In all of its infinite wisdom, why doesn’t Google’s search algorithm rank you at the top of the results?
Fortunately, there’s something all site owners can do if they’re asking this question. The issue might not be with Google, it might just be that you’re not communicating in the language that Google speaks. This language is called “SEO.”
Figuring out how to rank higher on Google is the same thing as learning how to optimize your website for the search engine. We’ll talk about search engine optimization (SEO) today, giving you some insight into improving your Google rankings across the board.
Let’s get started.
Contents
Beginner’s Guide: How to Rank Higher on Google
The first thing to understand is the way that Google’s search algorithm works.
The algorithm utilizes artificial intelligence to “crawl” the web and discover sites in order to rank them. Crawling circulates the web every couple of weeks or so, so each page gets a fresh look on a regular basis.
These “crawlers” or “bots” move through the web via links. Using the link as well as all pertinent information on the site, the crawler gathers what it needs to index your site and rank it for different searches. Rankings reference your site data against the particular keyword phrase in question.
There are more than 200 “ranking factors” gathered during these crawls. Your job is to create a site that’s in accordance with the algorithm’s preferences. Easy, right?
Optimization Is Multifaceted: Don’t Rule Yourself Out
The beautiful thing about search engine optimization is that it’s available to everyone. No matter your skill level, expertise, or understanding of the internet, you have access to start optimizing your site.
Sure, certain things help more than others, but there are myriad ways to start improving your rankings. Maybe you’re good at coding, or maybe you have a knack for writing exceptional captions on social media. Maybe you’re somewhere in between.
All of those things can help. In any case, you need to understand the fundamentals of how optimization works and how Google uses the information to rank sites. Only then can you use your unique skills for optimization.
Start With the Back End
“Back-end” optimization relates to the technical stuff that the user never sees. Things like site speed, site architecture, first contentful paint, and more are all relevant here.
This is probably the hardest part of optimization for someone to just “jump into.” In other words, you might need professional help. You can utilize tools like Google Search Console to help you notice errors or address issues, though.
Different web hosting platforms will also give you an easier time than others. Some of these sites give you the tools to optimize the back-end of your site effectively. Also, note that there are numerous widgets and software that can streamline the process for beginners.
Identify Your Target Audience
Google rankings come when you know your audience and market to them via your keyword selections.
Google gathers enough data to create an accurate digital profile of almost anyone. They do that for a couple of reasons, but one key one is that they make a lot of their money from advertising. Advertising is a lot easier when you know the target individual.
The result is that you get access to key information on your users. Look for the groups that are searching for your content, then create a hypothetical target customer. Find the keywords that this hypothetical user is searching for.
Research Numerous Keywords
Once you’ve got the target audience, you search for the target keywords. These are keyword phrases with high search traffic and low competition. There’s a “goldilocks” zone to find here.
You won’t get any success from massively popular keywords. Big companies optimize for those and take the top spots. Small keywords with a few thousand searches every day could bring a few thousand users to your site every day, though.
The trick is finding keywords that are just right, and you might have to do some experimenting to see what works.
Create Relevant Content
Content should get created in response to the keywords you find. Google’s main objective with its algorithm is to find pages that are exactly relevant to the needs of the user.
That means it ranks pages that are relevant, useful, timely, and engaging. Therefore, your objective is to create content that’s relevant and engaging.
It should also highlight the keyword phrase in a few important areas. The title is a great place to add the keyword. You can also include it, as well as some secondary keywords, in the meta description, meta title, body content, and more.
Fit the keyword into the text whenever is natural. Stuffing your content with too many unnatural keywords could actually move you down the rankings.
Be Persistent
An issue that many site owners face is the fact that optimization takes a while to catch on. It’s not an overnight type of thing. The only way that happens is if you get extremely lucky and go viral.
Otherwise, you’ve got to wait for the kindling to catch on and set fire to the rest of the wood. Fortunately, there are ways to get info on how you’re improving and where you need a little more work.
You can feed your website traffic with traffic from social media as well. Working on your social media success at the same time as your SEO is a very effective thing. In most cases, one hand feeds the other.
Note that you can also tailor your content to your business needs. For example, local SEO might be a smarter idea than trying to rank for global keywords.
Want to Learn More about Business Marketing?
We hope our look at how to rank higher on Google was useful to you. There’s a lot more to learn about search engine optimization and digital marketing, though. If you can master a few tricks of the trade, you can start to see massive growth for your site.
Explore our website for more ideas on how to grow your traffic through digital marketing and more.