Roughly 81% of online searches were made using Google last year. It’s no wonder why Google rankings are so highly craved. If you want your website to succeed in 2018, you need to learn how to improve Google ranking.
There are several factors at play in Google’s algorithm to determine which sites get ranked higher in others. Keywords and backlinks are just a couple of the many things you need to be aware of to have successful SEO.
If you want to learn how to improve SEO and see your blog content succeed, then keep reading to learn our top 15 tips.
1. Keywords
Keywords are an essential part of Google’s ranking algorithm. If you want to be ranked higher in SEO, then you need good keywords.
Keywords are so important because they are what make your blog content more easily found. The clearer and more concise the keyword, the easier it will be for searchers to discover your content. You can think of keywords as directions along the route that leads to your post.
But it’s not just about attracting traffic to your content, it’s about what kind of traffic your attracting. Keywords are as much for you as they are for searchers. You want to attract traffic that is looking for the kind of content you are creating, not people who were looking for something else and just stumbled upon your site.
We cannot over-emphasize the importance of keywords. When you are optimizing your content for SEO, make sure your keywords are clear and concise and get to the heart of what your content is about.
2. Topic Clusters
Google has recently changed its algorithm to favor topic-based content. Like using keywords, creating content that is clearly targeted for a specific topic will help you to move up in the rankings.
The way to take advantage of this topic cluster model is to gather all of your related content under “pillar pages.” Pillar pages are hubs for all content related to a certain topic, this creates a topic cluster, allowing your content to be found more easily through Google’s algorithm. When creating these pages, it’s important that you include hyperlinks to and from your pillar page.
3. Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are seen in the box that precedes search results when you ask Google a specific question. This is a highly craved position in the Google rankings, but there is no surefire way to get it. However, if you can, it will generate a lot more traffic to your site.
Though there are no guaranteed methods to get in that featured snippet spot, there are some things that you can do to help your chances.
It’s important to remember that the purpose of the featured snippet is to answer specific questions. So when you are creating content, you need to make sure it answers questions clearly. Keep common questions in mind when you write, and answer them as clearly and concisely as possible.
You should also consider these questions when creating your keywords. If your keywords contain phrases like “how to,” “how do I,” etc., you may be more likely to get a featured snippet.
Basically, you want to ensure that your content is helpful to people with questions. The more helpful you are, the more likely you’ll get to be featured above everyone else.
4. Look Back At Old Content And Consolidate
What many sites do without realizing is they can fall into the trap of competing with themselves. By creating a lot of content geared towards a specific audience and maybe even centered around a few similar topics, you might find that your content is competing, harming the rankings of all your content.
Not only should this encourage you to create more diverse content, but you should also consider browsing through the back catalog of old content and consolidating.
If you have two similar pieces, consider combing them. You can take the best of both pieces and consolidate the information into one convenient location. This work may sound tedious, but it can help you improve Google rank.
5. Write Posts With Searchers In Mind
As a content creator looking to generate traffic to your site, you should be creating content that people are looking for. If no one is searching for the sort of content that you are creating, then no one will find you. People won’t find things they aren’t looking for.
When you are writing, be sure to keep searchers in mind, not just your audience. It’s not enough to write for people who are interested in the topics you are writing about, you have to write for people searching those topics.
Analyze trends, look at polls, read competitor sites, figure out what the people are looking for and write with that in mind. This will not only help you to write more focused content that will improve your SEO, but it will also help you as you are considering your keywords and phrases.
6. Create Unique And Original Content
Perhaps the best way to get ahead of your competitors is to create unique and original content. You will not succeed by simply copying everyone else. If you want to generate traffic to your site, you need to be current, unique, and relevant enough to not only attract visitors but keep them interested long-term.
Without original content, you won’t gain any brand loyalty, and you won’t have people searching for your site in conjunction with topics. Creating content that your readers can rely on to be fresh and interesting will keep them coming back and will encourage them to keep searching for you on Google.
7. Stay Ahead Of Your Competitors
Research, tracking, and analysis are absolutely key to improving your SEO. Your content needs to not only be original but also relevant. You need to get out ahead of your competitors if you want to outrank them in Google’s algorithm.
Following the news and analyzing trends are great ways to do this, but you also need to be quick to publish your content. Never forget that things can be updated and edited later. It’s incredibly important to never miss a deadline.
8. Graphics And Videos
Utilizing multimedia is not only important to create a more user-friendly experience with your blog content, but it is also helpful to improve Google rank.
Videos, images, graphs, charts, tables, you name it. All of these will benefit you as you strive for higher ranking.
Google prefers content that uses a variety of media throughout. It is important to remember though that you should not display important text information such as keywords in images alone. Google cannot recognize text in images, and thus the impact on your SEO will be lost.
9. Search-Friendly URL
If your website URL is not search-friendly, you may want to consider updating it.
Sites with more-easily searchable URLs can be ranked higher than those with more complicated URLs. Of course, the most important thing is that your content is easily searchable, but your site should be as well.
If you want to generate traffic to your blog content, you want people to be able to find your home page in addition to your content. Your URL should be easily understood by searchers as well as search engines.
10. Mobile Optimization
If your site isn’t optimized for mobile use yet, you need to do that as soon as possible. Mobile optimization is one of the most important things for a website to have in 2018.
Mobile is the primary platform on which searches happen. Most online purchases occur after someone has searched for a product or service on their smartphone. As time goes on, more and more people are using their mobile devices as their primary connection to the internet.
Many users are often turned off to a site if it is not optimized for mobile. They don’t want to have to go through the work of zooming in and trying to find the right links on a site only designed for computers. Adaptive web design is not only the future, but it could be the line between a consumer choosing you over a competitor.
11. Answer Boxes
Similar to the featured snippet, answer boxes provide immediate answers to searched questions in a convenient location at the top of the results. In many ways, answer boxes are even better than featured snippets because they are so direct. And if people are interested in more, they can follow the link to your site.
But how can you get in a Google answer box?
The first step is checking to see who is already there. Look up the questions you want to answer with your content and look at what is already in the answer box.
Once you’ve determined the kind of content that is in the box, do your best to create similar content. Don’t compromise your originality, but you can use this information as a guide for your content creation.
If your site is fully optimized for SEO and you are ranking highly, you may find yourself in the highly coveted Google answer box instead of your competitors.
12. Internal Links
Internal links are any links to other pages on your site. Links both internal and external are essential for boosting your SEO.
Internal links are great because they encourage users to explore other parts of your site. They are like an invitation to your readers to make themselves at home and get to know the place a bit.
A great space for internal links is in your closing call-to-action, especially if you are selling a service or a product. If you have a service or product related to the topic you have been writing about, you can link to that service and encourage your readers to make a purchase.
13. External Links
External links are any links you use that link out to other sites. It’s especially important to link to pages that you used for research on things like statistics. Always link to your sources.
These links also help to build relationships with other sites. If you help to generate traffic to another site through an external link, then they might return the favor and link back to you.
Including links to other sites will help you to move up in the rankings according to Google’s algorithm, as will having links to your site on other sites. So linking back and forth with other sites is a win-win situation that benefits everyone’s SEO.
14. Check “The Queries” Report
Analyzing the search data for your site from Google is vital as you continue to develop and update your SEO strategy. The Queries report, in particular, should be of great help to you.
The Queries analyzes the searches that organically resulted in your content being discovered in the search results on Google.
You can take this information and use it to improve your SEO strategy by incorporating the words used in these searches into your content as keywords and optimizing for them. Regularly reviewing and analyzing these reports will help to move you up in Google’s rankings.
15. Order Content
Creating content with all this in mind can be quite challenging and hard to keep up with, especially if blogging isn’t your main source of income for your site. If you are a business that wants to focus on the other parts of your site and would like to leave the blogging to someone else, you should consider ordering your content.
Ordering content from sites like iWriter will ensure that you get quality content, delivered on time, and fully optimized for SEO. You won’t have to worry about gaining backlinks or most of the things we’ve discussed in this article, it can all be handled for you. You can focus your attention on the other parts of running your site.
Want To Learn More About How To Improve Google Ranking?
We hope that these 15 tips on how to improve Google ranking have helped to better understand the importance of good SEO. We know that this can seem overwhelming at first, so if you would like more help in learning about SEO or if you would like to utilize our services, contact us today!
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