The tech industry is seeing unparalleled growth. However, much of the expansion and profits that are happening are attributed to just a handful of companies.
Google, Facebook, and Amazon, along with a select few others, have become the giants of the industry, with most other tech companies either paling in comparison or not surviving long enough to put up much of a fight.
Learning how to compete with the Googles of the world is not difficult, it just takes a smart strategy to compete with the big boys in the tech industry.
Why Smaller Tech Companies Are Not Seeing Success
The simple answer to this question is that the biggest tech companies have seemingly bottomless bank accounts. When Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are combined, their value reaches nearly $2.5 trillion.
They can pay for the best advertising and marketing teams. They can hire the best talent. They can invest in the latest tools and technology. And consumers trust these companies.
Unless a small tech startup has a desire to be acquired by one of these big names, there is a challenging journey ahead. But it is not impossible. Small tech companies simply need to make sure they are utilizing the right tools. One of these tools is SEO.
Unfortunately, many tech startups, and even larger tech companies, neglect to pursue a strong SEO strategy. For startups, this is mainly due to the very popular non-disclosure agreements or stealth mode that most new companies and their investors are bound to.
However, it is important to remember that an SEO strategy can be employed even when a non-disclosure agreement exists.
1. The Large Tech Companies Are Not Very Agile
While the larger tech companies have impressive stock values and astonishingly deep pockets, they have this money because the entire business works like a machine.
Everything runs smoothly, processes are in place, and operations are clear. If something needs to change it can take anywhere from a quarter to an entire year. The different divisions of the large business have to compete for resources.
- The change request has to move up the chain of command and back down again.
- Lower level personnel must use a presentation or a formal letter to prove to management that the change is necessary.
- Meetings have to be held.
- Phone calls have to be made.
- Emails have to be sent.
SEO, and its various strategies, methods, and use cases, changes and advances. If a large tech company wants to implement one of these newly developed methods, it does not happen immediately. And this is where smaller tech companies have the advantage.
Potentially, within a few short hours, decisions can be made, systems can be changed, and funds can be shifted.
When a new SEO strategy is developed, startups, small, and medium-sized tech businesses can almost instantaneously adjust and see a significant advantage when it comes to their ranking in a search engine.
2. Big Tech Companies Have A Smaller Advantage Than Other Big Companies
Big companies in many industries have a significant advantage over new arrivals and smaller competitors simply because of the money that they have at their disposal. Retail distribution is expensive. Brick and mortar stores cost money to maintain.
With tech companies, however, these high fixed costs are not relevant. Many tech companies provide internet-delivered services, making retail distribution obsolete. There is no product that requires hundreds of people's involvement to manufacture.
A single programmer can create everything from a single desk. In other words, in the tech industry, a really great product or service can be created without much investment.
And this is precisely why underdogs in the tech industry have consistently beaten out the incumbent.
Just take a look at how Facebook beat out Myspace. Or how Apple beat out IBM. Or how Salesforce beat out Siebel.
For these types of shifts in power, it does not take money. It takes the combination of a few inexpensive ingredients:
- A good idea
- A handful of hardworking people
- An affordable way to effectively spread the word.
- And this last ingredient is SEO. SEO, especially when it is outsourced, is arguably the most cost-effective marketing method.
Additionally, SEO practices are the same across the board. It is not like the big tech companies have some secret SEO strategy that always beats out everyone else.
Small companies have access to the exact same methods and, with the right strategy, can surpass the giant tech companies in search engine rankings on a reasonable budget.
3. Small Tech Companies Have A Narrower Focus
Some of the bigger tech companies, like Microsoft and Amazon, offer a wider array of products and services. When they market themselves, they have to be general.
They are targeting a larger portion of the population. Businesses, schools, governments, and individuals buy their products and services. Most startups and small tech companies do not have this problem.
Their service or product is meant for a select group of people that can be easily defined. And if this group can be so specifically defined, it can be targeted.
SEO empowers those who can be as specific as possible. Narrow and long SEO keywords that are strong will lift a small company to the top of the search engine results very quickly.
Additionally, smaller companies tend to have fewer services or products. This means that they can concentrate a large portion of their SEO budget on fewer items, giving them the potential to have a greater share of the keywords for those items.
While SEO is essential for every tech company, big or small, small tech companies have many advantages with an SEO strategy if that strategy is well planned out and agile.
It is for this reason that SEO experts should be employed; a company that knows the ins and outs of SEO and how it can be effectively applied to the tech industry is one of the biggest assets to any tech organization.
To find out more on how you can compete with the big boys, please feel free to contact us.
