Expert Search Engine Optimization
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Google is the most important search engine in the world and it's up to you to ensure your website ranks well. This post will take you through expert search engine optimization so that your site can be ranked highly by Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. There's a lot of stuff out there about SEO and how to rank websites, but this guide will help you maximize those chances for success. Follow these steps and learn how you can increase organic traffic for your business!
The first step is choosing a few targeted keywords that describe what your website is about. Looking at the most popular keywords on Google reveals some great options like 'icemaking' or 'ramen noodles'. You can find the most popular terms by typing into Google some words like 'top used keywords' or 'keyword tool'.
If you're new to SEO, it's a good idea to start with something simple. A new widget, for example, could have a keyword like "widget buying guide" or "widget reviews" as its goal. A tool like SEMrush can help you learn about the most popular keywords and their monthly search volume so that you know what to target.
You should already have a plan on the structure of your website because if you don't it will be really hard to optimize for keywords. We recommend a site map to outline what your website is about.
This should help you as you plan out the best way to rank in the SERPs. The next step is to research keywords that are related to your product or service, and ones that aren't already super competitive. A great tool for this is the Keyword Planner in Google AdWords, which provides estimated ranges of monthly searches and other details on each keyword. You can use this analysis to do some digging into the search volume and conversion rates for different keywords.
You should start looking at the Google search results and looking for ways that you can increase your search visibility. But you should also look at other places where people find your product or service, like Yahoo! and Facebook. You can use tools like SEMrush to see which pages rank for the most competitive terms. The following screenshot shows an example of a keyword:
In this example, we've found two keywords that are far more competitive than our current site and we've got a little bit of room to grow with each of them. By analyzing these high volume keywords, you'll start to have a good idea of what kind of traffic these terms will bring in. You can also find out what content people are consuming about the keyword to make sure that you're creating good content for the target audience.
Now that you have a better understanding of your audience, you can start writing a campaign strategy. A good option is to do some blogging on your site or even guest posting on other sites in the same niche. This will help get some distribution and bring new visitors to your website. We recommend checking out our post on how to write badass blog articles for more tips on writing great content. If you want, check out our post on guest blogging for SEO and marketing benefits .
Once you get started with posting new content, take a look at how well it's doing for those targeted keywords in Google. If you find that a lot of people are searching for that keyword, you've got a good chance of ranking well. If the numbers are a little low, try posting more frequently in the future to build your authority on the topic. You can also try writing supplements and adding them to your blog posts to make them more thorough, like this:
If you want some proven templates from industry experts that you can use on your site, make sure to get our latest eBook where we have tips from top SEO experts on what works today.
Your keyword research should also be paying off by now as you see new people coming into your website through searches and social media. If you haven't been successful, try continuing to post more content and experiment with different keywords. If you want to see SEO techniques that actually work, check out our latest eBook where we've got the best tips from top SEO experts.
If it makes sense for your business, you can also start a discussion group or forum on your site so that you can participate in the discussion about your product or service. This will bring in traffic and help build up some social proof on a site like Reddit or Yahoo! Answers. Just make sure that visitors are clicking through to your site when they visit from the forum – social media sharing buttons are a great way to track this.
One important thing to remember is that your keywords don't define your product or service. Instead, it's the quality of your content that drives users to visit your site and convert. If you're creating a website optimized for "ramen noodles", the whole point is not just to rank well on Bing or Yahoo!, but also on Google so that people can find you. When you're crafting a site, it's good practice to avoid using terms like 'ramen' and 'Nissin' in the name so that Google doesn't recognize your website as an exact match keyword and penalize it.
If you want to become an authority in your niche, you have to make sure that people trust your opinion. For example, if you're a seller of widgets, it doesn't matter that much how many widgets you sell – what matters is having the best reviews. An easy way to do this is just by offering up your testimonial on another website like Reddit or Yahoo! Answers . Just make sure that the site name links back to your website and that you have enough reputation (karma) on the site so that readers will trust you.
You can do this as part of your content marketing strategy by creating a product review video for YouTube and syndicating it across other sites in your niche.
Conclusion
The goal of this strategy is to learn how to rank in Google and don't necessarily need to make sales right away. If you get the traffic trending in the right direction, then sales can be a great side effect. If you've been able to see some success with this strategy or have anything else to add, let us know in the comments below!
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This post was written by Spencer Haws and Jory MacKay, DIY promoters at Shopify. Get more from them on Twitter at @spencerhaw and @Jory_Mackay.. You should also check out their site at https://www.diypromoters.com/ for more cool blogging tips and tricks about online business.