There is a science to getting your website ranked on Google. In this episode of The Compete Marketing Group Show, we share a process you can use to understand what it takes in your industry to get your website ranked on Google.

* Note that this blog post is derived from the transcript of the audio discussion. Please excuse any typos or odd wording.

Identify Your Google Competitors

While you will have competitors in your industry, these are not necessarily the same competitors you will have on Google. Before developing your Google ranking strategy, identify competitors that currently get exposure on Google.

• Perform searches on Google that your prospects are likely to perform. Identify established websites that you recognize that seem to get exposure in these rankings.
• Use tools such as alexa.com to compare the popularity of one site against another.
• Use tools such as semrush.com to identify which websites get exposure for certain keywords and how much additional Google exposure websites receive, etc.

Once you have identified websites that get exposure on Google, you can analyze their specific website from Google’s perspective.

Compare Your Website To Competing Websites

Once you have a list of websites that are getting exposure on Google, you can analyze specific metrics related to that website and compare those metrics to your website. In short, you are trying to see what Google sees when Google looks at their website compared to your website.

What keywords are they targeting?- Look at the page title in the upper left-hand side of your internet browser as well as the content on their page.

• Are there specific keywords that they seem to be targeting within this content?
• Compare those to keywords that you’re targeting in your content.

How authoritative is the website? – Google determines the authority of your website and uses that to determine where you should show up in Google rankings. Authority is based on a number of metrics including

• The number of links you have from other websites,
• The authority of the linking websites,
• The content in the links, and
• A number of other metrics related to the links.

We work with clients to conduct a Link Footprint Analysis to identify specific metrics for competitor’s websites and gaps in your own websites metrics. This helps us know exactly what metrics we need to work on in order to get more exposure on Google.

Develop Your SEO Strategy And Execute

Once you have identified specific metrics that you need to influence in order to get more exposure on Google, you can implement a number of tactics to accomplish that goal.

• You can create additional content targeting specific topics that competitors have content for.
• You can increase the exposure your blog posts receive online so that Google sees that you are an authority on that topic.
• Measure your results over time and tweak the strategy.

Improve Your Website’s Google Ranking

Getting ranked on Google sounds complicated and is if you’re not familiar with how Google works. We can help you analyze your specific website compared to competitors ranking in your market to identify specific actions you can take to increase your exposure on Google. Contact us today.