5 ingredients for ranking first on Google
One questions we often get from new clients is how they can rank first on Google, just like their competitors.
They ask because they know that showing up on Google’s first page of results makes a big difference to the numbers of leads and deals they get.
Here’s what we tell clients about search engine optimization (SEO)—including what we steps we take to improve our clients’ search engine ranking.
What are keywords?
The starting place to ranking on Google is thinking about the words people type into Google (or other search engines) when they’re looking to hire a business like yours. These words are referred to as keywords. In competitive industries you’ll likely focus on a phrase or multiple words; for example rather than “widget supplier”, “+widget suppliers in Toronto” or “aluminium widget suppliers”.
When search engines crawl your site, they pick up on commonly used words as a way to rank your site pages. So, when crafting new content for your site, consider the phrases associated with your business, and the keywords that people are already using to find you. These can be obtained with free website analytics tools.
After identifying your priority keywords, integrate them into your web content. Then, when a user searches for a phrase that includes these words, the search engine will look for pages that include prominent mentions—like yours. Where should you include these key words to ensure your content is seen? Headings and section titles, link text, page titles and descriptions, image files names, throughout the page’s written content and in the URL. With regards to written content, make sure the keywords fit naturally within your text; avoid “stuffing” and overusing them.
How to use content marketing
Producing high quality content on your site can result in many positive SEO improvements: your site will be useful to readers, generate repeat visitors and other sites will want to link to you. Key to this is keeping your web content fresh. Search engines love new pages! Try to add new articles, photos and videos regularly; frequently updated sites are more often indexed by search engines. Without fresh content and updates, it could be months before search engines find you. And if you continue to produce content that people read, your web traffic will be quickly recognized. Search engines strive to provide quick, quality results to users. So, if you’re already making headlines, you’ll be rewarded in the rankings.
What kinds of content resonate best? Aim for web pages with at least 300 words, but 500 or more will rank you better. Even though some content is better than none at all, pages with fewer than 100 words won’t gain much traction. Further, having two or more pages on your site with identical content (or close to it) isn’t valuable for users, and search engines will filter this from their results.
The role of pay per click ads in B2B marketing
In #1 keywords and #2 quality content above, your work will generate traffic naturally or “organically”. But if you are paying attention to the results shown when you search for something, you’ll notice there are also a handful of “ads” that come up. In addition to ranking organically, it’s wise to pay for ads too. In the beginning when you aren’t ranking for particular keywords, your ads will ensure your business is coming up on the first page. Later when you are ranking you may still want to come up twice to increase the likelihood that a potential customer will pick your link over your competitor’s.
With pay per click ads, the idea is to write ads that will tempt someone to click and also ensure that they are reflecting what you’re selling so that you don’t pay for their click and loose them the minute they get to your website and realize you don’t offer what they’re looking for. Just think of the number of times you have searched for something, clicked on one of the search results and immediately realized it was not what you wanted at all.
Why links are important to your search ranking
Backlinks, or links that redirect from other sites to your own, can greatly improve your SEO. A few backlinks can assist the search engine in finding your site, but numerous links will indicate that your site is an important resource. The more incoming links you can obtain from pre-existing high-ranking organizations, the higher you’ll be listed in search results. Consider your stakeholders, professional organizations and business directories; is there an opportunity to bounce links off each other?
While backlinks from other websites are integral to your SEO strategy, they’re not the only type of link that matters. Links on your own website make a difference, too. If you have an underperforming page on your website, drive more links to it from other sections of your site to gain more traction.
If you already have existing social media accounts for your brand, add your URL to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to enhance your link trail. Then, when you add new content or pages to your site, be sure to Tweet them and share them with your social networks. “Search crawlers” visit these sites, too, so this can further increase your ability to obtain a higher search ranking.
How the design of your website impacts your search ranking
The detailed structure of a website can also affect your search engine rankings. Ensuring a responsive design, one that is optimized for smartphones, tablets and PCs—as well as various web browsers—is rewarded by search engines. A responsive website has the same URL for both the mobile and the main site, which avoids the confusion of separate URLs depending on a user’s device. This can greatly improve and simplify your external backlinks, as discussed above.
With regards to your site’s coding, ensure it’s as clean as possible for the spiders to crawl through. If you’re not familiar with coding or HTML, consult web developer.
How page layout influences your search ranking
The actual content on your site can be optimized in a way that will also enhance your SEO. While images and graphics can make your page pop, keep the file sizes less than 100 KB with a resolution of 72 dpi. Large images will make your site load slowly, which won’t resonate well with users. In each image’s alt-text, include your identified keywords.
Ensure your content is logically organized for the user. Break up long blocks of text into bulleted lists and smaller paragraphs, and incorporate headings and sub-headings. Tag your headlines appropriately, using <H1> for titles and <H2> for subtitles, to maintain structure.
When laying out your content, ensure it starts above the fold (the point on your screen where a user has to start scrolling down to see more content). If your website dedicates a lot of space above the fold to ads, users may not scroll down to get to the good stuff.
After all your SEO work, stay on top of your efforts by monitoring your results. Google Analytics can track your page views for free, along with other useful SEO statistics. Be sure to monitor items like bounce rates and the amount of time users spend on your site(s) to measure the effectiveness of your content. High drop-off rates combined with little time spent on your page could be a sign that your content isn’t relevant or engaging. Evaluate your metrics to see what’s working (and what’s not), then revisit your content and design strategies to make adjustments. A winning combination of quality content plus logical design is sure to get you noticed
