With over 200 million search users every day, Google is the biggest search engine out there. Since new users and searches are added every single second, it’s no wonder that businesses are scrambling to find ways to get their sites ranking high in the Google search engine. The higher your ranking on Google, the more likely your potential customers will stumble upon you. The tricky part is figuring out how to improve your ranking—it’s not as simple as Googling “how to improve my Google SEO ranking” (though we wouldn’t be surprised if that was a top result at some point in time). Read on for 17 ways you can boost your site’s visibility and rank higher on Google.
If there’s one thing Google is good at, it’s squeezing every last ounce of data out of their users. And while this can sometimes feel like Big Brother watching and listening to everything you do, it’s also a great benefit when it comes to SEO. There are a few different Google tools you can use to gauge how your site’s SEO is doing, and where you can improve. This can save you both time and hassle, and provide you with a lot of valuable information. The first tool we recommend is the Google Search Console. This is a one-stop shop for all of your SEO needs, and is especially important if you’re running a website with multiple pages. The Search Console can help you with issues such as indexing, crawling, and more.
Before you even start writing, you need to know what keywords you want to rank for in the first place. You can’t just throw a bunch of random keywords in your content and hope it all works out in the end. You also can’t just pick whatever is at the top of the list. While it’s easy to just see what keywords are already ranking high and trying to beat out their ranking, you want to think about your audience. You want to give people what they want, not what someone else thinks they want. Next, run a few searches for those keywords to see where they’re currently ranking. Then, try to think critically about why they rank where they do. Is it because they have quality content? Or is it because they have more backlinks? Whatever the case may be, you can use this information to tailor your own piece of content to have the best chance at ranking higher than the competition.
Let’s say you’ve done the proper keyword research and have written the most engaging, well-researched article on the planet. Congratulations! It’s time to submit it to a few places and get it published. Now all you have to do is sit back and watch the traffic flood in, right? On the contrary, your work is far from finished. Now you need to make sure that article remains relevant and fresh. And you can’t just throw in a couple of fresh keywords every now and then—that’s called keyword stuffing, and it won’t help you at all. Instead, you want to be updating your content regularly. This can be as simple as adding a new paragraph every week or two, or including additional information (like statistics or new studies) as it becomes available. You can also consider adding a blog to your site where you can post these extra tidbits as well as other pieces of content that are related to your original article.
The meta description is one of the first things that shows up when you do a Google search. It’s usually just a few sentences long and gives the reader a quick summary of what they can expect to find if they click through to your site. If you’re not including a meta description in your articles, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to sway potential customers towards your site. You can actually mess around with your meta description and see what results you get—it’s a great way to gauge how your title is impacting your potential ranking. Once you’ve written a few different meta descriptions, you can switch them out to see which one gets you the best results.
You might hear the word “rich” used to describe a person who is overly serious about their wealth, but in this case, we’re talking about rich snippets. These are little snippets of code that you can add to your site that give Google more information about your content—specifically, what type of content it is. Because of this, rich snippets often lead to higher click-through rates, and thus higher rankings on Google. There are a variety of different rich snippets you can add to your site, but one of the most important is the breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs will let Google know that each of the pages on your site are part of a larger, more in-depth piece of content. For example, if you have an article about “10 Easy Ways to Get Organized at Home,” the breadcrumbs will let Google know that your article is part of an overarching “Home Organization” series.
Yes, you read that correctly. You’re probably wondering how “advertising” can help boost your SEO. Well, this isn’t your typical ad—it’s an ad created by you, for you. Google allows you to create your own ads for whatever products or services you offer, and you can push your SEO to the max by creating unique content for each ad. You can do this by creating your own graphics and short, to-the-point descriptions of what your product or service is and what it does. Then, sprinkle in a few keywords that you want to rank for and Google will rank your ads higher than normal, giving you an extra boost in the process.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to boost their Google SEO is trying to do too much at once. You don’t need to add in rich snippets, create Google Ads, and write new content for 10 different articles all at once. Instead, focus on one or two big changes that you can make to your site and focus all of your energy on them. Once you’ve seen their effects, you can move onto the next project. Similarly, if you’re trying to rank for a certain keyword but aren’t sure how to implement all the tips we’ve listed, try breaking it down. Say the keyword you’re trying to rank for is “how to make meatloaf.” What do you need to do to rank for that keyword? Well, you need to make a meatloaf recipe and write an article about it. Do you have a picture accompanying the recipe? If not, you need to add one.
In order to rank well on Google, you need to make sure that your site is fully optimized for search engines. There are a few different steps that you can take to make this happen, including using Google tools, proper keyword research, having quality content, writing an effective meta description, and creating unique content for Google Ads. If you want to improve your Google SEO, you need to make sure that your site is fully optimized for search engines. With these tips, you can ensure that your site will rank high on Google.
