Best strategy to deal with KW ranking from 4 - 20 positions

[youtube1001]

Hi all,

I am experimenting a bit with one of my sites and this is to do with ranking positions from 4 to 20.

I have many KW in these positions and I am trying to find ways to push them to the top 3 positions: Mainly by writing more content and internal linking only. No backlinks from outside. So far, I can think of two paths:

1. Rewrite the specific content: Here I am going to beef up the content by using tools like SurferSEO to identify gaps and hence increase the potential
2. Write new supporting content: Find info related type of KWs that would support the main KW. In this info type of article, I would be linking to the main article.

Are there any other ways that I can improve?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I know you're saying you want to do this without external links. I'd tell you to look at the SERPs and the sites ranking above you and see how many of them are beating you on link metrics. Links are a huge part of the algorithm. If others are beating you there and you have little weight being attributed to you in that part of the equation, you're at a giant disadvantage. My point being: at least make sure this is doable without additional links before you try it. See if the data backs up the viability of the approach or you may waste your time.

But if I was going to do it without external links, first and foremost I'd revisit all the pages ranking above me for each query and see what they're doing on-page. And this is stuff SurferSEO can't tell you necessarily.

Hyper-Focus on the Query Intent & Increase Relevancy Tightness​

The most important thing would be to make sure you're hyper-focused on satisfying the intent of the query. Adding more content might make you less satisfying to users and googlebot. If what content you add adds depth to the page, that's good. If what you add increases the breadth of the topic coverage, that's bad. Broad is bad, hyper-focus on the intent at depth is good which dials in relevancy. It's not like the old days where you want to blather on about any filler topics.

You can increase relevancy by doing what you're talking about too, by publishing related articles and linking in with the right anchor texts. This may not be external to your site, but it is external to the page. If you're willing to do this, you should also do it off-site, where you'll get more bang for your buck if you can land these posts on the right sites. For internal links, don't be afraid to use the exact match anchors for the keywords you want to improve for. I would watch your ratios externally and perhaps only use one exact match before going phrase match for the rest.

Signal 'Quality' to Googlebot​

I'd look at doing things that signal 'quality' to googlebot, which, in these cases, can only look at the markup and not actually understand what's within it. Things like data tables, lists, videos, resource sections, more images, maybe a video embed, etc.

Increase your Page Speed​

Google wants to send users to pages with great user experiences. A slow loading page is a bad user experience. Optimize your site loading speed sitewide first, and then you can look at each page and find opportunities to increase their respective speeds.

Grade Level Reading Scores & Typos​

It may be a bit late for this, and if you're ranking as high as #4 then you're okay, but make sure your Flesch Kincaide scores are in the same realm as those ranking above you. Don't have Ph.D. level writing for simple topics, and vice versa. Most of the time, simplicity wins, not only for humans but for googlebot. Increase trust and authority by fixing any typos or grammatical errors.

Freshness Score​

Any of the updates we're talking about to the page is going no refresh your decaying freshness score. But you should also signal to Google that you've updated by making sure the Publish or Updated dates actually increment up to the present day.

The 3 P's, the D, & NERD​

Check out this post and the post below it and, while you check on your general on-page optimization, also see if you can exploit these concepts.

Double Check Your Basic On-Page Optimization​

Make sure you're exploiting the use of your title tag; H1, H2's, and H3's, image alt tags, keyword density (not too high), meta description, etc. Don't change your slug at this point or you'll have to deal with 301 redirect disruptions potentially.

Again though, I'd assume you have most of this tweaked well if you're ranking #4. You can try to squeeze out the final drops of juice at the upper ends of the diminishing returns... but don't disregard external links. It might be the missing piece of the puzzle.

Why are you wanting to not deal with external links? I'm only asking because there's been a big influx of people and questions lately all about "Ranking without links" which is like "Living without breathing".

 

[youtube1001]

I know you're saying you want to do this without external links. I'd tell you to look at the SERPs and the sites ranking above you and see how many of them are beating you on link metrics. Links are a huge part of the algorithm. If others are beating you there and you have little weight being attributed to you in that part of the equation, you're at a giant disadvantage. My point being: at least make sure this is doable without additional links before you try it. See if the data backs up the viability of the approach or you may waste your time.

But if I was going to do it without external links, first and foremost I'd revisit all the pages ranking above me for each query and see what they're doing on-page. And this is stuff SurferSEO can't tell you necessarily.

Hyper-Focus on the Query Intent & Increase Relevancy Tightness​

The most important thing would be to make sure you're hyper-focused on satisfying the intent of the query. Adding more content might make you less satisfying to users and googlebot. If what content you add adds depth to the page, that's good. If what you add increases the breadth of the topic coverage, that's bad. Broad is bad, hyper-focus on the intent at depth is good which dials in relevancy. It's not like the old days where you want to blather on about any filler topics.

You can increase relevancy by doing what you're talking about too, by publishing related articles and linking in with the right anchor texts. This may not be external to your site, but it is external to the page. If you're willing to do this, you should also do it off-site, where you'll get more bang for your buck if you can land these posts on the right sites. For internal links, don't be afraid to use the exact match anchors for the keywords you want to improve for. I would watch your ratios externally and perhaps only use one exact match before going phrase match for the rest.

Signal 'Quality' to Googlebot​

I'd look at doing things that signal 'quality' to googlebot, which, in these cases, can only look at the markup and not actually understand what's within it. Things like data tables, lists, videos, resource sections, more images, maybe a video embed, etc.

Increase your Page Speed​

Google wants to send users to pages with great user experiences. A slow loading page is a bad user experience. Optimize your site loading speed sitewide first, and then you can look at each page and find opportunities to increase their respective speeds.

Grade Level Reading Scores & Typos​

It may be a bit late for this, and if you're ranking as high as #4 then you're okay, but make sure your Flesch Kincaide scores are in the same realm as those ranking above you. Don't have Ph.D. level writing for simple topics, and vice versa. Most of the time, simplicity wins, not only for humans but for googlebot. Increase trust and authority by fixing any typos or grammatical errors.

Freshness Score​

Any of the updates we're talking about to the page is going no refresh your decaying freshness score. But you should also signal to Google that you've updated by making sure the Publish or Updated dates actually increment up to the present day.

The 3 P's, the D, & NERD​

Check out this post and the post below it and, while you check on your general on-page optimization, also see if you can exploit these concepts.

Double Check Your Basic On-Page Optimization​

Make sure you're exploiting the use of your title tag; H1, H2's, and H3's, image alt tags, keyword density (not too high), meta description, etc. Don't change your slug at this point or you'll have to deal with 301 redirect disruptions potentially.

Again though, I'd assume you have most of this tweaked well if you're ranking #4. You can try to squeeze out the final drops of juice at the upper ends of the diminishing returns... but don't disregard external links. It might be the missing piece of the puzzle.

Why are you wanting to not deal with external links? I'm only asking because there's been a big influx of people and questions lately all about "Ranking without links" which is like "Living without breathing".

Hi,

First off all, what an informative reply. Thank you so much for your time to explain all aspects in such as a diligent way. Much appreciated. I am going to study the references you provided.

Let me explain my thought process. And I totally understand the need for the external links. And for my other sites, that is a strategy I already use based on the need to boost the ranking.

For the current site, I must say it is not laser focused on one niche. Moreover, I acquired the site a few months ago. In fact, I seem to be doing good by acquiring sites that are performing at a minimum level (read earning a few bucks a month) and then improving the ranking mainly doing what you suggested: On-page SEO, fulfilling the search intent, adding videos, quotes, etc. Next I am going to venture into adding info graphics as best suited as well.

Hyper-Focus on the Query Intent & Increase Relevancy Tightness​

This is where I am doing lot of brain storming. Depth vs breadth. I can easily spend a ton of time and write a 10 K article by myself including all related aspects. But then, I often question myself, am I over fulfilling the query intent? Often times, the answer is yes. Then I have to divide the 10K into more relevant (to query intent) posts and then interconnect. I had good success with this.

Another issue I find is with the buyer KW. Let us say, I already rank positions 1 to 3 for a buyer intent (best...) KW with SV of 350. However, the main KW has SV of a few thousands and I rank for position 14.

My goal is to bring my site to top 3 for the main KW also. And hence the need to make many posts to increase the topical relevance and interlink.

Finally, I study the SERP results a lot. And I concentrate on-page/content quality if I see my competitor ranking ranking position 4 (1- 3 are Amazon, Ebay etc), and my site is position 14, then my plan is:
1. Increase the content quality and more on-page SEO
then
2. Off page SEO (backlinks mainly + WEB 2.0 links)

For this site, I am still in step 1

Signal 'Quality' to Googlebot​

All the content has videos, but I am increasing relevance by adding more videos, data tables, and infographics.

Increase your Page Speed​

This is taken care off, and need to check page by page for this.

Grade Level Reading Scores & Typos​

The existing content is good. My content writing style is complex English. So I need to check more. Will follow your advice.

Freshness Score​

Will do.

The 3 P's, the D, & NERD​

This, I need to check your links to learn more.

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Thanks again for such a detailed reply and insight. Appreciate your time.

Best regards,