Have you ever wondered why your webpage is not ranking well on Google?
You published a webpage, waited for months, and still yet to see the shadow on Google’s search engine for your target keyword.
Hmm..
Something must be wrong..
Well, to rank higher on Google, there are some actions you need to take to make it happen.
Here are the 7 steps for higher search ranking on Google.
1. Keyword Research
First, you need to decide what keyword you are going after.
Think about this:
“What kind of keywords your target audience are going to type in Google’s search engine to find your products or services?”
Don’t be lazy, spend some time to brainstorm a few keyword ideas and write it down.
Then, research the keywords’ monthly search volume using keyword tools like Google’s keyword planner to justify your keyword ideas.
You want to make sure your target keyword has a good amount of monthly search volume and relevant to your website’s content.
To do that, just create a free Google AdWords account to use the tool.
Next, enter your keyword into the box and click “Get ideas” for a list of keywords with their estimated monthly traffic.
Repeat with next keyword idea until you found the best one.
2. Use Long-tail Keyword
A long-tail keyword is a keyword with longer form, usually 4 to 8 sentences.
For instance, if the target keyword is “car repair service”, the long-tail version could be “24 hours car repair service in London”.
If you are offering 24 hours car repair service in London, which one do you think is more targeted?
The target keyword “car repair service” may bring in people looking to repair their car in Canada, which are non-target audiences.
While the long-tail keyword brings in only prospects who are looking to repair their car in London, especially during after-working hours.
Also, long-tail keywords tend to rank easier and faster due to less competition.
But you may ask: “what if most of the people are searching Google using short-form keyword?”
Rest assured, according to the search engine statistic here, half of the search queries are 4 words or longer, which mean most of the users are searching online using long-form queries.
Want more long-tail keyword ideas? Just enter your target keyword into Google’s search engine and check out the Google’s “Searches related to” function at the bottom of Google’s search results page.
3. Title Tag
A title tag is the title of your webpage that tells Google what your page is about. It can be the same or different from your post title.
When internet users search for a certain keyword, Google uses this information to decide whether your page is relevant to them or not.
So make sure you put your target keyword in the title tag along with the benefit to encourage people to check out your page.
If you are using WordPress for your blog, just install Yoast SEO and write your title-tag at the bottom of your post editor before you publish.
Also, keep your title tag within 65 characters so that it appears as a full title in Google SERPs without truncate.
4. URL Structure
To rank better on Google, use concise and meaningful URL structure for all your pages.
A bad example of URL structure would be:
“https://yourdomain.com/p=2”
Which is meaningless and doesn’t contain your target keyword.
Also, don’t make your URL structure too long and looks ugly, like:
“https://yourdomain.com/services-we-provide/car-repair-service/london/24-hours-fast-reliable-car-repair-service-on-demand”
Instead, use a concise and meaningful URL structure such as:
“https://yourdomain.com/24-hours-car-repair-service-london”
If you are using WordPress, just go to “Setting” – “Permalink” to change it.
5. H-Tags Subheadings
Google gives extra weight to H1, H2, H3, and H4 tags and pay more attention to them.
Since H1 is mostly for the title, try to utilize H2, H3, and H4 tags in your content as subheadings to help Google understand your content’s structure better.
If possible, sprinkle some relevant keywords in your H-tags for more ranking opportunities.
6. Website Speed
As per Google, they use website speed as one of their ranking signal in their complex algorithm.
Google main focus is user experience, and slow loading site hurt user experience badly.
Therefore, you have to make sure your website is loading fast in order to rank higher on Google’s search engine.
To speed up your website (WordPress), follow the steps below:
- Choose a light, fast, and responsive theme
- Deactivate and remove unnecessary plugins
- Install and activate caching plugin for your site (eg: W3 Total Cache)
- Install images compressor to compress all your web images
Next, head over to Pingdom and enter your website URL to test your website speed.
Then, fix it according to the recommendation to further improve the loading speed of your website.
7. Mobile Friendly
With a growing number of mobile users searching for information on Google using their smartphone, you have to make sure your website is functioning well in the mobile version.
Otherwise, it’s going to hurt your website’s user metrics – bad signal to Google.
The best way to avoid this is to choose a responsive theme for your website, and check it from time to time with your mobile phone.
You can use this free tool from Google to test your website’s mobile-friendliness.
Conclusion
SEO is not an overnight magic, it takes time and efforts to implement and to see the result.
But, the reward is lucrative.
So, just take action and implement the 7 steps above for your website, and you’ll definitely see the result in months of time.
