How do I get a better ranking on Google? The eternal dilemma.

You’ve heard statements like "Content is King!” and “Organic ranking is immortal” and they mean something to you, but they also seem like hieroglyphics at the same time. Running a business is tough work and just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, you’re being sidelined by yet another aspect of it that you seemingly had no knowledge of.

If you’re running a real estate business and focused on serving your clients, something like SEO is not going to sit high in your priorities and yet; you see your competitors ranking higher than you, their Google ads are pushing your ranking further and further south. At some point, you understand the term SEO but then you become lost again; because while you’re a gun Real Estate Agent, you’re not an SEO expert and even though you have admin staff to support you; they’re not experts either.

Tempted to throw it in the too-hard basket? You’d be forgiven for wanting to do that. But before you do, let’s walk you through some basics.

What is SEO and how does it relate to running my business?

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process of improving your website’s traffic and ranking on search engines such as Google. Organic traffic is essentially website visits that you aren’t directly paying for. Paid traffic is exactly that - website traffic that you are actively paying to advertise to. Search engine optimisation directly feeds your organic ranking and is essentially “free”.

The other benefit about creating content for SEO is that, written well; it will continue to drive traffic to your website long after you’ve uploaded it. It is essentially playing the long game. The more quality content you write, the better chance you have at improving your ranking without having to pay for it.

So, how does SEO work?

Your website is the absolute key to your organic ranking success as that is where all of your content is. Google ‘bots’ crawl your website pages and then index your site’s pages. If your page successfully answers the question or contains the right keywords relevant to what is being searched, then your page can appear in the search results. This is one way you can get a better ranking on search engines.

Where do I start?

Think about your website… Is it full of information about yourself or do you demonstrate how you solve your customer’s needs, wants or problems? Think about your customers… You know them well, so what are they telling you, what are they asking of you?

If you own a accounting firm, which phrase below do you think your website ranking would benefit from:

“With over 50 years combined experience, Lance and Chelsea are your accounting experts.”

“Forgot to do your taxes? Get your 2022 tax return done fast with L&C Accounting.”

If you picked the second line, you’d be correct. This line uses typical queries entered into search engines, and solves the customers problem. To learn more about formulating your customer narrative, you can download our free “Three part marketing model to radically change the way you sell”.

A huge part of organic ranking is incorporating keywords into your website content that are relevant to your business and have a good search volume (enough people are asking a question about this on a search engine).

Be aware though, using a keyword many times in your content is an outdated practice and won’t help you improve your website ranking. Instead, use keywords to guide the content you write about. Intent matters here, use of language and even synonyms help. Relevance is also another important factor when writing content, as is quality; expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

Use research tools such as Keyword Magic Tool to help guide you to the right keywords to use for your business.

What content do I need to consider?

In short? All of it. But let’s break it down to more manageable chunks…

Here’s a list of things to consider when optimistic your website:

On-page content like keywords, relevant imagery and backlinks from other reputable websites.
Page speed - users will exit a website if the site loads too slowly. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s performance
Use blogs - blogs utilising keywords can create a great pathway for customers to solve their problems, learn more and help improve your website’s authority. Don’t forget to update it regularly
Meta titles and meta descriptions on pages
Website architecture - ensure your website content is grouped together in a way that improves the users experience on your site. Give them the shortest path possible to the content they are looking for. Consider linking relevant content to other pages in your website to encourage users to stay on your site.
Site hierarchy- use header tags
Writing style - keep content in easy to read paragraphs, use lists, shorter sentences and do not duplicate your content
Images, videos and other illustrations - use appropriate meta tags on all visual content as search engines cannot decipher what the image is. Videos hosted on Youtube gain the extra benefit of additional exposure of being listed on the world’s second highest ranking website.
Outbound links - link to other relevant and reputable sites
Responsiveness - your site should be responsive on all devices

While it is easy to become overwhelmed at the list of considerations, by taking them on one-by-one, you can progressively improve your website and organically increase your ranking. Which is why you’re reading this article, isn’t it?

For more help with your marketing, you can book a marketing review here.

During the review, we’ll consider your business growth goals and current challenges limiting that growth. We’ll then create a marketing strategy in response that considers which marketing activities to prioritise, and when. Finally, with a clear marketing plan, we partner with you as your marketing agency to execute the activities and provide monthly reports on progress.

Don’t leave your marketing up to chance - book a marketing review with The Brand Shop, and get clear about how you continue to grow your business.