How to Improve Your Google Ranking
No matter if you have a beautifully presented website, or a great portfolio, if you lack enough SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you won’t go very far. The thing is, Google, Yahoo, and Bing are extremely objective when it comes to things like sitemaps, alt tags, and keywords – just to name a few. It’s not really that important to understand the terminology, but understanding how to improve your SEO.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO?)
SEO is the process in which the traffic to your website is improved from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing via organic or algorithmic search results in search engines. The higher a website appears in search results, the higher the number of visitors the page will receive from the search engine.
There are many ways to improve the ranking of your pages without submitting to the paid plans offered by search engines. Listed below are the ones we think are absolutely vital!
Page Titles
The title tag is used by search engines to display a page in search results as well as to display it at the top of the browser. These tags tell search spiders and users what your page is about. Google only displays between 50 – 60 characters in its title tag, so it’s important to keep descriptions short, compelling, and relevant. Keywords and the subject of the page should be on the front.
Sitemaps
A sitemap — a page specifically designed to list and link all the other major pages on your site — allows search spiders to find pages quickly, and with greater relevance to the search in question. It is therefore easy for both spiders and users alike to find each page, and be reached with significantly fewer clicks
Keywords
The placement of keywords on your site is probably one of the most important SEO tips. It’s useful to keep in mind how someone will find information about the specific service or product you’re offering, as the keywords they use may be the keywords you want to use. But make sure you don’t add a ridiculous amount of keywords especially if they are unrelated as this can cause your site to be flagged as spam. Search engine spiders are programmed to ignore ‘keyword-stuffing’.
Optimize your images
Optimizing your images is important to increase the speed of your site and to make it easier for Google to identify the images on your web pages. Make sure all your website images are compressed, have descriptive file names, and include optional text.
Alt Tag
Every image and video you have on your site can have descriptive words added to its impression. These are known as alternate text descriptions. These descriptions allow search engines to locate your page using the keywords found in your image and video description, as well as the normal text on the site.
Use H1 and H2 Header Tags
Headers not only make your content more readable and easier to understand for humans and search engines, there is a strong correlation between Google search rank and the use of header tags in the body of your content. Header tags are also a great way to show the structure of your content and emphasize your key points.
URL Structure
One of the first things search engines use to determine page rank is a URL, hence why it’s important to make it easy for spiders to find them. This can be done by keeping URLs short (which also enhances the user experience), keeping them relevant to the topic and keywords of the page, and ensuring that URLs help classify site pages.
Get more backlinks
Backlinks—your links to other sites—are one of the most heavily weighted Google ranking factors. Incoming links to your website content from high-authority domains show authority to your site, drive traffic, and improve your search rankings.
Mobile Site
“With almost 40% of organic traffic coming from mobile devices, it is hardly surprising that websites with mobile-friendly interfaces would rank higher in Google searches. Ultimately Google is striving to provide the best user experience possible – so in fact the better the user experience on your site, the better you will rank with Google.
Update content regularly
I’m sure this is something you’ll be doing regularly anyway – but still, it’s an absolute must! Content that is updated regularly is seen as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevance. Be sure to keep it fresh.
Don't use flash
Many small businesses prefer to run their sites using Flash because it is easy to launch and quite cheap. However, Google always ranks Flash sites lower than sites running on alternative platforms partly because you can’t link to a single page. Converting a Flash-based site to WordPress will greatly increase your search engine rankings.
Grow Natural Links
Another major ranking factor in Google’s algorithm is the number of organic and quality inbound links to your site. This works because Google ranks your site’s credibility and relevance partly as a result of how often it has been recommended by third parties. That’s why it’s important to monitor how these links are growing.
Monitor your Progress
Unless you keep track of your search positions, you won’t know if you’re hard earned SEO is working. Monitor your page’s ranking through tools like Alexa and Google Toolbar. On top of that it is important to check your referrer logs so that you can see how your visitors land on your site, and the search terms they are using to get there.