If you own a business or a website, a large part of your online success is dependent on achieving a high rank in Google’s search results. It is not enough to merely make it to the fifth or tenth page of the results. Rather, your homepage or other components of your online footprint must reach the first page or two of results.
Ideally, your webpage will be “above the fold” on the first page, meaning on the upper half of the screen, visible to everyone who searches for your unique value proposition or related keywords/key phrases. Let’s take a look at how to achieve such a high ranking.
Tip #1: Optimize Your Online Content for Search Engines
Consider the keywords, key phrases and localized information most relevant to your value offering, target audience and location. These words and phrases should be used throughout your online content.
As an example, if a keyword is used once every 100 words, the keyword saturation rate is 1%.
Ideally, the entirety of your online footprint from your homepage to service pages, blog pages and social media will have a keyword saturation rate between 0.5% and 2.5%. If your keyword saturation rate were higher or lower than this range, it would prove difficult to rank well on Google. In short, keyword saturation rate is the frequency at which the targeted keyword, key phrase or local identifier is used within a piece of content. As an example, if a keyword is used once every 100 words, the keyword saturation rate is 1%.
Google also penalizes content with an especially high keyword saturation rate. Furthermore, if too few keywords and key phrases are used in the content, those pages would not have any chance of ascending the search engine rankings.
Tip #2: Mind the User Experience
Google’s search engine algorithm recently changed to include a metric known as the “Page Experience.” This metric refers to the user experience design of the website. In short, if the website is slow, poorly structured or difficult to navigate, Google will penalize it in the search engine rankings. Make sure your website functions without flaw on desktops, smartphones, tablets and other web-connected computing devices and it will move up the search engine rankings.
Tip #3: Provide the Audience With Unique Content
Google penalizes websites that do not provide the audience with idiosyncratic content. If Google detects strings of text or entire paragraphs on your website that are the same or similar to the content on other websites, your site will be penalized. Any instance of duplicate content will send your website down the search engine results page rankings (SERPs), to the point that it is difficult for web sleuths to find your content on Google.
Tip #4: Links Matter!
Your website will rank higher on Google if other websites link to it. However, convincing other website owners to include links to your site is easier said than done. Consider publishing a guest blog post on another site that redirects readers to your site.
Fix those broken links across posterity to help boost your Google search ranking.
Furthermore, listing your business on internet directories will help steer traffic your way and convince Google your website is legitimate. It also helps to use internal and external links within your online content. However, some such links will break as time progresses, negatively affecting the user experience and your site’s search engine ranking. Fix those broken links across posterity to help boost your Google search ranking.
In fact, Google Alert even empowers a website owner to find out when his or her site is mentioned. Reach out to the website master requesting he or she convert such mentions into links and your website will rank higher on Google.
Tip #5: Provide a Steady Stream of Informative Content
Google rewards websites that provide fresh and relevant content with regularity. This is not to say you should add half a dozen new blog posts on a daily basis. Rather, you should update your homepage, service pages, blog and social media with new content laden with relevant keywords to boost your Google search ranking. Provide your audience with insightful content that helps them solve problems and they will share links to the components of your online footprint with friends, family members, co-workers and others, directing even more traffic to your website.