How to rank on Google search engines can be perplexing for many local, small businesses. While it’s not as difficult to launch a website as it used to be, getting ranked high enough to be consistently found by prospective customers is another issue altogether. Creating a domain, putting content up, and pressing publish are all exciting moments for your business. But when you search for your site’s content on another device or incognito mode, do you show up four or five pages into the search results? If so, you are losing out all kinds of new business.
Google and other search engines have a variety of methods to rank how sites appear in search results. Wondering how to rank higher on Google? A strategy called search engine optimization is the best place to start.
Let’s do a deep dive into exactly how to rank on Google to bring more traffic to your site.
How to Rank on Google: Assess the Competiton
First, gather some intel on your competition. If you search services, products, or topics similar to what’s on your site, who comes up on the first page of Google?
Go through these sites and see what they’re offering that you don’t and vice versa. What perspectives are missing from their blogs? What is the added value of your company in this space?
Once you have an idea of what they’re doing right and wrong, head to your site to start tinkering.
Analyze Keyword Traffic
Google rankings come from crawlers who view all the sites online so that they can provide the best experience for searchers. It’s frustrating when you ask Google a question and the results don’t answer your question, so think directly about what your audience is looking for when they find your page.
A great way to do this is to focus on keywords.
Keywords sprinkled throughout your blog content and webpages will draw Google to your page. There are many tools that can help show you what your page is already ranking for and give suggestions about what you should expand on.
Choose keywords that don’t have a high difficultly score but still a high searchable metric.
This simple step makes a big difference in how to rank high on Google.
What’s Authority Anyway?
Google will push users to your site if it has decent credibility. That’s why sites like the New York Times, Healthline, or CNN show up a lot when you ask questions in the search box.
To built authority on your site, focus on internal and external linking. When you’re writing a blog post, seamlessly link between your pages for the user to stay on your website. Link out to cite statistics or prove a point.
This builds authority and shows Google that you know what you’re talking about.
Linking is also valuable if other highly credible sites link to your site. That transfers some of their credibility to you.
If you have high profile customers or press, make sure they link to your site’s content when sharing information about your company.
Research, Revise, Republish
There are hundreds of data points that Google ranks sites with. Prioritizing these few tactics will really help drive traffic to your site and show you how to rank on Google in no time.
Search engine optimization isn’t just a one and done deal, you need to constantly work on your content to outrank the competition and stay relevant to searchers.
Need some help?
Our team has experience with a wide variety of clients and knows the most efficient way to structure your site to get it ranking higher on Google. Contact us now!
