Rank Higher on Google, Increase Your Visibility and Skyrocket Your Profits In 10 Simple Steps
Learn How To Rank Your Website Higher In Google Search Results With Strategies That Work In 2022
The reasons for wanting to improve your Google rankings in 2022 are obvious.
However, the steps to make that happen aren’t always so clear-cut. But instead of spending endless nights trying to figure out the ins and outs of Google’s mysterious algorithms for yourself:
We’ve done the work for you!
In this blog post, we’ll share how you can leapfrog to the top of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for maximum visibility and maximum conversions!
Even if you’re not a digital marketing expert, you’re just a few steps away from seeing an improvement in your Google rankings thanks to this list.
Let’s get started!
NOTE: This guide is designed with internal pages in mind.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Optimize Keywords
‘Keywords‘ is a term thrown around a lot when the topic of digital marketing is brought up – but so few people know what it really means.
To keep things super simple:
Keywords are the core themes that represent what your content is about.
They’re the words and phrases your users would enter into search engines like Google to find your page.
Making sure your page is a good answer to your users’ search queries is one of the EASIEST ways to increase your site’s rankings on Google.
But how do you choose the right keywords?
Simple.
- Head to the Google Search Console’s “Performance on Search results” report.
- Scan through the queries that you rank for.
At this point, you’ll most likely recognize a whole bunch of terms included on your page. From here, you can see which ones you rank for on the first page of Google.
Now, simply choose a keyword from that list and optimize your page with it.
What does this mean?
Ensure your keyword is used around 2-3 times in your opening title, ideally at the start, as well as in the opening paragraph of your content.
This is so Google can recognize that your page addresses the keywords your users are searching for…
…which will instantly boost your rankings!
TOP TIP: If you don’t have any first-page rankings, you can try and rank higher for keywords you have on page 2 or 3 of Google results.
It’s much easier to improve rankings for pages that are already performing well.
Step 2: Match Content to Search Intent
Speaking of keywords:
Search intent expands on what we’ve learned so far.
It’s not enough for your page to contain keywords. They need to be relevant to what your audience is looking for.
For example, what do you think the intent is behind the search term “guitar?”
Google understands that this kind of search query doesn’t automatically associate with buying a guitar or learning how to play the guitar…
…which is why the top-ranking pages offer information and news about guitars!
To stand the best chance of ranking higher in Google rankings, you need to think about how your audience thinks!
Take the keyword that you selected in Step #1, type it into Google and complete the following:
- Check the top-ranking pages for your keyword.What kind of pages are they? Blogs? Products? Something else entirely?
- Check how the information is presented on those pages.Are they tutorials? Recipes? Free tools?
- Check the page’s selling point.Does it claim to be cheaper than its competitors, or easier to understand?
Take note of the above, and you’ll quickly realize what your page is missing that’s holding it back from ranking in the top few results.
IN A NUTSHELL:
If your page is a great fit for what users are looking for, then Google’s algorithms will ensure that your page is shown to more people.
Step 3: Provide Quality Content
If you’ve ever heard the expression ‘content is king’ – there’s a BIG reason for it!
No matter how high your page ranks on Google, if users don’t find the answers they’re looking for on your page, they’ll leave!
This is why your page needs to answer every single question your prospective customers could have about the topic.
For example:
In the case of a how-to post about how to craft the perfect resume, the top-ranking posts include templates that users can download. And that’s no coincidence!
Google recognizes that the next step for searchers after learning how to write a resume is searching for an easy way to do it.
With all this additional content, you might be thinking, ‘how long is too long?’
Our answer: Write as much as you want!
Longer content is proven to rank higher in search engines – the average Google first page result contains 1,447 words.
This is why we recommend writing at least 1,500 words!
TOP TIP:
While we don’t recommend trying to stuff your page with terms like you’re trying to meet the word count on an essay, a general rule of thumb is:
If you CAN publish a longer page, then you SHOULD!
Step 4: Update Your Page Regularly
‘Keep things fresh’ is a very important rule to remember as you continue your efforts to boost your place in Google’s search results. It’s not just a way to keep your content relevant…
Freshness is a query-dependent ranking factor – in other words, it can have a direct impact on your positioning in search results!
The reason why search queries like ‘stock market’ always bring up the most recent news articles:
Notice the articles have been posted 2 or 4 hours ago.
You guessed it – it’s down to their freshness!
Most people aren’t looking for outdated content, especially in the worlds of tech and finance, where things are constantly changing.
Content can’t stay relevant forever, which is why old content eventually drops in Google’s search rankings. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay there.
With updated content to align with the latest developments and information, your page can effortlessly jump straight back up the rankings at lightspeed!
TOP TIP: If you’re unsure if your keywords are measured using freshness, do a Google search for that term and check the top results.
A search for ‘best restaurants near me’ can change all the time as new businesses emerge and others close down – in this case, freshness matters!
However, a search for the ‘best Beatles album’ is unlikely to depend on freshness as they haven’t released an album since 1970.
(And are VERY unlikely to do so in the future)
Step 5: Improve On-Page SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
In other words, ensuring that you get maximum traffic to your website – pretty easy when it’s put like that, right?
But what does it really mean?
While keywords play an important part in optimizing your page, they aren’t the only thing you can do to increase your Google ranking.
It’s also about anchor text of links that direct to your site…
It’s also about images…
It’s also about layout…
That’s why this step is broken down into several sub-steps to help you improve your on-page SEO without needing to understand the technicalities and algorithms behind it!
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Use Concise URLs
A study that recently analyzed a million different search results found that short URLs tend to rank better on SERPs than longer ones.
So whenever you publish a new page, ensure the URL is short and sweet!
But it’s not just about keeping things short…
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Use Keywords In Your URLs
If you know which keyword you’re focusing on most within your page, this can hardly be considered an extra step – because it’s just so simple!
Just include your target keyword in your URL, and you’ll probably notice an immediate difference!
And while we’re talking about keywords…
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Use LSI Keywords
LSI stands for Latent Semantic Index – but luckily, you don’t need to worry about what that means!
All you need to worry about is sprinkling related terms into your page to assist Google in showing that your page is knowledgeable about a certain subject.
Related terms for a car would include wheels, tires, gears, engine – you get the idea.
If the LSI keywords for your primary keyword aren’t clear, scroll to the bottom of Google after searching for your term and check out the ‘Searches Related To ____’ section.
It’s a great way to effortlessly find similar terms your audience is interested in.
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Optimize Your Title Tag
Google gives a ranking boost to terms that appear earlier on in your title tag.
That’s why it’s important to be crystal clear on what it is your page can do for Google users.
If your page offers a set of tips (like this one!), it can also be beneficial to include a number in your title tag.
Numbers grab attention and get 36% more clicks!
Similarly, brackets and parentheses are also proven to get 38% more clicks, so it’s worth adding those too – if it suits your content.
For example: The Top Mobile Phones To Buy Right Now (Updated For 2022)
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Use Tags To Structure Your Content
If you’re not wrapping your titles in H1, subheadings in H2, and so on – you should be!
This is something that Google actually recommends in their developer documentation style guide!
“Use heading tags to structure your content hierarchically—for example, <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> in HTML, or #, ##, and ### in Markdown.”
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Maximize Your Site Speed
Google has publicly confirmed on numerous occasions that a winning factor for a positive ranking is to make sure your site loads quickly.
But how can you do that?
Invest in premium hosting. You get what you pay for, so don’t cut corners!
You can also compress images to improve page loading times – and speaking of images…
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Optimize Your Images
According to Google, the most successful websites use brief but descriptive filenames and alt text for all images.
In other words, don’t use generic file names like image1.jpg!
The alt text attribute allows you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for any reason.
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Proofread & Polish Copy
This should be a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many published websites have spelling and grammar errors!
This is a sure way to inform the Google algorithm that your content is poor quality.
Investing in a companion app such as Grammarly might be worthwhile if you want to double-check your content is easy to read and grammatically correct.
IN A NUTSHELL:
It’s important to take note of all of these steps and make sure you’re making improvements across the board.
It isn’t enough to focus on one area. Successful On-Page SEO optimization is a combination of a number of factors.
Step 6: Add Internal Links
This one should be simple, but it’s something that many businesses get wrong – and pay the price in Google’s ranking system as a result.
This step is all about linking from one page on your site to another page on your site.
If you mention content you’ve written about in the past, reference it.
Not only does it establish your site as more of an authority, but it boosts your spot in SERP rankings.
Plus – a super important point to note:
There is no limit on how much you can internally link your content, but we advise you only to do it when it’s relevant to avoid an intimidating-looking page full of links.
This also means that you can use exact-match anchor text in your internal links.
IN A NUTSHELL:
Good internal links lead users to more hyper-focused pages that assist in answering a user’s question – and lead to a conversion.
Step 7: Merge Similar Pages
There’s nothing more frustrating for a user than having to crawl through multiple pages to find the answer they need.
But it’s not just for their benefit that you should merge similar pages together…
…it’s a proven way to increase your ranking on Google and other search engines!
As a rule of thumb, one strong page about a topic will usually rank higher than several weak pages.
This is to do with backlinks – but more on those in a moment.
A simple way to work around this problem is to redirect weaker pages about a topic to the strongest one.
TOP TIP
Keep search intent in mind at all times when merging pages.
Don’t just redirect for the sake of it. If your pages fulfill different purposes, there is nothing wrong with keeping them separate, as they have different audiences.
Step 8: Build up Backlinks to Your Site
Confirmed by Andrey Lipattsev, a search quality senior strategist at Google, backlinks are one of Google’s most important ranking factors.
But it is also one of the more challenging parts of increasing your place in SERPs.
Firstly, what exactly is a backlink?
Backlinks are the links that connect another website to your site, also known as external links and inbound links.
They signal to Google that you have quality content worth reading – pushing your page up the rankings.
The problem is you don’t have direct control over which sites link to your page.
This step boils down to the fact that without credibility, your webpage is just one more in a sea of billions upon billions.
But there are simple ways to acquire backlinks and boost your organic traffic.
Here are our top 3:
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Broken Link Building
This strategy is a win-win for you and the website you want to ‘plug’ your page.
You find broken links on their page and offer them an alternative option – yours.
The end result: you both get a credibility boost!
The first and most time-consuming step is to find relevant websites that match your niche which actually have broken links.
Once you find a broken link, contact the site owner, and hope for a response.
This can be a great way to establish high-quality backlinks with established websites and quickly boost your Google rankings.
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Create Guest Blog Posts
Guest posting can be quite a controversial topic in the world of SEO, but done right, it can be one of the most effective ways to build backlinks.
The concept is simple:
Write a piece of quality content that you can send to a blogger in your niche for them to publish and, in return, get a backlink.
The emphasis here is on ‘quality.’
The reason this aspect of backlinking is occasionally controversial is that guest posts can be very spammy.
In some cases, the backlink inserted by the guest blogger isn’t even relevant to the content being shared – and most editors will either remove it or not publish the blog post at all.
This is why it’s important to spend time crafting content…
…and also choose a relevant blogger to you and your business.
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Use Social Profiles
Using your social media accounts, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, is one of the most overlooked but incredibly effective ways to build links.
The reason it’s so simple:
Unlike other backlink-building methods where you have to contact people to obtain the link – with this strategy, you set them up yourself!
Just being active on social media and sharing quality content will tell Google that you’re an active business which is a big win for your SEO.
In case you were wondering, the backlinks come from ‘social signals.’
A collective term for likes, comments, shares, and other ways people interact with your content.
TOP TIP
Don’t just settle for one method of backlink-building!
Because this is such a huge part of any SEO campaign, trialing different methods to find the one that’s right for your business cannot be overlooked.
Step 9: Track Your Rankings
Increasing your rank in Google’s search engine results isn’t just a set-and-forget system – it’s something you have to monitor!
It’s the only way to know if your efforts are making a difference!
But equally, you don’t want to be constantly checking your phone or laptop for analytics and all the important numbers.
Luckily, there are several ways you can measure your site’s performance:
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Organic Traffic
This is one of the most obvious indicators of how ‘healthy’ your site is.
Using Google Analytics, you can easily measure the volume of visitors coming to your site and where they’re going.
It gives you a detailed breakdown of how many people saw your site (Impressions) vs. how many people visited your site (Clicks)
The more you have of both – the better!
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Organic Leads & Sales
This should be your key indicator of how well your site is performing following SEO adjustments.
The Goals feature of Google Analytics can give you a detailed breakdown of what actions visitors took on your page.
This is a great way to track things like:
- How many people watched a video
- How many users opted-in for a newsletter
- How many users bought your product or service and more…
TOP TIP:
Some of the strategies listed here take time to implement, and it may take longer to see the full effects of your efforts.
Be patient, and give your changes breathing space so you have a wide range of results to analyze before making any drastic changes.
Step 10: Rinse and Repeat
The #1 mistake you can make when trying to rank higher on Google is thinking that you only have to do it once!
To stay relevant in the eyes of Google’s algorithms and stay visible to your target audience, you must continue using all the strategies listed on this page.
After all, you’ll want to rank for multiple keywords – not just one!
Keep following the steps detailed here, and you’ll soon find your place on Page 1 of Google results, ready to receive tons of organic traffic!
Reference:
https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-to-rank-higher-on-google/
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