- \n
- Step 1: Create a ranking report<\/a><\/li>\n
- Step 2: Define your ranking goals<\/a><\/li>\n
- Step 3:\u00a0Think about your competitive advantage<\/a><\/li>\n
- Step 4:\u00a0Work on your On-Page SEO and Content<\/a><\/li>\n
- Step 5:\u00a0Create a link building strategy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The theory behind the process is simple:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Identify for which keywords you want to improve your Google rankings<\/li>\n
- Set up a plan<\/li>\n
- Implement it and then watch your rankings increase.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What is difficult is to come up with an SEO strategy<\/strong><\/a> that will actually work and produce good results and this is exactly the purpose of this post.<\/p>\n
Before getting into the details on how to create an action plan that will help you rank higher on Google, it is necessary to understand the importance of doing so.<\/p>\n
The process requires a lot of work and patience and from my experience if you don\u2019t have the necessary motivation, it will be very difficult to dedicate the necessary effort to implement your plan correctly.<\/p>\n
Motivation in this case will come from the benefits<\/strong><\/a> you can gain by achieving higher rankings and this alone is enough to empower you to take the necessary actions.<\/p>\n
Benefits of achieving high rankings<\/h2>\n
Think for a moment what would be the benefits to your business if you could improve the google rankings for some of your important keywords.<\/p>\n
Let me give you some ideas to help you organize your thoughts:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Increase in targeted organic traffic \u2013 this is by far the most valuable source of traffic a website can have.<\/li>\n
- Increase in sales and conversions.<\/li>\n
- Increase in social visibility \u2013 Users are more likely to share a webpage they found in the first pages of Google with their followers.<\/li>\n
- Increase in email subscribers (if you are not into email marketing<\/strong><\/a> yet, then it\u2019s time to consider this very seriously).<\/li>\n
- Increase in Google trust \u2013 If Google trusts your website and gives you a higher ranking for some keywords (even if they are not very competitive), this is a good sign that what you are doing is in the right direction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
So now that we are all motivated, let\u2019s see how to create an action plan to make this happen.<\/p>\n
Step 1: Create a Ranking Report<\/h2>\n
No plan is complete without having clearly defined measurable goals so the first step is to identify what you want to achieve.<\/p>\n
Unlike other industries, in the SEO World everything is measured so you should start your planning process by:<\/p>\n
Creating a ranking report to find out which keywords currently bring organic traffic to your website.<\/strong><\/p>\n
You need to do this to fully understand your current position and then enrich it with more data to come up with your final targets.<\/p>\n
To create the report, you need 2 things:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Data from the \u2018Performance report from your Google Search Console Account<\/li>\n
- A tool to help you track your ranking positions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Download Data from Performance Report<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/performance-report-download.png\")
Google Search Console Performance Report<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Login to your Google Search Console and click on \u2018Performance\u2019 from the left menu. Set the date range on top (3 months is good).<\/p>\n
Click on the DOWNLOAD button and select Google Docs as the Download Format (you can also select CSV but Google Docs format is faster since you don\u2019t have to re-import the data in Excel).<\/p>\n
Register for a keyword tracking tool<\/strong><\/p>\n
There are various tools to help you keep track of your ranking positions and you can use whichever you want.<\/p>\n
I use 2 paid tools for my websites (and client websites): The first one is serpbook and the other one is Semrush<\/strong><\/a> (used in this post).<\/p>\n
Login to Semrush and create a new project (click the + next to projects).<\/p>\n
Enter your domain details and add a name for your project.<\/p>\n
Click on POSITION TRACKING and then ADD NEW KEYWORDS<\/p>\n
![\"Keyword](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/keyword-tracking.png\")
SEMRUSH Keyword Tracking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Go back to your rankings sheet (downloaded from Google Search Console) and copy the keywords over.<\/p>\n
Note:<\/strong> Before copying the keywords you can apply some filtering so that you don\u2019t track more keywords than necessary and increase your monthly cost for maintaining a ranking report.<\/p>\n
Some guidelines:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Remove brand type keywords (i.e. your domain name) from the list.<\/li>\n
- Track only keywords that appear up to page 3 of Google i.e. positions 1 \u2013 29. At this stage there is no point in having all keywords that your website appears. We will enrich the report in the steps below.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Step 2: Define Your Ranking Goals<\/h2>\n
So far you have created a ranking report that includes keywords that currently bring Google traffic to your website.<\/p>\n
The next step is to perform keyword research to find out which keywords can potentially increase your organic traffic and define your rankings goals.<\/p>\n
Step 1: Identify which keywords can increase your organic traffic if you improve their rankings<\/strong><\/p>\n
These are the keywords that you already have a ranking (either on page 1 or page 2 of Google) and also have a decent monthly search volume.<\/p>\n
The idea is simple: if you can increase the rankings of those keywords, your traffic will also increase.<\/p>\n
Look at your ranking report more closely and try to spot keywords that meet the above criteria.<\/p>\n
Hint:<\/strong> You can sort your ranking report by monthly search volume and look at your ranking positions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Step 2: Perform keyword research to find new potential keywords<\/strong><\/p>\n
Besides looking at the keywords you already have a good ranking, you also need to identify other keywords that can bring you more Google traffic.<\/p>\n
These keywords are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Related to your existing keywords<\/li>\n
- Have a decent monthly search volume<\/li>\n
- Their \u2018keyword difficulty value\u2019 is not high<\/li>\n
- They are \u2018long tail keywords<\/a><\/strong>\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You can either use the Google keyword tool to do your research, I have many examples in my SEO Course<\/a><\/strong> and also in this article<\/a><\/strong> or you can use a new feature of SemRush called \u2018SEO Keyword Magic\u2019.<\/p>\n
The beauty of \u2018SEO Keyword Magic\u2019 is that is helps you find keywords that meet the 4 criteria above in a very easy and fast way.<\/p>\n
For example, let\u2019s assume that you have a fitness blog and looking to find more keywords to target.<\/p>\n
You already have a lot of articles that relate to \u2018how to lose weight\u2019 and you want to find out more potential keywords.<\/p>\n
What you can do is type your keyword in SEO Keyword magic and then apply some filters.<\/p>\n
In the example below I have defined that I want keywords that have a search volume of 50 (at least) and a keyword difficulty of less than 80%.<\/p>\n
![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/seo-keyword-magic.png\")
SEO Keyword Magic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Note:<\/strong> Keyword Difficulty is a percentage calculated by semrush that indicates how easy or difficult a keyword is based on a number of factors. The lower the value, the easier is to target that keyword.<\/p>\n
If you scroll down the list, you will see a lot of keywords that are easy to target and can potentially improve your google rankings and generate more traffic for your website.<\/p>\n
I did the same exercise in the past and have selected to target \u201chealthy amount of weight to lose per week\u201d and if you check the SERPS, you will see that I\u2019m ranking on position 1 for this keyword.<\/p>\n
![\"improve](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/improve-ranking-example.png\")
Keyword Rankings Example<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n After you complete your keyword research go back to your ranking report (created in Step 1) and add the new keywords.<\/p>\n
To sum up what we have done so far:<\/p>\n
We have created a ranking report that includes both the keywords that can increase traffic in the short term (these are the keywords that you already have a ranking in pages 1 and 2 of Google) and we also keywords that are easy to target with new content.<\/p>\n
Step 3: Think about your competitive advantage<\/h2>\n
Now that you have a clear idea about your targets, the next step is to analyze your competitors i.e. the websites that already have a higher ranking for your keywords and think about your competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
The purpose of this step is to make you think how you can make your content better and provide a better experience to users compared to what is already available because this is exactly what Google wants.<\/p>\n
At this stage we only care about the content these pages have but at a later step we will also deal with their link profile.<\/p>\n
What you need to do now is visit all of the pages on the first page of Google and take notes about:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The type of content they have (text, images, videos etc)<\/li>\n
- The length of the content<\/li>\n
- The page structure<\/li>\n
- Their page titles<\/strong><\/a> and page descriptions<\/li>\n
- Any external links they have in the content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Once you gather all this information it\u2019s time for you to evaluate how your web site and content compares with the rest.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Is your content better?<\/li>\n
- What about your web site structure?<\/li>\n
- Do you miss anything in the content that they have?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Prepare your answers and let\u2019s see below how these can be transformed into actions.<\/p>\n
Step 4: Work on your On-Page SEO and Content<\/h2>\n
Almost all of your above findings have to do with on-page SEO<\/a><\/strong>. Things like page titles and descriptions, content length,\u00a0 h1 headings<\/strong><\/a> and images are elements that are part of what we call on-page SEO.<\/p>\n
Remember that we have to deal with 2 separate cases.<\/p>\n
- \n
- First is to work on existing pages and try to improve their rankings<\/li>\n
- Second to create new pages to target keywords that we don\u2019t have a ranking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Improve rankings for existing pages<\/strong><\/p>\n
What you need to do on your existing pages is the following:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Review your SEO and make sure that your technical SEO is correct and optimized. My SEO Audit<\/a><\/strong> article has all the details and steps to follow.<\/li>\n
- Review your titles and H1 headings and make sure that they include your target keywords (or variations). See my SEO Tips article<\/a><\/strong> for practical examples.<\/li>\n
- Review the content to ensure that it\u2019s up-to-date and does not have any broken links. If necessary, add new content to make the page more interesting.<\/li>\n
- Review your content length and make sure that it meets the average content length of the pages that already have a good ranking (use the data gathered in Step 3).<\/li>\n
- Reply to any pending comments and remove any approved comments that are spam or do not add any value to the page.<\/li>\n
- Try to improve the loading speed<\/a><\/strong> of your pages<\/li>\n
- If not already in place, implement schema markup and optimize for Google featured snippets<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n
- Check and ensure that your page is mobile friendly (this article<\/a><\/strong> can help)<\/li>\n
- Build internal links<\/a><\/strong> from other relevant pages of your website<\/li>\n
- Add those page in your sidebar (you can name the section \u2018Must Read\u2019 or \u2018Recommend Reading\u2019 \u2013 see my sidebar as an example).<\/li>\n
- Revise your web page design: If you have outdated images replace them with new ones. Ensure that your font is readable and that there is enough white space in page to make reading easier.<\/li>\n
- If not already in place, make sure that you indicate clearly the author of the page and any sources referenced in the content.<\/li>\n
- If you are on WordPress, I suggest you also review WordPress SEO Best Practices<\/a><\/strong> to ensure that your theme and plugins are SEO friendly and don\u2019t create any problems with your rankings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Build rankings for new pages<\/strong><\/p>\n
For the new keywords that you have identified, you have to follow a slightly different path. Everything that is mentioned above also applies for your new pages but you also need to take into account a few more things:<\/p>\n
Group similar keywords together<\/strong> – Group your keywords together and decide for which of those keywords you want to create separate pages. The SEO Keyword magic tool has already done this for you (look for the keyword groups on the left).<\/p>\n
For example, if you click on the \u2018breastfeeding\u2019 group you will see that all related keywords are grouped together.<\/p>\n
![\"Keyword](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/keyword-grouping.png\")
Keyword Grouping with SEMRUSH<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n To avoid content duplication and publishing multiple pages about the exact same topic, you can create one new page per group.<\/p>\n
If you take a closer look, all the suggested keywords of the breastfeeding group refer to similar topics so you can create an in-depth article to cover these in detail.<\/p>\n
Create a publishing calendar<\/strong> \u2013 Once you have identified what you will write about, the next step is to create a content publishing calendar.<\/p>\n
Various studies have clearly shown that websites that are updated regularly<\/a><\/strong> are more likely to increase their rankings compared to websites that don\u2019t follow a consistent publishing schedule.<\/p>\n
Your content publishing calendar should include the title of the article and the scheduled publishing date.<\/p>\n
Once you have this in place all you have to do is follow your plan and watch your traffics and rankings increase.<\/p>\n
Step 5: Create a link building strategy<\/h2>\n
Let\u2019s quickly review what we did so far:<\/p>\n
- \n
- We have a clear view on how we get google traffic (through our ranking report).<\/li>\n
- We have defined our ranking goals<\/li>\n
- We have identified which keywords can further improve our rankings<\/li>\n
- We have revised our existing pages and on-page SEO.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What big factor is missing from the above plan that can make a difference in rankings? You guessed it correctly, it\u2019s backlinks<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n
Why do we need links? A quick re-cap for beginners<\/strong><\/p>\n
When Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google Founders) created the Google ranking algorithm back in the 90\u2019s, they have come up with a great idea:<\/p>\n
Websites that have incoming links from other websites on the Internet seem to be more important and useful for users and thus they deserve a higher ranking in the Google SERPS.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is an idea that is still valid today. Links are considered by SEO\u2019s and research studies<\/strong><\/a> as one of the most important factors that can have a big impact on rankings.<\/p>\n
![\"Importance](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/link-importance-google.jpg\")
Importance of Links for Google Rankings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n How to create a link building strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n
While links are good, it should be made clear that not all links are equal. Bad links can do more damage to your website and may be the cause of getting a Google penalty (which means that your rankings will drop).<\/p>\n
- Review your titles and H1 headings and make sure that they include your target keywords (or variations). See my SEO Tips article<\/a><\/strong> for practical examples.<\/li>\n
- Review your SEO and make sure that your technical SEO is correct and optimized. My SEO Audit<\/a><\/strong> article has all the details and steps to follow.<\/li>\n
- Any external links they have in the content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Increase in Google trust \u2013 If Google trusts your website and gives you a higher ranking for some keywords (even if they are not very competitive), this is a good sign that what you are doing is in the right direction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Step 2: Define your ranking goals<\/a><\/li>\n
![\"Backlink](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/backlink-analysis.png\")
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/link-building-technique.png\")