Google Search Optimization — How Should You Optimize Your Website for Google Search

The death of search engine optimization has been predicted so many times that we’ve lost count. Ever since the beginning of SEO in the late 1990s, several online marketers have scoffed at the practice and prophesied its demise. They’ve been wrong then and they are wrong now.

On the contrary, people are more dependent on search engines now more than ever. For example, Google alone processes about 3.5 billion queries each day. In fact, by the time you finish reading this sentence, the search engine giant already received over 300,000 queries. That translates to 40,000 queries per second. When it comes to SEO, it’s all about the search engine results page or SERP. It’s a mad race to land on the first page of Google or other search engines. That’s considered as a prime real estate.

Here are some simple steps to enhance your SEO strategy:

Keyword Research is Key

There are more than 4.4 billion people in the world today who are active Internet users. In theory, that’s the number of people you can reach when you have a digital presence. Of course, you are only concerned about your target market and how you can convert them into sales. It all starts with the keywords.

When your prospect customers go online and log on to Google, what they type in the search box will decide the results. Marketers pay big money to get an insight into what their customers are thinking. Fortunately, data analytics take guesswork out of the equation. For instance, the Google Keyword Planner is one useful tool to help you find the right keywords that resonate with your target audience.

Another useful tool is the Google AdWords and Google Analytics, which provides a unique insight into the trending keywords according to industries and segments. The fact is that people don’t really go to page 2 of Google. According to estimates, more than 7 in 10 consumers find what they are looking for on the first page. Meanwhile, other tools like the SEMRush will also help you figure out the ranking keywords of your competitors.

Content is King

Having a digital presence is not enough. Some people populate their websites with text, images, and photos and believe that their work is done. But website optimization and good content are inexplicably linked with each other.

Having a good content will build up your credibility. Google even listed content among the top three factors to rank high in the SERP. The other two are authoritative links and Google’s own algorithm.

What makes good content? Here are some quick tips:

• Longer blog posts or articles tend to rank higher compared to short ones. A long article should be 1,000 words or more
• The content should be simple and easily understood
• Backlinks are material to establish credibility. Backlinking is when an authoritative site links back to your webpage or article
• Sprinkle the keywords around the article. Keyword density and keyword stuffing are always a struggle for balance
• Keywords should also be included in the title, meta tags, and the URL

Also make sure that your website is constantly updated with good content. This is also part of website optimization.
It stands to reason that you need a team of writers who will help deliver your message to your target market.
If you are not confident about your writing skills, you can outsource it to content specialists with experience in SEO.

Data Analytics

To be successful, you need to answer the following questions:

1. What is my market?
2. Who is my target audience?
3. How do I reach my target audience?
4. What terms do they use in searching for a particular product or service?
5. What do they do when they are online?
6. How do I convert my target audience into sales?
7. How do I ensure sustainability?

Your SEO strategy should address the needs of your prospective customers. An effective marketing campaign ensures that your website will resolve all the pain points of search queries. This is why data analytics is very important. It gives you the baseline with which to build your search engine optimization campaign upon. There are several marketing automation tools in the market today that feature market analytics. They should help simplify your life, especially if you are a small business with no budget for a dedicated marketing team.

Build Up Your Credibility

One of the most effective ways to boost your SERP rankings is through backlinks. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to this process. You will get dirty as you start from the bottom and work your way up.

Here are some examples of what we mean:

1. Be active in online communities — Be on the lookout for topics in relation to your expertise. Answer the most nagging questions of the community members. Quora and Reddit are two of the most popular social sites with a huge following.
2. Write a guest post — This is another way to boost your credibility. If the blog post resolves an issue or answers a pressing question, chances are, it could be linked by credible websites.
3. Partner with a blogger — This is especially helpful if you are not confident that you will be able to share your message that will resonate with your target market.
4. Share on Facebook or Twitter — Social media remains a good platform to reach out to your audience. Each content that goes to your website should also be shared on your social media, as well.

Conclusion

As a marketing technique, search optimization ranks lower compared to social media marketing, content marketing, big data analytics, and mobile marketing. But the one mistake is to choose one to the exclusion of others. The fact is, they are all part of one big ecosystem called digital marketing. Lastly, you need to constantly audit and test your SEO strategy to enhance the chances of success. Check your analytics each week to determine your position according to your marketing goals. Pay close attention to your keywords, as well as the keywords of your competitors. Your SERP ranking is your yardstick. Tinker as necessary.