Now that we’ve covered how to make the perfect landing page to increase conversion, it’s time to ensure people will actually search and find that landing page you’ve carefully crafted. All too often, we invest time into building a beautiful, customized, content-filled website, but after a few months, we’re staring at the analytics page and it’s just not getting the traffic needed to get those sales. What’s happened? Well, a couple of things come into play. Search engine optimization (SEO) is quintessential for leading organic traffic to your webpage. In a world where Google has become a colloquial verb for searching or looking things up, a webpage must be optimized to rank high on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Here are some staggering facts just to highlight how important ranking on the SERP can be (Quicksprout):
- 93% of experiences on the internet start with a search engine
- The very top result on Google has a 33% chance of getting clicked
- 75% of people won’t click past the first page of Google
If you’re not number one or at least in the top 10, your chances of getting discovered or getting any kind of clickthrough rate start to drop a third just by not ranking first and continue to drop at an exponential rate the further down the list your webpage lives. Thankfully, there’s no reason to lose hope – there are tons of great ways to improve your webpage’s ranking just by taking a few strategic steps for SEO optimization.
Let’s start with On-site SEO
While we’ve all heard that content is key, using updated, relevant, and unique content will get you a whole lot more. Even further, it’s important to implement a relevant keyword strategy when developing this new wonderful content for your webpage. First, identify what you’re trying to share with the world and then get specific on what kinds of phrases people will use to search for similar content. The more specific you can get, the less likely you’ll find yourself competing for keywords and the more likely you’ll hit a consumer in a later stage of their buying cycle. This strategy of specific keywords is often referred to as using “long-tail keywords.” At this point, you might be thinking about all of the keywords you’re ready to implement on your webpage but before you dive in, you’ll also want to consider placement. Where you put your keywords plays a big part in ranking and relevancy as well!
URLs and title tags are heavily weighted by search engines when calculating relevancy. An example of keywords being implemented in a URL is from media website Unofficial Networks’ recent article about a new ski pass. I might be a little bias because I happen to work for said ski pass, but it’s a great example all the same. The URL reads: https://unofficialnetworks.com/2019/09/19/best-ski-pass/ which then links to an article about a new pass entering the market this season. Now when people search for “best ski pass” our likelihood of showing up on the first SERP is much higher. While this isn’t a landing page on said ski pass’s site, it also contributes to SERP ranking which I’ll expand on in a bit. Search engines also use header tags <h1> and <h2>, image data (alt text and file name), and anchor text as ways to calculate relevancy and should be thoughtfully chosen in optimizing a webpage. Finally, while it seems like the simplest strategy for maximizing keyword optimization would be the body of the content, it can actually work against you. Search engines will ding you for trying to “keyword stuff” if you overdo it, so there’s a careful balance between all of the places keywords can be used. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
Off-site SEO
Search engines look at more than just relevant keywords and updated content when ranking a webpage, however. Off-site SEO is equally important and encompasses a strategy of “backlinking.”
Linking to reliable, high-quality websites will back up your claims and even better, getting those high-ranking sites to link back to your page boosts your ranking through the search engine too. In my example URL above with the ski pass, having a long-established website reference and link to a company website that just launched this year significantly helps SEO for the newer site. In order to increase your webpage’s rank, it’s highly recommended to develop a link building strategy and identify what kinds of high-ranking sites you want to be referred by and decide how you want to leverage from each other. This can come in a variety of forms resource, PR, and guest posting.
So start strategizing how and where you want to be searched. Identify keywords, sprinkle them accordingly on your webpage, and leverage other well-established sites through backlinking!
Sources:
Larson, Jeff, and Stuart Draper. Digital Marketing Essentials. Mimic Pro Bundle.
“34 Ways To Improve SEO Rankings in 2019.” Quicksprout, 29 July 2019, www.quicksprout.com/ways-to-improve-seo-ranking/.
Jones, Kristopher. “4 Reasons Why Your Content Isn’t Ranking.” Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Journal, 26 Aug. 2019, www.searchenginejournal.com/why-content-isnt-ranking/317917/#close.
