How to rank on first on Google without spending a fortune?

You are here because you want the first peek at some of the well-kept secrets of SEO. Well, the secret is – it does not matter if you have ten years’ worth experience or a $10,000 optimization budget. You need to start at the same place every other successful website has begun irrespective of their budgets and current status.

How to begin?

Start by using Google to check your ranking status for relevant keywords. For example – if your company offers easy business loans for startups, try using keywords like “easy small business loans” and check your rank. More often, a company has more than one registered service. Therefore, you may want to check your rank for other services as well.

If you are an SEO beginner, then chances are, you are nowhere near the first page. Do not be discouraged. Coming to the first page takes much hard work. It does not always make much money, but it is a continuous process that commands long-term commitment.

Is it possible to outweigh the top guns of your industry?

If you can leverage your keywords correctly, it is indeed possible to rank above the top sellers of your industry. Some companies have been around for years, and they are the digital paperweights of the first page of Google SRL. You can outsmart them by adapting newer technique including longer tailed keywords and seed keywords. If you are thinking about putting in some money in your SEO plan, invest in excellent tools that will keep your keyword game up-to-date.

What keywords should you target?

While you can use paid keyword tools and research to find new topics for your blogs or new terms for your website content. You can also use Google AdWords to find out the latest trend of keywords in your industry. You need to start by creating a My Business account. Once you are through with that, you can check all top ranking keywords, related keywords and trend search terms on your AdWords accounts.

The easiest way to do this is – pick and keyword and look for its performance on Google Keyword Planner. You should use keywords that have at least 500-1000 monthly searches. This is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to conduct effective keyword research while bypassing random numbers and complex analytics.

How will on-page SEO help with page optimization?

Start with long-form content. You should target about 1500-2000 words per post. Many keyword experts will try to tell you otherwise; however, the sad truth is – there is no perfect keyword density. According to the leading Seattle SEO company, if your post is around 2000 words, try keeping the keyword density to about 1%-1.5%.

Longer posts offer better chances for optimization –

1. Start with the title. Make sure your keyword is present in the title. Keep the title to about 100 characters and keep it simple. Do not include stop words or grammatically incorrect words in your title.
2. For your URL, you can use a URL generator tool. Always include your keyword in the right order. Do not include stop words like articles and contractions. Keep is simple. Include the keyword in your URL slug as well.

• Make use of different header hierarchies. Your H1 tag should have your keyword. Do not stuff your keyword inside your H2 and H3 headers. Most WordPress themes auto-generate the H1 tag, so be careful.

1. Include LSI keywords. These are the search terms present at the bottom of a Google search result under “search related to… (keyword)”. They are essential for ranking. People rarely use these LSI keywords, and that gives you a competitive edge.
2. Include alternate text and image description in your pictures. Make sure to include your primary keyword in your alternate text of the picture as well. The same works for infographics and videos. The description is for the search engine crawlers which can understand the context of an image. This is how you can rank for image searches as well.
3. Every long form content should have outbound links and internal links. Outbound links work exactly like real-life references. Outbound links to authority sites work as rank boosters. At least five outbound links to reliable sites with a high Google Page Rank is great for ranking.

• You can add about five inbound links to a 1500-2000 word post. This is the perfect link balance for all blog posts right now.

Once you have covered all 7 points, you can move on to off-page SEO. Off-page is all about marketing and promotions. Make use of all your social media accounts, marketing channels and influencer contacts to promote the mention of your website (page).

Maintaining a strict SEO routine and making it your everyday practice is the only secret to optimization success.

Author Bio: Ariel Powell is the digital marketing expert of the leading Seattle SEO company. She has been working on the latest changes brought in by Google algorithm and its effects of SEO.