Almost nobody goes to page two of the Google search results. When you want to perform well for one keyword in particular, you should aim towards the top of page one. Ideally, your page ranks within the top three results for the best performance. Most marketers in the SaaS world understand the importance of keywords, but may not know the practical steps for how to rank higher on Google. At Demandwell, one of our big goals is to demystify the world of SEO and give you the tools and advice you need to succeed in SEO.
So, what should your strategy be when you want to rank for an important keyword?
It’s important to understand Google when it comes to ranking well in search results. Their goal is to connect their users with the information that will answer their questions. That means that in order to be viewed as worthy to rank highly for a keyword, Google must know that you are an expert in your field and are publishing valuable content that users want. There are three key factors Google looks at when ranking content. Knowing these SEO ranking factors will help you identify exactly where you should focus your efforts. At Demandwell we use the acronym ICE which stands for infrastructure, content, and endorsements.
First of all, the algorithm looks at infrastructure. This involves technical SEO elements such as page speed, canonicalization, and 404 errors. There are many different things to consider when evaluating site infrastructure, but the goal is simple. In this case, Google wants to know that your site is well-built, free of malware or bugs, and easy to access.
The second factor is content. Here, you want to focus on optimizing all of the on-page elements that help a page rank better. On top of writing keyword-rich content, you can improve the SEO performance of a page depending on how the content is structured. By adding H1s and H2s or by changing the metadata for a webpage, that content can be optimized for SEO.
Finally, there are Endorsements, otherwise known as backlinks. One of the ways Google judges whether your content is going to be valuable and relevant is by reviewing your backlinks. Basically, if a 3rd party website has a link leading from their website back to yours, then that can act as a positive endorsement for your content. The logic is simple, if other people are trusting and referencing the information you’re sharing, it must be helpful and accurate.
In order to rank for a particular keyword or a collection of keywords, you’re going to need to create content — lots of content. Google looks for depth as well as breadth when it analyzes your pages, which is why we recommend publishing more than one piece of SEO performance content when targeting a single keyword. One page is not going to rank first for a keyword on its own. Overall, the goal is to create a library of SEO performance content that covers the target keyword and all other related keywords. When Google sees this body of knowledge, the algorithm will start to rank your pages higher across the board for these keywords because you are demonstrating yourself to be an expert in this field. When you focus on the bigger picture for your SEO content strategy, the original goal of ranking for a particular keyword becomes much easier to obtain.
