Before purchasing any product or taking any services, where do you research it first?
Google, right?
Some will say we also take advice from family, friends, or end users. That is also absolutely correct, but in the end, most people do a Google search to research it deeply. And the website that comes first in Google SERP or is on the first page, people interact more and more with that website.
Imagine that you have an E-Commerce website, and your website is in the top Google ranking; then, how many conversions will you have? The numbers will be stunning.
But is it so easy to rank a website or rank web pages in Google?
The answer is yes. All you need is a good strategy.
In this blog, we will see some Google ranking factors on which, if you focus, then your website will soon be ranked at the top of Google ranking.
Let’s check them out.!!
Grab the Tip: Best E-Commerce Marketing Strategies to Increase Online Sales
Top Google Ranking Factors
1. The Content
The quality of your content is directly proportional to the ranking of a website. More and more audiences will be engaged if you consistently produce high-quality content that satisfies the user intent besides providing industry insights. Below are some characteristics that define the relevancy and quality of the content; keep these points in mind while creating content for your website.
a). User Intent
You can either use keyword research tools or research yourself on Google what your target audience is looking for. Then tailor your content to the needs of your target audience. This will increase the likelihood that they will share and engage with your content, improving your website rank on search engines.
b). Content Freshness
Readers will be more interested if your content is fresh, informative, and new to the market. But more is needed to create brand new content; you must update your old content with new keywords, reports, research, and stats. This is essential for preserving a high “freshness” rating.
c). Readability
The biggest mistake people make while creating content to rank quickly in Google is keyword stuffing. You are writing for an audience, not for google bots. So keep your focus on the readability of the content. Use your keywords organically (as and when required) and interchangeably with similar keywords on your website. Besides, it should be well structured, sound natural, and not be overrun by irrelevant terms.
2. Image Optimization
Since search engines consider page load time when determining a site’s rating, optimizing your images can help improve your search engine optimization (SEO) ranks. Image optimization reduces the website loading time and thus provides users with a great website experience.
And secondly, more and more people are turning to image search, which means that your website’s Google ranks will improve dramatically if you take the time to optimize its images.
Ways to optimize your website images:
a). Resize Images
Keep your image file sizes to 70-100 KB or below using an image compressor. Save and use JPG images over PNG. Images should be at most 1000x.
b). Add Alt Texts to Images
This is the text version of a picture, the only version that Google can “see” in its index. Give your image a short description, and remember to add a keyword. Image Alt Texts helps visually impaired people read the text and tell the reader what the image is about as text when the image is not loaded.
c). Add Keywords With Dash(-)
Remember to use the keyword in the alt text and the file’s actual name. In addition, replace spaces with dashes when naming your files; otherwise, your content management system will convert them to “%20,” resulting in an unprofessional-looking picture link.
Grab The Tip:
3. Keyword Placement
To maintain a high search engine ranking, you must employ search engine optimization (SEO) strategies or hire an SEO specialist who can create your keyword strategies based on your niche. You need to use keywords throughout the text.
Here the strategic placement of keywords is the most crucial task. As discussed in the first ranking tip, you must avoid keyword stuffing; instead, you should strategically include them in your writing.
Places where you need to locate your target keywords:
- Title Tags
- H1 Title
- H2 Headings
- URLs
- Main body
- Meta description
4. Backlinks
When another website provides a link back to yours, it is called a backlink, which helps your website to appear at the top rank in Google. Google will give more weightage to a page that has been linked to from reputable sources, and that page will rank higher if it provides outstanding value to its visitors.
However, a single link from a high authority website is much more effective or must be preferable over a link from a low authority website.
The question now is how to create backlinks that are effective and aid in ranking your website.
Don’t worry; we have some strategies; try them out:
a). Post Original Content
People who find your material well-written, informative, or entertaining are likely to link to it from their own blogs and websites. This is especially true if the content has been updated frequently or includes a report on your original research.
b). Cold Approach to Websites
Achieving this level of authority takes time, so in the meanwhile, you should work on building backlinks by locating material that is relevant to yours and requesting a link from the author or website.
c). Guest Posting
Guest posting is another popular yet effective way to gain quality backlinks. Instead of simply requesting a link, offer to provide content to the site in exchange. Your website can be linked directly inside the post or your author profile.
5. Website Structure
A well-structured website is a bedrock upon which other search engine optimization (SEO) strategies may be built. To rank on Google don’t forget to work on your website structure. If your site’s structure is strong, your other SEO efforts will only pay off if you employ keywords correctly, have interesting informational content, accurate meta tags, image optimization, suitable backlinks, etc.
Don’t worry; work on the below two methods:
a). Create a Sitemap in WordPress
When it comes to crawling and indexing, the structure of your website matters; to put it simply, it facilitates Google’s indexing of your site’s pages. So to enhance the structure of your website, you need to create a sitemap in WordPress.
If you want search engines to index your site’s most significant pages, you’ll need to provide them with a sitemap. It makes it simpler for Google’s bot to crawl your site, find new pages, and index them.
b). Optimize robot.txt Files
Optimizing robot.txt files makes it easier for Google to index your website. The Google bots may follow the instructions in your robots.txt file to crawl and index your site efficiently. It helps direct search engine bots to the sites that need to be indexed and hides those that shouldn’t.
This way, you may prevent the bots from wasting their crawl budget on unnecessary pages like the administration panel.
Final Thoughts
Although there are around 200 Google ranking factors, the five discussed here are the most significant and should be prioritized immediately.
However, you might be disappointed if you expect your website to shoot to the top of search engine results pages simply by implementing these ranking factors today.
Working on these factors will require patience since the desired outcome will not appear overnight, but it will eventually be achieved if you start working on them today.
