How We Reached The Top SERP Spots On Google
If you haven’t ever used Cognitive before or you are not comfortable enough to use the Google Search Console, it is worth it to use Rank Tracker to track your current content’s keyword position before you begin.
The first steps that you want to take are:
Identify the existing content that you decide needs improvements.
Use the ‘Cognitive Keyword Tool’ to search for your main keyword.
Use ‘Content Assistant’ to optimize your content.
Inside the Google, Search Console fetch your URL.
Step 1: Find Your Existing Content That You Want To Improve
Locating pages that have queries or keywords that rank currently lower than the top five on Google is a good place to start.
The “sweet spot” is to choose keywords sitting in the 4 to 30 positions. The blue line over it did great, as you can see.
Step 2: Use the Cognitive Keyword Tool to look for your Main Keyword
Choose the main keyword or term that you would like to rank for and then use the keyword tool to search for it. I select “SEO agency” in my example below as my main keyword phrase.
Choose whatever page or keyword you want since I have been successful with category pages on blog articles, home pages, and e-commerce websites.
Note what the average performance score is on the content. The goal is beating it on your optimization round. (What I recommend that you do is start a new Google document and then add it on top to help remind you of what your target is).
It is a good idea to pull the relevancy scores out and take any score that is more than 3 stars into consideration. Get your new content created so that it reads well, and initially don’t worry about your keyword phrases. After you are finished, copy down the keywords that are suggested by Cognitive and work a structure out for your articles that are based on the 3 to 5-star terms.
It is a great idea to see what your competition’s pages are doing when it comes to look and feel of their pages to see how their content flows. There is a reason why Google likes those websites, so that’s a ‘no-brainer.’ (It is ultimately because the visitors do very well!)
For this example, here is the action you want to take: Write a 700 to 4,000-word piece of content that beats a 69 score.
Step 3: Use Content Assistant to Optimize
Go into Content Assistant, and then press on ‘Import Link’ on the top right if it is for an existing page (and it even can score raw code). Or otherwise, take your content and copy and paste it in the relevant sections and then click on ‘Check Score.’ This is a new website so typically it won’t sore very well yet, however, if you export your list and then scroll down the right-hand side there will be the keywords for you to export and then use. There is an option to change the copy in real time on the left-hand side, however, each time you check the score it lowers your monthly overall allowance.
I prefer optimizing outside by using a Google document file so to not squeeze in keywords when they aren’t necessary and to make sure that your blog post or article still reads very well. Then repeat this process, and after you feel you have done a really good job, you will hopefully beat your competitor’s score. If you haven’t, then take one step back and then where you can improve your content.
Step 4: Use Google Search Console to Fetch the URL
Log in to the Google Search Console and get your revised URL.
(I am not convinced that speeds the process up but it is a habit that I do every time now).
Results
Results may be manipulated, however, the graphs illustrate the kind of content so it doesn’t rely on easy pickings or seasonal wins. Based on what my findings are, you should be encouraged to test this yourself.
The first content piece below was created for a SAAS company that has grown from zero to nearly 7,000 clicks per year.
We did it without any promotion or backlinks: Pure gain from organic traffic.
There are some keywords that might take longer to get developed but website traffic appears when good content is produced using the ‘Content Assistant.’
So to reiterate, I do go for easy choices when it comes to keywords. I don’t think there are many of those anyway, but the above example has been optimized recently and shows there has been positive progress made within a short period of time.
I continue to recommend that individuals build backlinks and receive more traffic for their websites. Usually, the two go together. So what if I were to tell you that you can drive lots of traffic to our site without having to manually build any links?
The Difference Between Referral and Organic Traffic
I have two kinds of traffic sources:
1. Referral Traffic
2. Organic Traffic
For example, referral traffic may be Forbes linking to your site. If somebody clicks on the link on Forbes.com and lands on your website, then that is what referral traffic is.
Remember the two influence each other. For example, after getting a backlink from a highly-ranked website like Forbes, it really can push you higher up the SERPs, and that will bring more organic traffic to your website as well.
Each backlink you receive is like getting a vote of confidence for your website. It is like an election. The individual who gets the most votes, or links, will usually win. Rankings in the search result work in the same way.
The real question then is – how can receive higher amounts of organic traffic without having to rely on referral traffic?
Research and Write Viral Content
The easiest and fastest way to receive traffic without having to build any backlinks is to create viral content. There are many articles on Buzzfeed and Upworthy that break down the best way to write viral articles. So if you have been reading them, you will get a lot better sense of how you can create something that may go viral. (Here is a hint for you: use BuzzSumo to see what is trending and then create a piece of content that is even better.)
When I am attempting to create viral content the other thing that I do is go onto YouTube, find out what is hot, and then attempt to create content around these topics. Typically blog posts inspired by YouTube do quite well.
Double Down on your Long-Tail Keywords
In terms of receiving good traffic, another thing that I pay close attention to my long-tail keywords. So many people are trying to compete for terms such as “auto insurance,” “credit cards,” and “online marketing.” They don’t try competing for terms such as “how to find affordable health insurance while you are in college.”
Those long tail keywords get a significant amount of search volume still. They get more volume actually than some of the shorter but similar keyword phrases.
So you say your website is all about hair care. You could write an article called “What is hair care?” But you wouldn’t do that, since you know nobody online would ever search for this. Instead, write an article more like “How great curls can be created for your hair.” These types of a long tail keyword are ones that many people search for.
After writing those long tail keyword content pieces, will you start getting good search traffic within three to four months? No, not likely. However, within six months to one year, you will start to see your ranks start to significantly climb.
Answer The Burning Questions That Your Audience Has
You need to realize that a majority of individuals when they search on Google, are typing in questions or parts of the question. Those kinds of long tail keywords frequently are low-hanging fruit and get tons of traffic as well.
A really good way that you can find the types of questions people are asking is using auto-complete on Google, search for popular questions on Quora, and search through Wikipedia results. So whenever you see really high ranking Wikipedia results, there might be an opportunity for you to get a first-page ranking since a majority of Wikipedia pages do not have a lot of backlinks. Paid tools such as Moz can also be used to seepage or domain authority to see the top five rankings.
Take Advantage of Niche Topics
In SEO’s Wild West day, before Google Panda, numerous individual becomes microsite millionaires through simply creating websites and hundreds of pages that were all based on a specific niche topic. These days, you are unable to pull this off any longer – but you still can rank very high by focusing on a specific niche topic if you are a digital marketing expert.
For instance, I am part owner of a gun blog, and currently, we don’t build many links to it, but the site still receives 180,000 visitors a month. I have also investigated the niche of senior living.
There are so many different niches that are available, and nobody is really competing in those spaces from the perspective of content marketing. Think about the number of individuals in the U.S. would want to read a gun blog with high-quality content, and how many seniors all over the world could use advice about senior living?
If you begin to write very good content through using the skyscraper technique by Brian Dean for a niche that is neglected, you don’t need to drive any backlinks, you still will rank.
Here is another example for you. If you Google “sales team” you will see that a Growth Everywhere blog post is the number one result. I also didn’t drive any backlinks to it. This page began to rank due to the fact that my website had good authority, and also due to the fact that “sales team’ apparently is a keyword that is somewhat neglected, which does blow my mind.
So look at the niches that you are the most interested in. If a niche has not been covered too much, then you can start to rank fairly easily.
Target Foreign Markets
Esposas online is another good example of successful niche marketing. This Brazilian blog teaches women how they can please their husbands. The blog provides them with advice on things such as how to make their bed, cook better meals, and other domestic things. Of course, I am not a woman’s responsibility is pleasing her husband, is just happens to be what this website is all about and it gets lots of traffic.
They built just seven backlinks for the whole site. They get more than 100,000 unique visitors from Google per month. Why is that? Because content marketing is not that popular yet in Brazil. The strategies that worked in the U.S. before Google Panda still work fairly well in countries such as Brazil since they haven’t reached keyword saturation yet.
So when you create content for various countries, such as Eastern Europe or Latin America, there isn’t a lot of competition. Most websites publish English content. There are many websites that target Mandarin in spite of the Great Firewall since up to 200 million Chinese use VPNs (nearly the same as the U.S. population).
So if you are targeting other than U.S. markets and write in those native languages, you will be able to receive tons of search traffic without needing to do a lot of manual work.