Increasing your rankings in the search engines is likely your primary concern when it comes to your online marketing efforts. Whenever people are searching for what you are offering, and you want to bring them to your site, where you can woo them to choose you over your competition. There are several ways you can improve your visibility in search engines, but it is important to remember building up your presence organically can take time, especially if you want to do it in a way that won’t get you slapped by Google during one of its updates.
There is a lot you can do on your own, but if you are struggling with this aspect of your marketing campaign, it might be a good idea to start searching for marketing companies that offer SEO services. Sometimes it makes more sense to pay professionals than try to figure it out on your own. But, I digress. Here are just a few helpful tips to get you started on improving organic rankings.
Quality Content is King
If articles and blog posts are part of your online marketing strategy, never skimp on quality. The better the quality, the more it will be shared amongst various social platforms, and social signals are given a lot of weight by Google when it comes to their ranking algorithm. Lots of sharing says ‘this is good’ stuff, and should be high in the results. If writing is not your strong suit, hiring an experience copy writer is one of the best investments you can make.
Do Your Keyword Research
This can be a little tedious, which is why a lot of people might not give it the attention it deserves. There are a whole lot of keywords that are relevant to your business—many more than what you are thinking off just off the top of your head. If you are serious about improving your rankings in the search engine organically, you need to do your keyword research.
If you are new to the game, trying to rank high for the most popular keywords is probably not the best strategy. Dig up some good long-tail terms, and focus on those. And since long-tail terms are more specific, they tend to convert better.
Proper Keyword Use in Content
Simply having your desired keywords in your content is not enough; how you place these words carries heavy importance. Make sure your desired term is showing up in the first 50 words to establish relevance. How many times to use it throughout will depend on the length of the piece. For shorter content—400 to 500 words—use the keyword again two to three times. For longer content, around four to six.
Link Internally with Keyword Variations
Linking up to other content on your site on your blog posts or other pages is beneficial for a variety of reasons, namely to boost your rankings in the search engines. Don’t use the exact keywords you are hoping to rank for, but rather, variations. Not only will this protect you from excessive use of exact match anchor text, it will help you rank higher for a variety of keywords.
While these are not the only strategies you can use, they are certainly good ones that if applied consistently, will help your SEO efforts. Just remember to be patient and consistent.
