Search engine optimization (SEO) is how customers find your website when they search on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Building the website the right way and optimizing keywords will drive more traffic to your page and convert more leads into sales. The main objective of your website is to rank high and get in front of searchers who can become customers. Your business must appear in Google Maps, Featured Snippets, images, and videos to maximize your visibility. SEO is uniquely challenging these days, and it takes time to stay updated on the latest developments.
You are not just competing with other businesses but publishers, big brands, and all kinds of informational resources that appear on the search engine result page (SERP). Building a building website and investing your time in it would be a sheer waste if customers won’t be able to find it. So now the question is how you can make your website stand out from the crowd on the internet? This is why we have listed the top business growth strategies here to help you improve your search engine ranking. Let’s begin!
#1 Find out the right keywords to target
Think of the words that your potential customers would search while looking for your services or products on the web. For example, if you are selling electric appliances, your customers are likely to use formal words like refrigerator or fridge. Search from Google AdWords and make a list of 25-60 keywords. Once completed, validate the frequently used keywords in an online search. Keyword Tool is quite useful for finding keywords that you can use on each of your web pages so that prospective customers can search the keywords and find you. Search engine ranking starts with keywords, and hence your SEO game must be strong on these buy backlinks.
#2 Focus on your uniqueness
Remember, you are competing against others to gain attention from prospective customers. Rising above the web searches include market differentiators such as unique offerings or geographic location. Usually, competition is tough for keywords because some businesses buy for a pay-per-click campaign. An ad campaign appears on top as compared to free search results. You have to pay every time the link is clicked in the ad. The main advantage here is you can focus on niche keywords and appear on top if you have a big budget. But search engine ranking is useful when you are organically appearing on search results. The ad will remain for 2-3 days, but organic results are forever.
#3 Link building should be your priority
Links are one of the top-ranking business growth strategies to improve search engine ranking. You must attract links from reputable and trustworthy sites rather than going for cheap and bad reputed websites. Earning links from top websites helps you connect with web admins, publishers, bloggers, and more. However, good outreach requires time and dedication; you have to get your content recognized. It must have a tremendous impact on your brand’s exposure and search engine ranking. This will help the audience to discover your business easily.
#4 Write SEO-friendly content
Alternatively, you can use some ab testing software to get some nice suggestions on how you can make those words pop on your site
Content is the foundation for ranking high on SERP. The right content marketing business growth strategies generate 6x more conversions for businesses. You can top search engine ranking by writing and publishing SEO-optimized content for users. Follow these steps:
- Research your audience thoroughly, relevant topics, and keywords
- Make sure to completely add your keywords into header tags, meta tags, and content.
- Publish content on a fast, responsive website.
- Promote content to industry influencers
According to recent studies, you can also improve your search engine ranking by posting keyword-focused content. This content piece will be the guide for users as it will also answer their initial queries and follow-up questions. An example of an initial question is- how often they should clean the carpet, and the follow-up question is which cleaning products must be used. The ideal content length is 1000 to 2000 words. Make sure you include business growth strategies in every paragraph that offer value to your readers.
#5 Make your website user-friendly
Create an easy-to-navigate clean website that is accessible to visitors easily. The last thing you want to do is annoy users with a sluggish site that runs very slow. Site speed is also an important factor for search engine ranking. Therefore, ensure the site speed is great and your website runs fast. Use proper headings to improve the readability of your website and put keywords in the heading. They stand out for search engine results, and if you have optimized the site accordingly, it will help you rank higher. Also, don’t forget to make your website optimized for mobile platforms. Search engines penalize websites that are not displayed on a smartphone. A user-friendly website is ideal for ranking high on search results.
#6 Maximize CTR in search results
Click-through rate (CTR) basically determines the percentage of users that see your website in search results and click it. You can also enhance your search engine ranking by boosting your CTC. For instance, if 20 people see your website and only 10 people click it, this means your CTR is 50%. In most cases, CTR is lower than this amount. Increasing the CTR rate can impact your position on SERP as there is a strong correlation between CTR and search engine ranking. People are clicking one website as compared to others hints to Google that it is more relevant for the search results. You can boost CTR by following these business growth strategies:
- First of all, include your core keyword at the start of the tag.
- Now add related keywords in the meta description.
- Use schema markup on your page
- You can access and monitor the CTR through Google Search Console.
#7 Measure performance
Free or paid tools such as Moz, SEMRush, Google Analytics, etc., can provide you with all the information regarding your SEO performance of the site. It will also tell your search engine ranking, how your visitors find your site, visitors’ location, how long they have stayed, and other aspects as well. You can thoroughly analyze data to see your SEO performance and how you can include business growth strategies in it. Measuring performance will help you improve your overall marketing strategy and work towards your weak points as well.
Be patient & wait for the results.
Monitor results from the day you have started working for better search engine rankings but don’t expect fast results. This may take a few weeks or months to move significantly higher in search results. Remember, SEO is a constantly changing process that might also need two or three years to rank you top. But once you have reached the top position organically, it is going to stay. So, keep working at it and stay updated with the latest business growth strategies that affect search engine rankings.
Even if this list seems overwhelming, it is most important to get started with it. Start working towards your first goal and see how you can accomplish it. You can get help from local SEO tools that make your work easier and quicker. You can build more inbound links from local sources. Add blog posts daily or update website content regularly. This will help you rank on a greater variety of search terms. Work through these introductory items on this checklist, and you will get further ready for an amazing SEO strategy.
Author Bio:
Joe Martin is a long-time contributor in the tech industry as a leader at Adobe, CMO of CloudApp, and SVP at Scorpion. With his business and marketing degress from Utah and Stanford and his work in tech he brings a unique balance of strategy and execution to help businesses large and small grow.