Ranking higher organically

[SenseiSteve]

Reference:

Ranking higher organically in the search engines certainly leads to increased traffic on your website, but conversions should always be what you’re looking for. Those same keywords that led prospects to your site should also be attached to value add content on your website that intuitively ends with a call-to-action.

Since BERT, I'm curious if you've modified the way you approach keyword research and utilization.

 

[bigredseo]

Since BERT, yes. Now there's a lot of focus on the user intent end of things.

Instead of trying to rank for "website hosting", we would prefer to target "hosting for websites". Google understands that better than just a keyword pairing.

Ask and Answer questions in content are also big factors for Google and Bing. You can get into the Question & Answer section at the top of a search by having content that asks a specific questioning provides a concise answer in the first paragraph.

For example:
Q: How do I make a backup in cPanel?
A: First, log into cPanel. Then click on the Backup Icon. Then click on the Full Backup option, and select if you want to be notified. The backup will start, and when it's completed, you can click the link to download a backup to my computer.

You can also use "#1, #2, #3", Ordered Lists or Bullet Points for the various steps. Also using "Step 1" can help too. You'll notice that I also got the phrase "download a backup to my computer" which will also be a nice trigger phrase for ranking. I also used "my computer" rather than "your computer" as people searching will be looking for MY rather than YOUR, so you've just won that battle too.

BERT brought a lot of new ways of ranking, specifically when it comes to questions in a natural language. While Google still ranks individual key phrases or words, many people are typing questions or using voice assistants to get answers.

Most keyword research type tools are focused on that - keywords. A few have adopted out to using phrases, and others are showing frequently used sentences or articles that are triggered by keywords. Those would be where I'd focus efforts these days.