The SEO Secret to Dominating the Search Results (without being #1)

That’s a very promising headline, isn’t? What do I mean by ‘dominate’ the search results?

I mean with this one thing you can be #7, #12, #16 and still get the most traffic from a particular search phrase.

How?

By having the best search engine ad.

Your Secret SEO Copywriting Weapon (hint: it’s not keyword optimization)

What would you say if I told you you can dominate the search engine results without being #1? or even #2 or #5? That once you reach a certain level, you can ‘steal’ traffic from the big guns with this copywriting secret weapon?

I think you would flip out, right? I mean who doesn’t want a secret hack for more traffic? I do, I do!

Okay, enough with the suspense… here’s my trick:

Focus on your search engine LISTING.

What do I mean by listing? I mean this thing:

Why focus on the listing? Think of the listing like an actual ad for your page or post. Which it is!

The whole goal of this little guy is to get someone to CLICK and come over to your website.

Why does this matter? Because the more clicks you get on your search engine listing, the more traffic you get to your website — which means more leads and more customers for your business.

Think about it: when you’re reading a magazine you flip through a TON of ads, but which ones do you stop and read? The ones that STAND OUT.

Make your search engine listing stand out.

How?

#1 – Your Headline

This is that title tag bit. If you’re on WordPress, you can use your SEO plugin to edit this (I recommend Yoast’s SEO plugin if you don’t already have one).

YES, it should be optimized for the keyword phrase you’re shooting for for this page or post, BUT think beyond that.

First, google the phrase you’re optimizing for (like “email list building”)

and take a look at the listings:

NOW, think of a title that’s still a good fit for the searcher’s question BUT at the same time stands out from the crowd of search engine listings. If I like the sound of your post over the same generic titles I see in numbers 1-5, you’ve got my click.

(Just make sure it’s still a relevant description of your post if you want that traffic to stick)

In the screenshots shown here, you can see Vertical Response is simply putting the search phrase itself in its title. Not so enticing, right? Whereas Social Triggers starts off with “List Building 101:…” and even Copyblogger uses something closer to “How to Build a First-Class Email List in 30 Days.” Not too shabby.

Sell me on your search result!

#2 – Your Search Engine Listing Ad Copy

AKA the meta description. You know, that little blurb that shows up below your hyperlink result.

Back in the wild wild west days of SEO, you could stuff this bad boy full of just the keywords you were trying to rank for and be #1. Nowadays, Google will slap you for that (which the rest of us actual web searchers will thank them for).

So instead, we write for humans.

But THINK of the possibilities here. Normally, these descriptions are pretty boring or spammy:

(yuck.)

When you write an actual ad for your services or business, you jazz it up, no? Why not do the same thing here? We’re begging for clicks here people, let’s make it interesting.

(now that sounds way more like a real company with an actual value proposition)

Stretch your copywriting skills. SELL me on your page or post, dammit! My click is valuable!

Bonus points: yes, use the keyword phrase. As of the writing of this post, Google could still be seen bolding the phrase in your meta description if it matched the searcher’s keywords. Bolding = higher click-throughs.

#3 – Make It Personal

Did you know this ONE move can improve your click-throughs by150%?

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT.

Yep, you heard me.

Google Authorship is one of the latest trends in the SEO algorithm game BUT it can also mean making a huge difference in how your listing stands out.

Just take a look at these:

Which one stands out more to you? (even without my blue arrow)

Yep. Exactly.

Setting this up caaaaaan be a little tricky, but once you have it set, you should start to see your picture show up for each of your blog posts in a matter of weeks (though of course, with Google, there are no real promises).

Neil Patel has the step-by-step guide on how you do it.

Warning: it can be a little tricky. But try, try again!

Will Google Authorship be around forever? When it comes to the Google, we can’t ever make promises but it does look like an SEO trend that here’s to stay for quite awhile anyway, so why not take advantage of it!

Get to it – have at those higher click-through rates!

Over to You

Have you ever thought about your search engine listing like an advertisement? What sort of tricks have you used to increase click-throughs? Did you find this article helpful? Let me know in the comments!

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