How to Rank High on Google

Statista reports that Google is still the most popular search engine worldwide, with more than 86 billion visits per month. Facebook receives only 20 billion total monthly visits, followed by Instagram and Amazon with just over 4 billion visits each. So Google has been the most popular search engine for the past decade. 

Google has influenced our lives for at least the last decade, and ranking high is still one of the most challenging tasks. First of all, it's competitive. According to the Hosting Tribunal, approximately 2.75 million posts are published every day on WordPress alone. It would help if you also understood how Google's algorithm works.

These 15 best practices will help you rank higher on Google, and we've summarized them for your convenience. You may already be implementing some of these; others may be new to you. Consider each of these and determine what changes you can make to rank high on google.

Why Does Your Google Ranking Still Matter?

Though the digital marketing landscape has grown exponentially with new platforms emerging, organic ranking remains one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website. Data shows that more than 67% percent of all clicks originate from the first five organic results on page one!

More visitors to your website means a greater opportunity to convert them into customers. Furthermore, if you outrank your competitors, you could also attract some of their customers. (you can unlock the door of opportunities and drive that specific potential customers towards your business). 

The objective isn't just to win new customers (or divert some of your competitors). It can also boost your brand's credibility. Although credibility is less exciting than finding new customers, if you can convince your target audience that you are one of the most credible sources in your niche, you will also be able to convert leads into paying customers.

15 Tips to Rank Website Higher on Google

You may be working hard to climb the ranks of Google, but it is frustrating to see your website listed on the umpteenth page of results despite your efforts. 

Here are all the 15 important points that you should focus on if you want to rank high on google. 

Check Google Ranking Factors 2022 Guide to improve your SEO Strategies!

Focus on On-Page SEO

In 2022, on-page optimization will remain one of the easiest ways to improve your visibility and ranking on Google. The process doesn't take much time, and you'll see immediate results. This term relates to your website's elements that can optimize, such as headlines, page titles, and images. Meanwhile, off-page SEO involves building relevance for search engines, for example, by obtaining more backlinks.

Here are some points that can help you with on-site SEO:

1. Add your keywords at the start of title tags

2. Your content length should be at least 1800 words

3. Add your keywords two or three times per page

Bonus Tool: To get the revelents keywords about your page, you can consider ETTVi’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

Don't Neglect Technical SEO

Technical SEO involves ensuring that your website is designed to be crawled and indexed by search engines as efficiently as possible. The first thing you need to check in Technical SEO is whether your page is crawlable or not - If your page is not crawlable then there is no chance that you can get rank. You can  use the Crawlability Checker Tool to ensure the indexing of your site. Although content is still the king, if the search engines cannot find, crawl, and index your pages, all your efforts will be for nothing. 

For example, all you need is to make sure that:

1. All of your pages are indexed

2. All of your pages are secure

3. Your site is mobile optimized

4. You don't have any plagiarized or similar content 

5. Pages load time is short

6. All the links on your page work

Bonus Tool: Use Plagiarism Checker Tool to check whether your content is plagiarised or not. Plagiarism Checker Tool provides you an in-depth report of your content.

Security of Website

Google gives a website with HTTPS (short for hypertext transfer protocol secure) preference. It ensures the security of all information passed between a website and its user. 

To authenticate your website's identity, you should get an SSL certificate if you don't already have HTTPS. You shouldn't just focus on pleasing search engines but also on ensuring the safety of your users. Google rewards you for taking this extra step is just a nice gesture.  So, you definitely need to ensure that your SSL is valid - You need to use the SSL Checker Tool to check the validity of your SSL.

Speed Of the Site

Page load speed will lower bounce rates, but it is also a ranking factor in Google's algorithm. Even though many of the other steps are relatively simple DIY projects, you may need an SEO or website design agency to help you out if you don't have a lot of technical skills. You can check your website speed by ETTVI’s Website Speed Checker.

User Experience (UX)

Your site should be easy to navigate for both users and search engines. In addition to being straightforward to navigate, your pages should also look attractive and professional. 

Mobile Optimization

Despite the importance of all these factors, your site must be mobile-friendly. A visitor should not have to zoom in or have difficulty clicking on a button because they are using a mobile device. 

Mobile devices generate more traffic than desktop computers. In addition, Google favors the mobile version of a website when ranking and indexing it. Mobile website design and layout can differ to optimize the user experience, but the content must remain the same. Therefore, it isn't as if you thought it was as simple as deleting some text. You'll also need the help of a web development agency specializing in technical SEO if you want to improve your mobile optimization.

Like the Mobile-friendly Test Tool, you can also use Google's Mobile-friendly Test Tool to test your page speed. Using it is very simple. You enter your URL, and in less than a minute, you will see issues like text that's too small to read, close buttons, or content that doesn't fit the screen.

Don't Settle for Low-Quality Content

Google's algorithm heavily relies on backlinks. Thus, it would help if you made it one of your main goals to have visitors share your content on social media. Posting high-quality content regularly is the only way to get visitors to do so. 

A backlink shows users that your content is helpful, showing others that you know your niche. By linking to your content, you tell Google that you are credible and shareable. Create your backlinks by ETTVI’s Backlink Maker.  

Create content, but don't sit back and wait for others to share it. If you are serious about guest posting, you should start by contacting other authoritative websites and brands and asking them if they'd be interested in publishing one of your articles. In this way, you can link to relevant content on your website. Getting authoritative websites to link to your website can also improve your domain authority (DA). If you create high-quality content, this strategy will work. You can check the Domain Authority of your website using ETTVI’s DA PA Checker.  Essentially, you should avoid coming across as spammy. It is a common mistake made when writing guest posts. 

Nowadays, more emphasis is placed on high-quality, relevant content rather than the number of keywords on a page. The content length should be at least 18,00 words, but posts up to 3,000 words are most effective for building links—the overall quality of your content matters, not only a specific keyword. In short, well-written and relevant content is the key to the top.

Create Internal Links

While we have written and discussed the importance of generating backlinks, you should also create internal links. An internal link is also called a hyperlink that links to another page on the same domain. These hyperlinks help Google in finding and indexing your pages. 

The advantage of using hyperlinks or internal links is that the anchored text may exactly match the other content. So, they're pretty simple to create, and you don't need to depend on other third-party websites. Ideally, you should add the internal or hyperlinks towards the beginning of the web page.  Like we have done here:

Check our SEO Checklist Guide to make sure that you are implementing all SEO practices!

Include LSI Keywords

Latent semantic indexing is a way for search engines like Google to understand the content of a web page using related phrases. The phrases and words are not entirely synonyms, but they are closely associated with your primary keyword. Influencer marketing, for example, can have LSI keywords such as social media, marketing campaigns, brands, Instagram, marketers, endorsements, etc. 

It's still acceptable to use synonyms, but you'll also have to utilize LSI keywords. It is because search engines have evolved. Today, you do not need a high keyword density to ensure that Google understands what you are trying to say. Optimizing your content for only a few keywords is no longer enough. Instead, Google is looking for general information about your page. As a result, your content will be verified based on these types of keywords. 

Additionally, LSI keywords help increase topical depth, which improves relevance. A deeper understanding of topics will be more relevant in 2022 (thus, the preference for long-form content). Therefore, make sure to incorporate other related keywords and subtopics into your content. 

If there are free online tools that can do this research for you, there is no need to put in the "extra effort." For example, LSI keywords can be identified using tools like LSIGraph or KeySearch.

"E-A-T" More

SEO is one of the most commonly used buzzwords for Google rankings, but Google E-A-T is also an acronym that can help you in the new year. E-A-T represents expertise, authority, and trust. When determining your website's ranking potential, Google considers these three factors. It is even more crucial if you plan to build a website around YMYL topics (aka your money or your life). Content offering medical, legal, safety, or financial advice is usually included.  

Their credibility and experience determine your authors' expertise. Would your visitors be able to find content on your website written by trustworthy and experienced authors? Your website can include short author bios, for example, to demonstrate your expertise.  

You gain authority through your online reputation and the recognition you get. A lot of trustworthiness comes from authentic sources linking back to your content. That's another reason why relating to your content from respected sources is essential. Google will view you as trustworthy if you have proven to other sources that you are the person to turn to for information on your topic.

Many of the other strategies discussed in this blog post can ultimately help you improve your E-A-T score. For example, high-quality articles will help demonstrate your expertise in your niche and establish your business as an authoritative figure. In contrast, site security can help to build trust further.

Match Search Intent

How well do you know what your target audience is interested in learning about the topics you will be writing about? The assumption may be that they already understand the basics of influencer marketing and want to know the in-depth aspects. 

Google rewards websites that share the most popular content. How do you think your target audience enters keywords into Google? Are they looking to the internet for how-to guides, real-world examples, or beginner's tips? Checking the content that ranks on page one will help you determine whether your content matches search intent. How do your articles relate to that topic? If not, repurpose some of your older content to be more relevant to what your target audience is searching for online.

Improve your Bounce Rate

In an instant, if a visitor lands on your site, views one of your pages, and then returns to the search results page, you will lose search engine rankings. Google interprets this as a sign that users are not impressed with your website. Therefore, a lower bounce rate illustrates that your users enjoy browsing your site. Furthermore, a low bounce rate can increase sales and customer loyalty since visitors will have more time to get familiar with your brand. In the end, isn't this the real goal?

Make sure your most important information appears above the fold (in other words, visitors should not have to scroll down to find what they are looking for). Inserting a table of content can be helpful for visitors to go directly to the required section of the page that is relevant to their question. Must add visual elements to your content like infographics and videos. It brings us to the next SEO strategy.

Incorporate Video

Content and keywords have been discussed a lot. The most common type of content associated with these types of analytics is written content such as blog posts, white papers, state of industry reports, etc. However, the content can also be a video.

These days, you are more likely to find videos displayed in search results than ever before. In addition to test results, Google also offers videos, images, and news articles to enhance the user experience. using an online video maker tool can help in creating engaging video content to boost your online presence and visibility.

As well as embedding videos on your website, you might want to create a YouTube channel where you can upload these videos. As a result, Google will be attracted to your site, and visitors will stay on your site for longer, which also signals to the search engines that your site matches their search intent.

Share Statistical Data

It is also good to occasionally include content that others can quote from their blogs, such as facts and figures. Linking back to statistics is a way for content creators to earn valuable backlinks. For instance, you could add it in the form of an infographic. The addition of visuals such as infographics can also lower your bounce rate, which will improve Google search results.

Boost your Click-through Rate

In addition to ranking, you should also monitor organic traffic. What good is it if your target audience finds your site through an online search but does not visit it? Monitoring your click-through rate is therefore vital. 

Focus on your metadata, such as the URL and the description of your metadata appearing below the search result, to increase your click-through rate. It might seem insignificant, but your click-through rate will increase if this information appears relevant and credible, further improving your ranking. 

In general, shorter URLs that are descriptive work better. If you're writing a title tag, don't be afraid to captivate your reader's emotions. You have a small window of opportunity to convince users to click on your link.

Create a Google My Business Profile

Creating a Google My Business profile can also help businesses better rank on local searches. Google My Business profile enables you to control your business appearance in search and maps. So, always double-check your business details, like contact number, address, and business hours. Correct and complete all the information. Google help page indicated that relevance and prominence play the leading role in Google My Business. 

If your created Google My business profile resembles the search queries of your targeted audience, Google will find it easy to match your profile and the right searches. Google reviews also help to boost your local rankings. 

There are various scheduling tools for Google My Business that you can try out for your ease. You can try Loomly, ContentCal, Sendible, and SocialPilot. These are not only helpful in Google My Business but also integrate with many other valuable platforms.

Audit your Brand and Content

Your branding depends on your overall content. As I mentioned earlier, your Google E-A-T scores matter if Google finds your brand trustworthy. Have you met an expert in your field? The quality of your content plays a vital role, but it will be of no use if your branding is not applied consistently. 

While creating and focusing on the new content, don't forget your older content to audit. If your older content doesn't match your current status or is outdated, it's better to remove it. Maybe the needs of your targeted audience have been changed. Whatever the case is, don't keep your older content on the site if you think that only the quality will make your page look good. Just like the other things, the quantity can not beat the quality.

Keep Track of your Results

Along with auditing your brand and content, you should check on SEO results regularly. If you don't know how much organic traffic you are getting, your SEO won't improve. What's the reason? It will help you to check that your targeted keywords are ranking correctly. 

Does the traffic boost help you with more customers and sales? SEO takes time, and if you are not tracking your results regularly, you will not be sure where to make changes and if it's worth the effort and time.

Don't Be Afraid to Hire Experts

While there are many technical elements like mobile optimization and page speed, you will be more relaxed leaving it to a professional, but it doesn't mean that you will not do anything you should do on your own. If you are a freelancer content writer, UX designer, or any other aspect you think you need help with, hire a professional. Here, we are talking about your online presence.

Wrapping Things Up

Don't drag past fears into the new year if you dreaded SEO in the past. There are many things we need to do or change, but many of them are linked. 

As an example, high-quality content contributes to more backlinks, which increase your credibility. Your bounce rate can also be reduced by improving your page speed and letting Google know your visitors trust your site. Hopefully, you get the picture. 

Even if it seems like a lot of work, you are improving many things simultaneously as you work on one aspect. Your content is an excellent place to start if you aren't sure where to start. In the end, all clicks will lead back to your content.