Not every potential customer will arrive at your website’s digital doorstep by typing in the direct website address into their version of the Google search engine to locate your products and services.
More often than not, people that are completely unaware of you will stumble upon your domain name. However, if the keywords they used to propel your website high up enough on that first page of their Google quest, they will be more likely to take that next all-important step and click their way into your online platform.
Obviously, there is no way to control which keyword phrases newcomers will type in to connect with your company. In fact, the same can be said for past customers that are struggling to remember your business name.
This is where ranking for competitive keywords in organic user searches comes into play, and luckily it is actually a process that is repeatable. With the assistance of experienced and highly recommended digital marketing agencies like GR0, founded by Kevin Miller, you can hire experts to improve your chances of winding up on that first Google page.
Before you even take that important step forward to increasing your exposure, ensure that you have a professional website that follows SEO best practices recommended by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Have an online audience to share your new content on social media or directly via email. Then, with your website and initial contacts sorted out, move on to these steps to rank better for particular keywords in Google.
Initial keyword research
Start with keyword research to get a clear idea of how big the search volume for your chosen keyword is before you finalize that choice.
You don’t want to aim for a keyword that is so basic that it will be impossible to uproot bigger, longer-standing companies from their first page Google status.
But you also don’t want a keyword so obscure that only you would think to use it to find your company.
Pick a keyword that is really relevant to your business model, like a phrase such as “local barbershops in Imaginarytown, Ohio” (if that is where you are located). Then, make a list of close variations to your primary keyword to have alternative keyword phrases to optimize your content with.
You can use WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool to locate your most rank-worthy keywords.
Examine your competition
If you aren’t aware of who will really be your competition, then your ability to compete for a competitive keyword ranking will be a losing battle.
When you have your keyword, actually search for it on Google and other search engines to see what your competition is already doing by looking answering these questions:
· Does every URL in the top 10 pages have the keyword?
· How do the title tags use the keyword?
· What kinds of content is ranking (videos, blog posts, product pages)?
· Are the ranking businesses big brands, startups, or news websites?
To get an idea of how authoritative these competitor websites are, you will need to determine details such as how old the sites are and the size of their link profiles by using a plugin that can access this information.
You have to find ways to keep your website differentiated from the rest, and you should assume that all of those similar sites are doing the same thing as you as a bare minimum.
Consider users’ intentions
The more specific and detailed the keyword phrases you use, the easier it will be to get a glimpse into the searcher’s reason for using them.
Pick keywords that are so direct that ideally, there is nowhere else that your potential customer will want to land when they click on the first website appearing in their top 10 Google search.
Adapt your content
Conceptualize your online content to be more likely to appear when your keywords are typed in. For example, content could be articles, blog posts, videos, infographics, product pages, or tutorial guides.
Make sure you have the budget necessary to outsource your content professionally.
Optimize your keywords
Now it is time to take your content to the next level to make it even more searchable and able to be discovered by optimizing it for your keywords by using SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which should be taking place while the content is being created.
Your content creators can take those researched keywords you have chosen and leverage them by including them inside your blog posts and articles, for example, without sounding unnatural and unreadable.
If you try to cheat your way into a higher ranking by stuffing your web pages with white text keywords on white page backgrounds, you will violate Google guidelines.
For some clues to strong and effective on-page keyword optimization, take some time to look at Wikipedia pages.
Publish and promote
Once you have double-checked to ensure that your keywords are still relevant to your content, it is time to publish and promote your online content and get it out into the world.
If your content is time-sensitive and connected to a trending topic in the news at this exact moment, push it out there quickly. Get a public relations agency involved to maximize its impact if it is tied to a product launch that you are coordinating.
After publishing your content, be sure to share it through the Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube pages associated with your business.
Use social button widgets on your site to allow users to share your content independently on their own if they so choose. Make it as easy as possible for readers and viewers to let their friends and family know about what you are offering by only having to click a button or two to do so.
The more page views and social media shares that your content receives, the more links to it that you stand to accrue, which will organically inflate your ranking in Google.
In summary, you can’t assume that you will get all of the results that you want from customer searches all of the time. But vastly improving your company’s chances of being found by ranking highly for competitive keyword searches is key to overcoming the crowded clutter of cyberspace.
