Don’t get lost on page two of Google, your business needs to be on page one. Learn all about keyword ranking and how to improve yours today.
Each day, Google receives over 6.3 billion clicks, with 67 percent of these clicks going to the first five organic results due to proper keyword ranking. It’s a statistic that shows how important it is to rank highly on search engine result pages (SERPS), given that a considerable number of people who conduct searches on search engines may be consumers looking for products or services that you offer.
When a user types a search query into Google, they see a list of URLs that are best suited to their keyword. Improving your keyword ranking, therefore, should be your focus when implementing your online marketing campaign. It should be where your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts start.
But what exactly is SEO keyword ranking? How can good keyword ranking boost your business? More importantly, what strategies can you implement to boost your website keyword ranking?
These are just some of the issues we discuss in today’s comprehensive guide. Read on to learn more.
What Is Keyword Ranking?
Keyword ranking refers to the position of your web page within search results for a specific keyword search query. Once a person searches for a certain keyword, your ranking URL is the web page that’s listed for that particular keyword search. A single web page can rank for more than one relevant search keywords or phrases.
Why Should You Invest in Strong SEO Keyword Ranking?
As we pointed out, good Google keyword ranking is the hallmark of an effective digital marketing campaign. Here are a few benefits of being among the top results on Google.
Consumers Go Online to Search for Products and Services
Today, about 87 percent of shoppers begin their search for a product or service online. Given that the vast majority of searches go to the first page of Google, having your web pages rank highly is essential. Being on the first page of major search engines boosts your discoverability and enhances your chances of making sales.
Good Ranking Pulls in Quality Traffic
Too often, businesses spend a considerable amount of money, pushing out advertisements to persuade people to buy their products and services. The best thing about investing in keyword ranking is that you don’t need to spend money on paid advertising. Users who find you through keyword searches are already interested in what you offer.
SEO Traffic Converts More Easily
Search traffic has the highest conversion rates of all other sources of traffic. A whopping 16 percent of organic traffic can convert into leads if you position yourself well on search engines.
Keyword Ranking Decreases Your Cost Per Acquisition
When it comes to enhancing your keyword ranking, there are few costs involved. You may need to hire a reputable SEO company to help with the keyword research and developing top quality content for your website, but that’s just about it. Paid advertising, on the other hand, can set your company back thousands of dollars or more.
SEO Keyword Ranking Builds Credibility
Consumers trust Google. It’s the reason the company controls a staggering 90 percent of the global search engine market. If you rank highly on Google, it communicates to potential clients that your brand is trustworthy.
Keyword Ranking Is a Long-Term Strategy
While it may take up to a year to see your website move to optimal rankings, once you reach there, you rarely move down. That’s what makes SEO for law firms and other businesses worth investing in. Years from now, you’ll still enjoy the fruits of your keyword ranking efforts.
Keyword Ranking Can Give You an Edge on Larger Competitors
If you run a small business, chances are you don’t have the budget to run a fully-fledged marketing department complete with a chief marketing officer. It’s going to be almost impossible to outspend larger companies when it comes to marketing.
With an effective SEO plan, however, you can gain a higher ranking online and make sales. As giant competitors rely on paid advertising, you can depend on savvy SEO to acquire customers and outcompete them.
How Can You Boost Your Keyword Ranking?
Now that you’ve seen the benefits of ranking on page one of Google and other search engines, chances are you’d like to know how to do that. In this section, we outline proven ways to help your website rank higher within no time.
Measure Your Current Rankings
The most obvious place to begin when trying to boost your keyword ranking is to measure your current rankings. How can you know how far you’ve come if you do not have a firm understanding of your keyword performance at the moment?
Use such useful tools as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to get keyword data and landing page traffic. Analyzing all this data helps you pinpoint your most valuable keywords and landing pages. It also helps you see which keywords and landing pages are underperforming and reveals which areas you need to improve.
In particular, focus on keywords and key phrases that rank between positions 5 and 15. Working keywords that teeter at the bottom of the first page and top of the second improves your chances of ranking at the top of Google’s first page.
Target the Appropriate Keywords
Your keyword targets must always align with your predominant business objectives and provide real value to your marketing campaign. That’s why you need to understand the search intent behind particular keywords and the difficulty of their ranking.
Is the search intent informational, or is it transactional? Understanding this helps you know what stage your target audience is in the sales funnel.
Conduct a thorough SERP analysis. Identify what is currently ranking in the top search results for your core keyword targets. These include related searches, Google’s autocomplete suggestions, what people also ask, and other search features.
Once you understand what is needed to rank for a certain keyword, it’s easy to draw conclusions on how to develop the appropriate content around it. Cross-reference organic keyword research with paid marketing data to uncover fresh opportunities.
Don’t forget long-tailed keyword queries too. While their search volume may be lower, these keywords reveal extremely targeted users who are ready to purchase.
Fix Any Technical Issues
To set a robust foundation for your company website, you need to resolve technical problems that could potentially reduce your organic keyword discoverability. Search engines and users should be able to find and navigate your site pages with ease.
If Google cannot crawl your website and visitors cannot navigate it smoothly, your keyword rankings will inevitably be affected. The reverse is also true. An intuitive website for both search engines and users has better chances of ranking highly.
You want to make sure that your website has an attractive site structure. Resolve duplicate content issues and fix broken links. Conduct a regular in-depth SEO audit to keep your site free of technical issues that could have a negative impact on your ranking.
Optimize Content for Users
Often, online marketers are so focused on optimizing their content for search engines that they forget about who the content is ultimately meant for. Always keep in mind that humans are your target. Try to balance the needs of both search engines and people.
The good news is that there are many commonalities between the two. For instance, both robots and people want you to provide clear, concise, and accurate content. Always cover related subtopics, and steer clear of jargon.
Throughout your content creation process, think of ways to make everything easier to read and digest for both people and search engines. Come up with excellent header tags to enhance the readability of your content.
Don’t forget to include images in your content. Top-quality and relevant imagery can boost user engagement and further optimize your content through file naming and ALT text.
Ensure Your Titles Are Eye-Catching and Engaging
It’s not enough that your content has header tags. You need to make sure that all title tags you use are as appealing and engaging as possible.
That’s because using excellent title tags is among SEO best practices. But that’s not all. Title tags are the first thing readers see in search results.
Your title tags are your best opportunity to catch the attention of your users and draw them to your web page. Once you decide which page you intend to rank for the keyword at hand, find a way to create a title that stands out from all others. Of course, you’re going to include your keyword in the title tag, but that’s not the only way to encourage your target readers to click into your page.
The best headlines incorporate emotions to drive interactions. They also invoke curiosity in the reader. List posts and headlines that have numbers are also extremely effective.
Make sure that your content has meta descriptions that work closely with the title tags you choose. Incorporate the keyword in meta descriptions too, and have a clear CTA for users.
The main purpose of your title tags and meta descriptions should always be to point out the benefit to readers, trigger engagement, and provoke emotion.
Keep up With Algorithm Updates
There’s a reason why SEO experts stay on top of Google’s algorithm updates. Among other reasons, keeping up with algorithm updates helps keep your keyword rankings steady. It also helps you to constantly improve your rankings, so you stay ahead of the competition.
Being aware of when Google updated an algorithm or ended is helpful for tracking purposes. It allows you to trace back traffic and keyword fluctuations. You get to understand why one or more of your sites may have been affected by the update.
With this information, you can take the necessary actions to enhance your web pages’ rankings.
Build Quality Inbound Links
Creating a robust internal link strategy can help drive traffic to relevant content on other pages on your website. But this is just one part of the battle. You need to generate highly valuable and authoritative inbound links from other websites.
How do you go about that?
One of the most effective ways is to craft link-worthy content based on thorough keyword research and analysis. Always take note of mentions of your brand as these are a quick-win opportunity to gain inbound links from notable sites that are talking about you.
Be sure to link to third-party websites, too. In today’s competitive business landscape, you only get as much as what you are willing to give.
Promote Your Web Content Strategically
When promoting your visibility, it helps to leverage non-SEO avenues, too. There are many ways to get more eyes on your content.
One powerful channel that can help drive traffic to your business website is social media. Chances are the vast majority of your target audience are on social media. That’s why it’s imperative that you create social media profiles for your company.
Regularly Update and Optimize Content
Search engine results are always changing. For this reason, it’s important to improve and optimize your content continuously.
Keep your content relevant by refreshing it from time to time. Stale content usually leads to a decline in associated keyword rankings. Conversely, fresh content provides visitors with the most current and useful material, which has a direct, positive impact on your website rankings.
Monitor your keyword performance and take note of assets whose ranking is starting to decline. Re-optimize the asset for relevance, engagement, search intent, and readability. You may need to change the title tag as well as anything in your content that could hurt your rankings.
Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
As of 2020, over 52 percent of all web traffic comes through mobile devices. Ensuring that your business website is mobile friendly is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. In 2017, Google Webmaster Blog expressly stated that web pages that weren’t easily accessible on mobile phones may not rank as highly.
If you are sure that your website is mobile-friendly, it’s time to hire a reputable web design professional to assess it and redesign it. If you don’t, you could be missing out on the opportunity to connect with a significant portion of your potential clients.
Boost Your Keyword Ranking Today
Getting your business website on the first page of Google and other search engines can do wonders for your online marketing strategy. Hopefully, the keyword ranking tactics we’ve shared here should help you get there sooner rather than later.
Would you like assistance in your digital marketing efforts? Please contact me today.