Online positioning tools

Internet positioning is the place you occupy in search engines and social media. If you want to have any chance of attracting potential customers you have to make yourself visible and easy to find.

Have you searched for your business on Google? According to the keywords that identify you, where do you rank? Are you among the first results? If you haven't, I invite you to do it. Although if you are a Google user be sure to use incognito mode to get an accurate result, otherwise Google will adapt the result taking into account your history, location and personal information.

To get a more complete information of your positioning you can use one of the many SEO tools available online (free and paid). Examples of these are: Semrush, SERP Checker, Serplab, and several of Google's own options.

Importance of keywords

The goal of search engines is to help users find a solution, an answer to their query that is relevant, of quality and timely. That is why they continually improve their algorithms to present increasingly consistent results.

For example, Google currently prioritizes quality content and search intent. It evaluates the authority and relevance of the page with respect to the terms or keywords used by the user in his search.

A correct keyword management guarantees a good part of the success. The keywords must really describe the content of our page, anticipate as many variants as possible and include all related terms even if they do not contain them. It is a process that takes time, where the selection is refined and adjusted so that it is understood by the search engine.

It is a process in which we participate continuously as users. All we have to do is search for a topic that interests us in Google and see the results. The engine itself shows us the most used words or phrases on the Internet. Many times we do not use the term that describes it or we do not use words, but complete phrases and questions in an increasingly natural language, and yet the result is amazing. It's so everyday that we don't stop to appreciate all the work behind it (both the system and the content creators), nor its rapid evolution.

The most recent changes have to do with improving the user experience, making it more personalized if possible. Before the goal was for your site to be among the first pages, now they include featured snippets more than the simple link to the page, and incorporate different formats: photos, videos, infographics, e-books.

Organic positioning and paid positioning

There are two ways to position our business in this universe of information that is the Internet: organically or by paying. Whether on search engines or social networks, the goal is to increase your brand recognition and the number of potential customers. This is achieved by generating traffic and attracting as many leads as possible.

In the organic method you create your content directly on your website or in your different media. By consistently and constantly publishing content with a high degree of added value you get people to become familiar with you and create a relationship. In the case of the networks, if they like your content, they interact until they start following you and from then on the visibility will depend on the algorithm that the site offers. In the case of the search engine, by the relevance and authority of your pages.

In the paid method, either by ads or campaigns, the result is usually more immediate. Its strong point is segmentation, which allows you to be very specific about the audience you want to reach. You can choose the criteria and it will be promoted for the price you pay and for a determined period of time.

The advantage of organic positioning over paid positioning is the trust of users in this system; but the disadvantage is that it is a strategy to capture users in the medium and long term. Needless to say that you can combine them intelligently according to the marketing strategy you have in mind.

How to improve online positioning?

These positioning methods help you to create your strategy, manage keywords, enhance social interaction and generally optimize your pages.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It is a set of techniques that you can use to optimize your pages and position yourself organically in search engines. The better implemented it is, the higher you will be in search results, the more people will find you and the more traffic you will drive to your sites, increasing the possibility of converting them into customers of your company.

It is a long process of continuous change to keep up with the algorithm. You have to constantly evaluate and rethink your strategy, learning quickly from mistakes.

Advantages of SEO:

• Long-term brand positioning through improved visibility.

• Increased visits because they are more trusted by the audience than paid ads.

• Increased sales, as it is based on a thorough study of keywords, consumers are more likely to find what they are looking for.

• Improved site performance and usability by taking into account factors such as image size compression, navigation and loading speed, among many others.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

It is based on advertising your company or brand through paid ads on search engines, its results are very fast. They direct traffic by attraction from different channels to your site through advertising campaigns, it is known as PPC (pay per click). Its main advantage is the level of segmentation you can get. There is a wide variety of SEM campaigns available: search, shopping, remarketing, video, etcetera.

Among the most used tools to create effective campaigns are Google Adwords and Bing Ads.

Advantages of SEM:

• Better positioning (temporary) compared to organic search results.

• It offers a greater reach than SEO and a large number of available actions.

• PPC (pay per click) campaigns can be created and launched in a very short time which results in an increase of visits to your page. In addition, during the course of the campaign, any aspect that does not work can be configured.

• It is possible to monitor and measure the advertising constantly and the information on the behavior of the campaign is very detailed.

• The budget we allocate to it is our decision, although the position we temporarily occupy depends on the amount offered.

For both SEO and SEM the search engines themselves (Google, Yahoo, Bing among others), offer us the options we need. Either to optimize the contents or to publish us in their media. There are tools (free and paid) such as Google analytics, Google Search Consol, Google my business, Google keywords planner, mobile friendly List, B review link generator, Semrush.

They allow us a lot of options to manage keywords and terms, to analyze our positioning in relation to the competition, to update us on trends, to measure interactions, to track traffic, to elaborate statistics, to increase the usability of the site, to make advertising campaigns. To monitor in real time your strategy and make decisions.

We invite you to find out more about these tools so that you can get to know all their possibilities in depth.

It should be noted that although Google is by far the most used search engine worldwide (more than 90% worldwide and 60% in the USA), Bing and Yahoo follow in importance. We have focused on Google and how its algorithm works, but if you want to rank in other search engines you should familiarize yourself with their algorithm. Once you get good results with Google you can expand your positioning in the other search engines. The advantage is clear, less competition. Few businesses do SEO targeted to other search engines, and it works differently: for example Google takes more into account semantics and context while Bing keeps the use of exact keywords.

Social Media Optimization (SMO).

The idea is to use a set of techniques that make your networks truly social and thus increase your online presence. It includes the communication platforms that we all know as social networks and all the media where the user generates online content such as forums, blogs, podcasts, among others:

• Facilitates users to share links, documents and content.

• It increases the number of followers.

• Drives traffic to the sales page.

• Get recommendations from users.

As with search engines, each platform has its own algorithms and it is necessary to know them.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

It includes all the marketing actions we do in our business related to social media. To grow the business, both in sales and reach.

The most important thing is the engagement of users with the account. The level of interaction, the links that are obtained and disseminated, the feedback, in short, the degree of participation of the community, both in quality and quantity. Companies that not only attract, but also retain them, occupy the first places.

Among the paid options there are several tools for campaigns that allow you to segment the market and achieve greater reach. For example Facebook Ads.

General tips to improve your positioning

Content must be optimized, provide value and use multiple formats. Not only plain text, but diverse.

Think about the user: What is he/she looking for? Their search intention (what they want to find). This way you will know what to publish that is relevant to the potential customer and what keywords to assign. Keep in mind that they also search by voice and the language tends to be more natural.

Create indexes with content headings that include the Keywords in order to fragment the content and make it more available to the audience. This way, the user can browse the content at their convenience.

Use high quality images and videos that convey positive emotions. This type of content is very attractive.

Take care of internal and external links. Make sure all links are updated. Create references between the texts, linking the content. Make alliances with other sites with similar themes and exchange links that search engines recognize.

Make sure your site is accessible to everyone. Use a legible technology, with keyboard navigation, contrasting colors, hierarchy of headings and all other design and usability elements.

Optimize pages for mobile technology: It is very important to take care of the user's experience in these devices since an increasing number of consumers make their purchase decisions through them. Aspects such as design, loading speed, usability, relationship with social networks or voice search, are crucial to increase traffic.

Define the possible questions and answers that may be related to the consumer's search. This allows you to go straight to the topic without even having to follow another link or open the publication in its entirety. At this moment they have positioning priority over the organic result. If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, include headings with a question and answer format.

Take care of your community, look for interaction, publish periodically, reward users who participate. Try to make them loyal.

The challenge is to make all this work together, not to restrict your possibilities with few options. Remember that attracting traffic is only a part of it, it is up to you to convert those leads into customers.

If necessary hire SEO specialists and community managers to implement these tools and develop your strategy. You don't have to do it all by yourself.