Did you know that, according to Finances Online, Google dominates 92.05% of the search engine market, followed by Bing at 2.69%, Yahoo! at 1.47%, and Baidu at 1.33% Additionally, Google has more visits than any other website?
Considering this, you can see why it’s so important to rank higher on Google so that you get more visitors coming to your website and buying your products or services.
However, you might be wondering how to rank higher on Google. If you don’t know how, then you might be frustrated with the low web traffic you’re getting and the low amount of leads you are, too.
That’s why we’ve put together this article. In it, you’ll learn about the effective strategies you can use to improve your Google search rankings. Finally, you can get more traffic and customers than ever. Read on to learn more.
1. Optimize Your Website With SEO
One of the best ways you can improve your Google rankings is to optimize your website with SEO. SEO, short for search engine optimization, is a strategy you can use to get Google more “interested” in your website whenever someone does a relevant search query.
To do this, you’ll want to figure out what keywords people are putting into Google when doing a search.
Let’s say, for example, that you run a gym where you sell personal training lessons, gym memberships, and offer classes for sale that people can sign up for. Let’s also assume that one of your main lead segments is women.
In this case, you’d want to do research on what women looking for a gym are putting into Google. They might, for example, look up “best strengthening exercises for women.”
Once you’ve identified these keywords, you’ll want to include them in the content you publish on your website. Put them in your blog post titles, headings, and throughout the content.
Don’t “overstuff” keywords by putting too many in, as this will actually make your ranking on Google lower. Additionally, improve your SEO by including the keywords in metadata and images.
2. Optimize Your Website for Multiple Devices
Did you know that Americans spend over 5 hours a day on their phones? Considering this, it should come as no surprise that many Americans do many of their online searches of products and services not only on computers but on their phones.
It’s so common now for people to do searches on their phones that Google will actually bring down your ranking if you don’t have your website optimized for mobile.
If you’re just putting together your website, make sure it functions well on multiple devices, including different mobile phones such as iPhones and Androids, tablets, and computers.
If you already have a website, test out how it functions on different devices.
If there are any issues with loading time, buttons not working properly, or users having to type in too much information into forms or zooming in to see the site properly, fix these issues.
It may be worth having a developer look at your website to make sure that it will function properly on other devices.
Making your website optimized for multiple devices is also a strategy for how to increase website traffic. This will not only improve your SEO but also make your website accessible to multiple people.
3. Optimize Your Google My Business Account
Another way to improve your SEO is by optimizing your Google My Business Account. This way, whenever someone does a Google search that includes the words “near me” or looks up a service or product on Google Maps, your website will show up sooner.
To optimize your Google My Business Account, the first thing you have to do is make sure it’s set up correctly. Log in with your business details and put in all the information accurately regarding your business’s address.
Then, you’ll have to verify this account with Google. This might be nearly immediate or take a couple of weeks, depending on which option you choose for verification.
Once you’ve set up the account, you’ll want to optimize it by adding photographs of your business, products, and services. Include keywords in your business description and make it appealing.
Finally, put in a strategy to get good reviews. According to The Balance Small Business, you need to first ask your customers for reviews after they’ve made a purchase at your business.
When you do this, give them some guidance on how to leave a review. You can also offer incentives or provide reminders to make sure it’s more likely you’ll get reviews.
While you can’t get rid of negative reviews, you can reply to them. Get as many reviews as you can and make your customer service and products excellent so that your reviews give you high scores.
The higher your score and the more reviews you have, the more likely you’ll rank higher on Google and Google Maps when someone does a local search.
4. Reduce Your Website’s Bounce Rate
If you’re wondering, “What is a bounce rate?” it’s the rate at which visitors visit your page and leave very quickly. When someone performs a Google search, the Google algorithm takes your bounce rate into account. If it’s high, you won’t rank high in search results.
To make your bounce rate lower, you need to match up the content on your website with user intent.
You’ve already learned how to use keywords.
This is a similar idea, except that, instead of focusing on what people are actually typing or dictating into Google, you’re focusing on why they’re searching and what type of result they’re looking for.
By providing information that will serve your website visitors with information that’s useful to them, they’ll stay on your website longer.
This way, your bounce rate will go down and your Google ranking will go up.
5. Build up Your Backlinks
Another way to improve how high your website shows up in Google rankings is by building up your backlinks. When you have many backlinks, other websites are linking to yours. If they’re high-quality websites, these backlinks will be even more powerful.
To do this, there are several strategies you can use. First, make sure that the content you publish is high quality.
If you do this, then other people in your industry will start to see you as an industry authority. By promoting your content (for example, on social media), it will be more likely that you get linked to from other websites.
Additionally, you can get in touch with popular bloggers and authorities in your industry and ask if you can get backlinks to your website.
If you find that a link on their site is broken, for example, you can offer that they use your high-quality content instead.
You can also offer to link to their website in exchange so that you’re promoting each other.
6. Use Internal Links
Another way to rank higher on Google is by building up your internal links. When you do this, you’re linking between different pages on your website. When doing this, make sure you internally link the keywords that people search for when they do a Google search.
This is easy to do as you can do it all yourself, designing content as needed to match up articles linking to each other.
7. Use LSI Keywords
Speaking of keywords…another one of our website tips for ranking higher on Google is to use LSI keywords. These are keywords that are directly related to the ones that you’re already using. Let’s return to our prior example, of the gym business owner.
In this example, you would have selected the keywords, “best strengthening exercises for women.”
Related keywords could be exercises themselves to be included in the article, as well as synonyms for “exercise” and “strengthening.”
You might also have a few phrases in there about gyms that are friendly to women and female-oriented training sessions.
Once you’ve figured out what these LSI keywords are, you can include them throughout the content.
Google algorithms go through your article, and when they find these secondary keywords, they recognize that the content in your article is relevant to the topic. For this reason, you’ll end up ranking higher on a Google search.
8. Improve Your Site’s Load Time
Another factor that Google algorithms take into account is your site’s load time. If your site takes too long to load, then it’s not considered a high-quality website. Fortunately, you can easily check your website speed for free with Google PageSpeed Insights.
If you find that your site’s load time is too slow, there are several things you can do to fix this problem.
These include using adaptive images, using your own CDN or content delivery network, caching as much as you can, evaluating your plugins, compressing your content, and minimizing the use of CSS and JavaScript.
An added benefit of improving your website speed is that you’ll have a lower bounce rate. After all, many people will quickly leave a website if it doesn’t load as quickly as they want it to.
In this way, you’ll actually end up implementing two strategies to rank higher on Google.
9. Make Your Content High-Quality
Another way to rank higher on Google is to make your website’s content high-quality. How many of these other strategies you use, this one is important because it will keep visitors coming back for more, get you more backlinks, and strengthen your authority.
Basically, if you combine this strategy with the others on this list, you’ll be investing in your Google ranking, keeping it high as you continue to create more and more content.
To make your content high-quality, there are several strategies you can use. First of all, you want to make sure that what you’re publishing is entertaining, engaging, and informative to your ideal buyer persona.
It also helps to create content that has these qualities with other industry players in mind. This way, they’ll backlink to your website.
The content should also be easy to read, clear, and well-organized. You need to intersperse images and headers throughout to keep the eye on the webpage.
Considering that creating high-quality content can actually be quite challenging, you might want to consider hiring a writer to make your high-quality content for you.
Other types of high-quality content, such as videos, infographics, and pictures should have similar features.
10. Be Active on Social Media
Even though this isn’t an actual strategy that directly impacts your ranking, it will inevitably impact it. This is because, when you’re active on social media, you’re making people aware of your brand and engaging with them regarding your product or service.
This will inevitably get your website more visits. People will also be more inclined to share your content and link to it. Both of these effects will have a positive impact on your Google ranking.
Need More Help When It Comes to How to Rank Higher on Google?
Now that you know some of the most effective strategies on how to rank higher on Google, you might need assistance in implementing these strategies. Or maybe you want to learn about other ways to make your website known to your ideal customers.
Whatever you need, we can help. At Latitude Park, we’re experts when it comes to improving your Google ranking. We also offer web design, social media, and SEO services.
To learn more about how we can help you, contact us now.
