Did you know that Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second and over 3.5 billion searches per day? With so many searches happening every second, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a vital marketing tool to ensure your website is more visible to make it easier for prospects to find you when they search.
The following five strategies will help you gain greater visibility by increasing your rank on search engines and improve website traffic for your business.
🎯 Target keywords for People Also Ask and Local Listings
Google’s People Who Ask (PAA) feature is a list of common questions that people ask daily, which appears at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). With the PAA feature appearing at the top of approximately 48.4% of searches, it’s important to research the common keyword questions that relate to your business or industry and provide in-depth answers to these on your webpage.
Local Listings are another feature of the Google SERP part of Google’s Local Pack which shows places according to the location of the person searching the query. This feature includes both a map and a list of businesses with NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information. With Local Listings appearing for approximately 32.84% of searches, it’s important to make sure all company information is up-to-date and content is optimized with target keywords. Additionally, claiming your Google My Business listing will give you control over the information featured.
🔗 Leverage structured data and rich snippets
Schema markup is a form of website code that enables Google and other search engines to take content from your website about your company, its products and/or services and create an enhanced description (or rich snippet) which appears in the SERP.
Rich snippets create a better experience for potential customers as they show specific content the user has searched for, appearing more clickable and trustworthy. By leveraging schema markup, your business has even more opportunities to outrank competitors in search and boost organic traffic to your website.
📝 Write high-quality long-form content
A topic that is constantly debated among marketing experts – what kind of role does content length play in overall search engine rank?
Research shows that there is a direct link between the length of content and search engine rank. Although content length is not an official ranking factor, it’s clear that posts with longer content and more relevant keywords perform better. Why? Longer posts are more likely to include key factors that Google and other search engines associate with quality – detailed, original and expert information with appropriate sourcing.
Take the time to review your website content and improve the quality and breadth of information by using comprehensive and industry relevant target keywords across your site. By doing this, you’ll improve your keyword rankings and overall position on the SERP.
While there is no official rule on content length for blog posts and articles, an ideal target to consider is 1000 to 2000 words. If this is not achievable or realistic for your industry or target audience, consider trying a weekly post of 800 to 1000 words that covers relevant topics and highlights your keywords.
💠Create keyword clusters relevant to your industry
It’s important to identify the keywords that are most relevant to your business and industry to make the most of SEO optimisation.
Keyword clusters are keywords that represent searches with similar consumer intent to the product or service a business offers. These represent the core topics of your website. Keyword clustering involves using targeted ‘keyword clusters’ to create webpages that feature the identified keywords to boost your rank within the SERP and outrank your competitors.
💻 Review the overall health of your SEO
SEO is a long-term investment in your business. Just like any investment it’s important to not only have the right strategies in place, but to continue optimizing and tweaking these to ensure your strategy is working for your business and its goals.
Take some time to review the basic SEO principles that your business may already be using, or could be taking advantage of:
Content: Are you creating relevant, accurate, original and thorough content with keywords that are appropriate to your target audience?
On-page SEO: Have you optimized your meta-data (titles, descriptions, header tags, images, text) so search engines can better recognise the content on your pages?
Backlinks: These are links from one website to a page on a different website. Pages that have a high number of these tend to have higher SERP rankings. Good backlinks generally come by generating content marketing, guest blogging or public relations.
Website design: Is your website responsive? Easy to navigate? This is an important factor that influences rank.
Having the right SEO strategy will help you build trust in your business, attract new customers and leads and drive traffic to your site.
How does your online presence stack up? Our digital health check scores you compared to other businesses and provides an in-depth look at your full online presence – website, social sites, listings and more. We produce actionable areas for improvement and can even compare your results against your top local competitors. Contact us today to learn more.
Jayde Nguyen