How to Rank for More SEO Keywords

If you want more free traffic coming to your website from Google, you need to rank at the top of the search results so that people can find you when they're searching on Google. But how do you get there and, more importantly, get to the top of Google for many keywords your ideal customer might search?  If you're unsure how to rank for more SEO keywords, I'll break it down. It's pretty easy once you understand how everything works and what you need to do to partner with Google. 

How to Rank for More SEO Keywords

You can increase the number of keywords ranking in the search results in two ways. The first is building your domain authority so that you have more chances of having the terms you’ve already optimized for rank higher and be seen by more people. The second way is by increasing the keywords you target by creating additional helpful content that's optimized for Google. 

You want to do both. 

Listen to the podcast here 

Work on Building Your Website's Authority to Rank Higher for SEO Keywords

Increasing your website's Domain Authority is a long game because it takes time to attract quality links, and your DA is impacted by the number and quality of links your website has. As your DA increases, you can rank for more keywords in Google's search results because your website is likely seen as being more authoritative by Google.

Now, your DA score doesn't come directly from Google but rather Moz, an SEO tool, but it's based on factors that are thought to be in the Google ranking algorithm (they don't tell us their exact ranking algorithm, but we know that the content on your site, user experience, and the links to your site are very important to your rankings) and what we've seen is that the higher the DA score, the more likely a website is to rank for a given keyword. To learn more about your website's DA and how to find out what yours is, read this blog post all about Domain Authority. 

Create more SEO Friendly Content to Increase Keyword Rankings

In the interim, you can add more content to your website and optimize (do SEO on that content) using different keywords you can rank for. As you do this, you'll start to rank for more keywords and show up in more searches when people are looking for information related to your business. Each new blog post or website page you create can be another opportunity to rank for more SEO keywords. If you're not sure how to determine which keywords your website can rank for, it's time to join me in Simple SEO Content and learn. I teach you my exact SEO keyword research process in the course. 

What Content Should You Create? 

You'll want to create the content that your Ideal Customer is searching for. You want to become a resource for them. Create content that answers their questions, is helpful, and provides value so they want to read your website or blog and keep coming back. Your content should help to nurture visitors and turn them into buyers. 

If you're not sure what type of content to create, start by brainstorming for 10 minutes and think about all the questions you get asked regularly. What questions does your Ideal Customer have? What do they need to know? Where are they stuck, and how can you help them get unstuck? 

Show your experience, expertise, authority, and trust in your content. Google grades our content on E-E-A-T, which stands for those four areas. Provide additional insights and information in your content. Don't just create simple, short articles that aren't truly helpful for your readers. The quality of your content is very important to your SEO success. There are tons of websites and blogs out there; Google wants to make sure they're showing the very best ones at the top of the search results. You have to stand out to rank high. 

How Often Should You Create New Content? 

This one is up to you. How often do you want to add pages to your website or create new blog posts? Most small business owners know they should create one new piece of content each week to help their audience. The reality is this is going to be up to you. How often can you write a new blog post with your schedule? Can you do it weekly, or would you have better luck doing something 2x a month? If you can do it weekly, you'll potentially get more results. Each new blog post or website page you write and optimize (do SEO on) is another chance for your keywords to rank at the top of Google, which will help you get more traffic to your website.

Again, the quality of your content is more important here. You will do better with one great blog post than two or three so-so blog posts. Creating content that provides value and is helpful to your audience is the key to winning with Google SEO and ranking for more keywords. 

How Should You Optimize Your Content for Google? 

When you create your new website page or blog post, you'll want to choose ONE keyword for the core SEO on that page. Start by looking for a keyword your website has a good chance of ranking for. If you're unsure how to determine that, it's time to take Simple SEO Content and learn. Module 1 of the course is all about SEO keyword research, and I will show you my exact step-by-step process. Choosing the right keyword is critical to your overall SEO success. If you want to rank for more keywords, you need to understand how ranking works so you can spot the opportunities and know which SEO keywords to avoid. 

Then, use that keyword in each of your SEO elements. Google will look for clues about your content in specific places on your website page or blog post. Each SEO element serves as a checkmark to Google, helping them understand what the page or post is about. By using the same keyword in each of these places, it helps Google to understand your content better. And if Google understands your website content better, they're more likely to rank you higher in the search results. 

How many SEO Keywords Should You Choose?

You want to choose one main keyword for each page that you will optimize for Google. Be sure you only use that keyword on a maximum of two pages on your website or blog because Google will only show your website twice for the same keyword. You want to target lots of different keywords to have lots of keywords ranking in Google's search results. The more keywords you have ranking higher in Google's search results, the more website traffic you should be able to get from Google. 

The Key to Getting More SEO Keywords to Rank High in Google's Search Results 

Consistently creating great website content that helps your Ideal Customer, provides value, and answers their questions that are ALSO optimized for Google is the key to getting more keywords to rank high so that you get more website traffic. You need both parts of the equation to get the results. Simply creating content but not optimizing it won't work because if you're choosing the wrong keyword, you won't rank high in the search results, so no one will find your website. And if you only focus on SEO but don't bother creating great content, you won't make sales because people might find your website initially, but they won't stay on it if the user experience isn't good. You need to focus on creating great content that you optimize for Google. Do that consistently, and you should be able to rank for more SEO keywords and get more traffic to your website. 

Creating great content for your Ideal Customer is key to getting more people to link to your website or blog, which increases your Domain Authority and is the other way to get more keywords to rank. Keep creating great content that's helpful to your customer, optimize that content for Google using keywords your website can rank for, and you should be able to get more SEO keywords to rank in time. If you're ready to learn more about SEO, visit my freebies page to download my Beginner's SEO Guide and take my free SEO class to get started today. 

How to rank for more SEO keywords podcast episode transcript

Hi, and welcome back to the Simple SEO Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Lindteigen, and I'm so glad you are here with me this week. Where we're going to talk about how to rank for more SEO keywords. So if you've been working on your website or blog for a while, and you are really at a point where you're like, I want to rank for more. Then this episode is going to help you. And if you're just getting started, don't worry because I'm going to show you how to lay the foundation to get lots more traffic from Google free organic traffic from Google to your website or blog.

My friend, if you're a podcaster, we're going to talk about how you can get more traffic from Google, from your podcast episodes as well, because you know, that's what I'm all about here is teaching you how to work with the different search engines to get more traffic. Whether it's more traffic to your website from Google or more downloads for your podcast. I'm going to show you how to do that. So, let's dive right in.

When we're talking about ranking keywords. We're talking about ranking keywords on Google because, as you know, the higher you rank in Google search results for any given keyword, meaning any word that your ideal customer is searching for in the Google search engine. The higher you rank, the better chance you have of people clicking and coming to visit your particular website. You have to rank high to get organic, which is the free traffic from Google. If you rank on pages 2, 3, 5, 7, 12. It doesn't count because nobody's going there to find your website. So we've got to find ways to get you to page one. Ideally, in positions one, two, or three when possible. But page one, for sure, because that's where the traffic goes, like 99.7, which practically everybody only ever goes to page one. So that's why it's so important. That's why I keep saying we've got to do this. So, how do you show up more often on page one in Google? 

 It's really easy. And I'm, I'm hoping you like the sound of that. The bottom line is the more really great content that we create, that targets keywords that we can rank for, that is helpful to our ideal customer, the more keywords we can rank for and the more traffic we can get to our websites.

So let's talk about this and how it works and why it works. So we want to make sure that we are targeting different keywords on each page of our website because the way that Google works, you're only going to show up two times maximum for any keyword search. This means if you have the same keyword on 10 pages on your website, only two of those are going to show up when somebody searches for a particular keyword. Those other eight pages no longer have a chance to show up because they're targeting a keyword that's already being targeted on two other pages. And we've just given up that potential visibility.

But if we edit our SEO targeting and use a different keyword, now each of those 10 pages has a chance to show up for different keywords that are probably still related to our business. At least if you do your SEO and your content development the way that I teach you to do it, especially if you're one of my Simple SEO Content students, then you're creating content that is targeting or trying to attract your ideal customer. So the content that you're creating all ties back to your products or services and your business so that we're bringing really super relevant, really interested people to our websites. So that's the first thing I want you to understand and make sure you remember is we have to target different keywords on each of our pages on our website. The same goes for your blog. You want to target different keywords on your blog in order to have more chances to rank in the Google search engine. 

So, what does this mean? This means if you've targeted a keyword on your website in two places. Don't target that same keyword on your blog. And you may be wondering, what do you mean by targeting keywords, Rachel? That just means what keyword you're using in your SEO elements, and remember, if you don't understand what they are, you're not as familiar with what to do, go to the freebies tab on my website, etched marketing.com. Get the brand new beginners step-by-step guide to SEO. It's going to walk you through how to do this. It also has a checklist on the last page that you can use to reference to help you understand what you're supposed to do on each page from an SEO standpoint; then join me in Simple SEO Content, and I make it the absolute easiest way to learn all of this because you'll just work with me in kind of a group coaching setting. You'll take the class, you'll come, you'll ask questions, I'll answer them, and we'll make sure that you get the results. You get the information you need to get the results that you need, meaning your website ranks for more keywords and you get more traffic. 

So, what we're going to do is to create our weekly content. We're already creating content. The only difference here to get it to rank for more keywords is to make sure that you are targeting keywords that your website has a really good chance of ranking for. In each weekly blog post, you're using different keywords.

So you're going to want to keep track of the keywords that you're using because, remember, Google's only going to show you a maximum of two times. So you've got to use different keywords in your blog posts, but when you do what I teach you in class, you follow this, and you create content based on an SEO content foundation, meaning we're verifying that their search demand for the topic that our ideal customers interested in it, people want to read this and then we're creating content. That's helpful for them, following Google's recommendations or Google's desires, their grading system E-E-A-T - experience, expertise, authority, and trust. We're showcasing that in our content so that Google gets to know us, trusts us, and wants to share our content with people, and we're targeting keywords. We're using SEO keywords we have a really good chance of ranking on page one for if you're not sure how to figure that out. Module one of Simple SEO Content is all about keywords and how to find the right ones in the tools you use and how to do the reviews and the analysis and everything.  I just get you started with that right at the beginning of the class because it's so important.

So you're targeting those keywords that you need to use, and then, as you do this, every new blog post that you create that targets a keyword that you have a chance to rank for is one more opportunity to rank in Google search results. And when you rank in Google search results, meaning, your website shows up higher and higher at the top of the page, you get more traffic.  If you're position number one, when somebody searches for a query, they put keywords in there, they ask a question that's got the keywords that you're targeting, if your position number one, you're going to get about 35% of the people who search for that particular word or phrase. About 35% of them are going to come to your website. They're going to click on that link, and they're going to come to your website, and they're going to land on that blog post or that website page from there.

As long as you've got great information on there, you've got a call to action, et cetera, you have a chance to convert them. You have a chance to make them a lead, make them a sale, become have them become a raving fan. Every single blog post that you create in this way is one more chance to be found. So, if you want to rank for lots of keywords that are related to your business, then you need to have a content strategy that includes SEO, meaning you need to do both. You can't just create content in a silo without SEO because your SEO or your search engine optimization is what helps Google understand what your content is about. And you can't win with Google today with content that's not high quality, that's not written for your audience. You really need to do both. I know people sometimes they're like, oh no, I'll get to the SEO later. Oh no, no, no. My friend that's one of the biggest mistakes you can make is putting off the SEO because then you're just creating all this content, you're putting in all this time and effort, and you're building this beautiful website. But you're not doing the things that are important to get traffic to it. And the longer you put it off, the longer it takes you to get more keywords to rank, more pages to show up in the search results, and more traffic to your website. You have to do the work to get the results, but if you do it the way I teach you, you get the results. 

So if you have any questions, you can send me a message. DM me on Instagram. Your three-step process is to get the beginner's SEO guide. If you don't have it yet, take SEO 101, the free class that will get you started, and then sign up for Simple SEO Content. Come work with me in that small group environment. You're going to learn everything you need to know to do this for your business, to really build out your SEO content strategy so that you get more keywords ranking. This means you get, you show up on Google, people find you, they come to your website, you get more traffic, and your business makes more money. Just take Simple SEO Content and do what I teach you and you'll get results. All right, that's it for today. I will see you back here next week. Bye. For now.