Wednesday, May 6, 2020

4 reasons why your competitors are higher than you in Google's SERPs


In this article, we look at some reasons why you might see your competitors rise higher than you do in Google's SERPs and how you can avoid it.

Backlinks

Backlinks have been an integral factor in Google's ranking algorithm for many years, and this is still the case in 2020. However, this does not mean that they are managed in the same way they were in the past.

Historically, a strong backlink profile was based on quantity and not on quality, but as the search landscape grew (and with the help of some blackhat NYC SEO techniques), search engines started managing backlinks in a way very different.

Now, the goal is to get high quality backlinks from relevant and reliable sources.

If you notice that your competitors outnumber you in the SERP and find it hard to see a difference between your targeting, your content and theirs, then the backlink profile is a good place to start watching.

Getting natural, non-spam links to your website is one of the best ways to increase your organic ranking, but be sure to follow Google's guidelines to avoid manual actions and penalties!

Technical SEO

Having a technically sound website is more important than ever. As basic SEO practices such as keyword targeting on the page are becoming increasingly popular and highly adopted, it is imperative that your website be free of technical issues that could adversely affect its performance.

Having a website that is free from technical glitches can improve the trust that search engines have in your URLs and your website as a whole.

If your website has a number of technical problems, the search engines are likely not to put much trust in you and will hardly allow your pages to rank as they should.

Common technical problems we usually encounter include:

·         Misuse of redirects (302 vs. 301 and redirect chains)
·         Conflicts between canonical URLs
·         Multiple H1 tags on a single page
·         Large images not optimized
·         Internal links to redirected or deleted URLs

Many technical problems lie beneath the surface of your website and you won't see them unless you go looking for them.
Whenever you remove or redirect a URL, be sure to follow best practices to prevent problems and make your website technically perfect.

If you have access to some scanning software, we recommend that you update your technical review every 3-6 months (depending on how regularly your website is updated).

Review the goal of the page

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most accurate. This is often the case when evaluating why a competitor's page is higher than yours.

The first question you need to ask yourself is: "is it clear what my page is about?". If the answer is not a definitive yes, then it is likely that even the search engines do not fully understand what the purpose of your page is.

Make sure you've done your research and know exactly which term (s) is the most viable to reach. Next, make sure your page is fully optimized, including:

·         Title
·         H1
·         Incoming anchor text
·         Alt text of the image
·         Content

Try not to overdo it by overloading the areas indicated above with additional keywords; stick to one primary keyword per URL.

If you find yourself outclassed in the SERPs for a specific keyword, review the targeting of the URLs positioned above yours and check if there are obvious differences.

Content

Page content

In most cases, adding optimized tags and headers isn't enough to affect placements on their own.

A solid SEO NYC strategy must include a review of the content of the landing page. Instead of simply mentioning your primary keyword once or twice on your page, do your research and find out what information your users want to see.

Also, look at what content positions 1, 2 and 3 have, as this is a good indication (along with everything else) about what the search engine wants to deliver as results.

Blog content

Other ways to use content throughout your website is to use the blog. This allows you to increase the targeting of your main keywords by targeting a series of terms or long tail queries.

You can then use the optimized internal link to drive this traffic to the pages of key products or services, as well as strengthen the context and purpose of the key pages.



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