Case Study: The process of ranking for national keywords

What page is your website ranking? First? 10? Or 100? There are over 200 ranking factors that Google takes into consideration for a website to rank for keywords. The thing is, research studies show that only five percent of content ever created will rank on the first page of Google’s SERP in one year. 

As a leading Omaha SEO agency, our agency tells all potential and current clients that it can take over six months to start ranking for local and national keywords. This is because part of the 200 ranking factors take time, sweat, tears and some SEO science. 

All potential and current clients want to rank on the first page for every single keyword that we are targeting, and to be honest, our company wants the same thing for them. However, to rank over time takes some serious content marketing, keyword research and continuous optimization. 

With that being said, what is the process of ranking for national keywords? 

Keyword research 

Why is keyword research SO critical for any company out there? Keyword research is what a company will organically be known and searched for in search engines. This determines what your company is known for inside Google. If the keyword research is a bit off, then the search results will be skewed. 

From branded keywords to local and national search phrases, keywords are how a consumer will find a company. If the keywords are not the right ones, this website will start to drop in ranking, but it can also bring in the wrong type of organic website traffic which means a higher bounce rate and less time spent on the website itself. 

The first step in any SEO strategy is keyword research and market analysis. Who are your competitors in real life and on search engines? In reality, the competitors on search engines are really the main competition. 

This is because a company who utilizes SEO strategy will be competing with not only their neighboring competitors, but competitors who already have a Domain Authority (DA) and are ranking in SERPs.  

Keyword research is how an SEO expert finds keywords that they are going to optimize on specific pages on a website from services and products to blogging content. Yes, each different page on a website should have its own set of keywords and enough keywords for blogging content. 

This is where you have two different tabs inside of your keyword research spreadsheet. Do not have a keyword spreadsheet for JUST research? Start with that, friends. 

The “bucket” are the high volume and density keywords that are going to be harder to rank for overtime, but with on-page and off-page technical SEO, our clients can slowly start to gain ranking in organic search. Where does the bucket come from? The refined.

The refined tab is the tab that holds ALL the keywords that would be relevant to the client’s target audience. These are keywords that their audience will be searching for based on the market research that takes place. 

For example, if the client has several different product pages, a tab should be created to hold all the keywords within that client’s keyword research spreadsheet. 

Content marketing 

Content marketing is and always will be one of the most important notions to rank in search engines. Google has over 200 ranking factors, but in all reality we have a secret for you, Google really only searches for three main components when it comes to ranking your blog over others. 

While we cannot tell you the three main components of ranking, as Omaha SEO best company out there, we can tell you that it is good, quality content. This content not only needs to be optimized with keyword phrases that are relevant, but at the same time, this content also needs to be unique. 

Did you know that Google is able to see how much of your content is similar to others? Yup, Google really is that smart. Without quality content, keyword research can be critical, but needs to be tied to a landing page or blog. 

At Monstrous Media Group, our Omaha SEO agency has Digital Marketers who write blogging content for all of our digital marketing clients. This content is written around keyword research, and following the other two ranking factors, this content starts to rank in SERP organically. A great example of this happening is a non profit organization that our company works with called, For Elephants. 

For Elephants is a non profit organization that works all over the United States and in Africa to help preserve elephant’s lives with life saving research, and in addition to that, For Elephants works with zoos all over the United States to help keep their elephants safe, healthy, happy and continue to reproduce. 

This life saving research and preservation of elephants is critical in Africa and in our zoos all over the United States. But, what kind of keywords would even be used? 

Well, what do they do? Animal conservation, elephant research? Which type of elephants do they work with specifically? African elephants. Elephants preservation and the list goes on and on. 

For Elephants came to Monstrous Media Group in need of a website design and development and digital marketing strategies to help them rank in search engines overtime. 

In six months, For Elephants has started to rank organically in SERP for national keywords! 

It has taken six months of blogging to get For Elephants to start ranking in SERP. The organizations started off at zero keywords with zero organic traffic.  Six months of blood, sweat and tears for  national ranking keywords! 

How will this continue to grow? 

As an Omaha SEO best company, what are our predictions that will happen in the next six months?  For Elephants will continue to grow in SERP by our Digital Marketers continuing to write weekly blog posts with relevant keyword phrases and topics to continue to put For Elephants as a credible source in the eyes of searchers and search engines. 

For Elephants will continue to garner new keywords from those national ranking keywords! Once a blog is ranking, more than often, that blog starts to rank organically for a number of other keywords as well that are relevant to that content. 

It can be more short tail keywords or long tail keywords, but no matter which it is, that is qualified organic traffic that is being funneled to the website. Here is where they currently are and we can’t wait to see how they continue to grow in SERP, become a credible source in SERP and see their DA continue to rise. 

Trust has been established for For Elephants to rank. This is all through mutual respect and open-communication to get For Elephants to rank in SERP. 

There is a mutual trust between the client and Monstrous Media Group that we are doing the absolute best to help their brand to continue to grow, while making sure everything is on point. If there is a topic that is not the best, the organization simply tells us and we need to move on and find a better one! 

It really is that simple, but we do not know what is and is not on brand if the client never tells us! 

There is also on page and off page technical SEO that has been conducted, but the client understanding the ‘why’s’ behind it all and trusting us to do our process and do it well has helped the client skyrocket in six months! 

It is our pleasure to work with For Elephants over the past six months and we cannot wait to update this case study in another six months! 

Monstrous Media Group is a faith-based creative management firm that specializes in SEO, digital marketing, custom code and website design, app development and so much more! 

We would love to hear about your project. Please fill out the contact form below and we will get back to you!