When it comes to ranking high on Google, there is no time to rest on your laurels. While you may enjoy the top spot today, the SEO landscape changes rapidly. Surviving the battle of online visibility is not enough as you also need to thrive.
Tips to Rank High in Google’s Search Engine
For you to stay in the game and grow your business exponentially, keeping up with Google is a must. Employing effective SEO techniques is going to be your best bet.
1] Improve Page Speed
According to the Google Speed Update, mobile page speed will be part of the ranking considerations starting July 2018. The announcement affects the slowest websites.
A 2017 research revealed the importance of optimized mobile page speed. Surprisingly, 70% of websites take approximately 7 seconds to load. The acceptable load time should be between 2 to 3 seconds.
Anything longer than that can frustrate visitors. Although the update does not create a serious impact on your current ranking, it still affects user experience. These are factors that affect your page speed:
- File sizes and types
- Plugins
- Hosting/Server
- Theme
- Too Many Ads
There are available online tools that enable you to check your website’s speed such as GTMetrix. Speed is just as important as other ranking factors because a faster website helps you retain customers, maintain your brand reputation and increase website traffic through subsequent page visits.
The good news is that you can improve your page speed or loading time.
- Install a caching plugin to improve your website’s loading time especially on subsequent page visits.
- Optimize your site for mobile by using responsive design.
- Minimize file sizes including images and videos. Make sure you are not compromising on quality.
- Get rid of unwanted files, which you may still have on the backend. Use the minimalistic approach: The smaller your website, the faster it will load.
2] Build Quality Links
Link building is an essential recipe for thriving online. It refers to the process of obtaining hyperlinks from other websites so users can navigate between pages.
Building high-quality links is an important part of your SEO strategy because search engines such as Google use these links to crawl the web.
The more high-quality links you build, the better your chances of ranking higher on Google. You can build high-quality links through guest posting, building broken links and using skyscraper content.
- Guest posting refers to contributing content to another blog or website in exchange for a link back to your website. This can be done by placing the links in the author bio section or including it in the body of the article especially if the author is citing information.
- Building broken links ensures that users do not get a 404 error page when clicking on a broken link. No websites are immune to broken links, not even reputable websites. Links are broken when websites move content around.
- Skyscraper content has to do with reverse engineering by creating another version of the article. It replicates the distribution technique and identifies those who shared or linked the original content.
3] On-Page SEO
Consider your webpage as your canvas. Think about what you can do to it to improve your ranking. This is On-Page SEO in a nutshell. Every change takes place ON your website.
On-page SEO checks the following:
Page Title – An important SEO factor on your website that you cannot afford to overlook. It requires searching for the right keyword so your page will show up whenever someone searches about a product-related topic.
- Meta Descriptions – the description includes relevant keywords and appears in the search result.
- Meta Tags – includes a set of relevant keywords.
- Body Tags – examples of body tags are H1, H2, H3 and H4. These body tags make your content easier to read.
- URL Structure – shorter URLs encourage better crawling.
- Image SEO – follow best practices when uploading images. Include descriptions and alt text as they can improve your website’s SEO.
- Keyword Density – the rule of thumb is to keep keyword density between 2-5%. Keyword stuffing is also a big no-no.
4] Encrypt your website
Back in 2014, an update on Google algorithms favored secure websites over those not using Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). Although the HTTPS sites did not take any quantum leap, Google indicated a ranking boost in 2015.
The obvious benefit of HTTPS is having a secure connection. Since the Internet makes sensitive information available for the digital world to see, you need layers of protection to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
HTTPS will not be activated without installing a Secure Socket Layer certificate (SSL certificate). The green padlock in the address bar is an indicator that you are visiting a secure website.
When you add SSL certificate to the SEO mix, not only will you prevent cyberattacks but also secure better ranking on Google.
Sure there are other ranking factors that must be taken into consideration such as page speed, domain age, social signals, mobile-friendliness, webpage content length and content quality, but HTTPS serves as a tiebreaker. It is also interesting to note that activating HTTPS is not only intended for SEO purposes.
Algorithm updates show no signs of slowing down and demystifying Google’s rules proves to be a challenge. There is no need to get overwhelmed as we can help you focus on your SEO efforts. We will assist you in defining your SEO ranking goals and validate your strategy by visiting omegaseo.co.
