According to a study by Hubspot, 75% of people who use the internet do not go past the first page of search engine results. This means that if your business’s website is not on the first page, you are missing out on a lot of organic leads.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to help boost your website’s ranking and increase your chances of being one of the businesses that people see when they search online.
In this article, we will discuss nine ways you can improve your site’s Google rankings through search engine optimization.
These tips will help you optimize your website and improve your chances of being found by potential customers.
Table of Contents:
- Understand Your Audience
- Do Keyword Research
- Create Quality Content
- Optimize Meta Tags
- Improve Site Loading Speed
- Leverage Internal Linking
- Build Backlinks
- Work on Your Organic CTR
- Improve User Experience
1. Understand Your Audience
The first step in improving your website’s ranking is to understand your audience.
Who are you trying to reach with your website?
What needs do they have that your website can address?
To answer these questions, you can:
- Conduct Surveys
- Look at Data and Analytics
- Monitor Comments and Engagement
Conduct Surveys
One way to get to know your audience is to conduct surveys.
You can ask your current customers or website visitors about their needs and how they found out about your business. This feedback can help you understand what people are looking for when they search for businesses like yours.
Use Google Survey to create and distribute surveys for free.
Look at Data and Analytics
Another way to learn about your audience is to look at data and analytics. This can include data from your website, social media platforms, and other sources.
You can use this information to understand where people are coming from, what they’re interested in, and how they interact with your site.
Google Search Console and Google Analytics are two free tools that can provide helpful data about your audience.
Monitor Comments and Engagement
Finally, you can also monitor comments and engagement on your website and social media platforms. This can give you insights into what people like and don’t like about your business. It can also help you identify any potential problems that need to be addressed.
You can use the Mention social media listening tool to follow up on conversations around relevant topics about your brand.
2. Do Keyword Research
Once you know who you are trying to reach, you can start to do keyword research.
What terms and phrases will they be searching for when they are looking for a business like yours?
Make a list of these keywords and incorporate them into your website’s content.
To find them, you can:
- Use Google’s Keyword Planner and Google Search Console
- Look at Your Competition
- Consider Search Intent
Use Google
One way to find relevant keywords is to use Google’s Keyword Planner tool. This tool allows you to enter a keyword or phrase and see how often it is searched for.
If you want to check your search engine ranking for certain keywords, you can use Google Search Console. By doing this, you can see which keywords you are already ranking for on the second page of Google. This can be helpful in terms of trying to improve your search ranking for those keywords.
How to track search engine rankings?
Tracking your keywords can help you measure the effectiveness of your SEO strategy and identify areas of improvement. You can use a rank tracking tool to track your keywords and monitor their performance.
There are a variety of online rank tracking tools that can help you track your website’s search engine rankings. Some of the most popular rank tracking tools include SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz.
Look at Your Competition
Another way to find keywords is to look at your competition. See what terms and phrases they are targeting on their website and in their marketing materials. You can also use a tool like SEMrush to see what keywords your competition is ranking for in search engines.
Consider Search Intent
When you are doing keyword research, it’s also important to consider search intent. This is the purpose or goal of the person who is searching for a particular term.
For example, someone who searches for “buy shoes” is likely looking to make a purchase. On the other hand, someone who searches for a “shoe store near me” may be looking for a place to try on and purchase shoes.
Understanding search intent can help you create content that is more likely to meet the needs of your audience.
3. Create Quality Content
One of the most important things you can do to improve your website’s search engine rankings is to create quality content.
Your content should be well-written, informative, and relevant to your audience.
It should also be keyword-rich so that it can be found by potential customers who are searching for your products or services.
Keep in mind these tips when creating your content:
- Be Original
- Add Visuals
- Cover the Topic in Depth
Be Orginal
To create quality content, it’s important to be original. This means writing unique and interesting articles, blog posts, and other types of content that are not found elsewhere on the web.
Add Visuals
In addition to well-written text, your content should also include visuals. People are more likely to engage with and remember content that includes images, infographics, and videos.
Cover the Topic in Depth
When creating content, it’s also important to cover the topic in depth. This shows that you are an expert on the subject and can provide valuable information to potential customers.
A study by Backlinko shows that long-form content gets an average of 77.2% more links than short articles.
4. Optimize Meta Tags
Meta tags are HTML tags that help describe your website’s content.
They are used by search engines to help index and rank your site.
Make sure your meta tags are optimized for the keywords you are targeting.
Remember to:
- Create Unique Texts
- Match Search Intent
- Summarize The Content
Create Unique Texts
Your meta tags should include unique and keyword-rich texts. This helps search engines understand what your website is about and how it should be ranked.
Match Search Intent
When creating your meta tags, it’s also important to match the search intent of the keywords you are targeting.
For example, if you are targeting the keyword “buy shoes”, your meta tag should reflect this by including text that is related to purchasing shoes.
Summarize The Content
In addition to being keyword-rich and matching search intent, your meta tags should also summarize the content of your web page. This gives potential customers a preview of what they can expect to find on your website.
5. Improve Site Loading Speed
One of the factors that search engines use to rank websites is site speed.
If your website takes too long to load, it will likely be penalized in the search results.
There are a number of things you can do to improve your site’s loading speed, including:
- Optimizing Images
- Minifying Code
- Using a CDN
Optimizing Images
One way to improve your site’s loading speed is to optimize your images. This means reducing the file size of your images without compromising quality.
There are a number of tools you can use to do this, including Photoshop or Photoshop alternatives and online image compressors such as Tinypng.
Minifying Code
To decrease your site speed you can also minify your code. To do this, you should remove unnecessary characters from your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This can be done manually or with a tool like Minifier.
Using a CDN
A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of servers that will deliver your content to visitors based on where they are located.
Using a CDN can help improve your site’s loading speed by delivering content from a server that is closer to the user’s location.
Some popular CDN providers include Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront.
6. Leverage Internal Linking
Internal linking is a process whereby you link to other web pages on your own website.
This can help improve your website’s ranking by signaling to search engines that your site is relevant and informative.
Make sure to use keyword-rich anchor text when you are linking to other pages on your site.
Also, remember to:
- Link Deep
- Use Relevant Links
- Leverage Anchor Text
Link Deep
When linking to other pages on your site, it’s important to link deep. This means linking to pages that are several clicks away from your home page.
Search engines view this as a sign that your website is comprehensive and informative.
Use Relevant Links
When choosing which pages to link to, make sure they are relevant to the content on the page you are linking from.
For example, if you are linking from a page about shoes, don’t link to a page about hats.
Leverage Anchor Text
Anchor text is the text that is used when linking to another page.
Make sure your anchor text is keyword rich so that search engines can understand what the page you are linking to is about.
7. Build Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites to yours.
They are an important factor in search engine ranking algorithms and a proven way to improve your search engine rankings.
The more high-quality backlinks you have, the better your chances of achieving higher sites ranking on search engines.
There are a number of ways to build backlinks, including:
- Guest Blogging
- Unlinked Brand Mentions
- Blogger Outreach
Guest Blogging
One way to build backlinks is to guest blog on other websites.
When you guest blog, you post an article on someone else’s website. In return, you usually get to include a link back to your own website.
This is a great way to build exposure for your website and improve your search engine rankings.
Unlinked Brand Mentions
Another way to build backlinks is to find unlinked mentions of your website or brand online.
For example, if someone mentions your company on their blog but doesn’t include a link, you can reach out and ask them to add a link.
This is a great way to get high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites.
Blogger Outreach
Blogger outreach is the process of reaching out to bloggers and asking them to write about your website or product.
This is a great way to get exposure to your brand and improve your Google rankings.
Make sure to reach out to bloggers who are relevant to your niche and have high domain authority.
You can ask them to get your content mentioned in one of their articles.
8. Work on Your Organic CTR
The organic click-through rate (organic CTR) is the percentage of people who click on your listing in the search results.
A higher organic CTR means you are more likely to rank well on search engines.
There are a number of factors that can influence your organic CTR.
To improve it, you can:
- Be Creative With Your Titles
- Optimize Your Description
- Use Structure Markup
Be Creative With Your Titles
Your title is one of the first things people see when they see your listing in the search results.
Make sure your title is creative and keyword-rich.
Optimize Your Description
Your description is another important factor in your organic CTR.
Make sure your description is keyword rich and entices people to click on your listing.
Use Structure Markup
Structure markup is code that you can add to your website to help search engines understand the structure of your content.
Using structure markup can help improve your organic CTR by making your listing more eye-catching and informative.
9. Improve User Experience
Last but not least, you need to make sure your website provides a good user experience.
This means having a website that is easy to navigate, informative, and relevant to your audience.
If your website is difficult to use or doesn’t provide value to users, it will likely be penalized by search engines.
Pay attention to:
- Have a Responsive Design
- Most Important Things on Top
- Listen to User’s Feedback
Have a Responsive Design
Your website needs to be designed for mobile devices.
More and more people are using their smartphones and tablets to search the internet.
If your website is not designed for mobile devices, it will likely be penalized by search engines.
Most Important Things on Top
Make sure the most important things on your website are “above the fold”.
This means that users don’t have to scroll down to see them.
The most important things on your website should be easy to find and relevant to your audience.
Listen to User’s Feedback
Last but not least, you need to listen to feedback from your users.
If they are having difficulty navigating your website or finding what they are looking for, take their feedback into account and make changes accordingly.
Final Words
Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed search engine rankings. However, by following the tips in this article, you can increase your chances of ranking well on search engines and improve the online visibility of your website. Creating quality content, optimizing your website for relevant keywords, and improving your site’s loading speed and user experience are all important factors in achieving a high Google ranking.
Now, it’s over to you.
What are you waiting for?
Start implementing these tips and see your search rankings increase!
