There are so many facets to SEO that it feels to many people that there is no end to what they can learn.
Even if you know a moderate amount about it, you may not have a clear idea about keyword ranking and how it works.
If you aren’t sure what keyword ranking is in SEO, you don’t know whether you need to improve that ranking, and that can be bad for business.
But don’t worry. In this blog post, we’ll explain what exactly is ranking and what SEO has to do with it.
The secret of keyword ranking is knowing which words or phrases will drive the right traffic to your site. Find out how to identify these and work them into your content to increase online traffic and sales.
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What is Keyword Ranking in SEO?
Search engines rank a lot of things, and keywords — words and phrases that SEO practices require you to put into your content — are one of the most important.
In SEO, keyword ranking is your page’s place in search results pages for specific search words.
When a user types search terms into Google that relate to your page’s subject matter, the spot your URL appears is your keyword ranking.
“Keywords still matter,” explains Tylor Hermanson, VP of SEO at Eversana Intouch. “SEO keywords should be the foundation of your content to address and satisfy searchers’ needs.”
Getting good results
Generally, search results come back with about 10 main links on every page. The higher your site is in those results, the more likely it is that people will click on it.
Most users don’t pay much attention to the results at the bottom of the page.
The results at the top are supposed to be the best matches, so that’s where they go for their information.
This has made it vital for businesses to get a good ranking for their keywords. If you have a mediocre ranking, you can expect to be far down the page or even on the second page or lower.
The race is on for everyone to get one of those top spots, so you have to keep marketing to get there.
Better web traffic
When you have a better keyword ranking, you will end up closer to the top of the results.
By doing this, you attract more attention and get more clicks through to your site.
With more visitors to your site, especially visitors who are searching for just what you do, you can expect more conversions and more profits.
The leads you get from a search engine span from all over the world as people seek out information like yours.
Getting traffic from a search engine is called organic traffic, and it’s one of the best kinds.
It relates to people who are actively looking for content like yours and spontaneously find your site.
How are you ranked?
So, search engines rank you for each keyword. But how do they do that?
This is what much of your SEO efforts are there to do.
When a search engine evaluates your site, it looks at the keywords on the page and its internal links, metadata, backlinks, scannability, and many other aspects.
These are things that your SEO works on to improve your rankings.
Key Factors Influencing Keyword Ranking
Keywords are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. Keyword ranking is your spot in search engine results when someone looks for your targeted keyword.
Content Quality and Relevance
Your content needs to be well-written and engaging. It must be accurate and free from spelling and grammar mistakes.
It also needs to align with user intent. For instance, ranking well for “free furniture” is pointless if you’re trying to sell discount furniture. You may see a temporary boost in visits, but will ultimately lose rank, visits, and consumer trust.
On-Page SEO
Strategic placement increases keyword efficacy. Add keywords to titles, headers, and meta descriptions. Create internal links to them in your content to show they’re important.
Off-Page SEO
A good backlink strategy goes hand-in-hand with a keyword rank strategy.
There are many ways to earn authoritative backlinks relevant to your chosen keywords. Using HARO is simple yet effective. Creating “skyscraper content” and ultimate guides also works well.
Creating engaging social posts for your content will drive visits and shares. This indirectly boosts your SEO as Google realizes people want what you’re offering.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO includes optimizing page speed and organizing your content structure. It’s also vital to make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
Tools for Tracking Keyword Rankings
How Can You Check Your Keyword Ranking?
Google offers a tool called Search Console that can help you monitor your rankings for specific keywords.
It’s also helpful to see the keywords people use to get to your site.
You can use it to measure your traffic coming in from Google and see the queries people use and the new keywords that would be best to use on your site.
Search Console also provides a report called Performance that allows you to see the exact URLs that are bringing people to your site.
The average position of your site in search results is offered along with:
- Your click-through rate.
- Your raw numbers of clicks.
- How many impressions you had.
All of these figures can show you how effective your site is. If the numbers are bad, it’s time to make some changes.
Here’s extra clarification:
Click-through rate
This rate is the number of clicks that were made to your site divided by the number of impressions that you got.
The CTR shows you how likely people are to click on your site when they see it. This metric can tell you whether your site is making a good or bad impression on users.
Number of clicks
This is the number of times someone clicks from your search result through to your site.
This often goes hand-in-hand with keyword rankings. If you have high rankings, people are exponentially more likely to see your website and click on it.
Number of impressions
This metric is tied to how people are perceiving your website when they see a link to it.
It captures how many times your link was seen by Google users in the search results, but this doesn’t mean that the user necessarily actually laid eyes on it.
It’s just an idea of how many times your link popped up in the results.
Average position
This is an average of the highest result your site has gotten for a specific keyword.
It is averaged because this number tends to fluctuate quickly.
To see your keyword positions, go to the Coverage report and look at the positions under the Queries tab.
Tools for Tracking Keyword Rankings
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is effective and easy to use. It tracks keyword popularity and suggests related keywords. It’s regularly updated to offer current information and can even compare your ranking with the competition.
SEMrush
SEMrush helps you find keywords and choose the right ones to focus on. It also has a tool that tracks how much traffic a keyword generates for your site. Other tools include alerts for keyword popularity shifts and competitors attempting to outrank your site.
Backlinko
Backlinko’s keyword rank tracker helps you keep track of keyword trends. You can also use it to see search intent, monitor the competition, and analyze keyword ROI.
How Can You Improve Your Keyword Ranking?
The first step in improving keyword ranking is thorough keyword research using a keyword tool.
Next, optimize existing content to ensure it aligns with your targeted keywords.
Finally, create new, high-quality content using relevant keywords in the right locations.
1. Find out what your rankings are
You can’t tell if you’ve improved if you don’t have some baseline numbers.
Keep a record of what the rankings were for your top keywords so that you can tell when your efforts have improved that ranking.
2. Look for the keywords that people are using to find you
And make sure to check out the keywords that are currently on your website.
Maybe you can get better results only by optimizing the existing keywords on your content.
3. Focus on the actual experience that the user has
Things like a quickly-loading page and a clean design can help people to enjoy their experience more.
Make sure the content gives them value and the site is easy to use. The more time people spend on your page, the more likely they are to take an action that might be profitable for you.
4. Make sure your titles and your title tags are optimized
Optimized for both search engines and readers, ok?
You want them to communicate well with search engines, but you also want them to be eye-catching and tempting for humans.
Wrap Up: Keeping an Eye on Your Keyword Ranking
If you’re using SEO to get your site better optimized, your keyword rankings are an enormous part of that.
The end goal is to make both search engines and searchers happy so that you get better positions.
Being able to see your keyword ranking and improving it from that baseline number can greatly help you get more traffic to your site.
You can run your keyword rank strategy on autopilot. Track metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate to ensure you’re getting the right results. Conduct periodic SEO audits to identify ways you can improve your keyword strategy.
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