If you are new to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), it can be daunting to work out how to improve your ranking on Google. There are many different factors to consider when improving SEO and achieving a high ranking on Google. It’s crucial that you understand the differences in the key terms and organise your content effectively. Having a clear focus and strategy can help you achieve this.
In this article, we will outline the seven key steps to get you started with SEO. We will give an overview of what you can do as a beginner to SEO to improve your digital marketing and online presence. This includes the type and variety of content you create and the best strategies to get your content out to customers.
1) Why keyword research is crucial
Before creating any content, it’s essential to do keyword research. Keyword research is crucial to see what keywords the competition is targeting. You also want to ensure the keywords are correct for your business and content.
Luckily, there are plenty of tools that you can use to make your keyword research as easy as possible! A few useful ones include Keyword Finder, which allows you to see which keywords can get you the best results. Keyword Planner is a website from Google, which helps you discover new keywords, research keywords and plan which keywords you want to use. And Ahrefs Keyword generator enables you to find relevant keywords from their database of over 8 billion queries.
2) Intent-based searches
Since the introduction of Google’s new search engine software, otherwise known as MUM, users search intent matters a lot more. Types of search intent include the following examples. If a customer wants to buy something, this will be transactional intent, or if they ask a question, this will be informational intent. Understanding your customer’s search intent will help you choose the correct keywords to ensure you appear in the relevant searches. So, it’s well worth understanding the difference between these intent types to improve your SEO.
3) Give your website a health check
Not paying attention to the health of your website is a big mistake many businesses make when it comes to SEO. Factors including page loading speed are crucial for SEO, Google ranking, and customer bounce rate. Studies show that up to 40% of customers will click off a webpage that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. If users are not staying on your website, Google will see your website as low-quality or unpopular, negatively affecting your ranking on Google. There are various tools available online you can use to check the health of your website, including GT Metrix or PageSpeed insights. So by making sure your website is fully optimised for users, you can significantly improve your SEO.
4) Use longer content
Longer forms of content are becoming more popular; however, many content creators prefer to stick to shorter content forms as they may be concerned about losing customer engagement. But, it’s becoming more evident that a larger proportion of the top-ranking articles on Google are often around 2000 or more words.
It’s worth trying to stretch your content to around the 1500 – 2000 mark to improve your SEO. But if you are struggling with this, ultimately, the quality of the content is just as important as the quantity of the content. So aim to use longer length content, but ensure that you balance length and quality to get a higher ranking on Google.
5) Check out the competition
Doing market research to understand what your competition is doing is crucial with any form of marketing, especially digital marketing. Seeing what your competitors are doing will help you determine effective strategies that you can also use. It will also help you decide which keywords to use and which ones to avoid.
6) Aim for high-quality content
It’s essential to create content that is easy to read and doesn’t sound fake. Poor-quality writing could make your website look unprofessional, and audiences will connect with high-quality and genuine content. In addition, Google has become effective at identifying content that is low quality, or that doesn’t sound like natural English. It could get you penalised and affect your ranking on Google. Things you should avoid include syntactical errors and keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is when you have a long line of keywords out of context in your text or that don’t make sense. However, producing well written and high-quality content will push up your ranking on Google.
7) Have a clear and focused strategy
Before you start creating any form of content, you must have a clear focus for your digital marketing to determine the best strategy to improve your SEO.
By undertaking market research and keyword research, as mentioned in the previous points, you will be able to create a clear and focused plan to determine the types of content you want to develop and what strategies to use to improve your Google ranking effectively. In addition, market research will allow you to build up a picture of the key demographic you want to appeal to, and you can then tailor your content and keywords to make sure you are reaching this audience and customer base.
A one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy won’t help you reach your business potential, as all businesses are different and need a different approach to maximise SEO. For example, some businesses may aim to get more sales, whereas others may aim to increase downloads or views. Writing down your key aims and considering how you will reach them will help you implement a step-by-step strategy to make the most of your online presence.
For more information on how we can help improve your SEO, contact Design Grid today!
