If you’re getting into your SEO, you may find the term ‘search engine positioning’ cropping up a fair bit; but what is it, and how can you change it? In this article, we’ll be exploring what this term means, how you can improve your brand’s search engine position, and how you can measure it.
What is search engine positioning?
Search engine positioning lies at the very heart of SEO; it means optimising individual pages in order to achieve higher search engine rankings. As we know, those top spots on the search engine results pages (SERPs) are what everyone is after; the top three are thought to get the most clicks, with interest tailing off significantly for those below that.
To get the top spots for queries relevant to what you do that are actually searched for involves mastering a number of page elements, including content, mobile friendliness, internal links, and good navigation. Don’t worry; we’ll cover the best practices right here in this article.
Why is search engine positioning important?
Quite simply, being found for people already looking for what you do is the marketing dream - these are individuals who are already in the market, with money ready to spend in many cases; do you want to be the first site they land on? Of course you do! Why would they need to go anywhere else? By dedicating time to your search engine positioning, you’re standing your business in the best stead for successful conversions.
What are the benefits of search engine positioning?
Improved brand visibility
By making your search engine positioning better, you’re making your brand more visible, and not only more likely to capture the attention of the user in the moment, but stick around in their subconscious for the future too.
Better brand recognition
A brand that comfortably occupies the top spots builds a good brand reputation, both as far as the user is concerned, and in Google’s eyes, too; if your site is deemed as authoritative, trustworthy, and demonstrating your expertise, expect to be rewarded in the rankings.
Increased organic traffic
It figures that if you’re more visible in the SERPs due to good rankings, that you’ll get more organic traffic as a result; this is traffic that hasn’t been generated through paid advertising. Those top spots get the clicks!
An advantage over your competitors
Rising through the rankings to good search engine positions means that you’ve got a fighting chance of leapfrogging your competitors - the dream is to be found above them after all.
Search engine positioning v SEO
It may seem a little like search engine positions and SEO are the same thing, but while they’re obviously strongly related concepts, there are some key differences. Those include:
The main focus
Search engine positioning is very much focused down at page level, whereas SEO involves practices that concern your entire website, such as creating helpful blog content, organising your site’s navigation (also known as site architecture), and improving your page load speeds. However, focusing on search engine positioning means that you’re doing all you can to a particular page, such as incorporating internal links and targeting specific search terms with the page content, you can go after top positions for relevant keywords.
Timeline
SEO is a long game - we’re talking anything from 3 months to 3 years to see fantastic results. However, with search engine positioning, you get a little bit more immediate satisfaction if you do it correctly. Changes made to improve your search engine positioning could be visible within days, not months; you’d hope that the impact would be positive, but you need to keep on top of your analytics to ensure it’s not negative.
Our TOP 5 search engine positioning best practices
Create high quality, targeted content
This is good SEO practice in general, but in terms of improving your search engine positioning at a page level, it’s never been so important. The content should be relevant to the page you’re working on, and be genuinely helpful to the user, meeting search intent, and inclusive of relevant internal links to other pages of your site.
Refresh existing content
This is not a publish and run situation; you need to return to refresh the content on a regular basis. This is to keep your site up to date and therefore as helpful to the user as possible, preventing ranking drops over time caused by competitors outdoing you, Google updates, and content that is no longer quite correct.
Focus on on-page SEO
It’s not just the page content that needs attention; it’s the page as a whole. From heading hierarchy (and optimisation) to relevant internal links, you can walk Google through what your page is all about; this is the key to getting indexed, and rising through the search positions. Good on-page SEO ultimately provides a good experience for the user, too.
Use internal links
We talk a lot about internal links, and it’s because they’re so important; they tell Google what other pages on your site are relevant, so that they can find them quickly and get them indexed. They also help your user out, allowing them to find other pages that may be relevant to what they need.
Optimise title tags and meta descriptions
These are the titles and descriptions of your page that appear in the search results. You need to do two things with each element; inform your users and include your target keywords. Ideally, your title tag should be under 60 characters, and your meta description under 105.
How to measure search engine positioning
Both before and after you do this hard work to your pages, you’ll want to see where your pages are sitting. There are two ways you can do this; we recommend that you use a combination of both:
Utilise rank tracking software
Platforms such as Ahrefs, RankCaddy, and SEMRush all have super handy search engine ranking position functionality, which means you can see where your pages currently sit, and how that compares to the search engine positioning of your competitors.
Use Google Search Console
As with anything SEO-related, Google Search Console is your friend. Not only will you be able to see your search engine position, but also all sorts of other organic data, such as average Click Through Rates, total impressions, and total clicks.
Need help with your search engine positioning?
This kind of SEO dedication takes time and effort, and we fully appreciate that as a busy business owner, you may not have any to spare. Whilst search engine positioning is vital to your online success, you’re not expected to tackle it alone; that’s why 427 Marketing exists. Our talented team combines their skills to provide a multi-pronged approach to your search engine positioning, making real, positive impacts that will get you seen above the competition.
We work with brands from a broad range of industries; have a chat with us about you search engine position today.