The 10-step plan for getting to page one of Google

A 10-point guide for online retailers to rank on page one, by using keywords that attract less competition.

We all know it’s vitally important to get your keywords right because, along with your inbound links, keywords will be one of the most important factors in making sure you rank well for the appropriate search terms.

The problem is that, at the time of writing, there are over four billion web pages and any search for something within your specific market will no doubt bestow many millions of results. How can we make sure our pages are appearing in the top 10?

Here we are specifically looking at SEO from an online retail perspective, as we believe an ecommerce keyword campaign is a completely different beast. Most ecommerce sites, however niche, will generally have a selection of products on offer and it’s important to consider each of these products as its own entity.

Don't underestimate the importance of spending time on your research and making sure you get it right. A rushed keyword campaign could potentially set you back much further, whereas a well thought out, well structured and well executed keyword campaign can reap huge rewards. Your keywords shouldn't just be driving more traffic, they need to be driving more relevant traffic, which, in turn will increase your conversion rates.

So here's our 10-step guide to creating great low competition keyword campaigns.

1. Understand and segment

Before you start trying to create appropriate keywords, segment your products, your industry and your competitors. Are you creating an overall campaign, or are you concentrating on one particular product or group of products? The more research you can do at this stage, the better.

2. Invest in a good keyword tool

To work on your keywords, you will need a good tool. There are some decent free keyword tools available like Google’s Adwords.

However, investing in a specialist tool like Wordtracker or Jaaxy will help to identify true competitive ratings and the power of each keyword.

A good tool will also make suggestions for alternatives to the words and phrases you search for. Look out for those that have lower levels of competition, but a decent amount of monthly searches.

3. Use Google Instant

Google Instant is what happens when you start typing something into the Google search bar, and it suggests things to search for. This is incredibly handy, as it gives a brilliant insight into what others are searching for, which helps with the ‘long tail’ keywords. You can then combine using a keyword tool and Google Instant to come up with new and fresh ideas for keywords to optimise for.

4. Do your competitor research

When you have come across a keyword (short or long tail) that you like, search for it within speech quote marks (e.g. "low energy lighting). This will only return results for that exact phrase.

You can see the exact level of competition you're up against, and even have a look at how some of your competitors' sites are set up. Try installing some SEO keyword toolbars (such as the Moz Toolbar for Chrome), that will help you to identify which keywords your closest competitors are optimising for.

5. Avoid keyword cannibalisation

This comes down to good segmentation and research at step one. You should always try to avoid over-optimising for one term, thus creating competition between your pages.

Contrary to popular belief, having your 'overall' keywords strewn throughout your entire site will not actually help you. What will actually happen is that rather than Google knowing the exact page to return, based on a query, it will have to choose between a number of pages and may not actually return the best page. This can then be detrimental to your click through rates and if people aren't clicking the link, it will suffer.

6. Get your 'Title Tags' right

The Title Tag is considered one of the most important aspects of SEO and tells Google what you're all about. Your Title Tags should all be unique, accurate to the page and set up right. Title Tags need to be under 70 characters (any longer will be wasted/unseen text) and contain your primary keyword, your secondary keyword and company name, in that order.

Of course, this all has to be written as a sentence that makes sense to a human whilst being well optimised for robots; no one said this was easy!

7. Don't forget your images

I write a lot about how important your content is. After all, people visit, link to and return to your site for the content, what else? Content isn't just your text; it's the images as well. Make sure your photographs are sensibly named and you make good use of Image Alt attributes to describe the picture and use the relevant keywords.

8. Make small changes

Don't feel that because someone on the internet told you that keyword campaigns were important, you need to go changing your entire site. Google loves fresh content, but change can be detrimental in the short term. Instead, try making small changes, work on one section or page of your site at a time.

9. Don't forget analytics

Following on from making small changes, keep an eye on your analytics to see if these tweaks have worked, and make adjustments if things aren't going well. Allow some time for changes to truly make a difference, but we wary of getting caught on downward slide.

Don't be afraid to really get stuck into your analytics and go beyond just visitor numbers and basic data. Analyse the keywords being used, traffic funnels, entrances and exits to get a good picture of visitor behaviour on your site.

10. React to the world around you

Our last tip is that basically this process doesn't stop. As an ecommerce merchant, you will always have new products, but it goes beyond that.

Keep an eye on world events, industry trends and TV programmes in order to add relevant content (e.g. blogs , how to videos, useful links) as quickly as possible so you benefit from searches for topical keywords.

So there's our 10-point plan for creating great keyword campaigns. It can be a bit of trial and error, but with good planning, industry knowledge and great execution, it can be as easy as ABC.

source - businezszone