Put these strategies into play to rank higher search engine results relative to your business in 2021.

Want to give your company a competitive edge in the digital marketplace and rank higher in search engine results relative to your business? Then start implementing these search engine optimization strategies now.

1. Dig Into Google Analytics
This Google service tracks and reports pivotal information about your website, providing data that helps create a clear picture of your site’s performance and your audience. With Analytics, you can learn things like what browsers visitors most commonly use to access your site, get insights about referral traffic, and gain an understanding of what devices people use to visit your pages. Draw on all that and more to optimize your site to better attract target prospects.

2. Focus on Keywords
Consistently craft new site content that’s based off, and peppered with, keywords which ideal prospects would search to discover the products and services you provide. Incorporate the keywords into content copy in a natural conversational way; Google’s algorithms can sniff out spammy tactics like keyword stuffing and lower you in rankings.

To get keyword-fueled content right, do keyword research. This could begin as simply as making a list of topics relevant to your business. Then, within each topic category, write down words customers would likely use in searches on those topics. There are also tech tools, such as Keyword Magic from SEMrush, that can help with the research.

3. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
If you haven’t done this yet, now’s definitely the time. Consider: Two-thirds (63%) of Google’s U.S. organic search traffic originates from mobile (according to Merkle), and Google captures about 90% of search engine market share in the United States. Plus, Google gives preference to mobile-optimized sites in rankings, whether a searcher is looking on a desktop or smartphone.

In addition to having the necessary site architecture created so pages display properly on various mobile devices, you should populate your site with mobile-optimized content. To help with this, perform research on what mobile-friendly keywords are relevant to prospects and include them, and put the most compelling/helpful items toward the top of your pages so they load before anything else.

4. Optimize Content for Voice Search
Spoken searches are already a factor in SEO, and that influence is only going to increase. Ensure your site’s ready to rank high in voice searches by creating plain-language content that answers questions prospects would commonly put into search engines in relation to services/products you provide. Additionally, improve your page load speed, include keywords and phrases of local significance on your site, and leverage microdata that won’t be seen but that gets built into your site’s source code to give search engines more relevant information about your site’s content.

5. Weave an Intricate Web of Backlinks
Developing a diverse backlink web that features links from authoritative sources indicates to Google algorithms that your site is a valid repository of information, which can help bump you up in rankings.

Some low-tech ways to build links include: Provide testimonials to businesses you’ve partnered with and patronized and ask them to link back to your website; write a guest post for a blog or news source that relates to the industry or other topics and have the entity for which you’re crafting the content link back to your site; be interviewed/quoted as an expert business source in industry-related or local news podcasts and articles, asking that a backlink be provided when you’re mentioned.

Also, start your own blog and create high-quality content that others will want to share, cite and link to in their content. Try asking people in your network who have sites or blogs to link back to your site through in-content links, though be tactful about this. Additionally, list your site in valid niche directories and ones that are part of quality websites for a specific industry (like a trade association).

Three Quick SEO Tips

1. Optimize Images. This consists of decreasing the file size of images, using either a plugin or script, so that pages featuring them load faster. Slow load times increase bounce rate and hurt your search rankings.

2. Use Jump Links. At the top of pages, create a list of topics covered in the page content. Base these on keywords and have each list entry “jump” link, when clicked, to the part of the page where the topic is discussed. This isn’t a good fit for every page but works great for certain blogs and articles.

3. Set Up Your Google My Business Account. It’s free and helps prospects find you more easily in searches and on Google Maps. This is especially important for promo firms that serve particular geographical areas.