Whether you own an online store or simply someone who uses search engines, it’s essential to understand how search engine rankings work. After all, your business could only improve if your content is visible and optimized for search engines.
There are a lot of pages to sift through on the Internet, let alone within a single website. This is why search engines use different methods to prioritize and display a web page in search results.
Keywords
Keywords are a significant part of any digital marketing strategy, and understanding how to use them is essential for maximizing the performance of your content. They are the words that people enter into search engines to find what they are looking for. Using the right keywords lets you connect with your audience and ensure your website answers their questions.
There are two types of keywords: head and long tail. Head keywords are broad terms with high search volume, such as “clothing store” or “soccer shoes.” Long-tail keywords are more specific and descriptive, such as “best green chili chicken taco recipe” or “inexpensive dog walkers Seattle.” These keywords tend to have less competition, making them easier to rank for. Additionally, they are more likely to be related to user intent. Keywords can be used in many places on your site, including the title, body text, image alt text, and meta description.
Analytics
While there is no “secret internet sorcery” or magical formula for search engine rankings, you can use SEO analytics with Firestarter SEO to gain valuable insights into your website and the competition. This is critical for optimizing your content to capture the attention of search engines and your target audience. SEO analytics can help you analyze your top-performing keywords, user search terms, low and high-engagement pages, competitors’ content, and more.
SEO is a long-term process that requires constant analysis and optimization. With the correct data and insights, you can create content targeted to your audience’s interests and optimize your website’s structure and navigation for increased search engine visibility. We’ll also cover emerging verticals in search, such as voice, local, and image search, and highlight best practices for SEO success factors. Search engine rankings are essential but should be something other than the end goal – you need traffic and conversions to measure success. We’ll discuss how to measure and monitor SEO performance using web analytics tools.
Content
Content is still king (or at least part of the holy SEO trinity, along with technical and backlinking). Get your content strategy right, and you’re on your way to securing a coveted #1 ranking.
Focus your content efforts on cornerstone articles that best align with your organization’s mission. These articles you want to rank for most, so they deserve to be well-researched, authoritative, and keyword-rich.
Use your keyword in the title and meta-description, as well as two to four times throughout the body of the page. Add semantic keywords where applicable. Include images in your content, preferably with the keyword in the image file name and alt text. Lastly, strategically link to other pages supporting your topical authority. That helps Google determine your page’s topic and helps readers find the information they need. It also signals to search engines that your page is trustworthy and valuable.
Backlinks
The entire purpose of a search engine is to give the user the most relevant response for their query, formatted in the best way possible. To do that, they need information on the page related to the question and what other websites are linking to it.
This is where backlinks come in. Essentially, they are links from other web pages that point to your website. Backlinks help search engines validate a web page, giving it credibility and showing that it is a reliable resource for a particular topic.
To make the most of backlinks:
- Ensure that the website they are coming from has high domain authority and is highly relevant to your industry or topic.
- Be wary of any links that appear as part of a link scheme, as they could potentially damage your search rankings.
- Remember that five high-quality backlinks can be more potent than 1,000 low-quality ones.