One of the top questions from most publishers right now is “how do I rank my website higher on Google so I can generate traffic and customers for my business despite AI overviews and algorithm updates”?
And this question is not out of place because most businesses are struggling in the face of AI led search results, AI overviews and algorithm changes that has left websites getting off the grid of search visibility.
As a brand, your content marketing effort and SEO updates on your website is useless if it can’t deliver on your expected outcomes.
But the push back from search engine platforms is also understandable as the widespread use of AI tools for scaled content distribution on some websites has also reduced the quality of content output in some cases.
In the following paragraphs, I’ll dissect the steps you can take to rebuild your visibility and rank your website again.
What is SEO?
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Search engine optimization (SEO) is the step-by-step process used in improving your website so that search engine platforms like Google can easily read, understand, feature your content prominently and also rank it higher in their search results.
When your website ranks higher in search results, it becomes more easier for people to find your business online, leading to new readers, customers or even more sales without you having to pay for ads.
Is SEO important In Nigeria?
SEO is crucial in markets like Nigeria. A recent study has shown that SEO drives improvement in online visibility and conversions. In developing countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana etc. where small businesses have inadequate access to funds, SEO is a crucial marketing tool used in delivering search outcomes that leads to reduced reliance on expensive advertising.
This is a key reason why search engine optimization is important in Nigeria and other African Countries.
Based on my analysis of what works in this region, as a brand, the following are the key steps to optimize your website to rank higher in Nigeria and most African countries;
Step 1: Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword research is the cornerstone of every SEO campaign. It is one of the primary first steps you put in place to rank a website higher. Instead of guessing what content people are searching for, find out what’s already getting the searches and optimize for that.
For example, if you want to get the best ranking for your website pages, find what your target audience are already asking the search engine platforms and then create content and SEO optimization around those search keywords.
What this means is that for every aspect of search optimization you’re doing be it Content Creation, Meta Tags, Meta Description, Page titles etc., build that around a clearly identifiable keyword that is already getting searches.
There are keyword research tools that can help you with this research. These includes free keywords tools like
Free Keywords research tools:
- Google Keywords Planner,
- Ahrefs Keywords Generator (feemium)
- Google Trends,
- Bing Webmaster
And other paid keywords research tools like:
- Semrush Keyword Magic tool
- Ubersuggest
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- Keyword tool
Using these tools will give you an idea into what your target audience is already searching for, the keyword volume, competition for the keywords and in some cases, how hard or easy it is to rank if you’re using a particular keyword.
This information makes it easier for you to strategize on how to create a solid ranking for your website.
Step 2: Target Long-Tail Keywords
I have always favored long tail keywords for new websites and in most situations, it has always delivered. Because In most cases, long-tail keywords are a bit easier to rank for as they have less competition.
Examples long tail keywords include:
- How to rank a website in Nigeria
- Best SEO company in Lagos
- Affordable website designer in Nigeria
- Local SEO services for Nigerian businesses etc.
Compared to much more direct keywords like “rank a website” or “SEO company” etc., the former keywords I listed earlier will get you to rank even faster because it has less brands competing for this.
With fewer websites competing for long tail keywords, it becomes easier for you to rank for those kinds of keywords if you’re a new website.
In a nutshell, do not just do a keyword research, try to target long tail keyword if you’re planning to rank faster especially if you’re in a very competitive niche (which is nearly all the niches these days).
Step 3: Create High-Quality Content Consistently
In the era of AI and artificial intelligence powered chatbots, you’re not just competing against other bloggers, you’re competing against AI tools as well.
And if you want to rank a website higher than other websites then you have to do what other websites are not doing, create content that stands out in the search engine results page. This is very important.
Four Elements of High-Quality Content
The following are the 4 elements of quality content you should pay attention to. I call it the VBCO (Valuable, Better, Optimized and Consistent Content) test for content quality. In this context, your content must pass this quality test.
- Content that Delivers Value: A valuable content is a piece of content that educates, informs, entertains in a way that meets the specific needs of a specific target audience.
- Content that is Better than Others: Your content can still be valuable but when it is too similar to other existing content in that niche, it becomes difficult to differentiate you or even get a better ranking for it.
- Content that is Optimized for Visibility: You can still write a top-quality content that is better than most other content but if it is not well optimized for SEO, you might still struggle to get visibility for that content.
- Content that is Shared Consistently: After you get to start ranking, you’ll eventually earn the trust of your audience and they start showing up to your blog to read it consistently. If you want to keep this trust then you have to show up consistently. This consistency will also improve your search engine rankings.
In the very least, target posting content for1-2 times every week. Additionally, update older posts at intervals to keep them fresh and relevant to web users and search engine.
Beyond improving the quality of your content, pay attention to the following:
- Heading: Get a captivating heading that is well optimized for search engines and still very appealing to attract a click from human users
- References: Don’t just make claims, back it up with existing references from other trustworthy websites. This improves trust for your website and content which is a key ranking indicator in Google’s EEAT system.
- Images: The use of images ensures your content is not a collection of texts. Images serve as a visual text breaker, makes your content more interesting to the users while adding context in some cases.
Depending on your content goals, aiming for 1,500 to 3,000 words enables you to discuss a topic more holistically while also getting to use the keywords a lot more liberally throughout the content. This can enhance your chances of getting a better visibility for the content.
Step 4: Optimize your On-Page SEO
On-Page SEO is simply the search engine optimization implemented on your own website. It is a very important aspect of SEO that must be put in place if you plan to rank a website high on the search engine.
For you to get it right with on Page SEO, the goal is to optimize specific pages of your website with the right keywords.
Specifically, those keywords you came up with during your research in step two above, you want to implement them in the following:
- URL
- First paragraph
- Headings
- Image alt text
- And naturally throughout the content naturally
Keywords: Strategically and naturally incorporate your target search terms and user keywords into your content rather. Do not stuff your content with keywords or over optimize as this has its own consequences.
Title Tags & Meta Descriptions & URL: Write clickable, descriptive titles and brief summaries (meta descriptions) for your search engine results, with your keywords added naturally.
Create SEO friendly URL: URL’s play a silent but significant role in website ranking. Instead of taking it as it is, use short, clean and descriptive AI that includes your target keyword. For example if your content title is: “How to rank your high on search engine for important keywords in your industry”, a clean URL could look like “yourwebsite.com/how-to-rank-high-on-search-engine/.
Header tag and Headings: Use heading tags (H1, H2, H3) to logically organize your content and make it easy for both readers and search bots to scan. This is very useful for GEO/AI Optimization.
Internal Liking & Image Optimization: Link from one page to other relevant pages on your website. This helps the search bot while crawling your website. Additionally, optimize your image your keywords as part of the Image ALT text, image description etc.
Getting these things done right should get you ready to have a more improved ranking for your website on Google first page.
Step 5: Focus on Building your Local SEO
In markets like Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa etc., Local SEO is a very important aspect of SEO that can deliver good returns on investment for any Search optimization campaign targeted at getting a website to rank higher on the search engine.
If your business serves customers in a particular location like lagos for example, optimize it to target clients looking up for those kinds of businesses in that location.
For example, let’s say you’re digital marketer in Nigeria. Instead of going to optimize your website to target a keyword like “Digital Marketer”, you can target a much more specific keyword like “Digital Marketer in Nigeria or Lagos.
You can narrow down your keyword to target specific cities, region or geographical locations. This reduces the competition you have to deal with.
PS: It is important to keep in mind that one of the cons of local SEO is that very narrow targeting can knock you off tangential traffic from a larger region with a much broader search. So, while you’re targeting for local SEO, you must make sure you’re not getting yourself outside important visibility tangents. Find the search volume and other indicators to know the closest city that is worth targeting.
Step 6: Improve your Technical SEO
Technical SEO is all about optimizing the backend architecture of your website to ensure the search bots and human users can easily access your website.
It is a very important step that must be taken if you want to rank a website because even with the best content and on page SEO or even backlinks, if the search bots cannot access your website, then it won’t show up in search results. And if it doesn’t show up, you won’t get new users.
So, you have to put in place the following aspects of your technical SEO to get a better visibility with your website:
- Crawlability & Indexing: For search engines to index your website in their database, they have to be able to crawl it, using their search bots. It is your job to ensure this crawling is seamless by ensuring the bots are not blocked from backend and that html files like robots.txt, XML Sitemaps, LLMS.txt and other files are available, can be read and rendered.
- Improving Site Speed: For human users, speed is an important factor that can determine if a person can use a website, come back to it or not. And search engine platforms like Google will penalize you if your website is slow. So, take steps to Improve your page load times so you can reduce bounce rates and improve both user experience and search rankings.
- Mobile Friendliness: In developing regions like Nigeria where most web users are accessing websites using their mobile devices, it is crucial to ensure that your website is well optimized for these users if you want to get a better ranking from the search engines.
In addition to your technical search engine optimization, ensure that you have other things in place like a solid website security infrastructure, caching etc.
Step 7: Build Backlinks
Link building is one of the main backbones of search engine optimization and overall search visibility. It is one of the top most important SEO strategies that’s been relevant 10 years ago and is still relevant today, even with the advent of AI run systems.
But backlink building is not something you jump into. It demands a very specific strategy if you want to rank your website high on Google.
I use the RAFQ guideline to choose a decide if a backlink will help my brand or not. And maybe you should try it. The RAFQ guide line simply stands for Relevance, Authority, Follow or no follow and Website Quality.
- Relevance. Although it is okay to get a backlink from nearly any website, it is very important to get a backlink from a website relevant to your website.
- Authority. Getting a website from a website with very low domain authority is like a waste of time as you may not get a lot of benefits from that link.
- Follow: A do follow link is like a positive endorsement on your website. A no-follow link on the other hand does very little to improve your overall outcomes for your link building.
- Website Quality: The quality of the website linking to your website is important. If you get a backlink from low quality and spammy websites, you might run into problems with Google.
These are very key aspects of SEO you have to pay attention to while building your backlinks.
Step 8: Optimize for GEO/AISEO:
Generative Engine Optimization or AI Search Engine Optimization are crucial steps taken to optimize your website and get it more visible for AI tools and chat bots.
5-10 years ago, this was not a part of SEO but with the advance of Artificial Intelligence powered chatbots and search platforms, it is now increasingly important to optimize your website to get visible on these platforms.
This means that if you want to rank high on search engines, you have to do more than traditional SEO. You must now optimize for GEO. To optimize for AISEO, take the following steps:
Optimize for question-based Prompts: Write headings that match the questions users ask AI tools. Remove fluff. Answer the questions directly and keep it short.
Prioritize Authority and Citations: Don’t just put out your ideas, cite credible and authoritative platforms to back up your assertions and ideas. Include real data where necessary.
Structure content for AI bot Crawlers: Implement a schema markup. Structure your content, giving it a natural flow with headings and sub headings that makes it easier for the content to be parsed by the AI crawlers.
Build offsite brand presence: Get backlinks but beyond that, get your brand mentioned elsewhere be it in listicles, community lists etc. it helps in getting you visible in AI citations.
Beyond all these steps, you want to audit your visibility on AI tools consistently to measure and also adjust your strategies when required.
Step 9: Secure your Website
Website security is always underestimated as a search engine optimization strategy but I have seen website traffic tank simply because a website was hacked and negative SEO campaign got implemented against that website.
Even without getting hacked, there are instances where websites get targeted for negative SEO by hackers and third-party users so it is always important to ensure that your website is secured and your SEO is serving you as it should.
So, if you want to rank a website high on Google consistently, consider implementing a solid security architecture on your website to ensure it is operating at optimum levels.
Ensure you have your website plugins and other third-party applications optimized at intervals to ensure there are no vulnerabilities that can be used against you.
Monitor things like your backlinks, anchor text etc. where there are suspicious links to your website, investigate them. And if such links are found to be dubious links, disavow and have them removed. This is very important.
Final Words
Ranking a website in Nigeria requires more than just adding keywords to a page. Success comes from combining keyword research, valuable content, technical optimization, local SEO, backlinks, and a great user experience.
Focus on creating content that genuinely helps your audience, optimize all the pages for search engines, and consistently improve your website over time.
While SEO takes a little while to deliver on results, the long-term benefits can include sustainable traffic, increased brand visibility, and more customers.
You definitely need to implement SEO on your website if you want to rank higher and you can get a result driven SEO from our team if you reach out to us here.
Now it’s over to you. What are your struggles when it comes to improving SEO for your website to rank higher? Drop your comments below.
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