Website promotion in the TOP of Google

Why do you need competitor analysis?

After the technical audit, it is necessary to conduct a competitor analysis. This stage is mandatory in the work on promoting the site to the top of search engines, as it allows you to find out:

• what positions their sites occupy in search results;
• what queries they are optimized for;
• how convenient their resources are;
• do they use linking strategies;
• how quickly they respond to potential clients’ requests through various communication channels.

The completion of this stage will be the development of a detailed plan for the development and promotion of the resource to the top. The specialist will include in it the key queries for which it is necessary to create and optimize landing pages, list the changes required on the site. If major changes are required – making changes to the CMS or design – he will clarify this, assessing the terms and cost of such work from programmers and designers. You will find out the cost of bringing the site to the top already at this stage.

The meaning of the semantic core

One of the initial steps in promoting a website to the top is keyword analysis. Specialized tools will help identify all queries that users may search for, determine their frequency, seasonality, and level of competition.

Frequency is the number of times a query was entered into the search bar by users over the last month.

Seasonality is the influence of the time of year on user queries. For example, the query “buy winter tires” will be seasonal, while “buy a refrigerator” will not.

Competition — the number of sites relevant to a given query. Promotion to the top for queries with high competition will be more expensive and difficult.

Keywords are needed for:

• content on your site;
• meta tags and headings;
• texts on external platforms.

The result of the work at this stage is an extensive database of queries, structured by main topics. For example, if your business is related to household appliances, you will have different lists of keywords for vacuum cleaners, kettles, refrigerators, and so on.

Formation of a simple and convenient website structure

Keywords are placed in the relevant sections of the resource (formation of categories and subcategories), which allows the site to better meet requests and improves user experience. A properly designed structure helps bring the site to the top of search results and increase conversion.

It is important that the structure of the site is convenient for visitors. This can be achieved through:

• simple navigation (the user should quickly find the necessary information);
• use of filters and search functions (the faster the user finds what he is looking for, the better);
• quick access to pages (ideal if the necessary information is available in 2-3 clicks);
• categorization of content (each category should contain relevant content).

If the site covers several cities or regions, each location should have its own set of pages. It is important to avoid duplicating content on these pages, otherwise search engines may lower the site’s ranking.

Developing a structure is a long process, so the sooner you start working on it, the faster the results will be visible and the site will take top positions.

What works does internal optimization consist of?

The actions taken at this stage have a positive effect on raising the site to the top of search results and bring more than 95% of the effectiveness of SEO promotion.

During the work on this stage, obstacles that hinder the effective promotion of the resource are eliminated, after which organic traffic begins to arrive.

This stage includes the following actions:

• customization of website page headings, title and description meta tags;
• formation of clear URL addresses that reflect the subject matter of the pages;
• setting up micro-markup for better understanding of content by search robots;
• removing duplicate pages to increase the uniqueness of the resource and raise it to the top positions;
• creating an XML sitemap to indicate pages for indexing to search robots;
• improving the speed of loading website pages (slow loading scares off users);
• managing multilingual content (if the site has different language versions).

How to properly optimize content

Pages created based on the semantic core are filled with content. This stage is also necessary to bring the site to the top of the search. Writing texts just to fill the space is the wrong approach. Texts should answer questions and objections of potential clients, and also be optimized for selected queries. Therefore, to promote a site to the top, texts are created by copywriters.

The SEO specialist develops a technical task for the authors. It contains a list of requirements for the texts:

• structure – headings h1-h6, their content, lists;
• volume (in characters with or without spaces);
• keywords (queries), their number and types;
• requirements for uniqueness and other technical parameters;
• Recommendations for formatting meta tags.

After creating the texts, they must be placed on the site pages. It is also necessary to fill in the title and description meta tags, from which snippets are formed – short descriptions in search results. They must be attractive to attract users to the site.

Images also play a significant role in promoting a resource to the top, so they are also optimized.

How to properly conduct external optimization?

In order to bring a site to the top, backlinks to the resource are also required. However, to advance in the ranking, they must be natural, not spammy. In order not to damage the site’s reputation, the increase in the number of backlinks should occur evenly and gradually. Quality is more important here than quantity. If search engines suspect that links to your site are acquired artificially, there is a risk of falling under the filter, which will lead to a drop in the rating from the top positions and a transition to the last pages of search results.

As part of the work on external optimization, a natural backlink profile is formed. It should contain links:

• from various sources (social networks, blogs, forums, etc.);
• with different types of anchor texts, including links without an anchor;
• with different anchor lengths;
• only from reliable, authoritative resources and so on.

A user-friendly resource increases its ranking because behavior factors improve: bounce rates decrease, time spent on pages increases, and interaction increases. In addition, such a site rises to the top and converts visitors into customers better: potential customers are more likely to make a purchase on a user-friendly and attractive resource.

How to improve usability?

To ensure quick navigation of users through sections and pages of the site, “breadcrumbs” are used. They display the full path from the main page to the current one. If such navigation is not provided, users may get confused and probably close the tab so as not to waste time. Then your resource may start losing top positions.

Order buttons, callback buttons, feedback forms — these elements should attract maximum attention of users. Otherwise, the probability of placing an order decrease.

And finally, about the website design – it should not be bright with aggressive colors and small unreadable font. It is better to make it laconic and restrained, but convenient, than to follow the latest fashion trends. Otherwise, users will quickly leave the site, which will affect the bounce rate and, as a result, the loss of positions in the top search.