Ensuring high visibility on search engines is paramount for IT services companies looking to generate organic leads though digital marketing. Given that search engines are one of the ways technology key decision makers and procurement departments will use when finding out and researching new products and services, makes it even more crucial that you are ranking high for relevant keywords. Companies such as IT security, Managed services, IT support and IT consultancy companies will benefit greatly from the increased visibility of search engines when marketing their products and services. Here we will provide tips and best practise on what content to create to help assist your search engine ranking.
1. Ensure you target keywords effectively
Targeting relevant keywords have always been basic fundamentals for SEO. Ensuring the right keywords in your content is important but they do not necessarily have to be an exact match. Using words similar to keywords and adding prepositions will also help.
Understanding search intent is also important. When you are researching a particular topic, the intent of the search needs to be understood. For example, if you are searching Cyber security companies in google, another question could be “top rated IT security companies.” If your content does not match the intention of your prospect, then the visitor will leave your site.
2. Keywords and Tags
Ensuring the correct keywords on the title and H1 tag is important. There should also be a focus on keywords in the meta description to ensure search engine friendly content. According to some experts, even including the keyword in the URL can contribute to the ranking, but keep in mind that URLs should be as short as possible.
3. User Interaction
Search engines want their users to have suggested websites which provides a good user experience to ensure they keep using their search engine. As a result, they will record how visitors interact with your website so aspects such as bounce rates and load times will play a factor. It is also advisable to record the CTR (click through rate) of your pages to find the bottle necks in your website. Ensuring you have applications such as google analytics will help you track these metrics.
Dwell time is another user interaction factor, it is defined as the time spent on your website before going back to the search engine result. Longer visit times would usually indicate that the content has been useful. If your website manages to catch the attention of the reader at the start of the page and then keeps them engaged, then it has strong dwell times.
4. Website Links
Backlinks are a classic factor when looking to rank high for certain keywords, however the website linking to your website should be more established in your desired keyword field to help your ranking. Outbound links from your content also help with user interaction as they may find the resources you provide as useful. You can also create internal links from within your domain.
A word of caution – it is not advisable to overdo back links and especially from irrelevant and inappropriate websites. This is because linking your website to spammy or broken links can devalue your content.
5. Relevant Content
Content for the sake of it will not help your website in the long run, having back links and a high number of words in your content is not enough. Up to date information will have higher relevance from the search engine algorithms, this is also true of content from News articles which can be prioritised within one day. This does not mean that you can just repost the same article daily to trick the search engine but means that changes should be significant enough to be picked up by them.
When creating written content, bear mind that every internet user is lazy and therefore if the page is not fast or designed poorly. This will affect the bounce rate which will decrease the dwell time of your website. Also bear in mind that images, videos and colours should be used in a way which enhances the user experience.
Finally, a user-friendly schema will ensure that the reader of the article will have the ability to read and understand it better along with the search engine crawler to index it.
Final words
On-page SEO tasks are very different to off-page SEO. Therefore, when producing content, even if you hire a professional copywriter or you are writing content yourself. Make sure that you have a clear structure and strategy to optimise your SEO ranking. In your content writing process ensure that every sentence is planned along with outlines on the first and subsequent drafts. Always consider the user first to ensure it is relevant and useful.
Search engines are favourable to users because it is in their best interests to provide the best user experience and to provide accurate solution to problems. If your website is not providing useful information in the areas which your business serves, then your visibility in those results will be low.
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DISCLAIMER
This article is written in general terms and therefore cannot be relied on to cover specific situations; application of the principles set out will depend upon the particular circumstances involved and we recommend that you obtain professional advice before acting or refraining from acting on any of its contents.