As a small business/website owner, you know that search traffic (also called organic traffic) is by far the best source of new leads and potential customers. Over 53% of web traffic comes from organic search. Ranking better in search is the goal of all businesses; if it’s not your goal, then it should be.
When I first started exploring SEO, it was still the early days of the industry. It was a time when we could see tremendous results just by focusing on keywords. It was possible to rank well with hidden text, keyword stuffed footers, and other now outdated techniques.
The fact is that the tricks of the trade change with every algorithm update. That is why it’s crucial to stay up to date with Google’s algorithm changes. Google owns over 92% of all desktop searches, with Bing coming in at around 4%. With numbers like that, you can see why it is important to optimize for Google.
Voice Search is the wave of the future and an important ranking factor in 2022
The secret to ranking better in search lies in strategy.
Your strategy must be defined by what you can bring to the table. Collaboration is also paramount because it will keep you ahead of the curve in terms of backlinks and content-sharing; while Google continues to change and adapt to new online landscapes, so should your business.
In the spirit of transparency and providing value to our readers, I’m sharing with you the top 5 ranking strategies that I’m currently using to help my clients rank better in search engines.
5. Creating High-Quality Content
This is really the most important factor when ranking in search. If you are creating high-quality content, then you are already taking care of the other things on this list. Search engines want to deliver content to users that they can actually use. The higher the quality of the content, the more backlinks you will gain, and the more trustworthy you become in the eyes of the major search engines.
4. Keyword targeting
Keyword targeting is still an important factor when creating new content. You want to be sure that you use your most important keywords in your page title, headings, alt tags, image tags, and content. Don’t go crazy; a general rule of thumb is to use your keyword once or twice for every 100 words.
3. Internal links
Linking to internal pages on your own website helps the search engines to understand your content better. From your desired user flow to how your content relates, search engines use all this data when determining where to place you in the SERP (search engine results page).
2. Link building
Having authoritative websites linking to your content is still a very important ranking factor. When doing link-building outreach, try to get backlinks to pages deep within your site. Think of specific articles that fit the content of the site your seeking a link from. These links pass info to search engines than a standard link to your homepage. The top-ranking websites tend to have an average of 4 times more backlinks than positions 2-10.
1. Optimize for voice search
A growing number of people are using voice search to find what they’re looking for online. Google’s John Mueller has said that 57.5% of smartphone users use voice search and that 27% of all those people use it when looking for a business. This is an even more important factor for local businesses considering that 27% of their potential website users use voice to search.
Over a billion people own a mobile phone, so it should be no surprise that being found via voice search is important for your business. As more users turn to voice search, it’s time for website owners to dig deep into how voice search will impact their small businesses.
Speaking of voice search, It’s also estimated that 75% of households will own a smart speaker by 2025, making finding products and services online even easier. With people using Google Home, Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa for search, voice searches are likely to increase your conversion rates by up to 60%.
Ranking better in search engines is a topic I’m very passionate about. My goal is to create relevant content that is easy to digest, spread it across my targeted audience, and provide incentives for people to share it. It’s a lot of work, but when you achieve high rankings, your business really starts to gorw.
To get your content in front of as many eyes as possible, you want to ensure that your content is seen by your target audience as often as possible. This can be done in a variety of ways; some of them include community promotions, guest posting, and influencer marketing.
The Business Resource Directory are experts at website marketing, site promotion, and optimizing websites for voice search. Contact us to learn how we can optimize your website for voice search.
Website developer, field recordist, instrument builder. My background is largely based in design for the music industry; websites, micro-sites, and apparel. With that experience, I bring a fresh approach to corporate and construction-related web projects looking to stand apart from the competition. My goal is to help clients better understand different aspects of SEO and website development; I write short, easy-to-digest articles on search engine optimization and website performance-related topics.
In my free time, I enjoy field recording, sound design, and building unusual musical instruments.
Michael Winchester is a website developer and search engine consultant in Southern California.
Michael Winchester Design | (562)283-5688