How to throw a knockout punch and get your website and your small business content seen!
Who doesn’t love a knockout in boxing! If Rocky had been a small business owner, what would he have done to ensure a win? Instead of working on his jabs and footwork, he would have studied Search Engine Optimization!
So, let’s imagine you are Rocky facing his second boxing match with Apollo Creed. You’ve trained. You’ve prepared and worked hard. You have great content ideas and know what your customers want and what they are looking to find out. You have done too much homework to lose the match; you want your website and blog to be knockouts! To achieve a knockout, you have to make sure that all your amazing content is searchable and high ranking, and that is where Search Engine Optimization comes into the ring.
Search engines are the librarians and card catalogs of the internet. They are what keeps the content organized and searchable. These engines peruse the websites and content. They take the content that they have found and index it and rank it based on how well it will answer the queries made by internet users.
How do search engines ensure that when someone types a query into the search bar, they get relevant results in return? (That process is known as ranking, or the ordering of search results by most relevant to least relevant to a particular query.) If you want to measure your content for its jabs and upper cuts, you can use tools like GoogleAds Keywords Planner to see how your content ranks. And why Google? According to Moz Pro’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, Google corners the search engine market. Ninety percent (90%) of all internet users utilize Google to do internet searches and find relevant content. Google determines whether your content will land the knockout punch by using continually improved upon algorithms to rank your content.
There are some general “training” guidelines that can help you to prepare your content so that it gets seen by your audience, your current customers, and your future customers! According to the Search Engine Journal, the number one thing you can do to rank high is to provide excellent content; it has to be “something that users need and/or want. …if your content says where you are, what you do, how you help me with what I’m trying to accomplish…” then you have taken the first step to winning the fight. Secondly, you have to listen, research, and study what your customers are asking for in their searches for content. Use your social media content to find out what your customers are looking for. Encourage them to share questions, needs and problems while you provide the answers and solutions.
Optimization is like a very knowledgeable librarian who points you in the just right location for the perfect piece of content. Using keyword phrases that answer the questions and solve the problems that your current and potential customers have will increase the likelihood of getting your content seen. Using those keyword phrases often within the context of providing information can give you the advantage over other contenders.
What boxer wouldn’t study his/her competition. Scout your competitions’ content. What keyword phrases are they using? What content ranks #1 on Google when you type in the keyword phrase that match the topic you are going to write about? Answer those questions, do your research and then use it to shape your content and give you the upper hand against your competition.
If you are still wondering how to deliver the knockout punch to your competitors with your content, wonder no more. I mean where would Rocky have been without Mickey?