Search engine ranking is the method of optimizing specific pages on your website with the goal of achieving better search engine results for specific target keywords.
Have you ever wondered why everyone is always competing to appear on the first page of Google?
Simply put, where a page appears in search results determines how much traffic it will receive.
Most people generally don't make it past the first ten to fifteen results, and even fewer choose to click through to that second page.
That's why where your website appears for specific search terms is critical to the overall success of your organic traffic.
So how do you make sure you always get the best possible rankings for your target keywords?
With Search Engine Positioning.
In this post, we'll cover the basics, how it differs from search engine optimization (SEO), and why your business needs to maximize this process.
Let's start.
What is search engine optimization?
Search engine ranking is the ongoing work process of optimizing specific pages on your website for better search engine results for specific target keywords.
Essentially, it means working to ensure that your website always tops the results for individual search terms related to your niche.
The process is important, as if done correctly, you can end up on the first page for the specific keyword you have optimized for.
As a result, there will be more traffic and a considerably higher click-through rate (CTR).
While some marketers think of optimization as a one-time project, search engine ranking is a methodology that happens continuously over time and adjusts to current rankings.
Search Engine Positioning vs SEO: What’s the Difference?
While some digital marketers use both terms interchangeably, there is actually a difference between search engine rankings and search engine optimization.
Positioning focuses more on optimizing your entire brand so that you always have high-ranking positions for the most important keywords needed to reach your target market.
Although SEO is related to many other things like organic traffic, backlinks, link building and even some technical aspects of optimizing a page.
Basically, search engine rankings could be said to be an important aspect of SEO.
How can search engine rankings benefit your business?
Now that you know what search engine ranking entails, let's take a look at the benefits of using it as part of your overall digital marketing strategy.
Advantage 1: Increased Organic Traffic
The main benefit for your business when it comes to adopting search engine rankings is that it ensures that you appear on the first page of Google and other popular search engines.
When this happens for terms with a high number of monthly searches, it is very likely that you can see a significant increase in organic traffic.
And, as you probably already know, this translates to increased sales, leads, and whatever else you strive for within your niche.
Advantage 2: Outperforms the competition
In particularly competitive niches, search engine rankings are key, as it means you are literally beating the competition.
Instead of seeing your page first when searching for the types of goods and services you offer, they'll see yours.
This means that they are more likely to click on your link first.
Advantage 3: Better reputation as an expert
While most consumers are less likely to trust Google as an authoritative source, they do notice when a particular website always seems to have the right information on the topics they're searching for.
In other words, search engine rankings can help put your brand or business where your target audience sees you as a leader in your industry.
In turn, this can mean more sales and better long-term credibility.
How can you see where a page ranks in a SERP?
When it comes to ranking in search engines, you must first understand that the process fluctuates.
While you might be in first place for a specific deadline at noon, you might be in a completely different place for someone on a different device an hour later.
Instead, it's best to look at your average position on the leaderboard to get an idea of where you'll end up most often.
And that's what you can find by looking at their Google Search Console page.
This will immediately show you where the specific terms are in the rankings and the average position.
It will also present you with the click-through rate, giving you a good idea if the position you are in is getting the response you are looking for.
If not, it might be time to edit or improve your meta description to make it more attractive to users.
If you're looking for more robust analysis, there are plenty of great apps and tools on the market.
Any good ones to try?
SEMRush and Ahrefs are considered to be two of the best in the business.
How to maximize search engine ranking on Google
When it comes to search engine rankings, it is important to note that the process is not something you do once or twice and get immediate results.
Rather, there are some moving parts in the process and they require constant work to keep your rankings high.
Also, when you start to go from a few dozen keywords to a few hundred, you'll want to keep practicing the same practices to keep growing your organic traffic.
Algorithm changes happen every few months, so keeping the process in check and constantly working to improve it is really the only way to make sure you're safe, as the search engine giant decides to make changes to the way how your product works.
Here are some tips and tricks on how to maximize your search engine ranking on Google.
Create and publish great content
It's almost a cliché at this point, as all digital marketers shout it from the rooftops.
But we will say it again.
Content is king when it comes to success in search engine rankings.
After all, you need to have a page worth linking to in order to appear at the top of search engine results.
But having a lot of content on your website is not enough to get the full impact.
Instead, you want to make sure your page looks professional, trustworthy, and contains information that doesn't look spammy.
The easiest way to make it happen?
Create and keep to a content calendar.
If you have a regular posting schedule and are using content marketing tactics like creating more useful posts on a larger topic, you will essentially never run out of things to write about.
Choose the right keywords for targeting
An important part of ranking is actually choosing the right keywords to target.
This means taking the time to research the keywords and then continuing for a few weeks or months to see if the term is still worth searching for.
We also recommend that you see who is currently on the first page of Google for a specific term that you are considering targeting with your search engine ranking.
If you see a lot of social media links, Pinterest posts, or other user-generated content on specific websites, you're probably in a good position to try and get a spot with your content.
However, if there are many competitors that are large companies or brands, you may need to focus on a slightly less competitive term.
A good way to do this?
With long-form research content or even misspelled keywords, which many internal digital marketing teams for large companies won't even bother to test.
Check the loading time of your website
Not all aspects of search engine rankings have to do with keywords and content.
Sometimes the structure of your page is just as important as the information you share with the world.
Google has made a big fuss in recent years about the importance of page load speed.
They have stated numerous times that this is a key factor in SERP ranking, which means you should pay attention to your website speed as part of your overall ranking strategy.
There are several online tools that can help you check this, but our favorite of course is our Internship Analyzer.
It can give you an idea if there is a page load speed issue you should be aware of and also free information on how to improve it.
Simply put, today's web users are impatient and don't want to waste valuable time waiting for their page to load.
Google knows this, which is why they have put so much emphasis on this part of their ranking criteria.
Update your meta tags and descriptions with key phrases
To a digital marketer, this may seem like repeated information.
The truth?
There are still tons and tons of brands and smaller businesses struggling to get organic traffic, when all they really need to do is update their meta tags and descriptions.
On eCommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, this is very important. But it is also true for all websites.
While it may seem like a good idea to show auto-generated versions, it essentially means you're missing out on a key point to target specific keywords and improve those rankings.
Why is it really important?
Meta tags and descriptions are what a user sees when they get a list of search engine results for a given query.
If your description or information on the page isn't compelling enough or doesn't make it look like they'll get the answer they're looking for, they'll throw themselves at you in favor of another website.
Ultimately, this reduces your chances of a high-ranking position and can severely hurt your click-through rate.
Instead, make sure you always update these items on a single page. And we really always mean.
Reoptimize existing content
Do you have a lot of content over the years on your website that doesn't get adequate traffic or nearly enough traffic?
The beauty of having a website is that everything is editable. This indicates you can simply enhance traffic by re-optimizing existing content.
There are a few ways to freshen up your content to give it a new life in the SERPs:
- Addition of new keywords
- Extend the length of some messages
- Reconfigure the organization of topics in an article
This is a great way to really take advantage of the stuff that's already on your page, while making sure it's up to modern standards.
Do you have a post that worked great before a previous algorithm change?
Therefore, it is definitely a good candidate for reoptimization as part of a broader search engine optimization strategy.
Submit XML sitemaps to Google and Bing
This is another low-impact fruit you can tackle if you're not sure why your page isn't getting the traffic it deserves for the content you're producing.
From time to time, submit your XML sitemaps to Google and Bing.
Why?
Let's say you're having a party. Everyone is invited, they just don't know how to get there. If they do, they don't know where the front door is or even where they can find a side entrance.
XML sitemaps are like that.
They inform search engines about the pages on your site and how to locate them.
While Google and Bing automatically crawl your site for changes, this is a much faster way to let them know what's going on.
And it's especially important if you add content daily or weekly, where new pages are added all the time.
How often to resubmit sitemaps?
This really depends on your content schedule, but once or twice a month is usually enough.
Use the internal link
Not only do you need to create content regularly, but you also need to use internal linking to ensure context between different areas of your website.
Let's take a look at an example.
Let's say you're a veterinarian offering advice in a blog post about aggression in male pets.
Suggest castration as a way to calm the animal and link to a page that talks about the process. This would be an internal link.
In the user's eyes, this is a convenient way to get the information they need right when they need it.
No need to go back to the search engine, type a second query and go to another website, all the information they need is right at their fingertips.
However, the way Google sees it is a bit more abstract. They look at their dog's aggressiveness page and see links to neutering, training tips, proper diet, and breed types.
From there, the entire website and current page are supposed to refer to dogs in some way and will start searching for additional keywords that may not be the ones you are specifically searching for.
After a while, you can also start ranking those added words.
The final result? More organic traffic and a list of words you can try to refine for other parts of your website.
Avoid keyword cannibalization
A big mistake that many digital marketers make is that they try to rank for a specific keyword by simply repeating it over and over again on every page of their website.
The end result is that they have dozens of pages vying for the same cover position, which can make it difficult for any one of them to achieve the end goal.
While it's okay to repeat specific phrases on multiple pages of your site, be sure to confuse them where you can.
Have a specific keyword for each page, combined with other secondary keywords with a few less uses.
By implementing your overall keyword strategy, you'll ensure that your pages aren't pitted against each other for the top spot on Google.
But what if you already have tons of content that repeats keywords?
You can choose to combine posts and use a redirect link or you can simply re-optimize the lower performing ones for a better search term.
Wrap Up: Search engine rankings need a clear strategy
This is essential in ensuring your overall success.
Critically looking at your keyword selection, following an editorial calendar and posting regularly, and generally creating great content are just a few of the easy ways to ensure your site appears on the coveted front page as often as possible.
0 Comments