Reaching the top spot in search results is a challenging but achievable goal. Do you aspire to see your website on the coveted first page of Google for a specific keyword? Be prepared for a tough journey, especially if you’re not a well-established site like Wikipedia or The New York Times. However, don’t be discouraged, as achieving this objective is entirely feasible. We witness it firsthand regularly!

Achieving a high keyword ranking in organic search results is an iterative process. While success is not guaranteed, particularly for new websites aiming for competitive keywords, a dedicated approach to content marketing and SEO can yield significant results. This includes improved rankings, increased traffic, and ultimately, more sales!

Here’s a breakdown of the ten crucial steps to enhance your website’s ranking for a specific keyword on Google:

Step 1: Establish a Solid Foundation

Before diving into keyword optimization, it’s essential to have some fundamental elements in place. Think of this as preparing the groundwork for success. These prerequisites include:

• A robust website: The age of your website, its accumulated authority, and the quality of its backlinks all play a crucial role. Additionally, ensuring that your entire site adheres to SEO best practices is paramount – if you’re unsure what this entails, Google’s Webmaster Guidelines can provide guidance.
• A strong network: A pre-existing network can significantly accelerate your keyword ranking efforts. This network could comprise a loyal blog readership, an engaged social media audience on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, or a list of email contacts you can reach out to for occasional link-building support. Consider link building as a form of relationship nurturing for long-term benefits.

Avoid rushing through these foundational steps in your pursuit of online success. A hasty approach might lead to mistakes that require rectification later.

Step 2: Conduct Initial Keyword Research

While you might have a target keyword in mind, it’s essential to validate your assumptions. Utilize multiple keyword research tools to gain insights into the search volume for the keyword and the level of competition you’ll face. Your primary considerations during this stage should include:

• Targeting keywords with substantial but not excessive volume: Generally, it’s advisable to avoid keywords with low search volume if similar, more popular alternatives exist. For instance, “blah blah jobs” usually sees significantly more searches than “blah blah careers.” However, don’t always chase the keywords with the highest volume or difficulty; some are simply too competitive to be worth your time. Unless you’re a major airline, ranking for “airline” will be an uphill battle

  

• Selecting keywords relevant to your business model: Your chances of ranking successfully are higher if the keyword aligns with your website and business objectives. Moreover, such alignment increases the likelihood of generating valuable traffic and leads, as rankings alone hold little value without driving meaningful engagement. For example, a party planning business might aim for “how to cook for a party,” while “how to cook rice,” though related to cooking, wouldn’t resonate with their target audience.

During this phase, compile a list of variations and related terms to your primary keyword. These will be invaluable when creating and optimizing your content later on.

Leverage nexus-security’s Free Keyword Tool to identify keywords with the highest ranking potential.

Step 3: Analyze the Competitive Landscape

Once you’ve chosen your target keyword, conduct searches on Google and other search engines to understand your competitors’ strategies. Pay close attention to:

• Domain and URL structure: Are many websites using exact match domains? Do all URLs in the top 10 contain the target keyword?
• Title tag optimization: How do competitors incorporate the keyword within their title tags?
• Content format: What type of content is ranking well – product pages, blog posts, videos, or something else?
• Competing websites’ nature: Are they large corporations, small businesses, or news sources?
• Authority of competing websites: Use tools or plugins to evaluate the age of the top-ranking websites, the size of their backlink profiles, and other authority indicators.

The goal is to identify opportunities for differentiation. To outperform your competitors, you must match or exceed their efforts, ideally by providing something even more valuable and comprehensive.

Step 4: Understand User Intent

The more specific the keyword (especially long-tail keywords), the easier it becomes to discern the searcher’s intention and fulfill their needs through your content. “Intent” in search marketing refers to our interpretation of what the user aims to achieve with their search query. Consider these keywords and observe how intent becomes clearer as we move down the list:

• glasses
• eyeglasses
• discount eyeglasses
• discount eyeglasses frames
• discount eyeglasses frames for kids

Question yourself: What content type best addresses the user’s intent behind this keyword? In this scenario, offering a selection of children’s eyeglasses for purchase would be most appropriate. The initial term, “glasses,” doesn’t clarify if the user seeks eyeglasses or drinking glasses. Even “eyeglasses” doesn’t necessarily indicate an intent to purchase; the user might be looking for images. E-commerce businesses primarily focus on ranking for commercial keywords.

Google’s founders have stated that an ideal search engine should deliver a single, perfect result. Strive to become that definitive result that satisfies the searcher’s query, preventing them from returning to the search results page for better options.

Step 5: Plan Your Content Strategy

Devise a plan for the content you’ll create to rank for your chosen keyword. Numerous content formats can be effective, including:

• Articles
• Blog posts
• Product pages
• Indexes or directories of links (to internal or external pages)
• Comprehensive guides
• Infographics
• Videos

Assess the time and resources required for content creation. Determine if you’ll handle everything internally or outsource certain tasks. Ensure you have the necessary budget and resources. Remember, creating a blog post is achievable regardless of your budget, while infographics and videos might demand more resources. In some cases, a tool, like a mortgage calculator, might be the best response to a user’s search query, requiring engineering support.

Step 6: Content Creation

This stage involves putting your plan into action. As emphasized earlier, avoid rushing through any of these steps, particularly content creation. Search engines increasingly prioritize high-quality, valuable content that benefits the user over keyword-stuffed spam or ad-heavy pages serving only the website owner. If you prefer acquiring traffic through paid means rather than earning organic traffic through effort, consider exploring PPC advertising. “SEO requires patience and dedication” should be your guiding principle.

Step 7: On-Page Optimization

Steps 6 and 7 should ideally happen simultaneously. Optimize your content during the creation process instead of treating it as an afterthought. This is where the keyword variations list from step 2 proves invaluable. Integrate these keywords naturally within your content, avoiding keyword stuffing that sounds unnatural. Remember that keywords can be used in “invisible” areas, such as image file names, which, while not directly visible to users, can boost your keyword rankings. This does not involve using white text on a white background or any other black-hat SEO tactics that violate Google’s guidelines.

Refer to SEOmoz’s guide to the “perfect” page for a detailed guide on on-page optimization factors. Another effective technique is analyzing Wikipedia pages, which often exhibit exceptional on-page optimization.

Before publishing your content, briefly revisit your keyword research. Your content might have evolved during its development, so ensure continued alignment between your content and the target keyword.

Download our free resource: 25 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

Step 8: Content Publishing

The time has come to share your content with the world. Depending on the content type, careful scheduling might be necessary. Evergreen content might not necessitate this, but content related to current events, trends, or time-sensitive topics likely will. For instance, coordinating with your PR team or other relevant departments might be necessary when launching content about a new product or service.

Step 9: Content Promotion

Content promotion is crucial and should commence immediately after publishing. For significant content pieces, pre-publication media outreach can be highly effective. Maximize your content’s visibility before it even begins ranking for the target keyword:

• Utilize your business’s social media accounts: Share your content across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and others. If feasible, leverage your accounts as well.
• Implement social sharing buttons and widgets: Make it effortless for your audience to share your content by incorporating readily accessible social sharing buttons. People are more inclined to tweet or share your article if doing so requires minimal effort.
• Engage in link building: Despite ongoing discussions about PageRank’s future, link building remains a cornerstone of SEO (even if it’s perceived as the most tedious aspect). Explore our blog archives on link building to delve deeper into this topic.

Increasing page views and social shares will contribute to attracting more backlinks, ultimately bolstering your keyword ranking.

Step 10: Analyze and Refine

Your work isn’t done yet! The digital landscape is constantly evolving, presenting opportunities for content optimization. Regularly monitor your keyword rankings manually (ensure you’re signed out to avoid personalized results) or by using rank tracking tools. Utilize analytics to understand which keywords are driving traffic to your content – these might differ from your initial targets. If you don’t see satisfactory ranking improvements for the desired keywords after a few weeks, further optimization is required. Consider the following:

• Content Optimization: Ensure your content is thoroughly optimized for both users and search engines.
• Content Quality: Maintain a high standard of quality, ensuring your content provides value and addresses user intent effectively.
• Content Visibility: Make sure your content is easily discoverable by both search engines and users.

The chosen keyword’s competitiveness might necessitate adjusting your expectations. Consider targeting less competitive terms until you’ve established greater authority.

That concludes our process for achieving high rankings for hundreds of keywords related to search marketing. Regardless of your industry or niche, this process can be adapted for your specific goals. Don’t wait any longer - GET STARTED!

Image via Ragnar Jensen