Here’s my Google Ranking journey
As many of you know I changed my business focus recently, going from serving a narrow niche with broad small business topics, to a wider niche of small businesses with a smaller niche topic, content marketing. This has meant taking some time during Covid-19 lockdown to rebrand my website and create a new strategy for getting my Google ranking off the ground in a new area.
I thought I would take you on my journey so far, so you can see what a rebrand might look like, specifically when it comes to Google ranking.
Let’s start with the basics so you can follow along with my progress.
What does ‘Google ranking’ mean?
Your website’s Google ranking refers to the position your website appears in relevant organic search results on Google’s search engine. Different search engines will vary in the position they rank your site, so I concentrate on Google primarily, because Google has an 87.35% of the search engine market (Statistica, Jan 2020).
Search Engine % market share - Jan 2020
In my case I am looking to rank in a business to business (B2B) capacity, under content marketing specifically and knowing that 53% of organic website traffic comes from organic search results in a B2B instance (BrightEdge), it is extremely important that I put my Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy at the forefront of my new content marketing strategy.
When I’m starting a new process like this with clients, I do two things before I start a keyword ranking project;
Check what has changed in Google SEO
Check what has changed with Google Search
The results of this help me to understand the search platform better and gives me a more accurate starting point. I generally find that when website owners try to rank their website higher, they often focus on their SEO tools and forget that they need to look directly at Google search to see what ‘showing up in search’ actually looks like now.
What has changed in Google SEO?
One thing I have learned during my almost 14 years online is that Google change the game occasionally, so my first step into understanding how to start ranking for my new business focus meant turning to Google’s SEO guide. In the main things feel pretty similar to when I last checked and so already having my autopilot method in place, I felt confident to make a start on ranking for my new keywords with my refreshed website.
What has changed in Google Search?
The next step in my process is to look at Google search, because although the Google SEO guide might not have changed dramatically, their ranking factors may have.
What I have noticed has been changed is the way search results are served to Google users. Let me show you two examples of different searches performed on desktop and mobile to help me explain.
Search 1 – ‘free yoga classes’
I ran a search query for a keyword string ‘free yoga classes’ initially on desktop and I found what I would generally expect to see; paid ads, Google featured snippets (in this case a location snippet, based on my location) and then organic search. Underneath that, on the first page was a section called ‘people also asked’ and videos.
On mobile the search results for the same keyword string gave me similar results, but not always in the same order. Ads were different and some of the organic results and ‘people also asked’ were also in a different order. On mobile you could also search by photos.
Search 2 – ‘wedding favours’
I wanted to try this experiment again - how would it fair with an entirely different keyword search query?
Below you can see that on desktop, Google search results in this case have a different layout for this query – Google featured snippet (products), the paid Ad, organic positions 1 and 2, before a ‘people also asked’ section, organic positions including image results and then finally a location-based search result.
Mobile again showed similar results, but not in the same display format, or in the same order. The layout looked like this; Google featured snippets (products), two organic results, ‘people also ask’, then an Etsy feature, images and finally a location-based search result.
From this I can safely say that Google are tailoring the search result experience for their users in a personalised way, basing ranking in three key ways;
Relevancy and helpfulness, based on your previous device search use and website authority of those using your keyword string on their website, or in their blog content.
Informational formats based on device interaction
Results based on your personal historical interaction with websites (in this case they showed me Etsy as a result option on mobile, because I have historically used Etsy a lot on my mobile phone).
If I make the same searches on my partners mobile, I see a variation in results again.
So, what does this tell me? It tells me that I need to work on individual content, as well as website pages that speaks to a number of different search result options, whether that is trying to rank high enough to be highlighted in Google snippets, or have video, images, location tags or products pulled from my content for other sections, or trying to rank higher on different device types (for this I’ll need my Google analytics reports, specifically on device usage).
“It is becoming harder to rank on page 1 of Google because there are so many factors to consider. To solve this, it is really important you up your content game.”
It seems, more than ever that Google try to anticipate and suggest your next step and give featured snippet and organic results based on what they assume your next step will be, so you do not necessarily have to leave Google to find your answer in all cases. This is called ‘Google’s approach to intent’ and you can see this primarily in Google featured snippet result formats, in particular snippets like lists, definitions, or charts.
Deciding on the new keywords I want to rank for
Ultimately sourcing new keywords is about understanding the market you serve, the searches your ideal client will make using Google’s search engine and what your competitors are ranking for. This takes a bit of time, a lot of probing and learning.
If I were to start a new keyword SEO project with a client I’d be looking to come up with a plan for two keyword categories; Seed keywords and short/long tail keywords.
What is a Seed keyword?
A seed keyword is a foundation word or two-word phrase that becomes part of a short-tail, or longtail keyword phrase, but in itself never changes. For example, a seed keyword could be a brand name, like ‘Persil’, or it could be a phrase, like ‘yoga class’.
Let us use the ‘Persil’ seed keyword in two short-tail keyword settings, so you understand;
‘Persil automatic’
‘Persil washing powder’
Now let us use the ‘yoga class’ seed keyword in two short-tail keyword settings;
‘Yoga class London’
‘Yoga class free’
Your chosen seed keyword is also something with which you want to gain the most visibility on search engines and become linked to.
What is a short-tail keyword?
A short-tail keyword is only one or two words long in most cases and carries less grammatic or spoken significance, in that they do not always form what we would regard as a sentence structure. For example, ‘Yoga class London’.
This type of keyword is used less often in content these days but gives the majority of ranking keyword results because they are used on many website pages, rather than a piece of content marketing. For example, my ‘Yoga class London’ short-tail keyword could be used on every page of my London yoga studio website, including the meta-data.
What is a longtail keyword?
A longtail keyword by comparison is made up of 3-5 words generally and specifically relates to a niche search result. These are more heavily used in content marketing, particularly on website blogs and on landing pages. An example of a long tail keyword might be, ‘Yoga class near Oxford Street’. Longtail keywords are generally used for more specific content, in this case it might be a blog post about your new classes near Oxford Street, or it could be a review of a yoga class near Oxford Street that you attended.
Once I have my keywords in place, I can set about working on my content plan. For me, that means more audience relevant blog posts now that I have revamped my website to suit my new business focus.
“Choose 5-6 Seed keywords to start with and grow your short and longtail keyword strategy from there. This will make it easier to keep track of your online visibility strategy.”
Learning to create better content
Learning to create better content for your website is the best way to start ranking in search for the keywords with which you wish to be found. For many of us this content is created in the form of a blog, regardless of what sort of business website you have created and what audience you are catering to.
I have always prided myself on creating blog posts that are helpful and more than ever I see the idea of helpfulness shining through in what Google are looking for. You can see how they base their approach to intent with results based on questions like; how is your content useful and helpful to the Google user? How accurate and helpful would it be to draw from your site content to make a Google featured snippet? And I think being helpful to your potential client is ultimately going to win the day in sales also, because if we are priming that great content to be found in Google search and it answers a need, or a question, then people are more likely to form a trust relationship with the author… and, as we know, people buy from people they trust.
What is next on my Google ranking journey?
This is my take on how creating SEO led, helpful content is going to win the day for any website launch, rebrand and ultimately Google ranking in 2020. So, my own journey continues and the work on my rebranded and refocused website’s content marketing starts!
If you need a copywriter to create compelling copy, someone who understands SEO, fill in the project brief form below!
