There are SEO gurus who specialize in getting your firm top search engine rankings on targeted keywords that you want your firm to be found under. They tend to use mostly “off-page” tactics to boost the rankings with Google and other search engines. An off-page SEO strategy leans on search engines to determine the linking structures of other sites in relation to your site to build better ranking. The strategy to completely offload this task to build links through article indexing sites seemed to worked great—for awhile—until Google caught up with some SEO gurus who were able to change rankings in a way that was lessening the quality of the Google search. Google changed its algorithm in an effort to block out these lesser quality sites from showing up in searches where they clearly didn’t belong.
At one time it was easier to outsource the entire SEO task, but since Google’s algorithm change starting in 2011 (called Google Panda), we’ve been looking into ways that we can take the reins and can control our own “Google destiny” a bit more.
The New Rules of Search Engines
The Google Panda algorithm change aimed to lower the rank of “low-quality sites”, and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. This change drastically affected the search results rankings. According to Wikipedia, human quality testers rated thousands of websites based on measures of quality, including design, trustworthiness, speed and whether or not they would return to the website. Google’s new machine-learning algorithm, made possible by and named after engineer Navneet Panda, was then used to look for similarities between websites people found to be high quality and low quality. Many new ranking factors have been introduced to the Google algorithm as a result, while older ranking factors have been downgraded in importance. Google Panda is updated from time to time and the algorithm is run by Google on regular basis.
Now that the rules have changed, there is actually great opportunity for us to control our own site rankings without being a SEO genius. Here are a few different (simple) methods to allow more [qualified] visitors to find your site:
Keyword Insight: Get some insight regarding keywords within your industry by using Google Insights for Search. For example, you can experiment with different possible keywords and keyword combinations and compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. This can give you some knowledge about what buzzwords you might want to thread into your copy.
Optimized URL’s: Use a primary keyword as part of your URL for better optimization. For example, if my target audience might be searching for “marketing solutions” it might be a good idea to create a page about this very thing and name it: www.firmname.com/marketing-solutions.
Web Copy: There are a few ways you can influence your Google rankings with on-page SEO tactics. Some simple suggestions are to first assign a primary keyword phrase to a page. This primary keyword or keyword phrase should appear in the first and last sentence of the content. The amount of copy per page is also important. According to inbound marketing agency Kuno Creative, a page should contain no fewer than 250 and no more than 1,000 for optimal search engine results. On the back end of your site, you can add your keyword phrase in the page title, meta description, and meta keyword section. Keyword saturation should fall between 3 and 7%.
Content Marketing: Create valuable sharable content, such as Webinars, videos and newsletters. Post them to your Web site and share these items via social media to reach a wide audience. In the world of content marketing, your Web site is much more than a “sales tool,” it should serve as an educational resource and (your most targeted) visitors will come.
Blogging: Although blogging is one component of content marketing, it’s so integral to growing Web traffic that I think it warrants its own separate point. From personal experience, our blog posts currently contribute to over 35% of our overall Web traffic.
- A blog is one way to keep your site updated and your content fresh. Google loves this. As a matter of fact, in addition to other changes caused by the Panda algorithm, itseems to reduce visibility in search results for content with a publication date that is not recent.
- Blogging is also another opportunity to naturally weave in industry keywords. In addition to posting to your own site, offer your content as a guest blog post to other sites within your industry niches. At Marketri, we often come across a post on another site with some valuable takeaways that is a great fit for posting on our own site. Simply ask the author for permission to repost as a guest blog. Authors are usually more than happy to oblige and often reciprocate by inviting you to guest blog on their site as well. Linking back to the original post, helps you avoid being penalized by search engines for posting duplicate content.
Social Media Profiles: Most B2B professional service firms realize the impact of a social media presence. Get the most of this engagement by using this as another way to let interested connections get more information from your Web site. Make sure all key staff members are linked to your company social media profiles. Have all social media profiles (individual staff members and firm) link to your company Web site (and vice versa– add badges and widgets to your Web site that link to your social media profiles). Don’t forget to stay active on at least one or two social media sites. About 10% of our firm’s overall web traffic is referred from our LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook profiles.
Beyond Google Rankings
Congratulations, you’ve successfully raised your Google rankings through content marketing, social media engagement, and making sure your Web copy follows SEO guidelines! Now that you have new visitors to your site…it’s important to note that a single visitor typically spends 2 minutes or less on a single Web site to find the information they need. Once a visitor is on your site, make it as easy as possible for them to navigate to the most important information:
- Make an effort to keep copy concise.
- Use bulleted lists whenever possible, break up text with headers.
- Bold keywords and phrases.
- Use a call-to-action on each page to drive traffic to the next natural page within your site.
When it comes to great content creation, you aren’t tricking the system–rather you are boosting your web stats holistically. When that’s the case there’s much less chance that a new algorithm will be let loose and shake the core of your Web site’s performance. Even better…you’re likely attracting the right traffic, leading to lower bounce rates and more qualified prospects.
