One of the essential components of online marketing is the identification and use of a keyword / key word phrases that are prominent in your business’ field/market. Because online marketing is all about attracting the right customer to your site, you need to use keywords that are likely to be included in Google searches related to your field (why Google, well, they own about 80% of the market for search engines) – this is what helps the potential targeted customer find you.
If you find that your keywords aren’t ranking highly on Google, there are an assortment of possible reasons why. Here are four of the more typical ones:
#1: You’ve Picked the Wrong Keywords/ Keyword Phrases
Some keywords are pretty obvious: if you run an SEO Service, “SEO Company” is most likely going to be a keyword you want to focus on. Furthermore, you need to do enough research to discover all of the best keywords and keyword phrases for your business, because they won’t all be that obvious. Do some searching for businesses like yours and see what the top results have in common: what words and topics do they feature more than others?
Deftly Tip: SEO companies always tend to tell their clients: “Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What would you search for if you wanted to find your business and you knew exactly what you were looking for?
#2: You’re Not Featuring the Keywords / Keyword Phrases
Your keywords/ keyword phrases need to be the center focus of your online content. Not only should they be featured throughout your blogs and content offers, you should also make them the central topic of content and include them in headlines and titles as well. Knowing word count optimizations is also helpful. Titles should be limited to 56-60 characters and include your keyword phrase at the beginning. Meta description should be 160 characters and include your keyword phrase.
Additionally, make sure your keyword usage actually makes sense. If you try to cheat the system by writing the same keywords/keyword phrases over and over again, Google’s algorithms will identify your site as spam and will lower your sites ranking as a result. This is called sand-boxing when Google punishes you for attempting black hat SEO.
#3: You’re Not Including Enough Links
Links are another critical part of the Google’s ranking formula. Google indexes the entire internet with a web crawler – 24 hours a day – which travels from site to site through links. Therefore, the more links to recent blog posts or site pages you include in your content, the more times the web crawler will pass through your site. Additionally, internal links increase the size of your online footprint, which boosts your relevance with Google. And the more relevant Google thinks your website is, the higher you’ll appear in search results as a result.
#4: You’re Not Cross-Promoting
Even if you do everything discussed above, unfortunately there’s still no guarantee your site is going to rank highly on Google. One way to help ensure success is with cross-promotion. Anytime you write a new blog, post links on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram. Also be sure to @ relevant media sources or subjects that would bring additional exposure. Also using hashtags gets more exposure.
Furthermore, if you see something on social media that’s relevant to your business or your content, take advantage of the opportunity and post a link. Social media is all about interactivity and collaboration, so be active with your accounts. Since Google incorporates social media content within its search results, all that activity will lead to a larger online footprint for your site and a higher Google ranking.