A lot of businesses start their search engine optimisation strategy and expect immediate results, which is not something that can be readily achieved with SEO. Whether you are a small business that is just starting up or a much larger and well established company, ranking on page one is not easy or straightforward. SEO requires regular and constant hard work; it’s not a form of digital marketing that can be implemented and ticked off overnight, it needs dedication and attention. Luckily, hard work pays off in the world of digital marketing and the majority of businesses will see their SEO rankings improve over time.
Standing Out From The Crowd With SEO
There is a lot of competition online, which is why standing out from other businesses is key. One of the best ways to boost traffic and sales is by showing up at the top of Google for relevant keywords. In order to be at the top, you need to optimise your website for relevant keywords using an SEO strategy. There’s a lot that goes into an effective SEO strategy – such as content creation, user experience, URLs and link building – and it’s a time consuming task. Though the results certainly pay off and it’s a fantastic return on investment, finding the time can be difficult. This is why a lot of businesses enlist the help of professionals, such as The Search Equation.
Remember, only the best of the best can be found on page one of search results.
One of the great things about SEO is how level the playing field can be between businesses. Though larger and more established businesses are likely to have a bigger budget, that’s not to say that they are using it in the right way. This means that smaller businesses, such as startups, can swoop in and garner impressive rankings. Being a larger business does not necessarily mean you are more likely to rank highly on search engines, not if your SEO strategy has been implemented incorrectly and is therefore failing.
4 Ways to Improve Your SEO Strategy and Boost Rankings
Though you may currently have an SEO strategy in place, there is always room for improvement. If you are struggling to rank on page one, or you feel as though you have hit a wall with how far your strategy can go, your SEO strategy could need updating and there are a few key ways of doing this.
- Always Use Unique Content – Though it may seem a lot easier to copy content directly from another website and claim it as your own, this is never recommended. Simply, doing so would hugely hinder your search engine optimisation efforts and prevent you from ranking on page one. Google, along with other search engines, quickly picks up on content that has been plagiarised and penalises it for not being unique. It’s always best to post unique content that has been created with your target audience in mind.
- Think About Local SEO – You may be tempted to throw yourself in at the deep end and attack the international market, but there will be a lot of competition. For example, bigger businesses with bigger budgets will be focusing on the same keywords as you. By starting off with local SEO, you can build an online presence in your local area where there is less competition. Plus, local SEO is great for bringing in leads and sales as many customers purposely search for a business that’s located nearby.
- Use and Check Web Analytics – With so many different things working together as part of an SEO strategy, it can be difficult to see where you are going wrong. Luckily, checking website analytics can shed some light on the problem and show you where changes need to be made. Analytics will show where website traffic is coming from, if there are any broken links and which of your SEO techniques are working well. With this information, you can improve your SEO strategy and better your chances of ranking on page one.
- Embrace a Limited Budget – It is easy to assume that a limited budget will hinder your SEO efforts, but this isn’t the case. There is no guarantee that businesses with larger budgets are approaching SEO in the right way, which means that it’s entirely possible for you to achieve much better results with a much smaller budget. Small businesses with limited marketing budgets can be just as successful online, so don’t let your budget hold you back. It doesn’t matter whether you are starting search engine optimisation for the first time or you have been working on it for a while, it is always an equal playing field.
These are not things that should be done once or twice, and they should not only be considered when your SEO strategy is failing to achieve the results you want. All of the improvements should be consistently checked and put into action regularly.
Don’t Underestimate The Importance of SEO
As you can see, there are certainly ways to update your SEO strategy and doing so definitely pays off. A lot of businesses make the mistake of creating a search engine optimisation strategy and assuming that the hard work is over, but this is rarely the case. You are unlikely to achieve SEO success online by creating a strategy and leaving it, by not going back and assessing how it’s working. Though you may begin to notice your rankings are improving slightly, reaching page one requires consistent work. It’s not enough to sit back and hope that SEO will take care of itself, as it won’t and your success won’t last long. Eventually, rankings are likely to drop and other businesses – those who are consistently working on SEO – will stride ahead.
The moment you are distracted from SEO, rankings are likely to fall. Instead, you need to update your strategy regularly and ensure you are hitting the mark. After all, digital marketing is always changing and this means your search engine optimisation strategies need to change accordingly.
