Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches every day, according to research, which is why optimizing your site is very important to improve your search engine ranking. It is common knowledge that you that you won’t be able to generate leads for your business if no one can find you. Well-optimized sites get more and more traffic over time, which means more leads and sales. Without SEO, people won’t be able to find your site and all your hard work will be in vain. You’re probably wondering how you can get your site on Google, right? It’s quite simple. Google is a fully automated search engine that uses web crawlers to constantly browse the web, looking for sites to add to our index; usually, you don’t even need to do anything other than publish your site to the web. You still need to help Google find your page, and the first step in doing that is to make sure Google can find it by submitting a sitemap, which is a file on your site that notifies search engines of new or changed pages on your site. At the same time, Google also finds pages via links to other pages.
Before we share more details on ways to improve your site’s ranking, let’s first look at how search engines work.
Search engines have three main functions:
a. Crawl: This is the process by which search engines discover updated content on the web, such as new sites or pages, changes to existing sites, and dead links.
b. Indexing: After a search engine processes each of the pages it crawls, it compiles a huge index of all the words it sees and their position on each page. It is basically a database of billions of web pages.
c. Classification: Once a keyword is entered into a search box, search engines will check which pages in their index have the closest match; these pages will be assigned a score based on an algorithm made up of hundreds of different ranking signals. These pages will then be presented to the user in order of score.
- Today, it’s not easy to launch a website and just seat back, hoping for people to find it online. So many new websites are created daily, meaning it’s a crowded place and you’ll miss out if your business can’t be found online by your customers. That’s why you need to download our free guide available at the end of this article, to find out the secrets of your online business
How to improve your ranking on Google
- Publish rich content
Quality content is the number one driver for positioning yourself on search engines. Without them, it will be difficult for you to gain visibility in search engines. You should also update your page content often, as this encourages search engines to visit your website more often.
Add new content to your website every week as it may add information about a new product or service that you are selling. It is also important to update your web content pages at least every 6 months and remove content that is no longer relevant. - Use keywords on your site
Keywords are the words visitors use when they search. Therefore, matching the keywords used on your website with the words customers use when they search for you is an important part of SEO. Add popular keywords or phrases to your website. - Come up with unique title headings and meta descriptions for each page
Title tags are the headlines of your pages on search engine results pages, while meta descriptions serve as descriptive text; a concise and captivating description of what it contains, with the aim of enticing people to enter. Both inform Google of the content and purpose of each of your pages and determine how your pages appear in search results. - Improve Your Page Loading Speed
According to research, about 40% of visitors will leave websites if the page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, and 80% of those visitors will not return to that website. What this does is that it eventually kills traffic to your site making the SEO ranking very poor. However, if your page loads quickly, people will come back and Google’s algorithm will recognize your website’s popularity and adjust your search rankings accordingly.
- Optimize Your Links
All of your data claims should be linked to trusted, authoritative sources. Build your authority and credibility by adding relevant in-text links. For example, instead of having “click here” links, try typing in the name of the destination. At the same time, always use descriptive links by linking keywords as this not only improves search engine optimization but also adds value to your readers. Also, fix any broken links, as broken links can crush your SEO rankings and diversify your links by redirecting them to your site from blogs, directories, and sometimes other sites’ homepages. - Optimize your site for mobile devices
Mobile compatibility is an important SEO ranking factor because many people use their phones more than their desktop computers to access the web. If your site is not optimized for mobile devices, you may be under-ranked because 60% of Google searches come from mobile devices. You can actually see where you stand by using Google’s mobile-optimized test. - Be active on social media
A cognitive SEO study of 23 million shares found a definitive link between social shares and search engine rankings, which is why your business and website need to be active on social media. Learn to share links on your social media pages, because when this information appears in people’s news feeds, all it takes is just one click for them to share it. There is a lot of traffic potential as social media offers 4.8 billion users worldwide.
Conclusion
These strategies are only a few of the many methods for improving your search engine ranking. If you haven’t started putting focus on SEO, you really need to because it’s not going to phase out soon. Start now and always monitor your results, and soon enough, you’ll be making your way toward the top search results on Google.