Do you want to be the first website on the search engine results page for people looking for your services in your area? Who doesn’t, right! Only 0.78% of people click on results from the 2nd page - if your website doesn’t rank on the first page, it might as well not even exist. 

To get to the top of Google for people searching in your area, you're going to have to work on your organic and local SEO (search engine optimization).

SEO sounds like a complex term, and improving your SEO can be a complicated process, but it doesn't have to be. 

When you start, it might seem like there’s a huge amount of new information to learn about search engine optimization. But with a bit of a push in the right direction, you'll be able to update your website and improve your rank in no time. 

Today, we'll show you how to rank better in both local and organic search results for your agricultural company. 

By the end of this blog, you'll know everything you need to know about getting your website to the top of the search engine results.

How to get to the top of the search results with local SEO

Getting to the top of the local search results is incredibly important for any agricultural business. If you want to stay in the minds of local farmers and farming experts, then improving your local SEO is key to becoming the go-to business. 

Before we get into how you can get to the top of Google with local SEO, you're probably wondering what local SEO actually is. 

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of improving your online presence to attract more potential customers from local searches. 

So if somebody is looking for agricultural services in your local area when they search for them online, you want your website to be one of, if not the first, to come up. 

How do you improve your local SEO?

1. Create and optimize a Google My Business listing

One of the best ways to improve your local SEO is to create a Google My Business (GMB) listing for your agricultural business if you haven't already.

Google My Business is a tool created by Google that allows you to list your business making it more accessible to your audience. 

With GMB, you can list all the essential details about your business, including your:

• Opening times
• Address
• Phone number
• Website link
• Photographs 
• Business bio 
• Social media links

Your customers can also leave reviews on your Google My Business, which improves your local SEO.

Optimizing your GMB will also improve your 'snack pack' results. A snack pack is the boxed area that appears first on the search engine results page. 

33% of clicks go to the local "snack pack" results, whereas 40% go organic.

2. Build high-quality local citations & backlinks

Building high-quality local citations is an essential aspect of improving your local SEO. Citations are mentions of your business online. If you get mentioned on other local websites, you'll come up more in local searches. 

Building high-quality backlinks is also essential. Backlinks are where another local company or website links back to your website. The more backlinks you have, the more Google will see your website as relevant and push you to the top of the search results.

You only want to have high-quality backlinks, though. Having a collection of random backlinks to any site that's willing to link to you won't do you any favors, and it might even get you penalized. 

The best way to build up high-quality, local backlinks is by guest blogging for other companies within the agricultural industry.

3. Use high-quality keywords & improve on-page SEO

Using high-quality keywords in your website's copywriting will also help you get to the top of the local search results faster.

You can find out what keywords are perfect for including in your copywriting by doing detailed keyword research in Google Console. Don't forget to improve your on-page SEO by adding local keywords to your H1s and your H2s. 

How to rank better in organic searches

To start with, the best way to rank higher in organic searches is by paying attention to the best practices of SEO. 

These can include making sure your website is:

• Mobile-friendly
• Fast loading
• Easy to use - easy navigation and user-friendly design
• Secure 
• Well-structured
• High-quality content 

How to get to the top of Google by improving your SEO

Here are three ways to improve your SEO and get your agricultural website to the top of the search engines. 

1. Pay attention to your competitors

Ranking on Google isn't a game you play by yourself. To rank high on Google you'll have to fight your competitors for the keywords that matter most to your business.

You'll have to surpass every company ranking on the first page if you want to get the results after

To get the top spot, you'll have to check how intense your competition is. How big are your competitors, and do they rank for the relevant keywords?

Type in the keyword you want to use and check out the sites that come up. Are they big companies with thousands of paying customers, or are they small independent businesses?

If they're bigger than your agricultural business, you might have a bit of trouble taking the first spot, so you might have to try rank for other keywords.

2. Align your website with content stocked with search intent

Search intent is the reason why your audience is on the internet and the reason why they're looking for your agricultural services.

By providing them with the answers to their questions, you'll be able to attract them to your site.

You can do this by identifying the three Cs of your keyword's search intent:

• Content-type: What are the top-ranking pages for these keywords? Do they feature blogs, articles, or videos?
• Content format: What format is the content in? Is it how-to guides, step-by-step tutorials, list posts, reviews, or something else?
• Content angle: What USP is used by these top-ranking pages? 

By using the three Cs and creating content, your audience is looking for. You'll quickly improve your organic search ranking.

3. Build high-quality backlinks and internal links

Again, backlinks are an excellent ranking tool to help your agricultural company's website high up on the search engine results page organically.

It's not about quantity, though, and to rank high on the search engine results, you have to have high-quality backlinks. 

Any links from untrustworthy sites can get you penalized, which won't do your SEO any favors. 

Backlinks aren't the only way to boost your ranking. By including internal links from your pages on your site, you'll be able to win Google's favor even more. 

We hope we’ve made it a bit easier to understand how improving your SEO will help you rank better in local and organic search results. 

Here at Agtivation, we help ag businesses thrive online. If you’d like some help improving your local and organic SEO then feel free to get in touch with our team today.