Search traffic is everyone, yet it still one of the hardest sources of traffic to master. With Google receiving billions of searches made through their site every month, one can only imagine how much traffic the top ranking websites are getting on a daily basis.
For most site owners and brands, the concept of ranking at the top of Google for their most sought after keywords and search phrases would be a dream come true. While this is something every site owner attempts to accomplish, the results aren’t always the same–even when you are paying outside freelancers or SEO agencies to do the work for you.
The truth is, SEO comes down to a whole lot more than just great content and building backlinks to your site. In addition to the many other underlying factors in Google’s ranking algorithm, there are also plenty of tools and resources to help along the way.
These working methods and solutions are exactly what we are going to be covering today in this search traffic and SEO resource guide.
Contents
1 – Analyze Your Search Traffic and Audience Before Writing
In order to create the best content experience possible, you want to make sure you are not only writing great content, but also providing a valuable user experience. This sounds easy enough, but how many times have you seen websites and brands push out generic content, just so they are going live with something new? It happens all the time, and it’s more of a waste of time and resources than anything else.
A better process is to first analyze what your audience is searching for, seeing the different keywords and search phrases they are searching for, while also analyzing the different types of content already out there.
A great tool for accomplishing this, is Ubersuggest. Through the use of this freemium tool, users can visit the site and get new content and keyword ideas, while also seeing traffic volume and trends. To get started, all one needs to do is enter a keyword or search phrase on the main search box. Once this is done, the site will then provide you with a detailed keyword and search report.
The benefit to using a tool like Ubersuggest, is that site owners and content creators can study all angles of their content creation and marketing opportunities before even getting started.
As seen on the left side dashboard menu, the tool also provides competitor analysis and keyword difficulty scores — all of which can help in your decisions on what keywords and blog topics to go after.
2 – Write Better Content with Google Docs and Grammarly
Writing content for your site is important. Making sure that content is built for the search engines and caters to the needs of your audience is even more important.
Solutions like WordPress makes the process of content creation and going live with your posts quite simple, but it’s not entirely focused on making sure your content is written in the best way possible.
For this, we like to recommend a two step solution, which includes using Google Docs to start writing your content, and also using the Grammarly Chrome browser extension to make sure your content is always written properly and easy to understand.
Both of these tools are free to use, and Grammarly has premium versions for anyone that would like to access all of their features. In fact, Grammarly also has a detailed reference guide on their site that covers both the many writing benefits of their own tool, while also using Google Docs as well.
Another great benefit of using Google Docs to write your first drafts and site content, is that it can easily be shared by team members, freelancers and outside clients. Google Docs also stores all of your content in the cloud, so it’s easily accessible from anywhere.
3 – Stand Out from the Crowd with Better Exclusive Content
Not all niche markets are created or treated the same. Nor at the ways that content is created and absorbed in each. For example, in the world of online marketing, it’s all about stats and new ways to grow your business. In a completely different niche like crafts and cooking, it’s all about visuals and walking users through a process.
As outlined in this how to get exposure in crowded niches article from Calendar, you will discover the many different ways to make a great first impression, no matter how competitive your existing niche market might be.
Such working methods include coming out with your own unique offers, deals and incentives for new users on your site. It’s also important to get creative with your link building methods and newsjacking trending and hot topics with your own content. Another great angle is to take advantage of the many different ways you can use social media to have a voice in the many different events happening in the world today.
While so many websites and brands are focused on just creating content around their core business and associated services, others are using the power of branding and created audience-focused content to stand out from the crowd.
4 – Visual Content Improves the User Reading Experience
When someone first visits your site, what are they going to think? Are they going to instantly find the content they are looking for, or will they be overwhelmed with a massive amount of written text with no structure or visual attraction?
While written content is ultimately one of the most important factors to making sure your site ranks higher in Google and also provides the best experience for your audience, it should also be created and displayed in a way that’s appealing to your audience.
With this in mind, there are many ways to start adding visual content to not only break apart your content and making it easier to read, but also much more attractive and engaging as well.
Royalty free image sites like Pexels, Unsplash and Pixabay all provide access to thousands of quality visual images, charts and vector images that can be used on your site. Best of all, many of these sites won’t require backlink references and sources for the image content (which makes for an even more enjoyable experience).
Now, think about the question we just asked in the beginning of this section about the first impression the content on your own site gives.
If your site content isn’t currently broken apart into shorter paragraphs with subtitles and visuals in-between sections, do you think people are going to want to stick around and read it?
Probably not.
5 – Create a Sales Funnel that is Always Working
When you think of content creation and ranking in Google, you probably think about long-form content and backlink building from other sites. This is true, but it’s also important to consider your options with internal linking and building out your own lead generation and target pages as well.
A perfect example of how and why you would want to do this, are content marketing funnels. InboundJunction has put together an excellent resource guide on not just why and how content marketing funnels work, but also highlights several working examples of such funnels on other websites and brands.
The way content marketing funnels work is quite simple. Users are reading the content on your site because they want information or are looking to take action on something. This is why every content article on your site should have a main focus and a call to action (similar to the one shown above).
If you already have a website or blog with one key target in mind (such as getting users to sign up for a free report), that should be the main call to action on all of your pages.
The benefit here is that you are continually creating content around that same focus and common goal, while also building up your internal linking and site structure which ultimately leads to more views and clicks over to your content marketing funnel.
The Sites Ranking at the Top of Google Work for It!
As you can imagine, with hundreds of millions of active websites and blogs pushing out new content daily, it’s no easy task to outrank the competition. Depending on your niche market and the size of your competition, this may even seem impossible.
However, time and time again we are seeing the little guy outrank Fortune 500 companies and getting placement in the elusive #1 spot on Google for key search terms and phrases. This in itself is a great accomplishment, and it’s even more amazing when it’s done by smaller brands or individual bloggers working on a limited budget.
Yet, it continues to happen time and time again.
The reason for this is simply because the sites that rank at the top of Google and continually have great traffic to them, are the ones willing to put in the time, work and effort.
In order to achieve these same results, you must focus your efforts on the end user experience, content creation and knowing how to effectively market and rank your sites. Using each of the recommended tools and suggestions above is a great way to get started in this never ending journey.
Featured Image by DepositPhotos