Someone asked me the other day how to compete with WeWork using SEO when WeWork has a budget of (presumably) $20k/month.

My answer below applies both to search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) because the idea is the same.

The short answer is that if you’re going to do SEO or PPC, WeWork should not be a concern. You should do it anyway.

After all, WeWork can only occupy a maximum of two ad spaces at a time (out of seven), and rarely do they occupy more than one organic ranking for a common search like “coworking space in %City%” (out of a possible ten organic placements).

That leaves nine remaining organic placements and six available ad placements for your coworking space.

WeWork has enough money to be everywhere. There’s no denying that.

But you can be right there beside them at each step, assuming you have the minimum budget required to advertise and rank your website on the first page.

Don’t let the fear get to you. Do your thing as you normally would, carve out your position, and aim to be everywhere.

Yes, being second in the list is not ideal, but it’s not going to make or break your business.

Not doing SEO or PPC would be worse.