Find Your Niche to Improve SEO Rankings and Reach #1
A few weeks ago, I found myself clicking around Twitter looking for writers and copywriters to add to my new topical list about Writing. All content to inspire better writing of any kind, copywriting, poetry, fiction, web writing to improve SEO rankings, whatever. I’m a firm believer that good writing blurs lines. It doesn’t play within a fixed box.
Anyway that’s how I found myself reading a tweet by copywriter Lizzie Davey.
Her tweet celebrated reaching the top rank for the search terms “SaaS writer” and “ecommerce writer.”
My own Google search confirmed it. Her site popped up #1 for both phrases.
Of course, as someone building my own site and just a curious mind about how to improve SEO rankings in general, I reached out to ask her how she did it.
My quick Q&A with her is below.
Here’s what she offered as advice.
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1. When did you first launch your website? What drove you to set it up?
I launched the website back in 2014 when I first went freelance. I knew I needed a place to advertise my services and keep some samples to impress clients with. My site looked VERY different back then, though!
2. How long did it take you to get your site up and running? What went into the process of starting that project
It was actually a really quick process. It’s run on Weebly, which costs around £30 a year for a domain name and to host the site, so it’s really cheap. I think I got it up and running in a weekend using a simple pre-made template. Since then I’ve redesigned it a LOT, so it’s a completely different beast now.
3. What do you put into maintaining your website? How much time would you say you average spending on it?
It costs me nothing apart from the annual fee.
And I only spend time on it when I’m publishing a blog post (probably 6 or so a year) or updating my samples, client testimonials, and prices. While I don’t have a strict publishing schedule for my site, I create content to keep it fresh and updated.
It requires very minimal upkeep and that’s the way I like it!
4. What are some of the benefits you’ve experienced as a result of having your website?
First and foremost it’s a great place to direct leads so they can find out more about what I do and how I can help them.
But the biggest benefit has definitely been my high ranking in search engines.
Getting leads through Google is the number one way I get clients these days, which means I no longer have to cold email or apply to jobs on job boards. That’s saved me hours of time on its own!
5. What’s your SEO strategy? What do you think led to your success with landing the top ranking spot?
Embarrassingly enough, I don’t have an SEO strategy. I used to work in marketing, so I know what’s involved in SEO and the basics, but I’m by no means an expert.
I think the biggest helping hand has been having a niche which I obviously mention a lot across the site. This means that whenever somebody searches for a writer in that niche, I show up.
I have a defined niche that I mention a LOT on my site.
The phrases “ecommerce writer” and “SaaS writer” organically feed into my copy, which lets Google know what my site is about (I also include the terms in the site’s metadata).
I’m pretty sure having backlinks from big sites like CoSchedule and Zapier has certainly helped my ranking! At this point, I’ve written for a lot of pretty high profile brands. Within each post’s author byline, I link to my website.
I started seeing significant keyword rankings about two or three years ago when I really solidified my niche.
6. What are your favorite SEO and website management tools?
I use Yoast on my WordPress site (Wanderful-world.com), but I don’t use any tools on my Weebly site (lizziedavey.com). The platform has built in SEO options where you can insert metadata, and that’s literally the only thing I use.
If I’m researching keywords for blog posts, I use tools like Ubersuggest, BuzzSumo and Answer The Public to find topics my audience is interested in (aka to make content relevant to their search terms).
7. What role does social media play in your overall strategy, if any? Which platforms do you think are most beneficial for your personal brand?
I’m not a massive social media user and I definitely struggle to put myself out there. However, I’ve seen some success with Twitter and Instagram. They’ve helped me grow awareness for my brand and connect with businesses and people I otherwise wouldn’t have come across.
8. Do you have any words of advice to others who want to start a website or who currently manage their own website?
Keep at it! It takes time to see results and build a site you’re proud of. My advice is get something up as quickly as possible regardless of what it looks like and then tweak it from there.
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