Is your business website just there – or is it a real online presence? To reap the benefits of what online marketing has to offer, you need to stand out from the competition – and that means increasing your Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking so your products or services rise to the top like proverbial cream. The good news is – this isn’t impossible and it doesn’t require a huge marketing budget. All you need is time, fresh content, and a strong message.
We’ve compiled 5 growth hacking methods that will increase your SERP rankings with some resources to help you get where you want to be – in rank that is.
1. Creating Content
Create great content that provides a helpful (and sometimes in-depth) resource for users. Make it your goal to publish a new and value-adding blog post at least twice a week. After some time, you can see just how effective your content strategy is by calculating the ROI of your inbound marketing strategy.
2. Sharing Content
Pay special attention to your product pages by creating high quality images, well-written product descriptions (of 250 words minimum), and adding ways for users to share that page on Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks. Shareable content is what the new SEO is all about. Like we mentioned in one of our previous blogs,
“If you’ve spent one hour or ten hours creating a piece of content, then here’s the Golden Rule: Spend at least that same amount of time promoting it!” (Click to Tweet) – See how we did that?
3. Network for Backlinks
Part of how search engines rank websites is by how well the link-building process is done with the help of link-build tools for SEO and how many other good-quality websites link back to them (and to what words they attach their links). Paying for backlinks is frowned upon by Google, and practically demanded by bloggers (who know the value of “link juice”), but a nice way to thread the needle is to offer free products to bloggers for review. It’s best to approach small to mid-sized bloggers who are working their way up for two reasons:
- They’ll be happy with a free product or giveaway for their readership
- As their blogs and readerships grow, so does their authority, and so does the value of that backlink.
Another method to generating quality links is to have guest bloggers. You can count on your guest bloggers to click your backlinks.
4. The Media
Get the media in on the action. If your product aims to solve a problem in your niche market, craft your marketing message around that. The media loves a good solution; so when you have your strong central message, pedal it around to online and print publications serving your market.
Another approach in keeping up with the media: Know who’s talking about your company or industry to chime in on a discussion or build your twist of the content that is relative to your audience. Set up Google Alerts for your top keywords and keep your content and presence fresh.
5. Search Engine Optimization
Stick around longer than the other guys. The age of your domain name isn’t a make-or-break factor, but it does help search engines determine your SERP ranking. The longer you’ve been doing SEO right, the harder it is for your competitors to outrank you. Here’s more on SEO!
Start planning your SMART Marketing Goals to know what content you want to create to feed your online presence and thus increase your site’s ranking. Click the link below for your complimentary template.
