Fifty-three percent of all online interactions begin with a search. This means that if your business isn’t ranking on the first page of Google, you’re missing out on a tremendous opportunity for new customers.
The good news is that with the right keyword SEO strategy, you can increase your rankings and boost brand awareness. Read on for tips about how to improve your business’s ranking in search engines.
Choose Your Keyword Targets
To get started, you should choose keywords that apply to your business. For example, if you sell shoes, you wouldn’t want to choose “shoes.” Instead, pick something specific like “men’s dress shoes” or “women’s flats.”
It also helps to select keywords that are in high demand. If you want to go even further, you can use SEO tools like SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner to analyze the competition. You can also ask your customers what they’re searching for when looking for shoes.
Finally, pick long-tail keywords (5 to 10 words) instead of basic phrases. They’re easier to rank for and tend not to have as much competition. This is especially important if you’re just starting out.
Create Relevant Content
You need to create original content that your readers can relate to.
Keyword rankings are all about ranking for a specific word or phrase. If you want to rank for that keyword, then your content needs to focus on that topic and address it in an informative way. For example, if you’re trying to rank for “dog training tips,” you might write an article about how dogs can be trained using positive reinforcement techniques instead of using physical punishment.
If you’re really looking for long-term results and don’t just want short-term gains from your SEO keyword strategy, it’s important that the content you create is not only informational but also engaging so that people will share it with others!
Leverage Voice Search Optimization
Voice search optimization is a relatively new way to optimize your content for search. Over time, voice searches are likely to grow in popularity.
Voice search differs from traditional keyword SEO because it’s more conversational. It relies on natural language patterns instead of exact words or phrases. While some keywords are still relevant (e.g., “best online marketers”), voice searches are longer, making them much harder to target with a specific keyword phrase (i.e., “Who is the best online marketer?”).
Optimize for a Great Mobile User Experience
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
If you’re not already ranking well in Google, optimizing for a great user experience will help you do so. Your site should be optimized for mobile users by using responsive design, which means it automatically resizes as needed to fit any screen size or orientation (landscape, portrait).
Be sure that your website uses a mobile-friendly template like WordPress, Wix, or Blogger. You can also use a mobile-friendly theme or plugin that adds additional functionality, such as touch gestures and swipe functionality when viewing content on an iOS device.
Use Meta Tags and Descriptions
Meta tags are the title, descriptions, and keywords that you see in search results. Search engines use these tags to understand what your content is about and assign a site ranking.
Meta descriptions are important for SEO because they allow you to highlight the most important aspects of your page with a few lines of text. Not only do they help users decide if they want to click on your result, but they also give search engines more information on how your pages should rank.
Get Some Backlinks
Backlinks are links that point to your website from other websites. When someone links back to you, it means that you’ve earned some reputation in the eyes of that person or company. In turn, this makes Google more likely to rank you highly for various keywords because it thinks: “Hey! This site has a lot of people citing it as an authoritative source. It must be useful!”
That’s what backlinks do for SEO—they build authority around your brand and content.
How do you get backlinks? There are three main ways:
First, write great content that inspires others to link back to you. Then establish yourself as an authority in your niche by writing regularly and getting featured on authoritative sites. Last, reach out to website owners and offer to write a guest post for them.
Use Keywords in Your Title
An often overlooked, yet absolutely crucial element of SEO is using keywords in your title. The title tags are what people see when they click on a search result. They’re also what Google uses to determine which pages are most relevant for search terms.
So if you want people to find your content, make sure that the title tag contains keywords that are important to the topic of your article. For example, if you wanted to write a post about marketing trends and how they affect SEO, you might title it: “Marketing Trends That Impact SEO in 2018”. This is something that you can do manually or use an online tool like Yoast.
Have the Right Keyword Density
It’s important that you use a keyword density of around 3% to 5% in your posts. This means that if there are 100 words on your page, only 3-5 should be keywords.
If you overdo it with keyword stuffing, Google will penalize your site for trying to cheat its algorithm. Plus, users won’t find any value in reading your content anyway because it’ll sound too spammy!
Improve Your Keyword SEO Strategy
Research is critical to any keyword SEO strategy. You need to know what people are searching for and how that aligns with your business goals. This way, you can write content that directly answers their questions (and hopefully converts)!
For more SEO tips, explore our digital marketing section. You’ll find advice on how to make your content more visible in search engines and how to build a strong online presence.
