Everybody likes to win. So how exactly do you win? Well, by beating your competition, of course. But after talking with scores of business owners, consulting on dozens of SEO projects, and reviewing an endless stream of Web sites, a new winning strategy occurred to me: The easiest way to win is to not compete at all. Think about it, what’s an easier race to win, one where there are hundreds of competitors, or one in which you are the only participant?

Beat your competition by not competing!

Let’s say that you are a purveyor of all things school bus. School bus seats, school bus steering wheels, school bus tires, school bus windows. You are the King of School Bus Parts.

So, you visit your favorite search engine and type in “school bus parts� and find your competition right at the top. You don’t see yourself on the first page. You click to page two and you don’t see yourself there, either. The King of School Bus Parts and you’re not there! Say it ain’t so! You’re in trouble, right?

Probably not. Let your competitor have that spot. You’ve got other plans.

You have the opportunity to pull off a major competitive coup: Beat your opponent without them even knowing you’re in the race.

Go deep.

Into your site, that is. I did some digging and found out that there are something like 14 gazillion parts and pieces that make up a school bus. So as a search marketer, that represents the same number of opportunities to beat your competition. Don’t focus on “school bus parts� – leave that to your so-called competition. Instead focus on what really matters: “school bus compressor parts.� Or how about “school bus hydraulic parts?� There is so little competition for terms like this, your ability to win the search traffic is greatly enhanced. To be sure, there is little demand for these phrases as well, but what we’re after here is profitability. If some shop tech does a search for “DDC hydraulic pump� and finds your site at the top with an easy way to buy, you’ve won.

The trick is to do this across your major product groups and to do it consistently (see The Consistency Principle for reference). If you win lots of these little competitive battles, then over time the engines will come to see you as a subject matter expert, and guess what? You’ll over-take your competitor for the broader term.

As a head-to-head race, it may be very hard to knock off competition that is entrenched on the first page of the engines. But if you beat them without competing, over time you will win the big fight. You’ll go from quietly winning one man races, to winning the race against your entire industry. Then you’ll truly become King of the School Bus Parts.