SEO is much more simple than people sometimes make out.
At its heart, it comes down to two things: links and content. High-quality links let Google know that your website is trusted. High-quality content lets users know that your website is trusted.
Fail on either of those things, and your Defence content has no chance of appearing in Google search results. Here’s where you could be falling.
Link problems
When it comes to SEO, links come in two categories: internal links and backlinks. Let’s take a look at how each of them influences your website search ranking – and where you might be going wrong with yours.
Internal links
Internal links point to other pages on the same website. And what SEO professionals call the internal link structure of your website is pretty important for your search ranking.
A good way to understand how this works is by understanding the concept of SEO juice. Essentially, your website has a big container of SEO juice that should be distributed throughout your web pages. Your internal links tell Google where to put that juicy SEO goodness.
For this reason, you need to send most of that SEO juice to your most important pages: they will most likely be your homepage, your cornerstone content and your service pages. It helps Google to understand which of your web pages to prioritise and starts building a kind of website structure.
Backlinks
If internal links let Google know where to distribute your SEO juice, backlinks are the ingredients that make up the juice.
A backlink is a link from another website that points to your domain. When we talk about a high-quality backlink, we’re talking about a link from a respected and authoritative website. In practice, that means a link from the BBC to your website is going to be much more valuable than a link from getfreemoneynow.com.
But clearly, not everyone can easily acquire links from the BBC, The New York Times and The Guardian. Getting high-quality backlinks can be a time-consuming and challenging process, which is why you might want to consider hiring an International SEO agency.
Agencies often have access to a network of websites where they distribute your content, increasing your backlinks and improving your search ranking at the same time.
Content problems
The next piece of the SEO puzzle is your content. If Google use links to measure the credibility of your website, your readers measure your credibility based on your content. So it has to be relevant, it has to be valuable, and it has to be unique.
Your content isn’t unique enough
Your content might look good and read well. But there are thousands of other people writing content on the very same topic. So if your content isn’t unique, it will sink in the search results.
A good way of figuring out if your content is truly unique is by checking out the top search results for your target keyword. Let’s say you’re writing an article about the defence threat of drones. Does it differ from the top results? Does it offer anything different? Is the information laid out logically and concisely?
If the answer to any of these questions is ‘No’, go back and sharpen up your content. It needs to be different enough from the other search results for users to click on it and read it.
Your content doesn’t add any value for the reader
But it’s not enough for your content to just be different. It also has to add value for the reader. By that, we mean it has to give the reader something that your rival content doesn’t.
What could that be? Well, maybe you could include a free PDF with your article. You could get some quotes from an expert on the topic. You could even just make the most important information easier to access than your competitors do.
All of these are reasons why the reader would choose your content over your competitors. Keep that in mind for every piece of content you write, and you won’t go too far wrong.
You’re not writing the content that your users are looking for
If you’re not writing the content that your users are looking for, they won’t read it – no matter how good it is. In SEO-speak, you’ve got to understand something called search intent.
Let’s say that someone types in ‘seo defence’ into Google. When you browse through the results, you can quickly see how the search intent of ‘SEO defence’ is different for different people.
Some users want more information about so-called SEO defence tactics – ie, how to protect your search ranking.
However, other users are looking for help with SEO for the defence industry. People are using the same search term, but looking for different content.
So when you’re writing your content, you’ve got to make sure it matches up with what the user is looking for. It’s generally better to be as specific as possible. In this example, you might optimise your page around ‘SEO for the defence industry’ instead.
Website SEO errors
If your website is full of errors then it won’t make any difference how brilliant your content is, how many links you have, or how respected your website is – it will still struggle to appear in Google. Luckily, most website SEO errors are easy to fix.
SEMrush has a free SEO audit tool that will make you aware of most of them. It could be anything from broken links to more technical stuff like multiple H2 tags or a low text-to-HTML ratio. But for a more in-depth analysis, you might be better off hiring the services of an SEO pro.
Once you’ve ironed out the errors, improved the speed of your website and improved the user experience, it’s over to your backlinks and content to get your content appearing in Google.
Looking to rank better in search engines?
If you’re looking for an international SEO agency to provide you with professional SEO services, book a growth audit.
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