{"id":6204,"date":"2019-08-12T03:21:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T10:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/?p=6204"},"modified":"2021-04-19T08:59:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T15:59:38","slug":"quick-and-easy-seo-taking-advantage-of-low-hanging-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/quick-and-easy-seo-taking-advantage-of-low-hanging-fruit\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick and Easy SEO: Taking Advantage of Low-Hanging Fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"

You probably already know how valuable SEO can be for attracting new customers and staying ahead of the competition, but for one reason or another, it keeps getting pushed down on the to-do list.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re already too busy juggling 100 other responsibilities or you\u2019ve figured SEO is too difficult to manage, try out some of these strategies that take minimal effort but can help you maximize your results.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smarter Keyword Targeting<\/span><\/h2>\n

I know, what you really want is to rank #1 for that big, juicy, popular term that defines your industry and attracts thousands upon thousands of clicks. There\u2019s one problem: so does everyone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

You have to be realistic with yourself. Did you just start your own garden gnome business? That\u2019s great! But don\u2019t expect to beat Amazon in the rankings for \u201cgarden gnome\u201d as soon as you publish your first blog post or you\u2019ll end up wasting a lot of valuable time. Instead, give yourself a fighting chance and start by targeting less competitive keywords.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are lots of great tools for identifying these terms including CanIRank\u2019s <\/span>keyword research tool<\/span><\/a>. The tool analyzes hundreds of data points covering your site\u2019s authority, relevancy, optimization, and a number of other ranking factors to provide you with a full analysis and ranking probability score for any particular keyword. The higher the score, the more likely your site will rank for that keyword if you were to add targeted content.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another popular resource is Google\u2019s <\/span>Keyword Planner<\/span><\/a> which allows you to analyze traffic and trends for related keywords. Take a look at terms with low volume and low ad competition to get an idea of where to start.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Once you\u2019re ranking well for the small stuff, your site will be that much stronger of a competitor. Once your site is stronger, you can target and feasibly rank for more competitive (i.e., valuable) terms. Repeat this process of keeping your level of challenge appropriate, and pretty soon you\u2019ll be well on your way to garden gnome stardom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve started ranking for a wide net of keywords, you\u2019ll need to figure out how to keep pushing those rankings upwards. However, just as before, you don\u2019t want to spend all your time and effort on one keyword only for the actual traffic jump to look more like a tiny hop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Avoid this by targeting \u201ctipping point\u201d opportunities. A page one ranking is way more valuable than a page two ranking, so start by looking for terms for which your site is ranking around 11-15. Just a little bit of content optimization or link building might be all you need to push the ranking over the edge for a nice boost in traffic. The same goes for terms for which your site is already ranking on the first page but not quite at the top: a move from ranking 2 to ranking 1 can completely change the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clean Up Your Content<\/span><\/h2>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve already got your site built out and established for a while now, but you\u2019re just starting out with tackling SEO. You know you\u2019ve gotta be smart with how you target keywords in your upcoming content, but what do you do with all the content you already have?<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for an audit! Make a list of all the content on your site work your way down, making note of any of the following:<\/span><\/p>\n