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Done correctly, you can have a thriving business and grow your business online, no matter how big or small, by utilising all of the internet tools available to you.

Never has there been a time in history, where the playing field has been levelled and where the small boys are able to outrun the big boys.

Being found in the search engine results page (SERPS) is vital if you want to cream lots of that lovely traffic with the smallest amount of outlay when comparing your other marketing channels.

Since Google and other search engines keep changing their algorithm almost on a daily basis, it’s becoming harder and harder to maintain position in the SERPS without ongoing SEO work being carried out.

Great, you got on the first page! Now, how do you stay there?

For that, you need a clear and precise strategy to maintain position and propel your other pages to that lofty height of page 1 rankings.

Target The Right Audience

Know your audience and write in a language that they can understand.

It’s then time to build your “client persona”, sometimes referred to as “buyer persona”. This is a fictional representation of who your ideal client is after real data market research.

The easiest way to do this is install Google analytics (GA – if it’s not already installed), and follow the instructions below. I talked a little about this in our local SEO audit guide.

Note: If you have only recently installed GA, then you may need to wait a few weeks before you can start to analyse any of the data, unfortunately.

Start off by opening Google Analytics, navigate to Acquisition > Search Console > Queries. If you haven’t done so already, you will need to click the button “Set up Search Console data sharing”, then choose which webmaster tools account you want to link to and match your Google Analytic profile. That’s it…

finding keywords with google analytics

If you need any extra instructions, you can try Google instructions.

This sneaky little hack allows you to show the exact keyword searches that brought your visitors to your website over a long period of time.

Now, don’t worry if there aren’t that many keywords listed (it will show as “not provided”), the data that it does show, should be enough to get you started.

If you have excel or Google sheets, copy that data into a spreadsheet, since we need to edit it later on.

Find User Similarities in Search Traffic

With this new list, you should now be able to group the keywords into certain categories and themes.

For example, if you sell golfing equipment, you might want to divide the keywords into categories like a golf ball, golf equipment, clothing and footwear.

If you serve different locations, then you may want to further split these categories.

Use A Content Marketing Strategy

At Xenmedia, we believe that every company should adopt a content marketing strategy. This is basically setting up a schedule to consistently pump out good quality content to your clients that both teach and inform them of topics related to your product or service.

Once you have developed a good piece of content, the idea is then to distribute this in as many places as possible to give the piece exposure and also to be found by potential clients.

The key here is not to be too salesy as this will put them off reading any more of your content.

We advise most companies to do this by way of blog posts/articles, small PDF guides, white papers and even video if you’re experienced enough.

Content marketing should be at the forefront of any SEO strategy. With well-written optimised content along with a few other factors, you should be able to rank your pages, which gains you more traffic, allowing you to make more conversions and, in turn, growing your business.

Write From Your Heart & Your Head

When writing, try to write from the heart and depending on your niche, write how you speak (conversational). If the content is too serious and really dry, then this might be a bit of a turnoff for your reader.

You’ll want to make it as exciting and interesting as possible and add a few pictures to help break up the paragraph, as well as strong titles and sub-titles, etc.

Now, you might not have the time to produce all of this content and that’s fine. You can employ a local agency to write it for you.

Mobile Web Optimisation For All Device Sizes

Mobile Web Optimisation For All Device SizesMaking sure your website is mobile optimised is key. Google is all about user experience and, in turn, so should you be.

The vast majority of people now conduct their first search to find a product or service on a mobile device. Since this is the case, you need to put mobile front and centre.

If your site isn’t optimised for mobile, I can almost guarantee that you’re losing potential clients. Not only will it not show up in the SERPS – if your potential client does manage to find you, but they also may not stick around that long, if they have trouble navigating your site.

Site Loading Speed Is The Key

Site Loading Speed Is The KeySpeed is a major ranking factor when it comes to getting on the first page of SERPS. You can do a free site speed test to find out how fast or slow your website is.

There are quite a few ways to speed up your website. However, most of them are quite technical and you may need additional help with this task.

Things like minimising HTTP requests, reducing image file size, reduce server response time, enable browser caching to name but a few.

Update Existing Content

Probably one of the most underused strategies at the moment… Think about it, blog posts you wrote 4 years ago are hidden under several pages and posts of your other content.

Why not update the latest statistics, graphs and important information to keep the content relevant? You can also change the date it was published to today’s date, even though it’s old content. Doing this brings that content front and centre and at the top of the blog list on your site.

Not only will existing readers be able to read this content, but you should also get a nice spike of extra traffic without doing that much more work.

Try it out… It’s a nice little trick 😜😎.

Summary:

Not implementing a sufficient SEO strategy will probably be detrimental to your business and it will be at risk of being overtaken by your competitors. Some of the things like registering with local directories and writing content are quite easy to do, whereas other strategies will probably be a lot harder to do.

If in doubt, employ the services of a digital marketing agency to carry out these tasks for you. Not only should they be an expert in the particular field, they should also keep updated with the current trends, rules and vital updates needed to keep your site relevant.

Now it’s your turn. Have you come up with a unique way to speed up your website? Share your tips below.

About the Author

Des Dreckett

Des Dreckett is the eCommerce and growth Marketing Director of XenMediamarketing.co.uk: a writer, blogger and a paid media specialist.

Writing content to help you grow and build your business.

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  1. Great article. Content marketing must be the top priority in SEO of your site. It’s important and true what you said about having a Content marketing strategy. Good content is the first requirement for SEO efforts, and audience online are consistently looking out for quality and informative content.

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