How to Rank on Google by Rethinking Your Approach to Content
Of course, the ultimate mission for any small business is to learn how to rank on Google. Instinctively, you’ll want to reach for the many tactics used by SEOs and try your best to please Google, so they show your website some love and rank you in first place. But what if I told you that all it really takes is a change of mindset?
Who Are You Ranking Your Website For?
Here’s the main thing: why are you trying to rank on Google and who are you doing this for? The answer should be your customers! If you’re trying to create website content to make Google happy, then you’re missing the whole purpose of your website. Google isn’t your audience, and they certainly won’t be buying from you, so you’re effectively turning away the people you want.
Imagine walking into a store and the sales assistant talks to you in a load of technical terms, generic sentences, and is overlooking you as if they are looking out for someone else walking into the store. Would you stay in that store? Most likely you wouldn’t! Instead, you would expect the store to treat you like you’re their most valued customer and talk to you in a relatable and informative manner, and that’s how your website should be for your customers. Your website is effectively your store.
Creating Valuable, Personalised Content
Do you know what your audience is searching for? What questions they are asking and what kind of content they are looking for? If you don’t know what your customers want, then it’s incredibly difficult to create content that is valuable and ultimately leads to conversions. This is where keyword research comes in, and not in the traditional sense that you may be accustomed to. You may be thinking about finding a bunch of keywords and placing them into your site’s content, but instead, think of keywords as the main topic for each page.
The aim is to find keywords that are highly searched with low competition, then from here the idea is to show that you are authoritative on this particular subject. This can be achieved by answering key questions your audience are asking on the topic, including your specific expertise (think case studies, facts and figures, etc.) and clear solutions to their problems with strong calls to action.
Save yourself the hassle of researching your keywords to rank on Google by using my expert Keyword Research Service.
Thinking About the Bigger Picture
It’s very easy to pick the main topic for each page, but you are most likely looking at each page on an individual level when creating or updating content. The best trick is to use your research to create ‘clusters’ of content on each topic. By creating multiple pages, you are showing that you really know your stuff. Your audience will be happy as they have most likely had their questions answered or found a solution to their problem, and as a side bonus, Google will understand that you are the go-to site and likely rank you higher.
Most importantly, don’t forget that once you’ve got your map of pages for each content cluster, link these pages together with internal links. This allows your audience to explore the topic in more detail, and it gives search engines a little nudge in the right direction by showing how all your pages connect.
Reframing Website Ranking
Hopefully by now you can see that shifting your focus from trying to please search engines to trying to connect with your audience could be the key difference between you and your competition, giving you the edge to ultimately rank higher.
When it comes to your SEO strategy and ranking a website, it’s usually best to turn to an expert such as myself to get your website content speaking your audience’s language. My SEO process is simple, following a three-step plan using research, refining your content and learning from results. Let’s get your website on the right track to ranking higher on Google by getting in touch with me to begin your SEO journey.
