5 Ways to Improve Your Website Ranking
As much as you want to have a successful online business especially during the pandemic, your website ranking should be on the first page of the Google SERP to get you to that ultimate success.
My rule of thumb is to build a site for a user, not a spider. -Dave Naylor
According to a study, websites on the first page of Google search result receives 95% of web traffic compared to the subsequent pages receiving 5% lesser as it goes. But what’s more of a headache is to be ranked on Google.
What is website ranking?
In layman terms, website ranking is referred to as a website’s position in the search engine results page. If you have done any research, you’d know that it relates to rankings in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) based on the search terms.
Is website ranking the same in every search engine?
Different search engines have different rankings. A website’s ranking for keywords varies from one search engine to another.
Every search engine uses its own method for calculating rankings and therefore ranking websites differently – it includes Bing, Google, Yahoo and more.
So, it is best if you can first identify your target audience searching platform and later decide which search engine method to use. That being said, here are the 5 Ways to Improve Website Ranking.
- Publish good content
- Update your content
- Update the meta description details
- Use descriptive links
- Use alt-tags for images
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1. What is good content for a website?
Quality content will always be the N0 1 driver for your search engine rankings. Your website is detected by the algorithm system that focuses on keywords, most search phrases, content quality, and high relevancy to readers.
With that in mind, fine-tune your web writing skills. How? You can create a successful website copywriting by following the 10 elements discovered.
Keywords
Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about using the right keywords or key phrases. Every page of your website should have relevant keywords and primarily the most searched words or phrases with lesser competition. How to know which keywords should you use? We will come to this in a bit.
Using multiple keyword phrases alone can be quite difficult for you to achieve a higher search engine ranking unless they are very similar. So, a better way through this is to make a separate page for each keyword phrase that you want to target.
“Playing with keywords”, does not merely mean to stack up keywords almost in every sentence of your content. Consider these few things instead. Find out if you can use part or all of the keyword phrase on:
- The page.
- Page title.
- Page headings and subheadings.
Speaking of headings and subheadings, they play a crucial role in getting the Google algorithm to detect your keywords and keyword phrases. Remember that they need to be natural and user-friendly.
Content
Content, on the other hand, is beyond the URL links, titles, and headings. They are more influential on search engine rankings, so pay close attention. Using SEO Yoast plugin on your website, you will be automatically guided onto an optimum frequency of keyword usages in your content.
Several throughout the page, once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs and a couple more throughout the remaining content is usually the norm. However, it also depends on the length of your content on the page.
Keyword Research
Talking of selecting the right keywords or keyword research, use Google Trends to observe the location-based search volume.
By using this platform, you will be able to understand your readers, their needs, and where they are. Later, providing them with the best solutions and answers to all their related questions.
2. How do you update website content?
Content is the biggest contributor for your website to be ranked better on the search engine. Let’s say you are on the first page of the Google search engine but your content was last updated a year ago. The search traffic to that page will eventually decrease.
Readers may find your information outdated. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy. So, schedule content auditing and keep them fresh. Then, the highest site traffic will be yours.
Not to forget, you must be clear on the role of writing on your website. Whether it is for the pages or blogs, they implement different types of approaches.
This is where copywriting and content writing skills come to place. Learn the differences or you may reach out to experts for better assistance (Hint: We can do both!).
Suggested read: Copywriting vs content writing. Know the difference?
What is Google Penalty?
Just as mentioned above, your website or blog page must be far far away from being penalized by Google or any other search engine. The penalty here means the removal of your webpage or a bad ranking on Google due to poor quality of content or technical defects.
How to recognize a penalty in Google?
- Your website is not ranking well for your brand name anymore and only one keyword is doing well.
- Any of your web pages that ranked on the first page of Google search result is slipping back to page two or three without any action from your side.
- The entire website has been removed from Google’s cached search results overnight. (This is quite creepy)
- Running a site search and yielding no results.
- When you find your website on Google but for a page on your site other than the home page.
If you see one or more of these factors, you can be sure that your site got a penalty. But, fret not, update your website content, links, and every other technicality and you should be good to go.
3. Update the meta description details
Meta title and meta description are the first faces of your page that influence people to click to read. The meta title is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of a browser window and acts as a headline within the search engine results. Meta description, on the other hand, is the textual description that aims to encourage people to read more.
If people were to see irrelevant information, they instantly feel you are not reliable. Review and update this information from time to time with relevant keywords in the metadata too.
4. Descriptive links improve website ranking
Basically, the written way of being resourceful and reliable on the internet is to have relevant links within a text. And, you may think that having “click here” links suffice and look professional.
Unfortunately, there is no search engine value for the phrase. So, what you can do to improve your search engine ranking is using relevant keywords to embed the links. It not only improves search engine optimization but adds value to your readers too.
5. Is Alt text a website ranking factor?
Today, Google search engine result pages deliver as many related image results as well. Notice how the Images appear at the top of search results before any organic text results. But how are these images selected?
Actually, the alternative text tags or more known as alt-text tags of images in your website helps your website to rank well on search engine results.
Always describe your visual and video media using alt-tags so the search engines can locate your page easier for your readers. Because the more your images are visible on search engine results, the higher the search traffic you can obtain.
This is one of the few successful methods to improve your website ranking.
How can I improve my website ranking?
As much as Google and other search engines read your content according to the changing algorithm, you must know that search engines are a system. If you know how they work, you will know how to strategize your website content.
But, if you find this information quite technical and you don’t really understand the terms and their uses, reach out to our Professionals. We are detail-focused in cross-checking your website for any issues so your website ranks well on the Google search engine.
