Web development

Nov 8, 2020 @ 4:04 pm

Want to know how to make your website appear first on Google? It’s simple once you understand the basics of SEO and put in the work. With the right SEO strategy, you can get your site to the top of the search engines for multiple keywords that are important for your business.

To go straight to the top of the search results you need to consider what keywords you’re targeting and the competition that’s pursuing those very same search terms. It’s very difficult to take a brand new site straight to the top of the rankings for a highly competitive term.

Choose the right audience

Choosing a keyword is as simple as describing your business. You can get pretty accurate with your keyword selection by simply explaining what your company offers in a way that people type when searching online. To find visitors that are a perfect match for your business, create the perfect buyer persona.

Creating a buyer persona is an exercise that will help you meet the needs of your client on a more personal level. When you go through this exercise the age, occupation, sex, marital status and many personal defining attributes are established. This brings you to a closer understanding of how this person thinks, what’s most important to them and how you can relate to them on a much deeper level than simply describing your product. Knowing your audience is one of the first steps in creating great content because the language you use is more focused and appropriate in communicating your message.

By establishing who your audience is, the subtopics you choose will be tailored to the issues unique to their current life situations. This makes the content you create more relevant to your readers and contributes to optimization for your main keyword topic.

Assess the competition

One of the major ranking factors that you need to consider is the backlinks and authority your competition possesses. If you type in an extremely competitive keyword such as, learn SEO, you’ll see the first three results are websites that have been around for years and each has thousands of backlinks pointing to its page.

These domains are also considered high-authority domains and major influencers in the SEO industry. It would take quite some time to build up enough authority to be able to beat these websites for a competitive keyword like this. This doesn’t mean you abandon this term completely, however, you’ll need to be more strategic with how you choose your keywords.

Eliminate tough competition with focused keywords

Reduce the strength of your competition by using long-tail keywords to get more specific with the audience and traffic you’re targeting. For example, you can turn the keyword “learn SEO” into a long-tail keyword such as “learn search engine optimization from scratch” to loosen up the competition.

As you can see from the search result in the image above, there are a few positions on the SERP that are held by much lower authority websites. In addition, the average number of backlinks has dropped dramatically.

Long-tail keywords make up about 70% of the total searches made on Google. The advance in Google’s ability to understand intent has improved dramatically allowing search phrases to be longer and more conversational. This creates infinite opportunities to optimize for a phrase that will be specific enough to drive traffic that’s a match to your business.

Longer search terms tend to convert at a higher rate because they are a better match to your content. The more specific you are with the phrase you’ve optimized for, the more specific the intent is of the visitors who land on your site.

A clear example of this is if you sold extreme temperature winter boots for men.

Consider who is searching for term winter boots.

If you optimized for “winter boots” you wouldn’t be getting a perfect match for your product because your product would only appeal to a small percentage of the total traffic searching “winter boots.”

Women would make up a huge percentage of the traffic and would immediately leave your site since you only sell men’s boots.

By using more qualifying terms to describe your product you can make your site more visible to those who are actually looking for what you’re selling.

Publish shareable content

When the first page of Google is the goal, shareable content will help propel your site to the top by getting more people on your page and giving your content a higher chance of being linked to by other sites. The number of referring domains linked to your page boosts your ranking and although social shares are not a direct ranking factor they give your page a larger audience and a better chance of being linked to by more websites.

Publishing shareable content means creating pages people enjoy reading as well as find value in what is offered. Great content means it is highly relevant to its audience. If you’ve done a thorough job on your keyword research, you should have been able to come up with a few issues or problems that are common to your target audience. By offering the solution to these problems the value of your content increases as well as its shareability.

Post your content to your social media networks to get as much traffic as possible on your site. Use a call to action and ask people to share your content. Social sharing plugins will make it easier for people to pass your page along through their network.

Outperform competing pages

To outperform competing pages, you need to look at the top ten results for your specific keyword. Take note of the article length, type of media used, the topics covered and the links they’ve acquired to beat them in every way imagineable.

Google tends to prefer longer articles

Article length isn’t a direct ranking factor but it does affect the length of time a visitor spends on your page. It also is an idication of the depth a specific page offers for a specific search query. I fyou look at the average length of the top 10 results on Google you’ll notice that the average length of a top-ranknig page is above 2000 words.

To outperform a page make your article longer by including more details and subtopics that would improve the user experience. Avoid “writing for search engines” as it can be easy to get caught up with ranking and miss the mark entirely in publishing a better performing page.

Use multimedia to enhance user experience

Video improves dwell time and is the preferred choice in learning about a topic by most users. Include a video at the top of your page to immediately engage your visitors. Combine video with other forms of media to create deeper levels of understanding while increasing your reader’s level of engagement.

Increase CTR with better headlines and meta descriptions

The click-through rate your page has will affect your first-page ranking. You can improve your click-through rate by creating headlines that grab the attention of your audience. Use established headline strategies to improve the percentage of clicks your page gets in the search results.

Your meta description also plays a role in determining your click-through rate. Write a convincing description of what’s in store for a potential reader should they click on your site. This is the sneak preview so make the 160 characters work to entice your audience.

Here’s an example of a very well written meta description that encourages the click with a call-to-action.

Cut the competition using paid ads

You have to consider this option if you’re in a position to benefit from the traffic from a high-converting keyword. For the more competitive terms that you can’t rank for in the short term, you can get on the first page of Google by using Google Ads.

If you have products that sell and you just need to get it in front of more eyes, a PPC campaign is an option that will make you money by instantly increasing your search visibility for highly competitive terms.

Identify search intent before paying for traffic

When choosing the terms that you’re going to pay for the traffic, you need to consider what the true intent is of the keyword. It would be a waste of time to select a keyword that you pay for and yet no one that lands on your site converts into a client.

Confirm intent by checking the organic results

The first indication of search intent is to see what Google has ranked in the organic positions for the search term in question. The search results can give you the best idea of what people are looking for when they type your keyword in a search.

Compare cost-per-click

The CPC of a keyword is also an indication of whether other websites are making money from that keyword. In most cases, the more publishers are willing to pay for one click, the more valuable the keyword.

There are search terms whose CPC can be misleading, so make sure you use this as an indicator and not the sole reason for pursuing a search term.

Optimize for a SERP feature

The search engine result page is a dynamic landscape that is constantly changing according to search intent. You can take advantage of some of the features that appear on the SERP to enhance your search visibility and appear on the first page of Google.

Featured snippet

In order to appear in this feature, your page needs to be the best answer to a query. The featured snippet is where to make your website appear first on Google because it’s the first thing a user will see in a search result.

Here are few tips to qualify for this feature:

• Your website needs to already be on the first page.
• Target long-tail keywords
• Use h-tags for all of your headings
• To win the position, take note of what the current snippet holder has done to achieve this top position and duplicate the optimization.

For example, in this featured snippet, it was awarded to a site that featured a video. In order to compete for this spot, you would need to match the result with a video.

People also ask box

When this feature became more common many SEOs were able to capture this position by creating FAQ pages. Publish a Frequently Asked Questions Page to give your website as many opportunities as possible to win a position in the PAA box.

The winning combination for optimization is to tag your questions and provide short succinct answers that range from 40-60 words immediately after the question.

Local Pack

If a local pack is triggered by searching your target keyword, consider optimizing for local searches. Geo modifiers can cut out a large chunk of competition and get your site featured in the local pack.

For people who are looking for a business that’s close to them, this is the perfect solution for high-converting traffic. Make sure you add as much information as possible to your Google My Business profile and publish local content on your website.

Get your site to the first page of the search results

It’s not always the most obvious solution, but there are many different ways you can get your website to the first page of Google. Search engine optimization is simply finding the best way to get your site in front of people looking for what you offer.

Define a keyword strategy that makes sense for your website. If you’re a newly developing site, you may need to consider the options that cut the industry influencers and major competitors out of the equation.

Assess the SERP and the options you have available to make your website appear first on Google. There are plenty of ways to get your website in front of an audience that will engage in your content if you’re looking in the right places to drive traffic.

The final destination for great content is naturally on the first page of search results. In order to get your website on the map for what your company offers, produce content that helps users find what they need. Know who your ideal audience is and publish hyper-focused content specifically tailored to provide value in their lives to generate traffic that is the best match for your business.

What is on-page optimization and how will it help my business?

On-page optimization (which falls under the broader category of website optimization), communicates the most important keywords your content reflects to search engines. It falls under the umbrella of SEO services for a consultant to optimize the content of your site and emphasize the most important elements through metadata. By highlighting keywords and giving search engines specific instructions we can influence how search engines see your website in order to make it appear more frequently in keyword-related searches.

Do meta tags still affect website optimization?

Meta tags are used to highlight the most important information on a web page. The most commonly used meta tags are the title and description tags because they are what people will see in a search engine result page. There are other uses for meta tags that search engines read as well such as site verification or instructions for how to crawl the site (robots.txt). When we optimize your site your meta tags are one of the first areas we assess to see how you’re website is currently optimized and how we can enhance its performance. 

Is structured data important for my website?

The fastest form method of communication (the preferred method) is through structured data markup. Google recommends JSON-LD in which we are able to summarize the contents of your site and provide an identity using schema. This markup categorizes your site and informs search engines of all of the details that will help your website appear in searches that can be linked and associated with your business.

Is it necessary to have my company categorized with Schema markup?

Schema is a system for categorizing websites into groups in order to more readily be linked to related searches. Schema markup will indicate to a search engine what type of entity your website represents (store, organization, non-profit, etc). The schema you implement will associate your site to services and products you provide which will trigger the appearance of your site in related searches.

What impact does contextual meaning have on my site’s optimization?

Search engines have become extremely efficient at assessing written content and determining the contextual meaning of a page. We help our clients by making sure your content is written for the right audience so that your website is found by customers who are looking for what you offer.

There is a difference between content that is written to convert and convince a reader about your company versus content that is meant to inform a reader about a topic. In the preliminary stages of optimizing your website, we establish a content strategy that defines the purpose the pages of your site have within your overall SEO campaign.

How is the content of my website optimized?

Although the exact algorithm that the search engines use is unknown, there is a long list of ranking factors that are well known to enhance website optimization and improve ranking. The largest factor that determines what your site is about and how it is optimized is your content. We optimize your website through content published on on-site and by building authority and credibility to that content from off-site sources.

Search engines assess how well your site is optimized by determining the contextual meaning of the content you’ve published. Historically, there were specific ratios to follow for how many times to repeat keywords in order to enhance the optimization of your page but that method of optimizing no longer exists. 

On-page optimization still includes placing keywords in the expected places such as in titles, URL’s and within the body of text, however, content is considered optimized by providing complete solutions to the search intent behind a keyword search.

We publish complete solutions on your company website

Website optimization requires a full commitment to developing an idea in order to see the performance in your website’s ranking. As a result, the quality of content being published has dramatically increased and we are witnessing many more in-depth articles that create a stand-alone experience and are educating readers about a topic.

Keeping up with the trend of producing high-quality content has meant additional planning and research before publishing posts or pages on-site. Today quality is outranking quantity. It is for this very reason why we are forced to research keywords for a broader understanding of what users are looking for when they type in a keyword. Without knowing all of the potential issues and related searches that are attached to a keyword we can’t produce quality content to effectively cover the potential demands a user might have.

We improve the quality of content on your website

There is an expected set of subtopics that a given keyword presents. When a website is able to provide the expected set of subtopics it demonstrates a comprehensive solution to that search. Google looks for the best answers to searches that would leave a user completely satisfied with no need to click any further. This is why overall quality is getting better and the average level of detail provided by highly-ranked websites continues to increase. 

By covering more topics and providing more solutions within the content produced on a page a website is able to meet a wider range of needs a user may have within their search. Search engines reward website’s with the ability to satisfy search intent as this is a large part of its criteria in determining the ranking of your site.

What is off-page optimization?

Due to the billions of websites that exist, it’s necessary that search engines determine the credibility of your site. Anyone can write a lot of words and publish them online, but who’s to say whether your content is meaningful or just straight jibberish? You may have published amazing content but if your site is brand new it will still have to accrue engagement metrics to prove its credibility. If your site doesn’t rank, you won’t receive the traffic necessary to get these results. In order to rank, we optimize your site with quality backlinks that count as “votes of confidence” from other credible websites.

How does off-page optimization help my business?

If another site is linking to yours they are pointing to your content to enhance the user experience of their own visitors. This is the underlying reason Google regards the backlink profile of your website as a major contributing factor to possessing authority and credibility in your respective niche. Backlinks represent a vote of confidence in your content. When the backlink is from a site in your niche and from a page with content relevant to your page, it enhances the optimization of your keyword topic.

Establishing the link building strategies for your website requires careful planning and research. Search engines will read, assess and categorize the sites that are linking to yours so it’s necessary to plan the content that will be published on a network of websites that will benefit yours the most. 

A quality backlink is a link from another site in your niche that links to you from content that has a direct relationship to yours. When there is no relationship between two websites that are linked there is no benefit to either website. The most authoritative site on health foods will not be a great match for a high-end car dealership. In some cases linking two unrelated sites will have a negative impact on the authority and ranking of both sites.

Quality content that provides complete solutions to searches is ranking in the top positions. If your site isn’t publishing good content it will take much more effort in obtaining links to get your site on the first page of Google-and even then, it may not stay near the top of the results if users react negatively to the content.

Complete optimization of your website requires proving credibility and producing comprehensive, engaging material that users are looking for at the end of a keyword search.

Nov 8, 2020 @ 3:51 pm

Online marketing has become the norm when it comes to planning out the growth and development of your business. It’s hard to argue against the fact that owning a website gives every company the ability to acquire exponentially more new clients. Implement the top-performing digital strategies that are most suited to your business to see the full benefits of online marketing for small businesses.

The advantages of search engine optimization

As the holy grail of inbound marketing, SEO provides some of the largest sources of targeted traffic to your website. An effective keyword and content strategy allows you to tap into high converting traffic that is actively seeking the solutions your company offers. The technical aspect of SEO maximizes your website’s potential to compete and perform in the search results.

SEO targets a specific audience for high conversions

SEO deals with the optimization of both pages and blog posts for specific search terms in order to maximize the traffic each page generates. Each page is optimized to target one or more keywords that are chosen based on the volume of traffic, ranking difficulty but most of all, for the value it represents to the business.

Targeting long-tail keywords creates a narrower focus in your content in order to hone in on the exact solution the user is search Google for in the first place. When your website can be found for search terms your ideal clients are using to find businesses like yours, the organic traffic on your site will flow and convert accordingly.

Creates the ability to drive organic traffic

The SEO content you produce on your website answers the intent of a search and therefore provides value to a user. When your page appears in top-ranked positions for one keyword, it naturally appears for many different variations of that keywords as well.

Google ranks according to keyword topics, so when your content is deemed worthy of a first-page appearance, it drives traffic from multiple search terms.

An SEO content strategy broadens your reach

Developing a keyword and content strategy is a process that breaks down the major topics of your website to identify the most important issues that your ideal client wants to know about. The SEO strategy you implement touches on a number of different stages your prospective buyer is experiencing, otherwise known as the buyer journey.

Targeting keywords and publishing content that addresses the various stages allows your website to create an awareness of your product or service to a larger range of users. There are people that are unaware of the solution you offer to the problems they’re actively researching. An effective SEO content strategy continuously broadens your reach through educational and informative content.

Sharpens your competitive edge

Much of SEO resembles a race between you and your competition. The goal is to be first on Google for the keywords that will ultimately increase the revenue your company generates. SEO gives your website a competitive edge by producing content that outperforms your competition.

Link building is a common strategy for outranking competing websites. Backlinks power the authority and credibility of your content and contribute to higher rankings. Additionally, link building provides multiple entry points to your website for more traffic.

Allows control over every aspect

A large part of achieving success in marketing your business online is data-driven. You can control every aspect that can be measured to scale up or scale down the results you’re experiencing.

The benefits of Pay Per Click campaigns

PPC campaigns can drive high-converting traffic to your site for any keyword you choose to pay for. Create a campaign for the keywords of your choice, set the budget amount you want to spend and how much you’re willing to spend for every click to your website.

PPC campaigns get your website premium SERP position

When you pay for ads, your website is placed in the top positions on the SERP. This is extremely valuable for the bottom of the funnel keywords where the user is looking with transactional intent. Users are 65% likely to click on paid ads when they’re ready to buy.

This becomes even more pronounced on mobile devices since the ads are among the first features that users see in the search result.

PPC offers control

You determine the amount of money you spend in a PPC campaign for every month. Your budget is determined at the start of the campaign so that when you reach that limit, your ads stop appearing.

You can also choose the details for where you want your ads to appear. For local businesses that only offer services or products to a specific city or service area, this provides unnecessary spending.

Measurable and adaptable

PPC reporting is comprehensive and easy to understand. Reports will show you the volume of impressions and clicks and conversions that your keywords generated in order for you to better understand how your customers are responding to your ads.

Paid ads also give you the ability to run split tests to determine copy that converts the highest.

Fast and immediate traffic solution

PPC campaigns can be implemented immediately for a fast and immediate solution to driving traffic. Rather than go through a much longer development process for your website pages to rank organically, you can put your website at the top of the search results instantly and begin driving traffic to your site.

Multiply customer contact with retargeting

PPC campaigns offer an excellent solution for making your site more familiar with potential clients through retargeting. Whenever a visitor lands on your website this form of advertising will install cookies in their browser. This creates multiple instances of your ad whenever that same visitor visits Google or social media sites and an ad box present.

The benefits of social media marketing

By definition, this is the process of promoting your company, brand, products and services through the use of social media websites. Activities include posting content on your profile, commenting on related posts, sharing relevant posts and interacting with the social community.

Provides a human element to your brand

Social media gives brands the chance to put a more personal touch when engaging with potential and existing clients. This becomes an important aspect of your marketing because it allows people to relate more to your company and feel like they’re engaging with a person as opposed to a content-posting robot.

Develops a better understanding of your audience

By engaging with your audience you develop a better understanding of what means the most to your clients (and prospective clients). It’s not only the comments and threads that provide this information but by conducting surveys and research.

With a more intimate understanding of what your clients are interested in and what they need, you have more ability to produce content that they will engage with at higher levels.

Ability to get your message in front of a large audience

It’s no secret that social media has the ability to make great content viral. Despite the rarity of this happening, social websites provide a substantial audience for your content which is accessible on a regular basis. This makes social media a popular means of content distribution for brands to broadcast their message to as many people as possible.

Drive more traffic to your website

Posting content with a call to action is an excellent way to divert your audience from social media websites to your own. Social sites, for the most part, are structured to be walled gardens to keep users on their sites for as long as possible. Leave a specific CTA with a link to your website so that people have a convenient way of finding and viewing the content on your site.

Develop brand loyalty

A study revealed that 72% of purchases related to fashion were influenced by images seen on Instagram. Acquiring followers and subscribers is an excellent way to create a competitive advantage and be the reason a customer decides to make a purchase with your company. If they follow your brand there is a much higher probability of them choosing your company over another that they aren’t as familiar with.

Improved brand recognition

Social media gives you the opportunity to present your brand to a substantially large number of people. Make your brand recognizable by using your logo in images and providing a consistent tone that summarizes what your brand is about.

Implement storytelling to create easy to remember associations with the most important aspects of your brand.

The advantages of content marketing

Promoting your brand, products and services through various forms of content such as articles, white papers, surveys, infographics and video is considered content marketing. This online marketing strategy goes hand in hand with SEO with respect to the fact that you’ll want your content to be easily found and discovered by a specific audience.

Develop trust and confidence in your brand

Top-notch content goes a long way when it provides real value. Whenever a potential client considers purchasing from your business, one of the first things they will do is research your company. Providing content that educates, entertains and engages readers and about the inner workings of your business is an excellent way to build trust and confidence in your brand.

Drives interested visitors to your website

A good content marketing strategy will include publishing content on third party sites such as social media or popular websites within your niche. Publishing exceptional content on third-party sites makes your company stand out, generates referral traffic as well as additional organic traffic as it accumulates more backlinks.

Choose the websites or social media network that provides the most targeted audience for your business. Trusted, high-authority websites provide links that have a positive impact on your website ranking and overall search visibility.

Develops brand recognition

Teach people about what your brand stands for through success stories about the development of your company’s development or even better, client success stories about achieving a specific goal. When a person can learn about your company from a real-life experience it brings more transparency to your brand and gives people a story to relate to by placing themselves in that situation.

Establishes your company as an industry leader

Great content is often greatly appreciated-which is typically shown by large numbers of social shares and accumulation of backlinks. Creating unique content with original research is a way that many companies are able to establish themselves as industry leaders.

Moz publishes a State Of Local SEO Industry Report every year where they survey 1000 SEO professionals. This report gives people a better understanding of the general sentiment of what’s working and what isn’t in the world of local SEO.

Using industry reports would naturally attract attention from those within your industry and leads to a high number of social shares and backlinks to your website. That improvement in ranking, as well as the reputation gained, brands your business as a top player in the industry in which you compete.

Email marketing and it’s many advantages

The process of promoting your brand, content, products and services through email communications is referred to as email marketing. Opt-in boxes serve as a means for collecting the contact information of a website visitor. The visitor is then added to a list to send newsletters, updates, coupons and promotions.

Build and nurture leads and realtionships

Email marketing campaigns allow a company to send relevant information to its subscribers for a variety of purposes. Segmenting your list is crucial to understanding the type of content that your subscriber wants to be sent. This also allows you to drip feed educational emails to their inbox to educate them on aspects of your business that they want to know about.

As they become more familiar with your product through your content, they become more likely to purchase from your company. Maintaining your list with a periodic email ensures that your subscriber keeps your company in mind so that even if they aren’t ready to make a purchase immediately, you will still be among the top choices when time comes.

Instant traffic at the push of a button

An email list gives you the option of sending instant traffic to your website at the push of a button. Whenever a new piece of content is published or your company begins a new promotion, let your subscribers know about it.

Increased sales

An email list is also referred to as a “cash list” because of its ability to generate sales for your business. Not every email you send to your list should be a “hard sell” but when you do wnant to increase sales, often all it takes is a good sale, discount or promotion.

Many companies will promote third party products with their list because the third party will cut them a commision on the sales made. If a product will appeal to the demographics of your subscribers you can supplement your revenue by offering them something new.

Provides a source for research and data collection

Your email list is an excellent source to get the opinions and preferences of your target audience. BY sending short surveys you can quickly acquire relevant information that would help your understanding of the needs and interests of an audience that’s already interested in your content.

Original data and research are extremely valuable for publishing content that’s a closer match to the preferences of your audience. It also tends to attract more social shares and backlinks which in turn results in increased search visibility of your website.

Enjoy the benefits of internet marketing for small businesses

Historically it was only the big brands that have been able to establish notoriety and gain exposure on national and global levels. Of one the benefits of online marketing for small businesses is that it gives all businesses the ability to reach a global market.

The benefits of online marketing for small businesses continue to grow with every passing year for companies with websites positioned to receive targeted traffic. The ability to access a global market and connect with customers has contributed to more sales, leads and new clients.

There are massive opportunities to be gained from online marketing. If you haven’t been paying attention, in 2016 digital advertising took the lead in advertising dollars spent vs. TV advertising and is still continuing to create a larger gap in disparity.

There’s no doubt that we have transitioned to a culture that has become highly dependent on Internet access to perform many of our daily activities. The research on companies, brands, products and services starts with Google search 93% of the time. The number of purchases being made directly through smartphones has steadliny increased every year.

This number is expected to increase according to e-marketer retail analyst Yory Wurmser. 

As mobile sites become better optimized and screen sizes grow, it’s becoming easier for shoppers to complete the purchase on the smartphone, which will drive m-commerce numbers up for the next several years.

Yory Wurmser ~Emarketer Retail Analyst

With so much of our attention focused online, the opportunity to successfully achieve steady growth through Internet marketing has never been better.

Choose one or all of the digital marketing strategies mentioned above to achieve levels of revenue that were never possible until now. Enjoy the benefits of online marketing for small businesses for long-lasting success.