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Do you remember the last time you clicked on a website link that was beyond the first ten search results on Google’s page one?
To be honest, very few people do not get what they are looking for in the first ten results that are shown by Google.
For SEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs, the quest was, is, and will always be to make sure that their brand and website feature in the top ten search results as shown on Google’s first page.
The thing is that ranking isn’t easy as it sounds. In fact, it is one of the toughest things that you will be faced with in the form of a challenge.
Over time, this problem becomes frustrating as no matter what you do, you end up failing to climb the search rankings.
Every SEO has been there. If you have tried every SEO trick in the book, but have not seen results, you have come to the right place.
In this article, we are going to speak with leading Small Business SEO Services experts at Riv Media.
We are going to request them to discuss seven strategies that can help marketers, brands and founders rank their websites higher.
However, before we come to the list of strategies, it would be worthwhile to shed light on how SEO works.
How does SEO Work?
Let us start this section by raising a question that is quite fundamental to SEO- which content ranks?
The thing is that the foremost goal of search engines is to show ranking content to the users depending on how great the result is.
In other words, search engines pick out the best, most trusted, authoritative, and quality results that are then shown to users.
You might be asking yourself the question- how do search engines find out which content has the most relevant result?
- The top search result enjoys the highest on-page times and the least bounce rates
- It is backed or supported by the highest number of backlinks
- The search intent of the result is matched according to the user’s journey
- The web page is itself a part of a very authoritative website or platform
- It has a significantly higher CTR as compared to lower showing results
- Users have liked, shared, or commented on the web page more than they have on others
As you can see from the list above, a ranking search result does not happen overnight. The webmasters behind the page promote it through SEO aggressively.
With more than 200 known ranking factors that the algorithms of search engines consider, things might not be as easy as you might have thought they will be.
However, if you are willing to put in the time, effort, and investments, you should be able to rank your web pages on search results.
List of 7 SEO Strategies to Rank Higher on Google
- Pick out and identify underperforming keywords in your industry niche-
Great SEO is all about spending time doing research. It involves analyzing your industry, taking apart your competitor’s SEO game, and building something substantial using that base.
The first thing that you should be looking at is identifying the underperforming keywords and seeing how you can best make use of them.
One mistake that a lot of SEOs try to make is to go for keywords that will help them jump 10 places. That is not going to happen. The easier bit is to attempt to jump one place.
One simple jump can do a world of good to your website traffic. This is where SEO tools like AHREFS can play such a critical role in your search and discovery.
- Find three keywords you want to rank for on the search results-
If you are already ranking for keywords, it means that it would be far easier for you to rank higher for them than to go for completely new ones.
You need to sort and filter the keywords based on the search volumes and target accordingly. While your industry niche might have hundreds of keywords with millions of search volumes, the truth is that you will never be able to rank for each of them.
Most SEO experts suggest that you should pick three keywords that have significant search volumes and dedicate your efforts to ranking them.
The only three things that should guide you are traffic, search volumes, and low KD scores.
- Understand why your competitors are outranking you for keywords and volume-
A competitor would outrank your website for hundreds of reasons. If you have ever been pitched for SEO work, you might have seen that the presentation or report carries an analysis of the competitors that are placed above you on search results.
Three things can help you understand why you are being outranked- backlinks, website metrics, and authority.
However, rather than try to understand them, figure out whether your content is ‘search intent’ friendly.
Once this is done, try to analyze the referring domains of your competitors and see how far behind you lag. To outrank someone that is higher than you, you need to build more backlinks.
- Follow strategies that can help you build more backlinks and climb higher on SERPs-
Sometimes outranking is just about building more high-quality backlinks. This is something that should be done throughout.
When it comes to building backlinks, you need to look at the metrics and traffic figures of the websites you are linking to.
Look for DA and DR on the higher side, preferably more than 40. Additionally, you need to explore internal linking well. If you are linking to your ranking articles, then you should see some movement.
You need to understand that if your website has a DR of 20 and the one outranking you has a DR of 40, then it is practically impossible to get over it. In this case, you need to look for low keywords.
- Try to put in place strategies that can help you generate more traffic to your website-
Why are you trying to rank higher? The answer is so that you get more clicks that lead to more website traffic. But what if you could simply target website traffic without ranking higher?
There are SEO strategies that can help you drive targeted traffic to your website. Look at Web 2.0 platforms and Social Media SEO for the best results.
If you have website traffic, you are automatically addressing issues of sales queries and lead generation. In many cases, once you start getting traffic, you will see your other website metrics increase.
Nailing search intent is critical to generating website traffic. This happens when you are able to cover a topic in great detail.
- Rank for multiple keywords in your industry niche to generate more organic traffic-
Just like one ranking keyword can drive traffic to your website, multiple ranking keywords can help you generate so much more traffic.
This is why you need to keep targeting new keywords in your industry niche throughout. Great SEO is all about ensuring that your website gets organic traffic.
You need not rank on the first page of Google for all your keywords. If you have a mix of trending and evergreen keywords and are ranking for the same, then you will be successful.
While this is easier said than done, you need to understand that the basics are always the same. All you need to do is keep repeating the processes over and over again.
- Stick to creating informative, educational, and comprehensive long-format content-
There is no alternative to great content. Everything that we mentioned above will prove to be futile if you are not creating great content.
Every piece of content that represents the brand, whether it is in the form of blog articles, guest posting content, etc. needs to be detailed, comprehensive, and keyword-injected. What’s more?
You need to make sure that your ranking web pages are constantly updated to keep them fresh and add new keywords.
This is a process that needs to take place every three months. There is no rocket science as far as creating great content is concerned. You need to get it done; it is as simple as that.
The Bottom Line
For the vast majority of brands and SEOs, ranking higher on Google search is probably the toughest thing in the world. For others, that have figured out the formula, ranking higher and generating traffic is the simplest thing in the world.
To be honest, there is no magic involved here. It is all about sticking to the basics of SEO and doing it well. The time factor is important here. In order to rank, you need to stick with a strategy that helps in delivering results.
Great content, high-quality backlinks, volume-rich keywords, and the use of SEO tools for learning and research will help you rank higher on Google. If you have any more questions that you would like us to answer regarding the article, please write them down in the comments.
