How to get into the top Google in the EU / USA in the development niche and find customers with large budgets
A post is best suited to one-man-company developers or teams. I’ll tell you how easy and simple (with no or minimum budget) to get into the top search results in developed countries in the development niche and stop fighting for customers in the CIS who want cool, cool, without TK (well, you understand, bro, we want so that everything was beautiful) and so that for $ 4 / hour and generally payment upon delivery. In the end I’ll try to reduce everything to a checklist. Who will try to follow him and unsubscribe about the results in the comments, I will definitely give feedback with tips.
At the moment, I run an SEO agency with clients in Norway, Switzerland, Austria and other "tasty" countries, including various development teams from the CIS. We are often contacted by developers on two issues:
This article is the answer for the second. I’ll tell you how to get to the top, but when traffic goes to your site, everything will run into a number of other factors that you will have to decide for yourself:
Important: I do not pretend to be the truth, I will not enter into disputes “who has longer” with other seo-shooters, the purpose of the article is to explain to developers how they can simply enter the top in the Western market on their own.
An example with the main page is described below, do the rest by analogy, if you have questions, write in the comments.
First of all, open ahrefs, take a trial account for $ 7 for 7 days (do not forget to cancel it, and then remove it 170), go to the keyword explorer section, enter “ruby development” and indicate the region of Germany.
Next, click having the same terms, select all the keys and update the serp (search results).
Open the sickle with the key "ruby on rails development company"
What we see here:
In the top 10, we have 2 review sites, 1 article, and 7 companies. In the top 3 pages, the maximum link profile is 5 domains and 18 backlinks. Carl, only 5 domains and 18 links !!! And then it turns out that there is no particular competition! Below there are sites with a large number, but optimization is worse there, or links from bad / irrelevant donors. Thus, according to the link profile, we ideally need to repeat the best result +1, that is, 6 domains and 19 links. Important: backlinks are needed from the same sites or equivalent in trust and topic. It is important to understand the essence, it is necessary to reproduce the competitor and do it better. Now we unload the referring domains and backlinks of competitors in the top 3 (the example below is only for the top 1, do the rest by analogy):
Now you know exactly where and what links you need. Maintain the same proportion of dofollow / nofollow and anchor as your competitors. I repeat: if it is not possible to create the same links on the same sites, look for alternatives to have the same DR domain level, UR pages, the same subject / content volume, similar page titles and so on. But usually it always turns out to be repeated.
As a rule, if this is not the United States, then many backlinks will not be required, although there are also half-empty niches there.
Why is it important to start with link analysis?
This will immediately give an understanding of whether it will be possible to quickly get the top and how much resources or money will be required (if a competitor bought links).
We calculate the arithmetic average of the length of the content of the top 3, and do + 20%. Why + 20%, not + 5% or + 50%? Because. There is no answer to this question, this is my subjective opinion, you can try + 5% and, if it does not work, add another 15%, or maybe more. Test it out.
What is important: headlines, lists, media content. In headings, use key phrases with a dilution of some words (more on the headings below). In the content itself about the frequency of keys, bother, write so that your client can read it with the feeling that this is a normal good text, and not a set of keys through a word. Ideally, take the text of a competitor, add it to the semantic analysis of advego, get the frequency of phrases and observe it at the same level as that of competitors.
Structure the text, solve the user's problem. Ideally, when creating content, be guided by the checklist, which is built on the basis of the guide for Google assessors. But this is ideal, in fact no one really does.
To give a text to a copywriter is a stupid waste of money. Not a single “copier” will write better about your company than you yourself.
Yes, it is important. Google is constantly talking about this, about mobile friendly, about user experience, about the speed of the mobile version, about an index based on mobile-first-index. In general, there is no single formula here, everywhere there are different CMS, layouts, etc. But it’s important to be in the green zone (at least 80+) for both desktop and mobile when testing through developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?hl=en
Yes, it happens that in the top there can be a site with 20 points, but there either the content is higher / better, or the domain trust is higher, or the reverse link is cooler. But it doesn’t matter, Google’s algorithms are really unknown to anyone, but if they say that it is important, and it’s not difficult to execute, and the user will be pleased, why not ?!
You need a simple selling landing page or a website with a couple of pages, no need to come up with a bicycle and create something unique, start small. With a very high degree of probability, you will not succeed in some kind of award-winning design, it will still look like something. Take ready-made solutions and customize for yourself. Hope the halivar doesn't start in the comments after my next suggestion. We decided to follow the path of least resistance: we compared 5 designers, tested SEO capabilities and speed, and settled on Tilda. Someone may be allergic to designers, someone simply does not like their name, someone sees flaws there (yes, they are, their “operational” support is especially annoying), but this is a decision that cost us $ 190 / a year and decided all our needs as an agency - ranking in the top of your site and customer sites, attracting traffic, an envelope in leads and sales. What else do you need? In the case of the developer + designer + layout designer, the numbers are completely different. Yes, maybe someone will think the caste is more professional, status or something else, but what's the difference? This is important only to you and your competitors, the client is not at all in the subject and he does not care how and for how much your site is made, especially if it is a small and medium business. Nice, fast, works, well, ok.
You can make a mix, which logically will include ranking immediately for all phrases, which is in the style of Ruby on Rails (RoR) Development Services Company | Name
That is, we immediately capture everything:
ruby on rails development
ruby on rails development services
ruby on rails development company
ror development services
ror development company
and so on.
But this does not work, as we would like, in the end you will have to spend a lot of effort to get into top3 for all these requests. So aim for something specific. Ideally, 2 keys, separating them with characters | which Google equates to =.
That is, Ruby on Rails Development Company | RoR Development Agency | Name
Do not mix the keys services and company / agency / team - these are different user intentions. In the first, he is looking for services, he needs a list of services and their description, and in the second case, a company, its description, reviews, and services. Therefore, we twist the main page around the keys company, agency, team, firm and so on.
Anything. But remember that maybe Google uses it in a snippet, and this will affect the CTR, so test emojis and other hacks that may attract attention.
Usually H1-H3 is enough. On all projects, I try to use the following heading formula:
h1
the content
h2
the content
h2
the content
h3 subtitle that is related to the closest h2 above
the content
h3 subtitle that is related to the closest h2 above
the content
h2
the content
h3 subtitle that is related to the closest h2 above
the content
and so on.
Use the keys in descending order of their frequency, that is, in h1 - the most frequency key and dilute with a couple of words, in h2 less frequency and so on.
Yes, this is a great place for keyword stuffing. 1 picture = 1 unique key. But only those keys that are related to the intent of this page, there are no keys with services, how to, and the like.
The mass of options, on the main we use this:
Absolutely do not pretend to be true or perfect correctness of the code, I suspect that there are sequence errors, it just works and that’s enough.
In general, there are hundreds of SEO factors, but not in the case of a website with a couple of pages.
/
/ services /
/ services / service1 /
/ services / service2 /
/ services / service3 /
/ services / service4 /
EVERYTHING. No need to fence anything superfluous. You don’t need a blog either, for information requests you won’t quickly take the top 100%, and then it’s not a fact that you’ll convert it. Content marketing it sounds beautiful, only sells badly.
Still have questions? Write in the comments.
At the moment, I run an SEO agency with clients in Norway, Switzerland, Austria and other "tasty" countries, including various development teams from the CIS. We are often contacted by developers on two issues:
- there is a client, asks seo, we would like to close it on yourself, make him seo, but white label so that the client thinks that we do everything to him;
- everything is bullied, we want to sell our services to Europe or the USA, ideally all to the same Norway / Switzerland.
This article is the answer for the second. I’ll tell you how to get to the top, but when traffic goes to your site, everything will run into a number of other factors that you will have to decide for yourself:
- You need to know English at least upper-intermediate, ideally the local language of the client;
- you must be able to inspire confidence and be able to sell (it would seem trite, but few people succeed);
- your site should "convert";
- and a number of factors that affect the closing of the transaction, but the article is not about that, I’m not a sales coach at all.
Important: I do not pretend to be the truth, I will not enter into disputes “who has longer” with other seo-shooters, the purpose of the article is to explain to developers how they can simply enter the top in the Western market on their own.
Let's say you are a Ruby developer and the task is to get customers in Germany
An example with the main page is described below, do the rest by analogy, if you have questions, write in the comments.
Competitor Analysis in SERP and Backlinks
First of all, open ahrefs, take a trial account for $ 7 for 7 days (do not forget to cancel it, and then remove it 170), go to the keyword explorer section, enter “ruby development” and indicate the region of Germany.
Next, click having the same terms, select all the keys and update the serp (search results).
Open the sickle with the key "ruby on rails development company"
What we see here:
In the top 10, we have 2 review sites, 1 article, and 7 companies. In the top 3 pages, the maximum link profile is 5 domains and 18 backlinks. Carl, only 5 domains and 18 links !!! And then it turns out that there is no particular competition! Below there are sites with a large number, but optimization is worse there, or links from bad / irrelevant donors. Thus, according to the link profile, we ideally need to repeat the best result +1, that is, 6 domains and 19 links. Important: backlinks are needed from the same sites or equivalent in trust and topic. It is important to understand the essence, it is necessary to reproduce the competitor and do it better. Now we unload the referring domains and backlinks of competitors in the top 3 (the example below is only for the top 1, do the rest by analogy):
Now you know exactly where and what links you need. Maintain the same proportion of dofollow / nofollow and anchor as your competitors. I repeat: if it is not possible to create the same links on the same sites, look for alternatives to have the same DR domain level, UR pages, the same subject / content volume, similar page titles and so on. But usually it always turns out to be repeated.
As a rule, if this is not the United States, then many backlinks will not be required, although there are also half-empty niches there.
Why is it important to start with link analysis?
This will immediately give an understanding of whether it will be possible to quickly get the top and how much resources or money will be required (if a competitor bought links).
Content
Length
We calculate the arithmetic average of the length of the content of the top 3, and do + 20%. Why + 20%, not + 5% or + 50%? Because. There is no answer to this question, this is my subjective opinion, you can try + 5% and, if it does not work, add another 15%, or maybe more. Test it out.
What is important: headlines, lists, media content. In headings, use key phrases with a dilution of some words (more on the headings below). In the content itself about the frequency of keys, bother, write so that your client can read it with the feeling that this is a normal good text, and not a set of keys through a word. Ideally, take the text of a competitor, add it to the semantic analysis of advego, get the frequency of phrases and observe it at the same level as that of competitors.
Quality
Structure the text, solve the user's problem. Ideally, when creating content, be guided by the checklist, which is built on the basis of the guide for Google assessors. But this is ideal, in fact no one really does.
Check list
Content:
Expertise:
Design, quality of preparation:
Comparison with other pages:
- Does your content provide original information, statistics, research or analysis?
- Does the content provide a thorough, complete, and comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content provide useful analytics or interesting information that goes beyond the obvious?
- If the content is based on data from other sources, is it not simply copying or rewriting these materials, does it provide additional value and originality?
- Does the article title and / or page title provide a descriptive and useful summary of the content?
- Is the page / article title shocking or exaggerated?
- Is this page the one you would like to bookmark, share with a friend or recommend?
- Do you expect to see this content cited in a print magazine, encyclopedia or book?
Expertise:
- Is information provided in a form that is credible - including a clear indication of the source, evidence of the available expertise, information about the author or the site that publishes it, such as links to the author’s page or the About Us section of the site?
- If you look at a site publishing content, will you still have the impression that it is a reliable, trustworthy and authoritative resource in this area?
- Is the content written by an expert or enthusiast who is well versed in this topic?
- Are there easily verifiable factual errors in the content?
- Can you trust this content in matters related to your money or life?
Design, quality of preparation:
- Are there spelling or stylistic errors in the content?
- Is the content thoroughly prepared or seems to be whipped up?
- Is content distributed across a large network of sites so that individual pages or sites do not receive a lot of attention?
- Does the content contain a large amount of advertising that distracts users or prevents them from consuming the main content?
- Is the content displayed well on mobile devices?
Comparison with other pages:
- Is content significant in comparison to other pages in search results?
- Does this content serve the interests of users or it seems that it is created only to obtain high positions in search results?
To give a text to a copywriter is a stupid waste of money. Not a single “copier” will write better about your company than you yourself.
Site speed
Yes, it is important. Google is constantly talking about this, about mobile friendly, about user experience, about the speed of the mobile version, about an index based on mobile-first-index. In general, there is no single formula here, everywhere there are different CMS, layouts, etc. But it’s important to be in the green zone (at least 80+) for both desktop and mobile when testing through developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?hl=en
Yes, it happens that in the top there can be a site with 20 points, but there either the content is higher / better, or the domain trust is higher, or the reverse link is cooler. But it doesn’t matter, Google’s algorithms are really unknown to anyone, but if they say that it is important, and it’s not difficult to execute, and the user will be pleased, why not ?!
You need a simple selling landing page or a website with a couple of pages, no need to come up with a bicycle and create something unique, start small. With a very high degree of probability, you will not succeed in some kind of award-winning design, it will still look like something. Take ready-made solutions and customize for yourself. Hope the halivar doesn't start in the comments after my next suggestion. We decided to follow the path of least resistance: we compared 5 designers, tested SEO capabilities and speed, and settled on Tilda. Someone may be allergic to designers, someone simply does not like their name, someone sees flaws there (yes, they are, their “operational” support is especially annoying), but this is a decision that cost us $ 190 / a year and decided all our needs as an agency - ranking in the top of your site and customer sites, attracting traffic, an envelope in leads and sales. What else do you need? In the case of the developer + designer + layout designer, the numbers are completely different. Yes, maybe someone will think the caste is more professional, status or something else, but what's the difference? This is important only to you and your competitors, the client is not at all in the subject and he does not care how and for how much your site is made, especially if it is a small and medium business. Nice, fast, works, well, ok.
Internal SEO Optimization
Title
You can make a mix, which logically will include ranking immediately for all phrases, which is in the style of Ruby on Rails (RoR) Development Services Company | Name
That is, we immediately capture everything:
ruby on rails development
ruby on rails development services
ruby on rails development company
ror development services
ror development company
and so on.
But this does not work, as we would like, in the end you will have to spend a lot of effort to get into top3 for all these requests. So aim for something specific. Ideally, 2 keys, separating them with characters | which Google equates to =.
That is, Ruby on Rails Development Company | RoR Development Agency | Name
Do not mix the keys services and company / agency / team - these are different user intentions. In the first, he is looking for services, he needs a list of services and their description, and in the second case, a company, its description, reviews, and services. Therefore, we twist the main page around the keys company, agency, team, firm and so on.
Description
Anything. But remember that maybe Google uses it in a snippet, and this will affect the CTR, so test emojis and other hacks that may attract attention.
H1-H6
Usually H1-H3 is enough. On all projects, I try to use the following heading formula:
h1
the content
h2
the content
h2
the content
h3 subtitle that is related to the closest h2 above
the content
h3 subtitle that is related to the closest h2 above
the content
h2
the content
h3 subtitle that is related to the closest h2 above
the content
and so on.
Use the keys in descending order of their frequency, that is, in h1 - the most frequency key and dilute with a couple of words, in h2 less frequency and so on.
Alt's of pictures
Yes, this is a great place for keyword stuffing. 1 picture = 1 unique key. But only those keys that are related to the intent of this page, there are no keys with services, how to, and the like.
Micro-marking
The mass of options, on the main we use this:
<script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "aggregateRating": { "@type": "AggregateRating", "bestRating": "5", "ratingCount": "10", "ratingValue": "5" }, "brand":"___", "logo":"___", "description":"___", "areaServed" : ["___","___"], "makesOffer":"___", "knowsAbout":"___", "legalName":"___", "alternateName": "___", "url":"___", "sameAs": [ "___", "___"], "email": "___", "telephone": "___", "name": "___", "image": "___" } </script>
Absolutely do not pretend to be true or perfect correctness of the code, I suspect that there are sequence errors, it just works and that’s enough.
Other basic site requirements
- lack of pages 4xx / 5xx
- technical pages are closed from indexing
- sitemep
- integration with search console and google analytics (add site map to the serch console)
- one page = one user intent (do not compete on one intent at once with 2 or more pages on your site; this will avoid duplicate pages and titles)
- 301 redirect http -> https
- redirect 301 www -> without it (or vice versa)
- 301 redirect from addresses with a slash in the url to without it (or vice versa)
In general, there are hundreds of SEO factors, but not in the case of a website with a couple of pages.
In essence, this is the ideal site structure for a development company
/
/ services /
/ services / service1 /
/ services / service2 /
/ services / service3 /
/ services / service4 /
EVERYTHING. No need to fence anything superfluous. You don’t need a blog either, for information requests you won’t quickly take the top 100%, and then it’s not a fact that you’ll convert it. Content marketing it sounds beautiful, only sells badly.
Promised Checklist
- We determine the services that we can provide. We form mindmap on the simplest structure of the site.
- We collect keys through ahrefs. Only those keys that have the same intent go to one page (if it is difficult to clearly determine the match of the intent, compare the search results, if there are 3 out of 10 matches, then most often the intent is one)
- We look at the level of competition through ahrefs - the number / quality of referring domains and links. We make a decision on this country.
- We analyze the content of competitors
- We create our own content that is better / more interesting / prettier / more useful / more voluminous.
- We roll out to the site and carry out basic SEO optimization (title, desctiption, h1, picture viola, micro-layout), and make sure that there are no technical errors on the site (there are dozens of crawlers for this).
- Integrate with Google metrics.
- We reproduce the reference profile.
3 month result
Still have questions? Write in the comments.
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