10 Ways to Rank Higher on Google so Your Website Thrives!

You have a website, and maybe we even built your website but did you know that Google’s algorithm is updated all the time? It is estimated, that Google updates its algorithm between 500 and 600 times per year. Some of those updates might be minor and have no significance on your website but some are major and do affect your website! The latest update took place on April 12. You can see a complete list of the major updates HERE. What does all of this mean? It means that you need to stay up to date with your website and make sure you are optimizing your site to stay at the top of local Google searches. Below are 10 ways to rank higher for local searches.

1. FOCUS ON CONTENT SEO “ON-PAGE SEO”

This relates to the things you can do on your website yourself, with the content being the most important. Making sure that you are using relevant keywords and content that people are actually searching for will greatly increase your online exposure. Google will crawl your website and if you are providing information that people are looking for, your website ranking will improve. There are also other things such as titles, tags, image optimization, links, descriptions, and more.

2. USE TECHNICAL SEO

While content SEO relates to what is written on your website, technical SEO refers to improving your website's speed, loading errors, security, and more. The faster search engines can crawl and index your website, the better it will rank because it will have fewer errors flagged. This is where cheaper website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly, can produce extra code which will slow down your website and affect its rankings when it is crawled. So, you can either have a website that is affecting the growth of your business or you can have a website that is clean-coded and provides additional income for your business.



3. IMPLEMENT SECURITY

Websites with HTTPS in the URL rank higher than HTTP websites. They also make people feel more confident to explore your website. You should see a lock icon when you type in the website URL. All of our websites come with additional security and you will never have to worry about malware!

4. MAKE SURE IT WORKS GREAT ON PHONES

Over the past few years, Google has started to prioritize mobile-friendly websites when they crawl and index sites. The text size, images, layout, and more should all be optimized for smaller screen sizes which will make it just as easy to navigate your website as it is on larger computer screen sizes.

5. MAKE IT FAST

Your website viewers do not want to wait, staring at a blank page while your content loads. Fast page loading will help your website rank higher and decrease your bounce rate. The server that your website is hosted on will also affect the overall loading speeds, so cheaper hosting sites might sound good, but they could be costing your business money because people will just go to your competitors.

6. WRITE LONG-FORM CONTENT

This is content on your website that will keep viewers on your website for a longer time than normal. A 2,000 or more word blog post, a longer video that a viewer watches, or a case study where they read about a project or service that you have completed are all great examples of long-form content. Just like having fast page loading speeds, having viewers stay on your website longer will also reduce the bounce rate and increase your rankings.

7. OPTIMIZE YOUR SITES META TITLES

You may be asking yourself, what is a Meta title? This is the title that shows when you search for something within Google. Google limits the word count but the Meta title is the main describing words for the specific page of your website. It should be easy to understand and allow the viewer to have an idea of what type of information they will see if they select the link.

8. UTILIZE OFF-PAGE SEO

We have already mentioned on-page SEO and technical SEO, so here is the other main type of SEO. This relates to everything that happens outside of your website. Links from other websites, social media posts, reviews, podcasts, citations, and more that send viewers to your website. The goal here is to get more brand exposure from sources other than your website which will increase your online authority.

9. VIEW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR SEO METRICS

So, you are collecting data about the different types of SEO that are being implemented into your website but what do you do with it? Two important factors are understanding where your organic traffic is coming from and the performance of your keywords. If your website is not ranking well for specific keywords, it would be best to complete some additional research and update the keywords that you want to rank for. Remember the content of your website is one of, if not the most important aspect of your website.

10. INCLUDE VIDEOS ON YOUR WEBSITE

Videos are a great attention-getter and as we mentioned can reduce your bounce rate. However, it needs to be done correctly. They should be short and include an attractive main image to entice the viewer. If a video is too long or the file size is too large, it can really slow down your site and produce negative results that go against everything we have mentioned above.

If the above seems like a lot especially when you are trying to run a business, why not allow Speck Designs to assist you with it? Let's discuss what it would look like for us to implement these things for you in order to increase your online presence and income! All you have to do is select a day and time that works for you at www.speckdesigns.com/schedule-a-call to start a conversation. There is no commitment, just time for us to talk and provide you with some options to help with your business growth.