As the digital landscape becomes heavily saturated and more competitive, SEO is more important than ever. Showing up on the first page of Google search results is extremely competitive, but don’t worry, we have your back. This blog explores 3 ways to improve your SEO ranking so Google will recognize you as a reputable, authoritative source.
Before we dive into how to improve your SEO ranking, you might want to make sure you understand the fundamentals and have an effective strategy in place. Take a look at these three blogs before continuing to read this blog: Basics of SEO, Optimized for Success: SEO Tips for Growing Businesses, and Metrics Defined: SEO KPIs. Now that we are on the same page, let’s get to the good stuff.
Understand Keyword Rankings
A keyword ranking takes into account the search volume and the level of competition for specific words searched in Google. The broader the search terms, the more competitive it will be for your site to show up on a Google search. When beginning your SEO journey, it is important to establish which keywords you are looking to relate to your brand. For example, if you are a fishing company, broad words such as “fishing”, “fishing tools”, and “fishing equipment” might be difficult to rank highly for at first because search engines still don’t recognize you as an authoritative, trustworthy, and relevant source in that space. There are thousands of search queries for unspecific terms each day, so it is very difficult to compete in that area.
When you are a newer brand, it is more beneficial to focus on more specific keywords that have less competition. For example, there aren’t nearly as many search queries for “Custom fishing equipment in Dallas”. Although users are less likely to search for such specific phrases, your ranking will be higher because of low competition. It’s important to keep track of how your brand keywords are performing, and continue to test and learn. As people continue to look for your brand, click on your links, and perform activities on your website, search engines will start to recognize that your site is a legitimate source and therefore make it easier to rank for the broader keywords.
Link Building
Links are incredibly important to SEO and are used heavily by Google to determine which sites will be recommended to searchers. The best case scenario is when other highly-influential existing sites are linking back to your site. For example, the New York Times including a link to your fishing site is much more powerful than a brand new blog having a link to your site. When reputable sites include a link to yours, Google trusts that your site is a legitimate, authoritative source and will be ranked higher. These sites are more likely to notice you when you consistently publish valuable content on your site, and also when you link out to other sites within your content. This strongly increases your chances of outranking your competitors.
Optimize Your Websites UX
Another factor Google takes into consideration when ranking search results is your website performance, including how often users are visiting your site, and how long they are staying on it when they do. The better the user experience, the better the SEO ranking and also your likelihood of user conversions. The best way to bring people to and keep people engaged on your site is by ensuring the experience is optimized for both desktop and mobile. This includes load time, the user interface of the website itself, and how easy it is to navigate the site. Be sure your website has a clean design, is easily scannable, and that there are no unnecessary codes and scripts.
These three tips are a great starting point but aren’t the only way to increase your ranking. Remember, building up your SEO ranking is not done overnight, and requires time, attention, and patience. At BuzzShift, our experts take a strategic and research-backed approach to curate your website content and include keywords to help your site work towards the top-of-page search rankings. If you are interested in improving your SEO efforts (or any other aspect of your digital marketing strategy) don’t hesitate to contact us at hello@buzzshift.com.
About BuzzShift
BuzzShift is a digital growth strategy agency with a focus on mid-market, scaling, purpose-driven DTC Brands. By combining the ideologies of branding, performance marketing, and retention agency, we are able to create memorable experiences with measurable results, and build long-term success for our clients with scalable, sustainable growth. Learn more about BuzzShift.
