Google: Why Do You Want To Rank For Competitors Keywords

Apr 21, 2017 - 8:05 am 51 by

Google Yellow Strikes

An SEO asked Google if they can rank in Google for a competitor's keyword. John Mueller responded on Twitter saying, sure you can but why would you want to? I was a bit surprised by the why part of his response.

Here is the tweet:

Gary Illyes of Google followed up on that with a similar response, at least they are in sync here:

Why would you want to rank for competitors keywords?

Well, one example, recently, I was looking for a new chat support system for one of my businesses. So I searched for the chat software I use now and up came a result for a competitor in Google saying something like "Why switch for [competitor name] to [their name]" or something like that. The article showed the pros and cons, of course it was biased, but it was useful. I loved that Google let the competitor rank for the business name because I wanted to find alternatives for that software.

People are often frustrated with their current software and looking to leave and switch. Ranking for competitors names is useful in that case and many other cases.

Again, I am surprised by the Googlers responses here.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 17, 2025

Sep 17, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Discover Tests Showing X Posts From Just Your Followers?

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:51 am
Other Search Engines

OpenAI Updates Search In ChatGPT: Factuality, Shopping & Formatting

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google: Searchers Want AI Summaries Over Links

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business API Q&A Feature Going Away November 3 (Changes Coming?)

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

New Google Merchant Center Suspension Video Verification

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google Earth Day Logo - A Day Early