Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko had his team analyze five million Google search results to learn more about what people click on in the search results and why. Their study found that the top three results get 75.1% of all clicks. So let’s take a look at Brian’s seven top tips for SEO, plus a bonus eighth tip.
One – Find Low Competition Keywords
Most keywords worth winning are super competitive. Try to find new keywords that may begin to trend but are not competitive yet. If you can win a search term early, you will be in a good position when the search volume climbs. Brian recommends a specific tool, explodingkeywords.com.
Two – Rewrite Old Content to Match Search Intent
You may have some pages that have begun to rank, slowing climbing the SERPS but they are not in the top ten. You might have good badlinks and good technical SEO, but your content does not perfectly match the terms you are ranking for. So look to see what terms are driving traffic to your existing pages and then change the page to match the intent of the searcher. People will stay longer on your page and Google will take note and give you a boost.
Three – Test With Ghost Posts
Some keywords you are interested in may seem impossible to win. It never hurts to try. Put up some content without putting a lot of effort into backlinks and just see if you begin to rank for any long tail keywords related to your main difficult keyword goal. If you see some results with a slight effort, invest a little more time and start looking for backlink opportunities.
Four – Rank Youtube Videos In Google
Whether you win a search result with your web page or a Youtube video, you won the search result. There are more video results in Google than ever before, and many are above the fold. Sometimes a video is the easiest route to the number one position.
Five – Target Low-Competition High-CPC Terms
If people are bidding a lot for a term in paid search, that is a good sign that traffic can have a high-conversion rate. And ultimately, it’s that end result of a conversion that is important, not the traffic count. So look for terms with a high cost per click that are rated as relatively low-competition by your keyword tool (like Ahrefs or SEMrush etc). They might be low volume in terms of total clicks, but if a high percentage of those clicks turn into purchases, it is worth the effort.
Six – Embed Videos In Your Content
You probably already know that dwell time – the amount of time that someone spends on your page – is an important Google ranking factor. If you embed videos, people may watch them and that will keep them on the page longer.
Seven – Aim For The Featured Snippet
In many ways ranking in the featured snippet is actually better than racking number one.
That’s because the featured snippet is above the normal search results. You could call it position number zero. The first step is to identify the type of feature snippet that Google is currently showing for that keyword. It could be a definition, a list, or a table. Make your page fit the format and work on getting some links for a shot at the big time – position zero.
Bonus Tip Number Eight – Branded Search
You should be able to win for your own brand name. If you are not in position one for your company name, take a look at optimizing your homepage around that term, look at your backlink profile, and check your page speed. But that’s not what this tip is about. This tip is about creating your own new branded keywords around ideas that you talk about. Brian has his “Skyscraper Technique”, a name he invented for his link building approach. Viral Octopus has the Viral Octopus loop, an iterative eight-step plan to achieve excellence.
What is your brandable idea? Do you already have a name for it? Give it some thought, then take these tips and aim for number one!
