How does your target audience find you? In this day and age, they go online. What is your google ranking position? What happens when your google ranking is #10 or on the second page? According to Backlinko, the first result on Google gets 31.7 per cent of all clicks — while those on the second page receive just 0.78 per cent of clicks.
75% of people will never scroll past the first page on a Google search. I mean, how many times do you scroll to the second page on google? See why you can’t afford to be ranking on the second, third, or fourth page?
Having a presence online is one thing, but being visible to your audience is entirely another. Search engines visibility is the pinnacle of the success of your practice online. You want your audience to be able to find you without any difficulties. But there is no short cut button that ranks your site #1 on google without fail.
Google Visibility
Visibility on search engines is critical if you want to attract customers and drive revenue results. Google algorithm is constantly changing. As a result, there is no short cut to improve your google ranking to #1. #1 ranking takes dedication, persistence, resourcefulness, and creativity. Don’t let this scare you. You didn’t get to where you are today taking short cuts, I suppose.
Although there is no short cut to Google ranking, there are easy tactics you can adopt.
1. Knowledge of Google ranking algorithm
According to Moz, there are 500 to 600 Google algorithm changes per year! If you don’t know what the algorithm is, this might sound out of space. So, what is an algorithm, and why does it change the way it does?
The word “algorithm” refers to the logic-based, step-by-step procedure for solving a particular problem. It is how Google finds, ranks, and returns the relevant results when you search the web. Google’s goal is to get you the exact answer your searching for and fast. Google wants to do good by you always. Hence, the constant change in the algorithm.
The inner workings of the google algorithm are usually not specified. If the exact inner workings are accessible, there’ll be room for short cuts and no penalties. Similarly, everyone would rank top, and not because they are relevant. As a result, hindering google from ranking only the best results. Leaving no room for honesty thereby, compromising Google’s mission statement: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
2. Assess Your Current Google Ranking
You have to know the status of your current Google ranking so that you tell whether or not to improve it. There are a couple of tools out there to help. Take Ubersuggest for instance. If you’ve been targeting specific keywords in page content, use Ubersuggest to assess your rank. Next;
Your Site Speed
How long can you afford to wait for a web page to load? Nobody wants to wait forever for a page to load. Your site speed is an essential factor in google ranking. A slow website is bad for SEO as well as the end-user. Thus, giving your site no chance of a high search position. Similarly, translating to fewer page viewers and fewer conversions.
It is essential to check your site speed in other to improve your google rankings. You can run a site speed test with a variety of tools. Some of these tools as outlined by Neil Patel are;
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- WebPageTest
- YSlow browser extension
- Pingdom Website Speed Test
After looking at your sites speed, there is the overall health of your site.
Your Site’s Health
As always, there are great tools to help with your overall site health. Take the MxToolBox Domain Health Report tool for instance. This tool allows you to check for issues in five different categories:
- Problems
- mail server
- Blacklist
- Webserver
- And DNS
3. Track and Measure the Right SEO Metrics
- Organic traffic
- Organic traffic conversions
- Keyword ranking for transactional words
Organic Traffic
How do visitors find your site via search engines? Knowing how visitors find your site via google is essential. Find out how many visitors reach your site, log in to your Google Analytics account.
Organic Traffic Conversions
Although paying attention to keywords that generate traffic has become harder it is still possible. But, it is worth your while as well. SERP Scan makes it easy. SERP scan allows you to see keywords that have generated organic traffic to your site. Also, on-page SEO keyword performance chart
Keyword Ranking for Transactional Keywords
Understand the difference between commercial and informational keywords to improve your Google rankings. Use transactional keywords that show user intent. Your visitors are searching for a solution that they can buy. Transactional keywords such as buy, review, order and others show your visitor intent. Thus, transactional keywords tend to improve conversion.
4. Ensure Your Site is designed for mobile search
People interact with brands 2X more via mobile. See why a mobile-friendly website is a necessity? Half of all website traffic comes from a mobile device. Hence, to Improve Your Google Ranking To #1 needs to perform well on mobile. Google uses mobile-first indexing when crawling websites. As a result, the search engine predominantly uses the mobile version of a website.
Generally, mobile-friendliness equals more viewers, which in turn equates to more traffic on your site. Use the Mobile-Friendly Test tool by Google to ensure you have a mobile-friendly site
5. Use Internal links
Internal links are hyperlinks that point to an internal page within your website. Internal links serve as signals to search engines crawlers and help google to analyze information. An organized and tightly-knit internal linking structure is essential for your site. Internal links make it easier for search engines (and users) to find what they’re looking for.
Internal links can improve your google ranking to #1. However, you must be mindful of what pages you’re linking. Some links are unhealthy for your site. Moz has a detailed tutorial on which links can harm your site and what to do about it.
6. Use Keyword Research to improve Your Google Ranking
Keywords are the search terms that your visitors use when they go on search engines. 78% of marketers in a recent survey identified keyword research as a high-impact practice for driving new traffic. Before creating content for your site, you must conduct keyword research.
Put your target keyword in the URL
When you assimilate the targeted keyword into the URL, you ensure that Google’s has another reason and way to consider your article as more relevant for a particular phrase.
Add keywords to your post strategically
Identify 4-5 related keywords that you want to target. Incorporate these keywords whenever they fit naturally into the text. However, do not overuse them or stuff your content with keywords. Focus on using them where they make sense; Title tag, headings: H1, H2, etc., Alt image tag, image captions, where ever appropriate.
93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and Google is the #1 search engine on the web. So, Why won’t you want to rank #1 on Google?
To sum it up, there is no short cut to get a #1 ranking on Google. However, Google ranking algorithm knowledge, assess to your current Google ranking, tracking and measuring the right SEO metrics, and a mobile-friendly website goes a long way. You can rank #1 on google sooner than you think.
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