SEO is becoming harder and harder. Google is always changing their algorithm to combat those who product low-quality content. This is to maintain a positive user experience for people who use Google to find information.
As time goes by, it will take longer to rank. It’s a natural occurrence since new blog posts get published every single day. According to GrowthBadger: 4,000 blog posts get posted per minute, 5,760,000 each day, and over 2,000,000,000 each year.
Image Source: GrowthBadger
This phenomenon is not slowing down any time soon since blogging is one of the most cost-effective ways to make money online. In fact, affiliate marketers are using this method to generate traffic, leads, and sales. Learn more about affiliate marketing.
And that’s why you need to leverage SEO because everyone else is doing it. If you only focus on content, with no SEO in mind, you’re going to be at a huge disadvantage.
What does it come to mind when you think about SEO?
Do you think about ranking on the search engines? Well, that’s part of it. The main purpose of SEO is to get the right kind of traffic from search engines.
If you’re in the business to make money (I hope you are). It’s important that you attract people who have the intention to buy something.
In this article, I will go over a few steps to help you generate more sales by dominating the Google search results page.
Step #1. Target Keywords For People In The Research Phase
We want to rank for buyer intent keywords, but these are usually the more difficult ones to rank for. Even if you decide to use pay-per-click ads like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, it can cost a lot of money.
But don’t lose hope because you should still go after these keywords even though it takes longer to rank. After all, this is not a 50-meter dash, but a marathon.
But you still have to eat so in the meantime, you should target similar keywords. In internet marketing, we call these long-tail keywords. Usually, these won’t generate a sale right away because it’s for people who are still doing research.
Good news is, there are many tools that allow you to find these keywords. In fact, Google provides its very own tool called Google Correlate.
Let’s say you want to rank for Halloween, which is a very competitive term, so it will take a long time to rank for. With Google Correlate, it will show you other search terms on Google that is similar to the search term Halloween.
Open up Google Correlate right now and type in the word Halloween.
Source: Google Correlate
I excluded terms containing Halloween because many products that relate to Halloween does not contain the word Halloween.
Now if you make a search for let’s say computer, you’ll find a list of different items that correlate with the term computer. You can still use some of them by telling a story in your content that leads back to the term computer.
Source: Google Correlate
Now let’s go back to the first image for Halloween. Looks like people also type in terms like a fog machine, Dracula costume, kids pumpkin, pumpkin image, pumpkin story, devil costume, etc.
If you write highly-quality blog posts using those phrases, you will appeal to the same audience that is interested in the keyword Halloween. Some of these search terms might not generate you a sale right away, but if you are providing value.
You can capture their email address to provide them with updates and the latest information. Since these subscribers are targeted for keywords that correlate to Halloween. You can generate sales by sending them Halloween offers via email.
To do so, you will need a lead magnet. This can be a pop up offering a free guidebook to selecting the best Halloween costumes for kids (This is just an example).
But before you can capture emails, you will need an email marketing service provider. Here’s a tutorial on how to build your email list using AWeber.
Step #2. Use The Google Search Console Tool To Expand Your Existing Keywords That Are Ranking
Image Source: TechWyse
Once a blog post gets published, it usually sits at its current stage untouched for years. Marketing is all about testing, changing, and repeating. Nobody can predict how well your blog post will do, so it’s important that you go back and make changes when necessary.
Google Search Console is another free tool provided by Google that allows you to see how well your keywords are performing. By logging into your Google Search Console, you can see a list of terms that you are currently ranking for.
I don’t want to repeat myself in this article, simply check out my article on how to use the Google search console to effectively grow your website traffic to get the full picture.
To give you a brief summary:
- Log in to Google Search Console and click on Performance.
- Click on the most popular search terms that you currently rank for and select Pages.
- Copy the URL’s that you are ranking for the search term and save it on a notepad because you will be modifying those blog posts.
- Go to Ubersuggest, a free tool by Neil Patel and type in the search term that you’re currently ranking for.
- Scroll down and you will see a list of Keyword Ideas.
- Copy the keywords that are buyer intent related and add them to the blog posts that you previously saved on your notepad.
Source: Ubersuggest
Note: When adding new keywords to your blog posts, make sure you adjust your content so it flows with the new keywords. You don’t want to just insert them in random locations because it wouldn’t make sense. Your users will get confused and probably leave.
Step #3. Genuinely Help people
When trying to strive in a competitive space, you want to go beyond what others are doing. Anyone can start a blog and talk about a product or service.
When writing your content, keywords are important, but providing value and great user experience should also be taken as a top priority. So the next time you write, do your research and cite your sources.
Also, I notice something that most corporate or personal brands lack. And that is user interaction. I know I’m not perfect when it comes to user interaction, but you should at least try.
Now most of us are using Social Media as part of our marketing strategy. Besides publishing your latest and greatest content, you should take the time to respond to your followers.
Engagement is what creates a community. How would you feel if you try to ask someone a question and they ignore you?
Step #4. Build Your Backlinks
Source: Buzzsumo
Link building is one of the many factors that Google look into. By having lots of links pointing to your blog post, it tells Google that your blog post is very important and should be ranked highly.
Unfortunately, building links is not as easy as it used to be.
A great link building strategy is by reaching out to people who are currently linking back to blog posts that are similar to yours. That’s why I use Buzzsumo to find articles that are related to my own.
Not only does it show which articles are getting the most engagement, but it also provides you with who is linking back to that article.
Let’s use the example above where the user wrote an article about Wealthy Affiliate. What you want to do is write a more in-depth article that blows it out the water.
Once you’re done, you can reach out to blogs that are currently linking to that article and ask them to check out yours and ask for a link back to your blog instead.
In Conclusion
Hopefully, this was helpful! SEO is getting harder and harder. I don’t see it becoming easier in the near future, but that’s okay. We are in the market that is always evolving anyway.
If you are willing to adapt, adjust, and repeat, you will see great success in this industry. The steps I provided above will help you dominate the Google search results page as long as you are willing to do it.
Just to recap, the steps that you should take to dominate the Google search results page:
- Target keywords for people in the research phase. It’s easier to rank for these keywords and it will lead to getting the same type of audience for more specific keywords that are harder to rank for.
- Use the Google Search Console to optimize your articles that are already ranking.
- By genuinely helping people, you will build a brand, a readership, and most importantly a community.
- Lastly, by building backlinks, you will not only get more social shares, but Google will also recognize the importance of your articles which can affect rankings.
Do you have other strategies to dominate the Google search results page? If you do, please let us know by leaving a comment down below. Or if you have any questions, leave them down below as well and I will try my best to help you out.
Kind Regards,
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