If you want people to find your business while searching on Google, you need to write your content with SEO strategy know-how. Many businesses fail to use good SEO practices or fail to invest the time to learn SEO simply because it seems too hard. But trust us, it’s only difficult before you’ve tried. Understanding the foundation of good SEO is extremely important for your business’ blog’s growth. Today we are sharing 10 quick tips to help you rank on the first page of Google.
Understand Keywords & Keyphrases
Whether you realize it or not, you actually use keywords every day while searching for something online or simply scanning articles in your local paper. Keywords/phrases are words used by people when searching for or identifying a particular piece of information. I or put more than one word called a keyword phrase, or a long tail keyword. When you use more than one word in search (or type a question) you are actually using keyword phrases or “long tail keywords”. Keywords and phrases are one of the most important factors to your SEO plan because they help your audience find you.
A search engine’s (like Google) job is to serve the search engine’s clients with relevant content per their search. However, one-word searches can sometimes turn up too many irrelevant results, so people searching preferably will type in multiple keywords or a full question. Therefore, to better target your search, you must use more descriptive phrases in your content. Google regularly checks its database and returns the results and lists the top pages that meet the keywords that you typed in. Make sure your page allows Google (and other search engines) bots to crawl, as this is how they regularly go through your site and collect the information to help you rank.
Create Great Content
Google loves great content and rewards you for it! Search engines want to show pages of the best, most high-quality content so, because that’s what people want to read. Google and other search engines also love content that updates regularly! this means having a blog for your business with awesome and valuable content! If your business does not have a blog, it is time to add one and post as often as possible (at least once a week). If you do have a blog, start focusing on using more keywords and phrases in your content.
Short blog posts are okay, but if you really want to catch the attention of Google quickly, try to aim for 2000+ words per article, and provide as much information as you can. Google will compare your article to similar ones and rank the most informative ones (or the ones it feels are more likely to get clicked on and read) above the rest.
Web Design
Web design plays a huge role as well! You want to make sure your current design is not outdated as that turns people away and Google knows that people just aren’t staying on long enough. If your design is outdated, it is time to revamp it! You don’t need to go too crazy with your web design. Keep your website clean and simple so people can easily navigate it and find what they need. Simple colors, easy to read fonts, beautiful photos and videos are all you need.
Many times business owners believe their website design is just fine when in reality it is outdated. Use websites like UserTesting.com which allows you to collect on-demand feedback from visitors. Once you are ready to make changes to your site and give it a nice facelift, give us a call!
Site Speed
Google (and website visitors) is not to keen on slow websites! If your website is not up to speed it is time to get that fixed. Nowadays, everyone expects information – FAST. If your website is sow, people get frustrated and will just keep searching for another company, which means they are going to your competitors. If you need help with your website speed – we can help!
Interlink
DO you have a few blog posts that are similar (subject?) Go back and edit old posts, and put the link to the new article in its content and vice versa.
Create Video Content
Google loves to display Youtube videos that answer people’s search queries. don’t worry – this doesn’t mean you have to get in front of a camera if you are shy. You can easily create videos about your content. Check out our previous post about repurposing blog content to see how. (oh, and you can make most of that video content for FREE)
Use websites like Quora
Quora is a great tool to grow authority in your business niche, by answering questions related to your industry. But did you know that websites like Quora are also a great place to find keywords and inspiration for blog posts? Take some time to see what people are asking questions about, and then write epic blog posts answering them. You can also look at other sites like Reddit or business related sites like Avvo.com, if you are a lawyer for example. Answering questions for strangers can drive business because not only do you make yourself an expert in the field, but you also gain their trust and respect for helping them out!
Use Analytics
Using Google analytics on your site is a great way to keep track of what’s working and what’s not! This includes keywords. Analytics allows you to see which pages are doing well and which drive in more visitors. It also allows you to see how long people are staying on your site. If you are using WordPress, we have instructions here so that you can easily download analytics.
Introduce your website
Google needs to know your website exists and it is your job to introduce yourself to Google (and other search engines). The first thing you need to do to submit your blog to Google, is you need to add your website to Google Search Console.
To connect your blog to Google Search Console, follow these steps.
1. Go to Google Search Console and sign in with your Google account.
2. While logged in, click the red ‘ ADD PROPERTY’ button to add your website.
3. A popup will ask for your website URL, then click the blue ‘ADD’ button.
4. Next, Click the ‘ Alternative Method’ tab. You will be given a code. Copy the code, and then paste it into your website <head> section, before the <body> section.
After that is done, you just need to click ‘verify’ in Google Search console.
Finally – make sure you also make sure to authenticate your site on Yoast and submit your site map.
Getting on the first page of Google can take some time – but if you follow the steps and study your keywords/phrases you REALLY CAN get yourself onto the first page on search! Be patient and use these tips!
Do you have a question about SEO or search engine ranking you would like to ask us? Let us know in the comments! If you need assistance with your website or SEO, give us a call! We are glad to help!