If your business website isn’t on page one of Google, you might as well close shop. Seriously, how do you expect to generate leads for your company if no one knows of your existence?
There are currently 1.66 billion online consumers worldwide. If you’re not leveraging these numbers to boost revenue and brand reputation for your business, then you’ll spend all your time playing catch up with the competition.
What’s more, a whopping 94% of internet users say that if they don’t find what they need on page one, they don’t even bother checking out page two. It’s that serious.
Here are 9 ways you can use to improve Google search results and get you to the top. Read on.
Jump ahead to:
1. Use High-Quality Content to Improve Google Search Results
If you’re wondering how to improve SEO for your site, it goes without saying that you should make sure all the content you publish is relevant. Having quality content is the number one driver for site traffic.
Brush up on your writing skills and post content that’s is both unique and captivating to your audience. This will not only increase your website’s traffic, but it’ll improve your site’s authority which Google absolutely loves. Keep it fresh and updated to keep your audience coming back for more.
2. Don’t Forget to Include Metadata
Metadata refers to information that tells visitors what your website is about. It falls in the space between the <head> tags in each page.
Don’t overlook the inclusion of metadata when designing your website if you want to improve search engine ranking. There are three main types of metadata you should populate for each one of your webpages.
First is the Title Metadata which displays as the headline within search engine results. Second is the Description Metadata. This is the information the search engine returns as the description of your website.
Finally, there’s Keyword Metadata. Although rarely used to tabulate search engine rankings, it’s doesn’t take away anything to include them in your Metadata.
3. Anchor Text Matters Too
While having great content is crucial to improving SEO, it’s also important to include relevant links within your website’s pages. Incorporating the destination title in the link works better to improve your site’s ranking. Avoid using generic “Click here” anchor text in your links.
4. Use Alt Tags in Your Descriptions
Alternative text descriptions or alt tags for short are important to those who use text-only browsers. It describes the visual and video media that might be on your page.
Doing this allows search engines to locate your website which ultimately means better ranking status for your web page. When writing the alt description, try as much as possible to use relevant keywords in the text to increase the SEO of your images and videos.
5. Place Outbound Links on Your Pages
This is by far one of the most effective ways to make your content relevant and useful. Placing outbound links to well-respected authority sites tells Google that the information on your website is credible.
It also gives your readers a deeper layer of information that they can use and trust. This means that they’ll end up spending more time on your site. All these elements combined improve your website’s SEO ranking.
6. Readability
Speaking of readability, you need to understand who your audience is. Ideally, anyone with the most basic level of education should be able to read and understand your content even if most of your audience is well-educated.
You see, Google takes readability into account when it’s ranking your site. So if your goal is to increase your site’s rank make your content easy to read.
The Hemingway App is a great tool to use for testing your content’s readability. The rule of thumb is to keep it below a ninth-grade reading level.
7. How to Increase SEO with Your Contact Us Page
Google’s guidelines state that websites that have sufficient contact information are generally considered to be more trustworthy than those without. For this reason, it gives ranking precedence to pages that have this information included.
Also, be sure to put the link to the contact page in the navigation to improve your site visitors’ user experience. This is especially important if you’re running an eCommerce website.
What’s more, a well-designed contact form doesn’t just improve SEO ranking. It’s also an important tool to help you generate leads and open your business up to new opportunities.
8. Optimize for Mobile
Mobile optimization plays a major role in SEO. Google penalizes sites that are not optimized for mobile by bumping down their SEO ranking.
In today’s world, the majority of internet users consume content on their mobile devices. The fact that your website isn’t optimized for mobile will negatively impact the users’ experience.
It will see numerous visitors exit your site which ultimately increases the bounce rate. You know what that means for Google, don’t you?
9. Enhance Your Site’s Navigation
Today’s consumer has limited patience. When they land on a website, and can’t immediately find what they’re looking for, they leave in search of greener pastures.
This ultimately leads to a high bounce rate which means low dwell time. This tells Google that your website doesn’t contain information that is relevant to users.
A well-thought-out navigation structure helps your visitors quickly find what they need. This will keep them coming back for more.
The Bottom Line
If you think that SEO is a fad that will soon go out of style, guess again. Your website needs it and will continue to for a long time to come.
It’s not too late to do something about it. If you need expert help to help you clinch the number one spot reach out to a credible and trusted agency to help you do just that.
