A little healthy competition among business owners in Edmonton is natural and normal! You’re an expert in your field. You know what your company is bringing to the table and how your product or service measures up – that’s all very tangible and easy to improve upon. That’s where SEO in Edmonton comes in.
However, the same tangibility can’t be applied to your company’s online performance. Your potential customers are searching for the answer to their problems (that you can deliver!) every day – but if your name isn’t on the first page of the search results, it’s hard to gain enough momentum to help them. Especially if your competitors are ranking above you.
But why is that? The short answer: SEO. Good SEO.
Luckily, the Get Social team has put together a list of factors that influence your and your competitors’ rankings – and actionable steps you can take to improve your own.
How well the website satisfies the Google search term.
This is a significant piece of the SEO puzzle here. The terms potential customers are looking for will either lead to your website or your competitor’s website – depending on how well the content answers the ‘question.’
For example, if you provide legal services in Edmonton, you’d optimize your blog, webpage, and other visual content with relevant topics and keyword terms.
The fix: Organically implement relevant keywords in your page meta descriptions (the short synopsis of the page in Google search results) within your blog and article content (specifically the title tag, H1 and H2 tags, and the body copy), and page URLs.
This signals to Google that you’re an authority in your industry and have the content to back it up.
Hot tip:
Localized SEO in Edmonton is key to ranking on the first page of Google. Be sure to geotag your website and Google My Business listing, and use search terms that incorporate ‘Edmonton’ or the city you live in.
How does the quality of written content affect SEO in Edmonton?
On-page content, whether it’s web page content like services, FAQs, or regular blog pieces, should always be well-structured, easy to read, informative, and relevant to the reader.
When Google bots evaluate the quality of a site’s content, they’ll be on the hunt for pages that have duplicate content, don’t answer the user’s question, contain too much keyword stuffing, and aren’t enjoyable or helpful to read.
There is some debate among Edmonton SEO experts over the length of the content – particularly for blog pieces. Still, the general rule of thumb is the content between 600 to 1,500 words which flows well, answers the question, is topically relevant, and isn’t just a regurgitation of what lives on the first page of Google.
The fix: Designate a team member to create quality content for all web pages and monthly blog pieces on relevant topics to your business. Use tools like Grammarly to ensure readability, a good flow, and an engaging tone and to correct any grammatical or spelling errors
Online Reputation
Naturally, Google prefers to rank pages and businesses that show relevance but also enjoy a good local reputation. Here are some key factors Google considers when evaluating online reputation:
Online Reviews and Press
If your business is mentioned in an online review and/or it lives under your Google My Business profile – Google takes this information into account. The same goes for the press. If your business is mentioned in an online news article, it counts toward your SEO – for better or worse.
The fix: Make it a practice to ask satisfied customers to leave a positive review online. Be sure your Google My Business page is well-optimized with your website link, hours of operation, and location.
For negative press, evaluate the delicacy of the situation and address it publicly if necessary. Then, get to work on creating lots of very high-quality content like blogs, case studies, and thought pieces. The hope is that eventually, the piece of negative press on the first page of Google will lose timeliness and relevance and sink in the search results.
Social Media
While not directly a part of webpage SEO, social media presence holds hands with the process.
The more you interact with your customers, address issues as they arise, and establish a genuine connection with your target demographic – the more likely people will visit your website, leave positive reviews, and engage with your products and services. This shows your customers, shareholders, and Google that you care about your brand.
Backlink Profile
A robust backlink profile is when other websites link back to your content within their own content. This further boosts your website’s relevancy and good reputation to Google – almost like an endorsement.
Now, the backlink strategy is a long game. Over time, the more reputable backlinks you acquire, your rankings may become higher.
The fix: Many businesses will steadily establish backlinks by consistently producing high-quality content over a long period. This shows staying power and high relevance. In the interim, you can ask reputable sites to backlink to your page when it’s relevant and interlink pages within your website.
Online Reputation – The bottom line:
Let’s say you and your competitor have excellent content on your websites and strong technical SEO: A Google bot’s ‘decision’ to rank one above the other may boil down to who has the stronger backlink profile, better online reviews, who has a better optimized Google My Business page, and who has the better online press.
Key takeaways:
- Create content that accurately and succinctly answers the user’s query. Do keyword research to target suitable topics and terms when writing.
- Be sure your written content is well optimized on your site by creating informative meta descriptions, using H1 and H2’s, which is pleasant to read.
- Manage your online reputation by asking for positive reviews from satisfied customers, establishing a firm social media presence, and cultivating a backlink profile.
Build Your Business With Get Social YEG!
While all of these fixes we’ve outlined above are tried and true, they can consume a lot of time.
That’s where the Get Social YEG team comes in. We help our clients organically grow their online presence using the power of social media and a robust content strategy with highly relevant keywords.
We love to chat – reach out to our team today!
