{"id":15379,"date":"2018-11-13T22:26:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T22:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/directiveconsulting.com\/ca\/?p=15379"},"modified":"2024-05-23T07:42:31","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T11:42:31","slug":"a-step-by-step-guide-to-boost-search-engine-rank-position-asap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/directiveconsulting.com\/ca\/blog\/a-step-by-step-guide-to-boost-search-engine-rank-position-asap\/","title":{"rendered":"A Step-by-Step Guide to Boost Search Engine Rank Position ASAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you\u2019ve done keyword research and found a target keyword that has a good balance of search volume and not too high of a keyword difficulty score. Time to start producing that content and your search engine rank position will increase, right? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hold your horses. <\/span><\/p>\n

Effectively assessing your opponents\u2019 strengths and weaknesses is vital for positioning your content to gain keyword rankings that bring in traffic. Also known as a SERP<\/a> Analysis, search engine rank analysis helps you discover what’s resonating with your audience and what aspects may need an upgrade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Optimize<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Understanding the way keywords work in Google\u2019s current first page rankings is critical. It helps you increase your speed to ranking and ensures your blog is a high-quality beacon of industry-leading information. Doing a good search engine rank position analysis is like the bridge that spans the gap between strong keyword research and a great content piece. With all of these pieces together, you’ll have content that ranks and brings in traffic faster.<\/span><\/p>\n

When should you inject a healthy dose of SERPA into your keyword research and content production process? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rest of your life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But seriously, once you start including this step into your content creation process, the value becomes immediately apparent. When done correctly, this single step takes you from being a hip-shooting content marketer and turns you into a sharpshooting sniper taking out top 10 rankings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to ask ourselves a lot of questions and provide insightful answers to help you create better content, create it more efficiently, and create it with a higher chance of outranking existing pages already on the first page of results. <\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll do this while simultaneously interweaving layers of analogies and metaphors that will turn this article into a living, breathing document. <\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1: What is the User\u2019s Search Intent?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first step of your search engine rank position analysis will be thinking about what the user’s search intent might be. Our goal is to figure out whether this search is informational, transactional, or navigational. What does the user want to do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Informational searches tend to consist of people looking for general information. \u00a0For most of our blog topics, we\u2019ll want to make sure we\u2019re writing for informational search queries that we can add valuable answers to and give better answers than the currently ranking top 10 results. <\/span><\/p>\n

We want to build credibility for being the source where visitors come to for relevant trends and topics… every time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Navigational and transactional search queries tend to be done by people looking to take action or get somewhere specific. Navigational search queries are people looking to visit a particular site or a specific page within a site. Transactional search queries are people looking to take a make moves on a site like making a purchase or contacting a sales rep. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paradoxically, a search for directions to a restaurant is not a navigational search but would actually be a transactional search because they\u2019re on their way to take action. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to ask yourself, \u201cDoes my content meet what my audience is searching for?\u201d If not, it\u2019s time to make some adjustments. <\/span><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Local 3-Pack<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you do almost any search and add \u201cnear me\u201d to it, you\u2019ll likely see Google\u2019s Local 3-Pack appear. This search feature shows Google map results, aggregate review ratings, and business contact info. This is good to know when you\u2019re trying to align keywords to a local service or product.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Knowledge Panel<\/span><\/h3>\n

There are two types of knowledge panels to be aware of: local and branded\/personal. Seeing one of these panels in the right-hand column of search results is your signal that the keyword phrase is an informational search. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Google's<\/p>\n

Try typing in \u201cTop Celine Dion Songs\u201d to see a big audacious knowledge panel in all its glory. <\/span><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Answer Box<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Google's<\/p>\n

The answer box usually appears when someone is searching for quick or direct answers to specific questions, e.g., \u201cconvert 189 lbs to kg\u201d, or \u201ccapital of Idaho.\u201d \u00a0If I see an answer box on a search query I want to create content for, then I\u2019m going to think long and hard about whether I can do better than Google\u2019s direct answer on the SERP. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since\u00a0we can\u2019t necessarily \u201crank\u201d for the answer box, we might capture some of the traffic below where users don’t quite get their question answered in the box.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Google Search Ads <\/span><\/h3>\n

Are you writing a piece of content to rank organically without looking at whether or not Google shows ads for the target keyword? Let\u2019s take a step back and revise our strategy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Content that helps people purchase (transactional searches) can be very different than content that helps people learn (they don\u2019t always have to be mutually exclusive though), and your content should be tailored for these different search intents. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If we search \u201chow to save Orca whales,\u201d you might see one ad at the top of the SERP which tells us that people trying to save Orca whales might be inclined to donate money or buy a save the whales t-shirt to help their cause. \u00a0The organic results consist of either general information about the whales or guides on how to save the whales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now if we search \u201cOrca whale t-shirts\u201d, we\u2019ll see a shopping ads carousel at the top with one text ad below it, and three ads at the bottom of the SERP. \u00a0Also, all of the organic results show product pages where we can buy t-shirts and can this way deduce that people searching for \u201cOrca whale t-shirts\u201d have a high commercial intent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2: \u00a0What Does the Data Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Find<\/p>\n

This is the most time-consuming step in the search engine position analysis because we\u2019re going to roll up our sleeves and read the content on those top 10 ranking pages. Automation and tools are great, but they\u2019re still no match for a mind honed in the search engine rank position analysis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, we\u2019re going to take it a step further by creating a spreadsheet that lets us take a glance at the on-page factors that influence rankings so we have a clear idea of how to position our piece. <\/span><\/p>\n

SERP tools discussed below will help save you time by efficiently compiling and presenting data. However, they don\u2019t actually inject information into your brain the same way that taking the time to read and inspect your competition\u2019s pages does.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are the main factors we\u2019ll include in our spread, and walk through an example of grabbing this data further down. <\/span><\/p>\n