Google changes their algorithm annually, most of them are not important, but every now and then they do Broad Core Algorithm updates, and Google tries to give sites with better content a chance against reputable brands and have built authority over the years.
There are strategies to build good SEO practices to compete against the big players as a small company.
Since the Covid scenario in 2020, websites that are related to health and money are experiencing a higher level of scrutiny from Google and it is harder to advance in the ranks of SEO, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible to build up authority.
There’s something called EAT - Expertise, authority and trust. These are the three pillars you want to focus on if you want to optimize your blog, website or articles.
As a content creator, you want to focus on the core vitals which are Site Speed, Mobile optimization, and website usability which includes design.
Breaking down SEO
SEO can be break down in three parts, the first two are pretty simple and are concepts easy to grasp whereas the third one is actually very hard to accomplish.
- Keyword research - the process of identifying all keywords you need to rank for.
- On-page SEO - The correct website structure and copywriting on every page of your website.
- The process of ranking higher.
Keyword research
For any worthwhile keyword, it is extremely competitive to rank in google, so choosing poorly can end up in not getting anything out of this. You have to pick keywords that vibe with your business.
Long tail vs short tail keywords
In order to choose correct keywords, you need to take into account timing and intent, which is what exactly people want, and that they want it now. This is crucial because it is extremely easy to sell them what they want at that moment.
Even the smallest differences in how people type in their searches, can change the way you rank in a search. We have to understand that even popular searches are not profitable because they are too open to interpretation and might render your website useless to the user - ie, if someone searches for “Dog training” you don’t know if they need a trainer, if they want to learn how to train a dog, if they want to become a trainer, or if they are looking for tutorials, or if they want to teach their dog proper training or pee training etc.
That’s a short-tail search, there’s too much competition and many websites want to appear on that search.
Now going back to the last example, if you are a dog training agency that specializes in training a dog for competitions, then focusing on SEO and showing your website on a “Training a dog for competitions” search is the best way to go. This is a good example of “long-tail keywords” search.
Long-tail keywords are easier to rank higher for in because the longer they are, the better chance you have to be the top search because fewer websites are competing with you.
Then if you think about it, if you are a company based in London, focusing your SEO as “Training a dog for competitions in London” is the best way to go, that will narrow your audience and will definitely show your website as a top option in search results.
Quick example:
- Lucrative but short tail, high competition: Best Cryptocurrencies
- Long-tail but with a lot of competition: Best Cryptocurrencies, decentralized, no CEO
- Best Long-tail with fewer competition: Cryptocurrencies, decentralized, no CEO, DPOS, no pre mine, no ICO
It will be harder for people to search the third option, but if the user searches for 3-4 keywords on your focus, your website will rank higher on their search results.
About Keyword density and stuffing
Keyword density is all about the number of times you want a keyword to appear in your content. It must be natural and you want it to be there about 5-7% of the whole article, but it must also be natural, if you add it too many times without actual purpose, google will penalize you and your content will rank lower.
There are tools that will show you the keyword density of your article. One of the best tools to do this is SEO review tools.
These websites will rank your article’s frequency and density on keywords and phrases, and they will allow you to decide how and if you want to rephrase your content in order to increase the number of times you are using your target keyword. They will also show you if your content has too many keywords and phrases you are actually not targeting, and you will be able to change them in order to not rank higher on searches that you actually don’t want to rank in.
If you repeat keywords or phrases too few times then Google will think your articles is not about the topic you actually want to rank higher in a search, but also if you repeat keywords too much then google will penalize you for stuffing and you will not rank high in those searches.
These tools have their own ideas on what is ideal in terms of density, but I’ve learned that if you stay over 3% and under 7% on keyword density you are safe.
It’s always a good practice to check how your content is doing and then play with the density of the keywords you are targeting to rank high in searches.
There is not an official amount of keyword density from google, but the SEO community has a common parameter which is between 2-7% being 3-5% the best approach.
Other useful tools for SEO
Answer the Public is an easy to use website that shows a tree diagram where you can see how your content is linked and shows you the keyword variety in your content. It presents keywords in a dimension that is useful in terms of how you link your phrases and concepts.
This post is part of a series where I break down SEO for Hive and Leo Finance users, I will edit this post to include the next posts I make about this. I hope you like it!