How to Rank a Zimbabwean Website High in Search Engines

Local SEO is crucial if you’re targeting a particular area, such as a country or city. By optimising for local searches, Google or other search engines are likelier to show your website on top. Here’s how to do SEO if you’re targeting a Zimbabwean market.

Use .co.zw

Country-code domains (ccTLD) are easier to rank in local searches as search engines tend to show them first as they’re likely to answer or have what a local searcher is looking for.

Avoid using global domains like .com and .net as they’re viewed as international websites without a target country. You have to optimise your website with local keywords like country name, city etc if you’re going to use a global domain.

Target long-tailed keywords

Find what people are searching for. For new websites, target long-tailed keywords with less competition. Here’s how to find long-tailed keywords:

• Google/Bing search: Type a keyword in Google search. Find what people are searching for from the autocomplete dropdown and “People Also Ask” section; create content around those suggestions.
• Ahrefs keyword generator: input your keyword and ahrefs will show your related keywords and their search volumes.
• Wordstream: type your keyword, select country and Wordstream will.list related keywords and search volumes. You can export to excel.
• Keyword io: This tool generates long-tailed keywords from Google’s autocomplete.

Create relevant & quality content

SEO starts with content. Create content around the keywords you’ve found above. Content can be in the form of:

• Service pages: Pages explaining your services in detail.
• Products: You can put an online store listing your products with prices, images, and descriptions. That way you’ll be able to rank for specific product searches and price-related queries.
• Blogs/Articles: Create a blog on your website with articles people are searching for.

Elements of quality content:

• Show EEAT: Your content must show like someone with experience and expertise wrote it. It must also be trusted, i.e show the writer and bio if possible (especially for blogs)
• Keywords in title meta, and body: Put keywords you’ve found above in the title, meta description, and the content body. You can also throw in local search terms like “near me”, “in Zimbabwe”, “in Harare” etc. For example, Car rental in Harare, Litihium battery prices in Zimbabwe Don’t stuff keywords, putting keywords unnaturally.
• Clear headings: use one h1 for the title, h2, h3 for subdivisions, and so on.
• Short paragraphs: Attention spans online are low. Make your content readable. Break long sections of text into bite-sized paragraphs.
• Internal & External linking: Link to other pages on your website where possible. Cite other websites that explain more than you do. Ensure your anchor text is relevant and hints to the reader what to expect in the linked page.
• Insert Media (Images/Videos): Insert images or videos where possible in your content. Describe your image fully in the alt tag.
• Lists: Use lists where possible. They can make you appear in featured snippets.

Create a Google Business Profile

Claim your Google My Business Profile. Put your phone numbers, address, descriptions, and images. Ask your existing clients to leave their reviews there. The more positive reviews, the more rank boosts.

List your business in online directories

Put your business in online directories (Yellow Pages), e.g. Zim Yellow Pages, The Directory Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe YP. Others allow you to place your website link, however most of the links will be nofollow. 

Improve the Technical Side of Your Website

Technical SEO focuses on improving the technical side of your website like iserver speed, website coding, redirects, and so on for better crawling and indexing.

• Speed: Ensure your website loads faster. 0 – 5 seconds is good.
• Mobile-responsive: Ensure your website is usable on mobile phones. Elements must stack up for vertical scrolling and users must not pinch or zoom a page.
• Submit an XML Sitemap: Submit a sitemap containing all your pages to Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tool.
• No blocking: Ensure nothing is blocking pages from being crawled and indexed, e.g by robots.txt or meta noindex.

Conclusion

Applying the above techniques increases your chances of appearing on the first page of search engines like Google and Bing for local Zimbabwean searches.