On this page, we’ll answer your question about how to improve my search engine ranking on Google. Great question, by the way. Search Engine Optimization is very important to build a strong online reputation for your business. Did you know that organic search traffic converts 10-13 better than paid traffic? Below we will give you six reasons why you should optimize your website for search. First, here is a handful of actions you can take to improve your search engine ranking on Google:
Make it very clear what it is that you offer your customers or clients. Write excellent content to make sure that you offer clear information about the services or products that you offer. Keep your audience in mind. What are they looking for? Answer their questions. In other words, Make sure that the content that you publish is mistake-free, keyword-rich, mobile-optimized, and written to address the specific needs of your target audience If your website is easy and fun to use and offers valuable information, you’ll attract more visitors, who will stay longer on your site and visit more pages, and that will improve your search rank. This is all about creating a great user experience and ranking factors like website visits, time spent on your site, bounce rate, and pages per session.
Yes, keyword research is very important. Create long-tail keywords (keyword phrases that consist of 3 or more words) that are specific to what your business has to offer. Be realistic, don’t try to rank for keywords that are (nearly) impossible to rank for. Test your keywords. Make sure, that you optimize your content with the keywords that you want to rank for.
As you probably know, people use their smartphones to find businesses that are near to them. To promote this, make sure that you claim and optimize your Google My Business Listing (GMB), provide complete information, add pictures of your business and products and check the listings of your business in local directories including Yelp and the likes. Also, make sure that you build your online reputation with excellent online reviews.
In July 2019, Google started to use mobile page speed as a ranking factor. Many websites out there and their mobile versions are (too) slow. Use a site like gtmetrix.com to find out what the current page speed is for your site and take appropriate action to improve it.
Using proper H1 and H2 headers (or title tags) helps Google to rank your website. Though not the most important ranking factor today, headers help your visitors (and Google) to understand what your site is all about. Headers will help to emphasize key information and structure your website. In January 2020, John Mueller from Google said that in the early 2000s, the heading elements (H1, H2, H3, etc.) were important ranking factors. But not anymore! Google reads headings like you and me and that is to understand the topics of what the paragraph(s) that follow the heading, are all about. So, to better understand the content on the pages. Headings will not necessarily rank your website better.
Optimize the images on your website. Digitally shrink the size of your image so they load faster and be sure to add proper filenames, titles, and alt text.
There are several (free) tools out there that you can use to clean up broken links (such as 404 errors) on your website. Broken links on your website not only hurts your user experience, but it also has an effect on the ranking of your website. Also, delete pages on your website that are outdated or that have become obsolete.
Does the URL of your website begin with https://? Good! If not, it probably begins with http:// and that is not how it should be. Since mid-2018, Google displays either a closed padlock if a website is secure (an SSL (Secure Socket Layer is installed) or an open padlock and a warning that that website is not secure. So, make sure that you install an SSL-certificate on your website to make sure that it is secure.
So, armed with these tips you can now go to work to improve your search engine ranking on Google. It will take a bit of time to make the adjustments and when done right, you should see improvement in your rankings.