Your website ranking high on search engine results can take time to achieve. Mainly because search engines like Google change their algorithm regularly, which therefore means that you need to be continuously informed if you want to improve your website ranking.
Website ranking or search engine optimization refers to a website’s position in any search engine’s result page.
Importance of Search Engine Optimization
A myopic view of search engine optimization would be an improved website ranking on search engines, but in reality, search engine optimization is way more than that.
With an SEO-optimized page, higher traffic will go to your website. This traffic of new or returning visitors can be used for lead generation and customers or used to grow your mailing list, a private community of followers, etc.
An optimized web page is ideally one way your blog, business, or promotion can reach a wider audience and achieve your desired results.
7 Methods to Improve Your Website Ranking in 2020
We have compiled some of the best practices to improve search engine ranking; they come down to the:
1. Improve Your Page Loading Speed
Page load time is the time a single page on your website takes to load. This is a crucial factor when trying to improve page ranking because:
- Google recognizes when a page on your website is slow, and it reflects on your ranking on the search engine
- Website visitors spend less time on a site with slow-loading pages; this will increase the rate at which they leave your website, alerting Google to the fact that people aren’t engaging with your content.
Statistics show that 79% of shoppers won’t return to a page with slow load time, and sites that load in five seconds see 70% longer average sessions.
However, if your page loads fast, visitor time retention will increase, and Google will ensure you rank higher on their search engine.
Optimize your page speed and server response time to give visitors a pleasant experience that will encourage them to revisit your website.
2. Search Engine Listing
Another way to improve website ranking is through a search engine listing. A ‘search engine organic listing’ refers to the natural or unpaid listing of a website on a search result page.
Usually, before a website can be listed on a search engine, Google has to crawl through millions of website pages and index content it deems valuable according to keywords.
By submitting your website page content to search engines, you help them index your content with the right keyword. This, in turn, will help you when Google ranks your content on their search result page.
3. Produce High-quality Content
Don’t just create content; make sure you are creating high-quality content; this is what truly matters when people say ‘content is king.’ In vetting the content on your website, here are a few things you should consider:
- Is the content up to date? When was the last time you updated the content on your website? If you haven’t updated it since the day you built your website, chances are this dramatically affects your SEO ranking.
- Is the content on my website engaging and informative? Your content should be valuable to your website visitors, and the only reason people will keep coming back to your website is that they have gained something substantial from your content.
- Do I have cornerstone content on my website? Cornerstone content is the core content on your website. They are usually the best, most informative, and most important articles on your website. Ranking with cornerstone content is one way to scale up on the Google search engine, and as Yoast tells it, sites don’t rank individual pages rank.
4. Invest in Advertising
Yet another way to improve search engine ranking is through advertisement. Most websites are so focused on scaling up organically that they miss the value of an ad.
If you are serious about ranking high on Google, then like everything else in life, create awareness of your page through advertisement.
Financially invest in your website’s success, and Google will reward you for it by ensuring more traffic comes to your site. However, referencing our previous point, it is the value your content creates for people that will ensure they stay on your website and keep coming back.
5. Use Outbound Links
Outbound links are another great way to increase your website’s ranking and increase its credibility.
Link to relevant, authoritative, and trustworthy sources when you make certain claims; this will back up your content and have your visitors come back for more content they can trust.
Few things to note when using outbound links
- Make sure the information you are linking to is recent
- Ensure that links open in a new window so visitors remain on your site and are not redirected to an entirely different site
- Internal linking is also advised when using an outbound link so visitors can find similar and relevant content on your website.
6. Optimize Your Site for Mobile Devices
It is 2020; if your site still needs to be optimized for mobile, you are not serious about your business. The use of mobile phones for anything and everything is at an all-time high, with over 60% of Google searches coming from mobile phone users.
Search engines recognize this and have begun to rank sites accordingly. A website without mobile phone optimization will negatively affect its visitors’ user experience, and search engines care about their users.
7. Use keywords
Lastly, but certainly not least, use keywords that are your best friend and a secret weapon. In Google ranking algorithms, keywords play a significant part in how they rank pages on your website.
So, before you start creating content on your page, carefully select keywords that relate to your content and that people are searching for. You don’t need to pack on the keywords; there is a keyword density formula you can follow to ensure Google doesn’t block your content as spam.
Aside from following the keyword density formula, here are a few other rules for you to follow:
- Insert keywords naturally into your content.
- Make sure to add keywords to your header tag and image captions.
- Using long-tail keywords should be prioritized.
Please do your research on the best keywords to use for your website and start working with them.
Conclusion
While these are not the only ways to improve website ranking, they are definitely among the most effective methods. However, note that using one of these methods won’t give you your desired results; incorporate all of them into your website ranking strategy.
We also advise you to be patient, as you may not see results immediately. However, as long as you consistently implement the above methods, your website will soon become among the top ten ranked sites on any search engine.
Author Bio
Gregory is passionate about researching new technologies in mobile, web, and WordPress. Also, he works on Best Writers Online, the best writing services reviews. Gregory is in love with stories and facts, so Gregory always tries to get the best of both worlds.