In today's business landscape, having a website that delivers results is crucial to your business success. One of the key factors that determines the effectiveness of your website is its ranking on Google.
A higher Google ranking not only increases your online visibility but also drives more leads and business to your website. In this blog post, we share 8 steps you can take to help you lift your Google ranking and unlock your online potential.
1. Optimise Your On-Site SEO
An important step for any website that wishes to attract organic traffic is to work on the on-site SEO. This is the task of optimising the individual website pages based on your specific keywords.
Your website needs to have the following optimised:
Meta titles: Your title is a key aspect for your on-site SEO. It should be unique, descriptive, and include your target keyword. Aim for a length of 50-60 characters to ensure it displays correctly in search results.
Meta descriptions: A meta description is a brief summary of your web page content and should entice users to click on your link in search results. Include your target keyword and keep your meta description between 150-160 characters.
Header tags: Header tags are known as H1, H2, H3 etc and help search engines understand the structure of your content. Use header tags to break up your content into sections and include your target keywords in a natural way.
URLs: Keep your URLs short, descriptive, and keyword rich (although not essential). Use hyphens to separate words and avoid using special characters or numbers.
Images: Compress your images to reduce file size and improve page load times. Make sure you include alt tags using your keywords to help search engines understand the content of your images.
Improve page load speed: A fast-loading website provides a better user experience and can positively impact your search engine rankings.
Create high-quality, keyword-rich content: We will discuss this later in the article, but it’s important that you focus on creating valuable, informative, and engaging content that includes your target keywords in a natural way. Do not get involved in keyword stuffing and prioritise readability and user experience.
Use internal and external links: Including internal links to other relevant pages on your website can improve your site's SEO. Additionally, linking external websites can add credibility to your content.
If your website is built in a CMS such as WordPress, there are plugins such as Yoast that will help you complete some of the above tasks.
There are still so many websites that do not have this in place yet it’s essential if you are going to attract traffic to your site.
2. Google My Business
A tool that Google has provided to help you get found online is Google Maps (formerly known as Google My Business).
Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool provided by Google that allows business owners to manage their online presence by adding such details as their name, address, phone number, website, and hours of operation. Additionally, GMB allows businesses to add photos, share updates and news, and respond to customer reviews. We wrote a blog on this subject here with lots of tips and advice on making the most of your Google My Business profile.
By creating and optimising your GMB listing, you can improve your local SEO, increase organic traffic, and attract more customers.
When users search for a specific product or service in a particular location, Google displays local businesses that match the search query in the form of a "Local Pack" – a set of three local business listings shown above the organic search results. By optimising your GMB listing, you can increase your chances of appearing in the Local Pack and drive more organic traffic to your website.
How Does Google My Business Benefit Your Website?
Enhanced Local Visibility: As already mentioned GMB plays a significant role in local SEO, as it helps your business appear in local search results and Google Maps.
Increased Trust and Credibility: A complete and accurate GMB listing signals to users that your business is trustworthy and legitimate.
Improved Organic Rankings: Google considers the information in your GMB listing when determining your website's ranking in search results. By providing accurate and consistent information across your GMB listing and other online platforms, you can improve your website's organic ranking.
Customer Reviews and Ratings: GMB allows customers to leave reviews and ratings for your business, which can influence potential customers' decision-making process.
Insights and Analytics: Google My Business provides valuable insights and analytics about how users interact with your listing. This data can help you understand your target audience better and make informed decisions about your website.
If you do not have a profile in place for your business the first step to optimising your GMB listing is to claim and verify your business. This process confirms your business's authenticity and ensures that you have control over the information displayed in your listing. Once this is done you then need to do the following:
1. Complete Your Business Information
Fill out all the required fields in your GMB listing, including your business name, address, phone number, website, and hours of operation. Ensure that this information is consistent across all online platforms to avoid confusing users and search engines.
2. Choose Relevant Categories
Select the most relevant primary and secondary categories for your business. This helps Google understand your business better and display your listing for the appropriate search queries.
3. Add Photos
Upload high-quality photos that showcase your business's products, services, and premises. Visual content can help users get a better understanding of your business and encourage them to visit your website.
4. As For Customer Reviews
Ask your satisfied customers to leave reviews on your GMB listing. Respond to both positive and negative reviews professionally and promptly to show that you value customer feedback.
5. Post Regular Updates
Share news, updates, promotions, and events on your GMB listing to keep users engaged and informed about your business.
By creating and optimising your Google My Business listing, you can enhance your website's online presence, drive more organic traffic, and improve your overall SEO efforts.
3. Quality content
High-quality, well-written content is the backbone of any successful website. It not only engages and informs your audience but also plays a crucial role in your website's SEO.
Well-written, informative content captures your audience's attention and keeps them engaged. This increases the time they spend on your website and encourages them to explore your website further. High-quality content will also help establish your website as a credible source of information. When users find valuable content on your website, they are more likely to trust your brand and become loyal customers. Not only that if they really find it of help then they will want to tell others. Good content encourages users to share it on social media platforms, increasing your website's visibility and reach.
High-quality content is essential for Google for the following 3 reasons:
1. Improved Rankings: Google rewards websites with high-quality, relevant content by ranking them higher in search results. This means that investing in well-written content can significantly improve your website's visibility and attract more organic traffic.
2. Google's E-A-T Principle: Google evaluates websites based on their expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). High-quality content demonstrates your expertise in your industry, establishes your website as an authoritative source of information, and builds trust with your audience.
3. Semantic Search: Google uses semantic search to understand the context and intent behind users' search queries. By creating content that is well-written, informative, and relevant to your target audience, you can help Google understand the context of your content and improve your chances of ranking for related search queries.
Well-written and informative content is essential for your website's success and plays a pivotal role in improving your search engine rankings.
4. Monitor and Improve Your Technical SEO
Technical SEO encompasses various aspects of your website's infrastructure that can affect its search engine visibility. There are a number of factors that you need to be aware of when it comes to technical SEO.
Website Speed: Slow-loading websites can frustrate users and result in higher bounce rates. Google considers website speed as a ranking factor, so it's essential to optimize your site for faster load times. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyse your website's speed and implement their recommendations to improve it.
Mobile-Friendliness: With the majority of website traffic coming from mobile devices, it's crucial to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.
Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to monitor crawl errors and fix any issues that may prevent search engines from accessing and indexing your content. Common crawl errors include broken links, server errors, and blocked resources.
XML Sitemap: An XML sitemap helps search engines understand your website's structure and discover new content. Ensure that you have a well-structured XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console for better results.
Duplicate Content: Duplicate content can confuse search engines and negatively impact your website's rankings. Steer clear!
Structured Data: Structured data (also known as schema markup) helps search engines understand your content better and display rich snippets in search results, such as star ratings, event dates, or product prices.
Security: Google considers website security as a ranking factor, so it's essential to implement HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) on your website. This is done by ensuring your website host puts an SSL certificate in place for you.
Monitoring and improving your technical SEO is vital for your website's success. By focusing on the key technical aspects mentioned above, you can enhance your website's user experience and improve its search engine rankings.
5. Reduce Your Bounce Rate
A bounce rate is an important metric that measures the percentage of users who visit your website and leave without interacting further. A high bounce rate can indicate that your website is not effectively engaging users, potentially leading to lower search engine rankings.
Your bounce rate can be found as a percentage figure within your Google Analytics account. If you find that your bounce rate is a high percentage then you must take action to lower this.
Here are some simple tips you can take to reduce your website bounce rate.
Improve Content Quality: Ensure that your content is well-written, informative, and relevant to your target audience. High-quality content can capture users' attention and encourage them to explore your website further.
Optimise Page Load Speed: Slow-loading pages can frustrate users and contribute to a high bounce rate.
Enhance User Experience: Make your website easy to navigate, with a clear and intuitive layout.
Use Clear Call-to-Actions: Guide users through your website by using clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
Target the Right Keywords: Ensure that your content is optimised for relevant keywords that accurately reflect the search intent of your target audience. This can help attract users who are genuinely interested in your content, reducing the likelihood of them bouncing.
Internal Linking: Use internal linking strategically to guide users to related content on your website. This can help keep users engaged and encourage them to explore your website further.
A "good" bounce rate can vary depending on the industry, type of website, and the specific goals of your website. However, as a general guideline, a bounce rate below 40% is considered excellent, while a rate between 40% and 60% is considered average. A bounce rate above 60% may indicate potential issues and action is needed.
6. Obtain backlinks and Have Your Site Mentioned in Useful Places Online
Backlinks, also known as inbound or incoming links, are links from one website to another. They play a crucial role in SEO as they are considered a vote of confidence or endorsement from one site to another. They play a significant role in determining your website's ranking.
Backlinks from authoritative websites can also help increase your website's domain authority A higher DA can contribute to better search engine rankings and increased organic traffic.
4 steps you can take to obtain backlinks are as follows:
Guest Posting: Reach out to reputable websites within your niche and offer to write guest posts for them.
Build Relationships: Network with other website owners, bloggers, and influencers within your niche.
Broken Link Building: Identify broken links on relevant websites and offer your content as a replacement.
Resource Pages: Research websites within your niche that have resource pages and reach out to them, suggesting your content as a valuable addition to their list of resources.
Monitor Competitor Backlinks: Use tools like Moz, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to analyse your competitors' backlinks. Identify high-quality backlinks that your competitors have acquired and explore opportunities to earn similar backlinks for your website.
7. Consistency
Consistency is a critical factor in achieving long-term success with your website's SEO and content marketing efforts. A "hit and miss" approach can lead to inconsistent results, making it difficult to establish a strong online presence and achieve your marketing goals.
Consistency in SEO will result in:
Steady Growth in Organic Traffic
Improved Search Engine Rankings
Better User Experience
Read our 3 quick fire tips to help you be more consistent:
Create a Content Calendar: Develop a content calendar that outlines your content creation and publishing schedule. This can help you stay organised and ensure that you consistently produce and share content.
Set Goals: Establish clear, measurable goals for your SEO and content marketing efforts.
Monitor and Analyse: Regularly monitor and analyse your website's SEO performance. This will help you identify areas for improvement.
Consistency in SEO and content marketing is essential for achieving long-term success and maintaining a strong online presence.
8. Video
Videos have become an increasingly important aspect of website SEO, as they offer a highly engaging form of content. By incorporating videos into your website, you can help to improve and increase organic traffic.
Why are videos important for SEO?
User Engagement: Videos are an effective way to capture and maintain users' attention. They can convey information in an easy-to-understand and visually appealing format, leading to increased user engagement and time spent on your website.
Diversified Content: Incorporating videos allows you to diversify the types of content on your website, catering to different learning styles. Offering a variety of content formats can help you reach a broader audience and improve the overall user experience.
Rich Snippets and Video Thumbnails: When you properly optimise your videos with relevant metadata, search engines may display rich snippets or video thumbnails in the search results. These visual elements can make your search results stand out and increase website visitors.
Mobile Friendliness: Videos are easily consumable on mobile devices and can contribute to a positive mobile user experience, which as already mentioned is a crucial factor in Google's ranking algorithm.
Social Media Sharing: Videos are highly shareable and have the potential to go viral on social media platforms.
Work hard on creating high-quality, engaging videos and optimising them for search engines, they can make a big difference.
There you have it, 8 steps you can take to lift your Google ranking. If you need help with your SEO and want to hand it over to the professionals, then make contact with our team and we can discuss how we can boost your SEO ranking to help you win more business. Contact us here.
