[Do you like this? Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel and then share it for me!]
Video Summary
If your business does not appear on the first page of the search results, then you’re losing a lot of sales because people don’t want to go to the second page!
It’s important to make a conscious effort to build and improve your online presence to make sure your business gets the attention it deserves. In this post, I will tell you how to optimize your site and rank at the top of the organic search results.
Video Transcript
Hello, my name is Jeffrey Kirk.
Did you know that according to the latest data, Google processes more than 99,000 searches every single second? That’s more than 8.5 billion searches every day! That’s a lot of searches! And if your business does not appear in those searches, then you’re losing a lot of sales.
We used to talk about statistics that showed the top spot in the search results getting one third of the clicks, and most people will never go past page one of the search results. If people don’t find what they want, they would rather do another search than look at page 2!
While it’s still true that people don’t want to go to the second page, the fact that 33% of the clicks land on the top spot doesn’t make complete sense anymore. That was true when the first page contained 10 search results in order of perceived relevancy. But now, often at the top of the search results, above the organic results, you see 3 local businesses with a map. This is the section I call the Money Zone, and the best business in this section is most likely to get the call, the click, or even the visit to a physical location. And that is why it’s important to make a conscious effort to build and improve your online presence to make sure your business gets the attention it deserves.
In this video, I will tell you how to optimize your site and rank at the top of the organic search results. And then at the end I will tell you how to take the next step and go for a Money Zone spot! So, keep watching…
Website Ranking Using Keywords
To begin, the most critical step to get the top position is to have excellent quality content. Let’s face it, your content will mirror your business’ credibility so it’s important to make sure you’re always putting your best foot forward. In this case, that best foot is your content!
In addition to that, you should create specific content focused on your intended users, your target audience. Presenting topics that are intended for your target audience makes your business a good authority, and this also makes your website more relevant to searchers and to the search engines. After identifying the type of content you want to create, you need to incorporate specific keywords into that content.
Use keywords you think your users will use when searching for specific products or services that you offer. Do you want to know exactly how many people are searching with specific keywords for what you offer in your area? I have a video that shows you how to get that information.
Ranking for multiple keywords is also helpful. Make sure each of your products or services has its own page, then you can focus the keywords on a single product or service. You can rank many more pages if you have a large and growing website. That’s one reason why blogs make sense for businesses. Each blog post can focus on a single keyword phrase. As you add new blog posts over time, you get more and more search coverage.
Regardless of whether you have specific product and service pages or you’re expanding with blog posts, you should incorporate the most important keywords into URLs, page titles, page headings, and subheadings. Of course, the keywords and related phrases belong in the content as well. Google is getting better at reading your page, so specific words matter. Also, keep in mind that while focusing on your chosen keywords, you must not sacrifice readability and usability.
No one wants to read a difficult page crammed with the same keyword over and over. The page content should be written like regular speech. Plus, if Google detects you’re trying to manipulate the results, your pages will be penalized, not boosted. Over-optimization can hurt.
I can give you some rules of thumb for incorporating keywords into the body of your content, but remember these are not hard and fast rules, just some guidelines. Add the keyword phrase two to four times throughout the page, but don’t always say things the same way. If you were talking to a friend you would mix up the wording a bit, sometimes using the focus phrase and at other times using words that mean the same thing.
You can also emphasize your preferred keywords using bold, italic, and heading tags. But again, make sure they don’t disrupt the natural flow of your content, and that they appear to be naturally blended with the rest of the body. Remember that while Google ranking is important, our mantra should be to provide the best content to attract more customers into your business. Google is not buying from you, people are. So, make the content appeal to the people who fit your target audience.
Another action you can take to make your website more relevant and authoritative is to keep your site up-to-date and add more content regularly. When you add more content, it gives prospects and clients a reason to keep coming back. By adding additional content, your site also captures Google’s attention over and over again.
Do you have a blog? If not, you should start one!
I mentioned blog posts earlier in reference to helping your site grow with more content related to keyword phrases. In addition, blogs are a perfect channel to provide relevant content for your visitors and keep them on your website pages for a longer time. This creates more comfort, more of a relationship with these prospects.
When you use your blog to add more content on specific topics related to your business, and that content is filled with your keywords, you get better ranking. And, as a cherry on top, you make it easier for your prospects to get to know your expertise and how you can help them. They start to view your business as a solution provider, as the solution provider that they’re looking for!
Now, let me shift gears a little bit and point out that the critical content on your web pages and blog posts is not only the words in the text. These words are the most important, but if you understand a few key points, you’ll get faster and better results. What I am referring to here is metadata.
Every page of your website has its own metadata. Properly setting up the metadata gives you an advantage over competitors who fail to do this. And many fail to do this! Getting this right can make a big difference in your site’s ranking ability. Metadata is made up of invisible tags that provide information about a web page to search engines and to users. These are not visible within the content of your site, but they are visible in the context of your site. The first bit of metadata is the Title Tag.
The Title Tag is often the first thing users see in the search results. It’s the title of your site that shows up in search engines as well as on social shares. Though it is not seen in the content of your page, it may be seen in search engines and on social media, so setting it up is important. The first thing to remember is to keep the title short but precise. You can only use about 60 to 65 characters. If you use more, they will get cut off in the search results. Your title tag should be clear with a brief but relevant description of your content, and it should contain the right keyword or keywords to attract more clicks.
Another important tag is the Meta Description. The Meta Description provides an accurate description of your content and often shows underneath the Title Tag within the search results. A good Meta Description should contain 150 to 160 characters while offering appealing and relevant information about your content. The Meta Description is as important as the Title Tag since it influences the searcher to click.
Think of the Title Tag and Meta Description as working together as a small free ad to convince the searcher to click. You will get the best results if you include a call to action somewhere in this “ad”. If you want more detail on Titles and Descriptions, check out my videos on these topics. I will include those links for you as well.
Adding Links and Images
Another way to improve your website’s ranking is by adding or getting links to your pages. When other websites link to yours, it boosts your site’s credibility and improves your rankings. And if these links are on popular sites, they can also directly drive more traffic to your business as those readers click.
Getting links from relevant organizations and publications in your industry also helps your business. Your website can be viewed as an authority, while the links from external credible sites support your website’s content and show search engines that you provide relevant information.
Another way to improve your website ranking is by optimizing your alt tags. These are text descriptions of non-text content such as images or videos. These alt tags are especially important to those who use screen readers to navigate the web. The ability to read images on your site improves your overall user experience and visual content. In addition, using alt tags helps optimize your images to show search engines and allow them to understand the content of your site. This improves your site’s relevance, and therefore can improve ranking and increase traffic.
In fact, Google discussed the importance of alt tags as an integral part of Google’s image publishing guidelines. Google uses alt tag information. And, as long as we’re talking about images, I also want to point out that broken images can be a problem.
Images that are not displayed properly may provide a poor user experience. And since Google wants to give its users a good experience, your site must provide that good experience. If it does not, this can harm your rankings. Therefore, you should always check your images to make sure they show up properly. When a site is new it’s obvious whether images are showing or not. But as the site ages, as a page ages, be careful not to move an image to a new folder without updating the link on the page. And don’t delete an image without first making sure it’s no longer used on any pages of your site.
When you take action on all of these tips, your site will improve in the search rankings. But as I pointed out at the beginning, the best position in the search results is the Money Zone. There are additional steps to take advantage of that position. And let me help you do that too.
I have a webinar that shows you the steps you need to take in order to do this. Look for the link below and join me soon.
Your business deserves to be seen online, and I will help you get there. Thanks for watching and have a great day!
