Get Ranked High in 2020: 6 Proven SEO Strategies for Small Businesses and Startups
- SEO Plan for Higher Search Rankings in 2020
- Using the Right Keywords Is More Important Than Ever
- Produce Value-Added, Creative, and Engaging Content
- Master the Art of Link Building to Improve Your Google Ranking in 2020
- Leverage the Power of Video to Boost Audience Engagement and Retention
- Prioritize Local SEO to Increase Conversion Rate
- Create a Mobile-Friendly, Optimized, and Visually Compelling Website
- How Do You Get on the First Page of Google In 2020?
As the COVID-19 pandemic pushes digital marketing to the forefront, small businesses and startups are increasingly focusing on establishing a killer online presence.
Why?
While sidelining digitalization may have allowed brands to get by in the past, it’s simply not a feasible option today. Brands that fail to adopt digitalization suffer with deteriorating metrics and revenue loss.
With over 293 million Americans spending approximately 6.5 hours online each day, establishing a strong online presence is imperative.
But that’s not simply it.
With the large majority of small businesses and startups establishing and maintaining a competitive online presence, standing out from the crowd has become more important than ever.
This is where SEO steps in. Optimizing your content goes a long way in attracting high-quality traffic that helps convert visitors into leads.
If you’re confused about how to rank higher on Google in 2020, we’ll walk you through some of the most effective SEO strategies that are bound to help you steer your business toward success.
While you may have engaged with our previous blog on improving search rankings in 2018, there have been several advancements in strategies and methods since. We suggest comparing the two blogs so you can track updates and make a note of unchanged techniques to tweak your SEO strategy accordingly.
Let’s dive in!
SEO Plan for Higher Search Rankings in 2020
1. Using the Right Keywords Is More Important Than Ever
If you’re new to the world of digital marketing, it’s easy to get confused and think you’re doing enough by simply producing content.
According to research, the first five search results on Google receive over 67.6% of all clicks.
Astonishing, right?
If you’re simply producing content, it’s very likely that your page is showing up on the sixth, seventh, or thirtieth SERP. And it should come as no surprise that a whopping 75% of people never scroll past the first page of SERPs.
If you want your content to show up on the first page of Google in 2020, you have to go the extra mile.
Using the right keywords is still one of the most effective ways to climb SERPs and attract quality traffic. Start off by diving into the deep end of keyword research. Use a reliable keyword research tool or consult SEO experts who can do the work for you.
We suggest incorporating the right mix of short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords, and geo-targeting keywords.
Use Google Trends to check the search volume trend of each keyword beforehand.
For instance, time-specific keywords like “Valentine’s day gifts” and “Christmas” peak around a very specific time period.
Remain cognizant of trending keywords and incorporate them into your content accordingly.
However, the insertion should be natural and seamless.
If you can manage to establish a strong and smooth connection between the keywords and your industry-specific content, go for it! If it seems forced, however, it’s better to abandon the idea than risk alienating readers.
Think outside the box and get your creative juices flowing to find unique ways to tailor your content in accordance with the selected keywords.
While branching out into new topics is a great idea, they should still fall within your niche.
For instance, if you run a hair salon, you can continue to produce blogs with time-specific keywords like “work from home.”
We also suggest optimizing your content by using keyword-friendly title tags, meta descriptions, meta keywords, and URLs. Optimize images by using alt tags and image tags.
Here’s a great example of a strong title tag and meta description for a blog on how to protect mental health while working from home:
The keyword placement, conciseness, and inviting conclusion draw the readers in.
It’s no surprise that this blog showed up on the first page of Google!
2. Produce Value-Added, Creative, and Engaging Content
If there’s one SEO strategy that has stood the test of time, it’s producing engaging, original, and compelling content.
While you may have optimized your content by incorporating the right keywords, you’re very likely to notice an increase in customer churn rate if your content is dull, unengaging, and lackluster.
Instead, focus on producing unique and creative titles, subheadings, and content. Strike the perfect balance between quality and quantity to ensure your audience continues to engage with your content in the long run.
Glassdoor’s engaging, relevant, and empathetic blog feed is a great example of how to get off on the right foot:
Their incorporation of culturally and racially relevant issues shows that they genuinely care about producing content that makes a difference.
Notice how their latest blog is centered on the recent incidents of police brutality against black people in the U.S. Instead of solely focusing on keywords, they’ve adopted a holistic approach that helps inform readers and invite action.
Taking a stand based on the contemporary social, cultural, racial, ethnic, political, and economic context will go a long way in helping you establish a strong brand identity and educate your audience on important issues.
In fact, it will also help you establish a high page and domain authority.
Here’s a glimpse of Glassdoor’s impressive domain rating of 91:
With over 1.6 million backlinks, the company has established a stellar reputation. And it should come as no surprise that its impactful blogs have played a big role in maintaining the immaculate reputability and authority.
3. Master the Art of Link Building to Improve Your Google Ranking in 2020
As one of the most effective SEO strategies, link building is a surefire way to increase quality traffic and rank higher on SERPs.
If your recent search entries on Google have included “how to rank on Google search” or “how to get on the first page of Google,” you may want to be all ears for this one!
In a nutshell, link building is the process of receiving high-quality backlinks from reputable websites with a high page and domain authority. As you receive quality backlinks, readers are redirected to your page. Not only does this increase traffic, but it increases quality traffic.
If you’re receiving a backlink from an established company like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Glassdoor, Architectural Digest, or Elle Décor, the chances are that the audience is genuinely interested in checking your content.
This helps weed out bad traffic and attract quality leads.
Instead of receiving visitors who don’t actually care about your products/services, you’ll attract leads that are interested in making a potential purchase. As your visitor-to-lead conversion rate increases in the long run, you’ll notice a visible boost in revenue.
Write engaging and optimized guest blogs, leverage the broken link building strategy, create visually compelling infographics, and use the right mix of internal and external links to master the art of link building.
We also suggest focusing on creating long-form content (i.e. content with over 1800 words) to increase the chances of receiving a quality backlink.
You’re probably wondering why you’re being asked to create long-form content when short, snappy, and engaging content has been taking over the digital landscape lately.
While that may be true, long-form content receives a whopping 77.2% more links than short-form content.
Of course, if you write a complex, monotonous, and uninspiring long-form blog, you’re very likely to ward off readers.
Instead, write informative—albeit engaging and fresh—long-form content to establish an air of authority in the eyes of industry giants. This will double or triple your chances of receiving quality backlinks.
We also suggest getting in touch with link building specialists who have extensive experience in helping small businesses and startups create winning link building strategies.
4. Leverage the Power of Video to Boost Audience Engagement and Retention
As the average human attention span drops from 12 to eight seconds, capturing and holding audience attention has become more challenging than ever.
According to research, video posts enjoy 135% more organic reach than image posts on Facebook. In fact, 82% of all internet traffic is expected to come from video streaming by 2022.
Simply put, people prefer engaging with video content over text and image content.
While the latter (text and image content) still matter, leveraging the former is imperative.
Create impactful, informative, optimized, and witty video content to wow your audience. With 75% of customers claiming they’d rather learn about a product/service via video as opposed to text or image, you’ll instantly increase your chances of engaging a wide audience.
We suggest creating a YouTube page and including the video feed on your website.
Optimize YouTube videos by incorporating keywords into the video file, video title, and video description. In addition, use popular video tags to ensure your videos reach a wide audience.
We also suggest including cards, in-video polls, and end screens to boost viewership.
5. Prioritize Local SEO to Increase Conversion Rate
According to research, over 46% of all search entries on Google are from people trying to find local information. This information generally includes local stores, addresses, phone numbers, and hours of operation.
If you’ve been focused on reaching an unnecessarily wide audience, you may be setting yourself up for failure. Trying to connect with customers across California when your business is based in Sacramento could end up proving to be futile.
Instead, narrow your focus to your local audience.
72% of people searching for local businesses online actually end up visiting the store.
Make the most of your local audience to ensure your business shows up among the Google 3-Pack. This displays the top three local results on the first page of Google.
For instance, if you search for “restaurants in Miami,” you’ll receive the following Google 3-Pack:
Unsurprisingly enough, over 44% of people who perform a local search end up clicking on one of the options included in the Google 3-Pack.
Here are some ways to increase local traffic and increase your chances of being included in the Google 3-Pack:
- Claim, optimize, and update your Google My Business listing
- Use location-friendly keywords in your URL, title tags, meta description, headers, and content
- Create and optimize local landing pages
- Ensure NAP (name, address, and phone number) consistency
- Make the most of online business directories like Yelp, Trip Advisor, MapQuest, etc.
Customizing your content and business accordingly will go a long way in building a wide local audience and boosting revenue.
6. Create a Mobile-Friendly, Optimized, and Visually Compelling Website
It takes approximately 0.05 seconds for users to visit your website and decide whether they’ll continue to browse or leave.
With over 38% of users refusing to engage with a poorly designed and unengaging website, ensuring aesthetic appeal is crucial.
Use your website as a canvas for your brand’s self-expression. In other words, your website should reflect your brand’s personality and style.
While ensuring your website looks the part is essential, it’s equally important to optimize it.
Use Google Speed Insights to determine whether your page is running slow. The powerful platform also offers suggestions to help speed things up and enhance user experience.
According to a recent survey, approximately 47% of users expect a website to load within two seconds.
Follow these strategies to speed up your website and reduce bounce rate:
- Minimize HTTP requests
- Compress images without affecting the quality
- Remove unnecessary plugins
- Choose the right host
- Enable caching
- Defer JavaScript loading
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
We also suggest ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and user-friendly.
Making slight adjustments will go a long way in helping you attract and retain your target audience!
As the digital marketing landscape becomes more competitive each day, developing and adopting cutting-edge SEO strategies has become more important than ever. Complacency, stagnancy, and reliance on obsolete strategies is tantamount to digging a hole for your business.
If you’d rather stay out of the abyss and rank higher on Google in 2020, we can help you get started.
How Do You Get on the First Page of Google In 2020?
Our SEO experts have extensive experience in helping small businesses, startups, and large corporations establish a winning online presence. Whether you’re struggling to improve your Google ranking in 2020 or retain your audience, our SEO experts will assiduously analyze your current SEO strategy and make adjustments accordingly.
Our focus on increasing quality traffic and improving search rankings has enabled us to successfully complete over 30,000 SEO projects and write over 45,000 content pieces.
Call 855-444-4777 to make the most of our SEO and lead generation, PPC marketing, social media marketing, reputation management, web design and development, and link building services in New York, Orlando, Seattle, San Diego, and Washington DC.
We look forward to having you on board!
