currently populating the SERPs for your target keywords.

If they’re significantly higher, don’t waste a ton of time going after them, unless you spot a big gap in topical relevance and/or content quality.

#10: Build Page-Level Authority to Outrank Big Brands

Once you understand the link profiles of the competing assets, you can start to build enough page-level authority to compete aggressively. 

Remember: Page authority is driven mostly by the number of links from referring domains.

Here are 3 quick ways to land quality links to valuable content and help get it onto the first page.

(1) Replicate your competitors best backlinks

Most sites have hundreds or even thousands of backlinks. Unfortunately, some can be low-quality and spammy!

So here’s a way to find your competitor’s best backlinks.

In Semrush:

1. Select the Backlink Analytics (aff) tool
2. Enter your competitor’s domain – e.g.
3. Select the “Backlinks” report:

Now from the complete list of backlinks, you can filter out the low-quality and spammy links. For example, you can select only “text-based follow links” using the advanced filter:

Now you’re left with high-quality text-based links that you can prospect and replicate for your content.

Check out the Quick Wins Playbook in my SEO training course for more information on this strategy, or check out this in-depth competitor backlink analysis guide.

(2) Find recurring backlink sources to your competitors

If you discover that a competitor is getting links from the same source over and over again, then take note, because:

• They’re likely to be interested in the content on your website (as they’re linking out to similar content already).
• They’re likely to be receptive to your link requests (as they have a track record).

Which means you have a great link prospect.

Here’s how to find these recurring backlink sources.

In Semrush:

1. Select the Backlink Gap (aff) tool
2. Enter your domain and up to five competitors – e.g. +
   (Note: You can do this at the domain, subdomain, or URL levels.)
3. Click “Find prospects”
4. Select your domain in the drop-down above the table
5. Sort the “Matches” column in descending order to show how many of your competitors have a backlink from the listed referring domain:

Now you’ll see a list of domains that link to your chosen competitor’s website at least once, ordered by the number of matches.

Go through the results and make a note of the best sites to contact.

Then repeat the process for your other competitors.

(3) Perform a backlink gap analysis

You can use the Backlink Gap tool to find out where your competitors are getting backlinks from, but you aren’t.

In Semrush:

1. Select the Backlink Gap tool
2. Enter your domain and up to five competitors – e.g. + (Note: You can do this at the domain, subdomain, or URL levels.)
3. Click “Find Prospects”
4. Select your domain in the drop-down above the table:

In the list, you can see the backlink opportunities that you’re missing – i.e. the domains that your competitors have links from, but your domain does not.

You can also take a look at how your competitors are getting the backlinks. Are they guest posts, site submissions, earned editorial links, or featured in tool lists?

For example, if you check the first item above, you can see that Wordstream earned an editorial link on Medium:

Remember: only add links from sources that are relevant to your new content.

When you publish new content on your site, one of the best ways to give it a quick boost is to add internal links from existing high-authority pages.

But don’t link for the sake of it. Make sure the content is related.

Here’s how to find high-authority pages.

In Semrush:

• Select the Backlink Analytics tool
• Enter your domain – e.g. “beardbrand.com” 
• Select the “Indexed Pages” report
• Sort the “Domains” column in descending order:

The results show the best pages on your website ordered by the number of referring domains.

Scan down the list to find a relevant post from which to add your link.

For example, if Beardbrand published a new post called “How to apply beard oil”, they might want to link internally to it from this related post on “How to Grow a Beard: The Essential Guide”:

Bonus resource:
3 Ways to Find Keywords for Link Building

#11: Expand Your Organic Footprint and Land Hundreds of First Page Rankings (with a Single Asset)

It’s possible to get a single article ranking for dozens, hundreds or even thousands of different keywords relative to the niche and type of content.

For example:

Healthline’s top-ranking informational page on how to lose weight includes 11.7K keywords:

But in contrast, in the traffic safety niche, the traffic cones product page on the Traffic Safety Store has 766 keywords:

What’s interesting to note is that the primary keyword – traffic cone – brings in 5,687 visitors – that’s 14.32% of the page’s overall monthly organic traffic. The remaining 85.68% comes from the other 765 semantic and long tail secondary keywords:

Here’s how to expand the organic keyword footprint on your pages by finding and adding related keywords to the primary topic.

In Semrush:

Enter your primary keyword – e.g. traffic cone – into the Keyword Magic Tool (aff):

From the results list, you can find thousands of related long tail keywords:

On the left-hand side are groups of keywords. For example, you could click on “orange” to show all the keywords related to orange traffic cones:

Check the results to see what new keywords you want to add to your content. 

Note: these secondary keyword ideas can also be used to build new posts or pages.

For example: Traffic Safety Store would likely not target “organic traffic cones” with the same top-level traffic cones category page. It would instead create a sub-category page for each different traffic cone color.  

When you’re looking specifically for secondary keywords to boost topical relevance, look at semantics.

For example: “best wifi router” is semantically related to “best wireless router” and could definitely be targeted with the same review post:  

You can also use the Keyword Gap tool to identify secondary keyword gaps at the URL level compared to the competition.

In Semrush:

1. Select the Keyword Gap (aff) tool
2. Enter your domain and up to five competitors – e.g. +

   (Note: You can do this at the domain, subdomain, or URL levels.) 

3. Select “Competitors in Top 10” positions:

Now filter the results to show the keywords you are missing:

You now have a list of secondary keywords from your competitors that you can target.

#12: Embrace a Mobile-First Mindset

If you want to rank on the first page of Google then you have to embrace a mobile-first mindset.

At the end of 2018, 57% of organic searches in the US came from mobile devices:

Based on the increasing trend, it’s no surprise that Google switched to a mobile-first index. 

You may have seen this notification in Search Console informing users of the changes:

Previously Google indexed the desktop version, but now index and rank the mobile version of a website first..

A “mobile-unfriendly” website can now negatively impact your rankings on both mobile and desktop devices.

You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if individual pages are optimized:

And then check the results:

You can also check your site-wide mobile usability report in Google Search Console:

Google has been using site speed as a ranking factor since 2010. So it’s also important you have a responsive, fast-loading site.

Enter your page URL into either of these free tools to measure the loading time of individual pages: 

Google Pagespeed Insights:

GTMetrix Performance Report

#13: Pay to Play

If you have the budget, paid ads are a great way to get immediate SERP visibility for your most important search terms while waiting for your organic SEO efforts to kick in.

Here are a few options.

Google Ads

Text Ads
You can pay to display brief text adverts to promote your service or product. Ads appear at the top or bottom of the SERPs:

Local Map Pack Ads
For local businesses, you might want to pay to advertise your service in Google Maps (app and desktop). An ad label gets the top spot above the organic results:

With Google Local Ads, you pay for results when people click your ad to visit your website, call your business or get directions.

Review sites 

Depending on your niche, there might be established review sites and directories to target.

For example:

G2 Crowd – for software apps and services:

This gets millions of visits every month from people looking for independent reviews of SaaS products across hundreds of different categories. Business can pay to get featured listings in their specific category:

Avvo – for legal services. 

Again – this is another example of a directory site that ranks for millions of local service-based keywords:

Rather than waiting months or even years (depending on the market) to get on the first page, an attorney could buy a featured listing and get their practice viewed by hundreds of new visitors every month:

Remember: These sites are already ranking, but you can ensure top placements for your services by paying for listings.

This way, anyone who clicks on the number #1 directory result for your local service keyword will land on the location page in the directory and see your practice first. 

Deciding on your target keywords

There are a couple of ways to choose what keywords to use in your paid ads. You can check:

A. What your competitors are using and what’s been successful for them.
B. What the estimated Volume and CPC would be in Google for your product or service.

Here’s how to find what keywords are successful for your competitors in the Semrush Advertising Toolkit (aff):

1. Enter the competitor domain – e.g. “gruber-law.com”.
2. Select Advertising Research from the side menu.
3. Click the Positions tab:

From the results, you can see the keywords they are bidding on – e.g. “car accident lawyer milwaukee”, “personal injury lawyer milwaukee” – and what positions they’ve ranked for:

In this example, you can see Gruber Law has been successful with their paid ad rankings.