Getting a higher ranking on Google requires a strategic and multifaceted approach. From optimizing your website’s content to building high-quality backlinks, there are several techniques you can employ to climb the search engine ladder.
Let’s explore the most effective strategies for how to get a higher ranking on Google and help you boost your Google ranking and attract more organic traffic to your website.
If you’re ready to take your online presence to the next level, keep reading.
Definition of Search Engine Ranking
Search engine ranking refers to the position in which a webpage or website appears in the search engine results pages (SERPs) when a user enters a search query into the search boxes.
A high ranking indicates that a webpage is more likely to appear at the top of the search results, making it more visible to potential customers.
Search engine ranking is crucial for businesses and website owners as it directly impacts the organic visibility of their online presence.
By optimizing their websites to achieve higher rankings, businesses can increase their chances of attracting more organic traffic, improving their online visibility, and ultimately driving more conversions and revenue.
Achieving a higher search engine ranking requires implementing effective search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies, such as:
- Creating high-quality content,
- Using relevant keywords,
- Optimising title tags and meta descriptions,
- Building high-quality backlinks,
- and ensuring a positive user experience.
Benefits of Higher Ranking on Google
With over 8.5 billion searches per day, Google is the go-to search engine for individuals and businesses alike.
As a website owner or content creator, achieving a higher ranking on Google has numerous benefits.
Not only does it increase visibility and drive more organic traffic to your website, but it also improves your credibility and authority in your industry.
Higher rankings mean more potential customers or clients finding your website, resulting in increased conversion rates and revenue. Also, a higher ranking on Google signifies that your content is relevant and valuable to users, which enhances your online reputation.
Let’s explore some strategies and tactics to help you achieve a higher ranking on Google and maximize the benefits it offers.
Whether you’re a small business owner, blogger, or e-commerce site, these tips will give you a competitive edge and take your online presence to new heights.
Increased Visibility and Awareness
Increased visibility and awareness on Google can have a tremendous impact on a website’s performance and your general business profile.
When a website appears on the first page of Google search results, it is more likely to be seen by users, thereby increasing its visibility.
This increased visibility can lead to greater brand recognition as more people are exposed to the website and its offerings.
Being prominently displayed on the first page of Google search results also means that the website is more likely to attract organic traffic.
Organic traffic refers to users who find the website through non-paid search results. This type of traffic is highly valuable as it represents users who are actively searching for the specific products, services, or information the website offers.
By appearing on the first page of Google search results, a website gains credibility and trust among potential customers.
Users tend to associate higher positions in search rankings with greater relevance and authority. Therefore, being featured on the first page of Google can help build brand recognition and establish the website as a reputable source in its industry.
In order to achieve increased visibility and awareness on Google, it is crucial to invest in search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies. These strategies involve optimizing the website’s content, internal links, and user experience for both desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, creating high-quality and relevant content, conducting thorough keyword research, and acquiring high-quality backlinks can further improve a website’s ranking in organic search results.
By aiming for higher visibility and awareness on Google, websites can enhance their brand recognition and attract more organic traffic. This increased exposure can translate into greater business opportunities, making it essential for website owners to prioritize their SEO efforts.
Improved Website Traffic
Improved website traffic is vital for achieving a higher ranking on Google.
When a website receives more traffic, it signals to search engines that the website is highly relevant and valuable. This increased traffic can be attained through effective search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies.
Higher website traffic also translates to increased visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs).
When a website appears on the first page of Google, it is more likely to attract organic traffic from users actively searching for specific products, services, or information.
This visibility is crucial as it allows the website to reach a wider audience and potentially attract new customers.
It goes without saying that improved website traffic contributes to brand awareness.
When a website consistently appears on the first page of search results, users associate it with relevance and authority in its industry. This builds credibility and trust among potential customers, increasing the likelihood of them engaging with the website’s offerings.
Increased website traffic leads to a higher ranking on Google, which in turn attracts more potential customers. Investing in SEO strategies, such as optimizing content, conducting keyword research, and acquiring high-quality backlinks, can greatly enhance a website’s visibility and ultimately drive more traffic and potential customers to the site.
Access to Potential Customers
When aiming for a higher ranking on Google, accessing potential customers becomes essential.
As a content writer or website owner, your goal is to reach your target audience and draw them to your site. This is where effective SEO strategies and targeted keywords play a crucial role.
By using targeted keywords related to your niche or industry, you increase the chances of attracting potential customers who are actively searching for products or services like yours via what’s known as their search intent.
These search terms should be strategically incorporated into your website’s content, meta tags, title tags, and other relevant areas to optimise your site for search engines.
Alongside targeted keywords, providing relevant and high-quality content (especially on focus keyword pages) is key to capturing the attention of potential customers.
Your content should provide valuable information, answer queries, or offer solutions, positioning your website as a reliable source in your industry. This encourages visitors to engage with your site and potentially convert into customers.
Implementing effective SEO strategies, such as optimising your website’s structure, improving user experience, and building high-quality backlinks, further enhances your chances of reaching potential customers. These strategies, combined with relevant content and targeted keywords, increase your website’s visibility and ranking on Google, making it more accessible to your desired audience.
Tips On How to Get a Higher Ranking on Google
Achieving a higher ranking on Google is crucial for businesses looking to increase their online visibility and reach potential customers.
By strategically incorporating targeted keywords and providing relevant, high-quality content, you can optimise your website for search engines and improve your search rankings.
Implementing effective SEO strategies, such as optimising your website’s structure, removing duplicate content (which can lead to keyword cannibalization), and improving user experience, will further enhance your chances of ranking higher on Google.
This includes looking out and fixing broken links in your website whether they are internal or external. This can often dramatically improve your bounce rate too.
Building high-quality backlinks can also help increase your website’s visibility and attract more organic traffic.
If you don’t already have a Google Business Profile, make sure you sign up for one today so that you can update your business information for Google and also provide key information to potential customers searching for you and businesses in your industry online. Google My Business is a fantastic way for customers to find you and your business will also begin to appear in related Google services too, widening your reach.
Here are some more tips on how to get a higher ranking on Google.
Research Target Keywords
Researching target keywords is an essential step in achieving higher rankings on Google. Follow these steps to effectively research relevant keywords:
- Use keyword research and SEO tools: Start by using keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. These tools provide valuable insights into keywords with high search volumes. You can also contact someone like OJE Technology who can build you a “battle plan” to break into your industry and rank higher in Google as a result.
- Identify relevant keywords with high search volume: Focus on identifying keywords that are relevant to your content and have a high search volume. This ensures that your content will be valuable to potential customers and attract organic search traffic.
- Assess the competition and select target keywords: Analyze the competition for each keyword. Look for keywords that have a reasonable search volume but are less competitive. This increases your chances of ranking higher on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Incorporate long-tail and secondary keywords: Consider incorporating long-tail keywords and secondary keywords into your content. These are more specific and can help target a niche audience while still boosting your chances of ranking higher.
- Use relevant keywords in your content: Once you have identified the target keywords, ensure they are strategically placed throughout your content. This signals to search engines that your content is relevant and increases the likelihood of ranking higher.
Grow Your Content Marketing Strategy, Grow Your Google Ranking
Content marketing is one of the most powerful ways to improve your website’s ranking on Google.
It is a strategy that involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain an audience.
The content should be targeted towards a specific audience and address their needs. Don’t get sidetracked into writing for popular keywords when your target audience may not be using them.
Focus instead on writing engaging content that can also grow customer interest in your business (not the latest viral trend which will disappear next week).
Content can come in many forms such as articles, blog posts, video content, podcasts, social media posts and more.
You can use pieces of content in your business and turn them into content assets to use again and again and align them with your SEO strategy.
Different types of content keep your users engaged but make sure you avoid keyword stuffing as this can damage your online reputation and hurt your ranking.
Writing long-form content is a great way to increase your domain authority as well as build up your internal linking strategy as well.
Content quality is non-negotiable.
Google’s algorithms have become increasingly sophisticated, aiming to prioritize content that provides real value to readers. This is why writing fresh content is also important.
Your content should be well-researched, factually accurate, and offer something unique that sets it apart from similar content. You can do this by researching your primary keyword and also building your content around additional keywords thereafter.
You can then use schema markup to tell Google Search what your content is. It’s a bit like labelling. For example, if it’s a blog post then you can inform Google that it is an article. If it is a how-to, then you can inform Google that it’s a how-to so it knows how to index your content better.
Whether you’re writing blog posts, creating videos, or offering downloadable resources, quality is paramount. You should also regularly update your content to reflect the most current information and trends, which not only serves your audience but also signals to Google that your site is active and up-to-date.
Just make sure that content marketing doesn’t stop at the creation stage once published. Distributing your content through the right channels is equally important for SEO. You should always share your content on social media platforms, engage in email marketing, and consider guest blogging to increase backlinks.
Quality backlinks from reputable websites to your content also boost your site’s authority, making it more likely to rank higher in Google search results.
You should take time as well to monitor the performance of your content as this can offer invaluable insights.
Tools like Google Analytics provide data on metrics like bounce rate, average time spent on a page, and the click-through rate (CTR) of your headlines.
Analysing this data will help you understand what’s working, what’s not, and what can be improved to optimize your future content marketing endeavours for better Google rankings.
Internal Linking
This is something many websites overlook or don’t revisit, but internal link opportunities are many when it comes to SEO. Many business owners simply don’t realise that your website’s internal linking structure is a key metric in how to get a higher ranking on Google.
This means that the new content you write should link to your old content, and your old content should link to your new content.
Often, website owners and managers forget to link up their old content to their new blog posts and pages and are missing a trick. Google and other search engines use internal linking metrics to determine how important your content pieces are in relation to one another. This is what is known in the SEO world as link juice.
A post or page with a lot of links going to it will look more important than a page with no links (known as an orphan page) or a page with just a few links. This goes the same for external links too. High-authority sites will give you greater credibility if you can link to them
Instead of just linking to your homepage for instance, make sure you use consistent deep linking to link to pages that go deeper down into your content and pages. You can do this from title links, anchor text links, editorial links, backlink profiles and even inbound links.
A nice trick is to use a table of contents on blog articles which are broken down into key sections, meaning your visitors can jump to the information they wish to see.
You can use a backlink checker to find broken backlinks which makes sure your website doesn’t throw any errors and improves your overall user experience for website visitors.
This is why link building both internal and external is a crucial factor in how to rank higher on Google.
Increase Your Website Speed
Improving your website speed will also impact your Google search ranking. This is because the user experience will be greatly improved and Google will thank you by providing a higher ranking.
You can improve your website speed by:
- Optimise your images so that they don’t take long to load. Try and keep them to a maximum of less than 300kb if you can and a WebP format. This will greatly enhance mobile users’ experience of your website when they are out and about on 4G and 5G networks.
- Optimise your HTML, javascript and CSS code. If you use a lot of code on your website, try and optimise the code so that it can load quicker and reduce the load time to the user. This applies to your desktop version and mobile versions of your website.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN) to optimise the loading times of the website. These work by caching the content on local servers based on where the user resides and is accessing your website to reduce the load times.
- Build up your social signals by posting your content across your social channels and engaging with your community. This can often improve your mobile searches too as many social media users operate from their mobile or tablet devices.
Improve Your User Experience
You should always be looking to improve engagement metrics like dwell time and click-through rates by offering valuable content and an intuitive user interface.
This also means keeping your website design simple and easy to navigate, whilst also providing valuable information which keeps your user’s attention.
Sites that have users on them for longer periods of time will generally rank better than websites that have a short visitation period.
This is how Google can differentiate sites which are offering high value, over ones that aren’t. Quite simply, those who aren’t providing helpful content will often see visits jump straight off to another website.
Here are some top tips on how to improve your website user experience:
- Simplify your website navigation: Use a straightforward navigation menu with as few options as possible so that users can find information quickly. You should then also use breadcrumb navigation so that users know where they are within the website quickly.
- Make sure your website is fast: A slow-loading website is never a great user experience for anyone. Make sure your website loads quickly by optimising images, and load times and compressing key website files.
- Make sure your website is mobile friendly: You need to ensure that your users can use your website easily on a mobile device ensuring that layouts adjust accordingly to the device they are using (known as responsive design). This should also include making sure buttons and text are large enough to read and press.
- Make your content easy to read and digest: Keep your sentences as short and snappy as possible. Use clear headings to break up sections along with appropriate white space to improve readability. Use bullet points and text formatting where appropriate.
- Use a search bar: This will enable users to search for specific keywords within your website so that they can get to where they want to go quickly.
Common Questions
Here are some answers to common questions relating to how to get a higher ranking on Google.
Surely I just add my keyword lots of times on a page to rank higher?
Sadly those days are long gone and today this will actually hurt your ranking. This is known as keyword stuffing and it no longer works. In November 2003 Google released their first ever update with the name “Florida” which stopped this spammy technique.
Where is my website ranking on Google?
If you are wondering where your website is ranking on Google, there are a few steps you can take to find out. You should use a tool like Google Search Console or Moz’s Open Site Explorer to check your website’s visibility and ranking on Google. You will be able to see which keywords your website is ranking for and how many impressions it has received in the search results.
Next, you can use Google Analytics to track your website’s organic traffic from Google in order to understand which pages are receiving the most attention and which keywords have been driving this traffic.
Finally, you should also use a keyword tracking tool like Rank Tracker to track your website’s rankings over time and monitor any changes in position.
How many ranking factors does Google have?
Google has hundreds of ranking factors that it uses to determine the position of websites in its search engine results pages (SERPs).
Some of the most important ranking factors include content quality, content depth, page speed, backlinks, and domain authority. Content quality is an important factor because it ensures that the content is relevant and useful to readers and content depth is essential because it allows websites to provide more valuable information for those who are seeking it.
You can no longer just game the system – you have to put the work in or get someone to do it for you.
Why did my Google ranking drop?
Google frequently updates its algorithms to improve search quality. If your ranking has recently dropped, check if there has been a new algorithm update and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly. Sometimes you need to sit back and make sure that your ranking has definitely dropped before making drastic changes that may hurt your site further.
Can you pay Google to rank higher?
While you can’t pay Google directly to rank higher in organic search results, you can invest in Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) to appear at the top of the search results page for specific keywords. These paid ads are clearly marked and are separate from organic search results.
What affects Google’s ranking?
Google’s ranking algorithm is a complex and ever-evolving system, but there are several key factors that are generally known to influence how well a webpage ranks which include:
- Quality of website content,
- Keyword relevance to the topic,
- Content length,
- Page speed,
- Mobile-friendliness,
- Schema
- Internal and external backlinks.
- On-page and off-page SEO
- and more…
Summary
By following these steps, you can effectively research target keywords to optimise your content for better Google rankings.
Remember, that when choosing relevant keywords with high search volumes and incorporating long-tail and secondary keywords can greatly improve your chances of success.
To maintain a high ranking on Google, it is important to avoid relying solely on one strategy. It is also important to ensure that your search engine strategies are based on SEO best practices.
Some key takeaways on how to get a higher ranking on Google:
- Search engine ranking is the position of a webpage or website in the search engine results pages.
- It is determined by the relevance and quality of the content on the webpage or website.
- Higher rankings on Google can lead to increased visibility and traffic for a webpage or website.
If you’re looking to improve your website ranking or just want some new ideas then please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll see what we can do to help.
