It’s almost unheard of to see a sprinter in three consecutive Olympic games, but that hasn’t stopped Usain Bolt. Bolt will be competing in his third consecutive Olympic games, and is without question the greatest sprinter of all time. With world records in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m sprints, it is safe to say this guy is FAST.

9.58 seconds, that is how fast Usain Bolt can run 100 meters, a world record setting time. Just like the speed that Bolt has, businesses want to see their business pages climb the search rankings fast! In olympic spirit, we’ve compiled five easy tips that businesses can use to climb search rankings with Usain Bolt speed!

Now, we are not guaranteeing that it will take 9.58 seconds to appear at the top of the search results, but we do guarantee that using these tips will help a business climb search rankings on all major search engines.

 

 Search Rankings Tip 1: Keyword Planning

Businesses with great content on their websites tend to appear at the top of the search results, and great content has a focus on keywords. Before a webpage is created, a business must first determine what word or words they want to rank for. Keyword planning is not simple, especially for businesses that don’t understand how to plan. A business cannot simply pick a word, type it a bunch of times and cross their fingers to appear at the top of Google search rankings. Search engines are not fooled by this. Keyword density is important, but it’s not the only thing that the search algorithms consider when ranking pages in search results, especially with new progress with Google’s RankBrain. There are many factors that affect local search, and it’s important to dominate the ones you have control of to move into the coveted Snack Pack.

When keyword planning, be sure to use niche words, and target keywords that are relevant enough to get a business appearing in front of the right people online. If a local company wants to appear to the right local audience, they must be sure to be specific to their community.

A local windshield repair company is going to have a hard time appearing for the keyword “windshield.” It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult for local companies to appear in the top few results for broad focused keywords. There is a much better chance to appear at the top of the search results if the keywords are narrowed down.

For example, a windshield company in Buffalo, New York wants to appear in front of local customers who may have a crack or chip in their window. They’d be much more successful aiming to rank for “rock chip repair in Buffalo” rather than the word “windshield.”

Search Rankings Tip 2: Strengthen Meta Descriptions

A meta description is a small description of what a webpage contains, it’s basically a summary of a business’s webpage in ~160 characters. These too must have a focus on keywords, and for smaller businesses such as local windshield repair companies, it’s important to have the right keywords in the meta description.

To keep this example consistent, we actually Googled “rock chip repair in Buffalo” to see which businesses appear in the search results. It’s always a good idea to look at the business that appears first, see how they are doing it, and try to better their meta description.

In this case we see a local windshield repair company that clearly knows what they are doing! As you look above, you can see that the meta description contains most of the words that we searched for. This is a fantastic way to target the specific search query of “rock chip repair in Buffalo” and to get frantic drivers with broken windshields through a business’s front door.

Proper meta descriptions not only help in search result rankings, but they also give prospective customers a summary of exactly what they may be looking for. Customers want it easy, they don’t want to spend a long time browsing for repair shops—they want to find answers easily and the solutions fast.

 

Search Rankings Tip 3: Be Unique

It’s tough to be unique from the fifty other local companies that compete in a company’s respective industry.

However, the content on a business’s website should aim to be unique and somewhat different from the rest in order to stand out in the search rankings.

The reason being is that Google and other search engines search for original content when their bots are crawling sites. This means every site in a specific industry that has similar webpage copy will likely blend in, and the bots won’t declare those pages as original or unique.

Don’t expect a local business page to appear high on the search rankings if it sounds exactly like every other local business page!

 

Search Rankings Tip 4: Stay Active Everywhere Online

Usain Bolt doesn’t just show up to the Olympics to get his name out there! He shows up to social events, gives back to charity, runs all over the globe and makes a name for himself on places other than the racetrack. It’s kind of like the way a business has to do things if they want to climb search rankings, make a name for themselves on places other than their company website. Businesses can improve their local search by using data aggregators, or can manually create listings on tons of directory sites.

One thing many smaller businesses fail to understand is that business pages on reputable websites are so important! Social platforms like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or wherever are an easy way for a business to index their name across various sources on the web. Likewise review sites are hugely important! The more a business is mentioned online the greater the influence it will have on search rankings.

 

Search Rankings Tip 5: Blog

We write blogs not only because they are fun to write, but also because it’s a way to continuously produce new website content. Google’s algorithm specifically calls for continuous web content and publishing if a business wants to appear high on the search rankings. Google is pushing web developers and content writers to keep websites from getting irrelevant or outdated, making content marketing a healthy company strategy.

A business should establish a blog plan, no matter the industry. If that same windshield repair company in Buffalo New York wanted to blog, maybe they’d write about the “Top 10 windshield crack horror stories” or “How a rock chip ruined this man's day.” These types of articles are relevant to their industry, and are loaded with keywords about their business. Tools such as WordPress, Medium and Ghost are all super useful in order to easily get started with blog publishing.

It could be a funny blog, or serious industry stories, as long as the content that is being produced has a focus on their respective business industry. That’s just one example, but there are tons of opportunities for businesses in any specific industry. Don’t believe us that blogging is important? Here’s 58 reasons why businesses should run a blog.

 

Search Rankings Conclusion: Content is Key 

You’re probably wondering why I listed off five different things when they pretty much all have to do with web content. Whether it’s keyword planning for the content you write, writing great meta descriptions, writing original content or blogging, it all involves the production of content.

That’s because content is key, and we preach that a lot around here! Implement these strategies and let us know how it works for a business; just like Usain Bolt we think you’ll stand atop the podium of online search rankings.