Congratulations you have a website, now what do you do? If things were easy there’d be a sign that instantly tells the entire online world that your website is live and that your site would be overrun with visitors seeking your products and services. You’re instantly on top of the search engine mountain. If it was just that easy. The web is more competitive than ever and search engines are constantly making changes in order to compete with each other, plus with the overwhelming amount of information on the web in the forms of directories, blogs, websites, networks, etc. it takes a really strong search engine marketing strategy to improve search engine rankings. You have to work and climb the famed search mountain if you want to take your stake at the top of your space in the web.
Base Camp: The Starting Point to Improve Search Engine Rankings
Before you start the climb you have to prep your website for the hike. To improve search engine rankings, your website needs to have a good search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in place. Discovering this path requires research and analysis. Performing keyword research will help you map your strategy and course. Find the keywords that get a reaction from your prospects. Then, as in any marketing strategy you’ll need to perform some competitive analysis. What are they using for search terms? Are they seeing results from their website? What strategies are working for them? Your own website analytics are something you’ll want to consider. If you have had a site for a while pay attention to those analytics, take a close look at your prospects behavior on the site, find the keywords that are getting them there. Through extensive research you’re now ready to build a strategy that’s will get you started on the trail to improving your search engine rankings.
The Ridge: Reach your Customers to Improve Search Engine Rankings
You’re out of the gates and running, you’re on your way to improve search engine rankings. Next you’ll reach the ridge of your climb and put the strategy to work. To reach the ridge you must execute your keyword strategy. First you’ll create compelling title and description tags that include the keywords in your strategy. Your title and description tags will play an important role in your click thru rate (when someone clicks your listing on a search engine) so it’s important to write these elements delicately
Now, update the content on your pages with keywords that will get search traffic but also engage potential prospects. How can you do this? When writing your content, pretend you’re having a friendly conversation to your prospect, give them relatable information they can use. Separating yourself from the competition comes in the quality of your content. In order to attract prospects and the search engines you’ll need to create clear, compelling, keyword enriched content. Combine these two elements and the path to improving search engine rankings will be clear.
The Summit: It All Comes Together to Improve Search Engine Rankings
Your website is alive and well. You’ve fine-tuned your on-site SEO, your engaged with your users, but the climb to the summit gets tough. To reach the summit you’ve gotta deal with some uncontrollable elements, it’s time to start working through those elements. To make the push and really improve search engine rankings, you’ll need to get other websites to give you links. If your content is really compelling and your visitors find it to be good information, links will come naturally as people share your content with others. You’ll also have to work and be proactive. Refer back to your competitive research and discover what sites are linking to your competitions. With a site that’s a good fit, reach out to that site’s webmaster and sell them on the benefits of linking to your site. With every link your popularity will increase and your hard work will be rewarded.
With the combination of quality content, keyword strategy, link building efforts, integrating social media, and being proactive with your site you will push to the summit. This is where you’ll enjoy more traffic on your site and turning users into leads, all because you’ve made the climb to improve search engine rankings.