A strategic SEO approach and a methodical approach are both necessary to rank your keywords in the search engine results pages (SERPs) in the age of Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird. When done correctly, SEO can help you very much with a successful organic search content strategy. Keeping that in mind, we bring you seven things you must do to successfully rank your keywords.
1. Keyword research
Keyword research is the base to optimize your site. Right from scratch, the basics for keyword research and discovery are:
a. Create a keyword portfolio. Begin with the core keyword list, also known as the seed list. Organize your research in a spreadsheet which includes keyword ideas from competitor sites and your own.
b. Take a look at your site’s Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) account to find the keywords that generate the most impressions, and add those to your main list.
c. Search on your website to find the keywords you’re ranking for (including which pages). Also, do it for your competitors.
d. Use Google’s Keyword Planner tool again to conduct further research and find more keyword suggestions.
e. Create categories in your spreadsheet, such as “products,” “services,” and “news,” and then categorize and rank your keywords inside each category. This can help you to create your website structure which we will talk about next.
2. Site structure
Your keyword research can help you create an optimal site structure (also known as a navigational framework) that makes it easier for users to browse and the search engines to grasp what your site is all about. The search engines will realize that your website is related to a user’s query if its structure is built around specific keyword groups or themes. Using your keyword research spreadsheet as a guide, go ahead with the following steps:
a. Incorporate more generic keywords into the broad themes of your website.
b. Use more precise terms to describe the primary categories and subcategories on your website, again using the results of your keyword research as a guide.
c. Optimize specific pages using more focused keywords, especially “long-tail” keywords. This is where you may dramatically boost the SERP positioning of your pages by making minor adjustments (what we refer to as “striking distance”).
3. SEO content audit
Although it is an optional step, performing an SEO content audit is advised since it enables you to determine which material on your website is succeeding and which is underperforming in terms of search rankings and ROI. Setting up this initial benchmark will assist you in informing your future content strategy. Depending on your demands, you can use a variety of tools to obtain the information you’ll need to carry out an SEO content audit. We at Digital Links are one of the best SEO agencies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE who provide analytics and reporting capabilities to track organic search and revenue success for specific pages and websites.
- The data you’ve gathered from your content audit should be exported and organized in a spreadsheet, just like with keyword research. Pageviews, organic traffic, bounce rates, conversions, and page speed are a few of the crucial SEO metrics to examine.
- Pay attention to the effectiveness of website pages that are essential to your company, such as important landing and sales pages.
- The quality and number of backlinks that search engines use to determine the authority and trustworthiness of your material (which in turn affects your blog’s search ranking) are important to monitor for your blog. These social metrics include Facebook sharing, tweets and retweets, Google +1s and shares, and Facebook and Twitter activity.
4. Content creation, optimization, and on-page SEO
At this point, you’ll need to develop content for fresh website pages and/or optimize the ones you already have using the pertinent keywords you discovered during your research. The following principles serve as a guide:
- Aim for a word count that is adequate and makes the information feel comprehensive (no less than 250 words, depending on the topic and purpose of the page). Use keywords that are appropriate for the theme of the page while optimizing, but refrain from “keyword stuffing” or adding extraneous text. Additionally, make sure that written content is accessible to readers near the top of the page (ads shouldn’t be the first thing readers see).
- Be careful not to create duplicate content, which might happen accidentally by copying Meta information from other pages, for example (discussed below).
- Make sure that each page of your website has its own metadata so that the page title and description can tell search engines what the page is about. The performance of search ranking is largely influenced by this data, which is also the “clickable” information presented in the SERPs.
- Written titles, descriptions, and tags are also necessary for rich media, such as photographs and videos, so that search engines can grasp their content. Optimize on-page rich media to ensure that the Metadata and corresponding text’s keywords match.
- To make it easier for users to scan your page and for search engine bots to comprehend what the page is about, organize the content headers and subheads using a structure of heading tags (H1, H2, H3).
- If necessary, use internal links to link different website pages together. By following links, search engine robots scan Web content; therefore, having an internal, connected structure helps both them and your site visitors navigate your website.
- Making use of the Web “robot” code found in XML tags, create and publish an XML Sitemap to search engines to further inform them on the content of each page on your website. This aids “Googlebot” and other search engine robots in “crawling” and accurately indexing very big and/or new sites as well as sites with extensive archives of remote content pages and/or using rich media.
5. Link earning
Link “earning” is the process of producing material that other people want to link to associate themselves with it or to demonstrate their support for it. These “inbound” links could point to your homepage, a page on your website dedicated to internal goods and services, or a particularly good blog post. Your site’s backlink profile consists of external links coming in from other websites. When determining your site’s relative relevance, authority, and reliability, search engines take into account both the quantity and quality of its backlink profile. The ranks of the organic search content for your website are then influenced by this evaluation. Similar to SEO content audits, benchmarking and tracking the health of your site’s backlink profile should be done on a regular or quarterly basis.
6. Social networking and engagement
Social media sharing and engagement are now becoming more and more important to your organic search visibility and content ranking, as was mentioned above when addressing the SEO audit of blog material. “Social SEO” has become the truth when it comes to content marketing.
Content sharing is being used by search engines as a “quality” indicator. A Twitter case study of Tiny Prints, a specialized online boutique that relies on organic search for its Web traffic and sales, provides proof of the interaction between search and social media. It increased its organic search rankings for long-tail keywords by 47% and tripled the engagement of its Twitter followers by utilizing the Twitter network.
7. Performance tracking
The first step in developing a smart content strategy is benchmarking the success of your organic search content. To assist you in doing that, we at Digital Links have expert professionals who can help you with a variety of metrics and reporting capabilities. We have SEO experts who analyze revenue and organic search performance for large groups of pages on your website as well as for individual pages. Finally, keep in mind that this entire process is not a one-and-done job.
Why choose us?
Digital Links are one of the best digital marketing and SEO agencies in Abu Dhabi, UAE. If you are looking for a company to boost your rankings, then we are the best partners for you.
We provide you with everything and anything that you require to start your business. Right from Ecommerce solutions to SEO to email marketing, we are the go-to digital marketing partner. Call us today at +971 5247 23407 or email us at hello@digitallinkspro.com to know more
