4 strategies to help companies rise in the Google rankings

SEO can be a tough nut to crack and especially so when Google unleashes new ranking algorithms without warning – unless you’re one of those businesses fortunate enough to have a full-time SEO. And yes, for those readers that aren’t in the know, SEO isn’t just the process of improving digital visibility, it’s also a job title: search engine optimizer. The emergence of this position goes to show you just how prevalent the practice of SEO has become. 

For many businesses, the multi-faceted approach required to tackle SEO can be daunting. It requires research to identify target keywords, the development of a content marketing strategy, and various efforts to mitigate the risk involved with incoming links and more. The shear time involved can be a challenge for some businesses to find – let alone the required skill sets.

There are, however, a few things that business users can do from an SEO perspective that are both out of the box and effective. Those tasks, as recommended by Prashant Puri, founder of AdLift and a speaker at the Searchmetrics Visibility_14 conference, include:  

1. Conducting competitive analysis

Considering the high value placed on content, it can be incredibly frustrating to find that your website’s content might be missing the mark. But, it can also be incredibly helpful to learn what topics are being covered in your industry on relevant competitor websites. By doing so, you can get a feel for what content readers are looking for.

Ahrefs.com, a website devoted to exploring websites and checking back links, is a good resource to tap into for conducting competitive analysis. Puri also mentioned that another way to research what your competitors are posting is by setting up various Google Alerts to get notifications for when fresh content is being syndicated. Google Alerts can be set up for keyword sets, as well.

2. Looking at social closely

Conducting competitive analysis is incredibly helpful, but Puri highlighted the value that can come from honing in on social influencers. Ahrefs.com can help businesses take their content to the next level by focusing on the companies that have high social engagement. 

The same is true for a website called Topsy.com. Puri said that by looking at your keyword set and using Topsy.com to understand the different sites and social influencers talking about those topics, businesses can better filter based on the freshness of the content.

3. Acquiring broken links

Also during his presentation at the Searchmetrics event, Puri brought up a white hat tactic that while fairly time consuming, can work wonders. He said to begin the process by identifying relevant sites you want an inbound link from – a highly prized element of SEO. The goal, Puri said, is to reach out to the webmasters on the identified sites and say, “Hey, your link is broken, but I have relevant content to fill that link.”

And although Puri walked attendees through the entire process of tracking down broken links, Moz.com produced an article titled “The Broken Link Building Bible,” with comprehensive instructions.

4. Obtaining image attribution

To receive additional inbound links, Puri also suggested that attendees look at their most shared articles and then do an image search of those articles. Google spits out all of the different images associated with that article title, Puri said, and if you find any of those websites not linking back to you, you can contact them to get a back link.

So although there are many different ways to get on Google’s good side, Puri’s recommendations are definitely worth considering. After all, the payoff will come in the form of increased visibility and with it, increased sales – the utmost fruits of SEO labor.