You have a lovely website with interesting information to provide, but are people discovering you and visiting your site? Even with the development of social media, organic search remains an important source of website traffic and isn’t going away anytime soon. That’s why it’s critical to boost your search engine ranking so that people can find you faster than your competition. That is the goal of search engine optimization (SEO).
This list will give you an action plan of the best strategies to increase search engine rankings, whether you know the basics of SEO or this is the first item you’ve read. Continue reading if you’re still wondering, “How do I increase my search rankings?”
Install Google Analytics and Google Search Console
It’s a good idea to instal and use these website tools before you start. It’s critical to keep track of your development and recent triumphs. To improve visitors, examine every part of your website.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free web analytics programme. It can be somewhat complicated, but there are numerous reports available with just a few mouse clicks that could be quite useful. The Channels report will show you how your organic traffic compares to all other types of traffic that comes to your site.
By clicking on ‘Organic Search’ in this report, you can quickly delve a little deeper into what pages consumers are finding on Google (Landing Page). Unfortunately, the majority of keywords will appear as (not provided). Google Search Console can help you with that.
Google Search Console
While Google Analytics will not provide you with a large number of individual keywords, Google Search Console will. Google Search Console will show you your organic search ranking in detail. This means you’ll be able to check how each page on your site ranks for specific Google keywords. The dashboard will also notify you if your site has any technical difficulties that could negatively impact your organic search results.
Let’s move into the action items for your website now that you have some information about how your content is performing. We could give a zillion ideas and tactics, but we’ve narrowed it down to ten that will help you improve your search ranking.
- Keyword research
- Write informative copy that people seek
- Title your page to help search engines and users
- Build pages with HTML header tags
- Give your URLs a purpose
- Internally link to other pages
- Use ALT tags with all your images
- Mobile-friendly design and page speed
- Limit any duplicate content
- Create an XML sitemap and monitor crawl errors
1. Keyword research
To find the best targets for each page on your website, use search data and research your competition. Start with the pages that have the most material and are helpful to your clients, depending on the size of your website and the resources you have available. Your top one or two product/service pages, for example, or a well-written blog post that provides detailed information your customers are looking for, are both good examples.
Strategically select which phrases you want your pages to rank well for
You should choose sites that have a clear message that is focused on a single issue. This is where you find out what search terms your consumers are using to find information on this subject. You can use a variety of tools to learn how people search (search for “keyword research tool” on Google and you’ll discover adverts or lists of free and paid programmes). Finding the proper search phrase may be the subject of a full blog post, but if we had to pick one piece of advice, it would be to choose a phrase that is particular and relevant. It will be several words lengthy if it is specific, and it will appear multiple times across the page if it is relevant. Remember, instead of using insider jargon, concentrate on what your average customer could be looking for.
2. Write informative copy that people seek
You know more about your field than anyone else. Create material that is both useful and includes keywords and synonyms that will help Google and other search engines find your website. To increase your search engine score, use keywords throughout the page, but don’t go crazy with keyword stuffing. Make sure your visitors can still read it. To generate clear and appealing messaging, we recommend using the Storybrand method.
3. Title your page to help search engines and users
The title tag, also known as the meta title, is used by search engines to determine what the page is about. Because your title tag is also the blue link that everyone sees on a search engine results page, be sure it contains the keywords people are looking for. This title is distinct from the bold heading that everyone sees on your page, which is usually the heading tag mentioned in the following step. As a consequence, you can create one title for the search engine results page (SERP) and a another heading for your webpage if it helps you obtain more clicks.
The most essential heading on the page is the first heading, or H1 tag. The H1 tag is usually the first thing a visitor sees when they arrive at your website. Header tags are typically used for aesthetics, however they should be utilised to organise information instead. One of the most effective techniques to boost search engine ranking is to employ subheadings. Heading tags carry more weight in search engines than plain prose, and they make it easier for users to browse the page. If you’re having problems altering your heading tags, you’ll almost certainly need to hire a developer to make the necessary changes.
5. Give your URLs a purpose
Don’t be one of those people who ignores the URL of the page! Keyword research should also be applied to URLs. The name of the page will appear in the URL if you use a CMS like WordPress. Check the URL and what you titled the page before launching it. You can add the keywords you discovered in step 2 to it. If you’ve already published the page, make sure visitors are sent to the new one.
6. Internally link to other pages
You’ll frequently find yourself referencing other things that you’ve previously published while producing copy for the page. Selecting a sentence and adding a hyperlink to the blog post or page you’re addressing is known as internal linking. These links will encourage some people to click through and read your other pages, but they will also be crawled by search engines. Anchor text refers to the keywords that you hyperlink. This provides context to the user and search engines about the website you link to, thus it’s critical to use relevant keywords in the hyperlink.
Tip: Read your material after you’ve finished writing it and actively hunt for possibilities to link to other pages. This is especially crucial if you know you’ll be posting new information that people will want to read. Develop an internal linking strategy that aggregates and cross-references all of your site’s excellent material. This can be difficult, but it will benefit your search engine rankings.
The message on the page is visually supported by images. Users and search engines alike adore them. As a result, every of your photos should include descriptive (keyword-rich) ALT tags. Alt tags also make your site more accessible, which could help you avoid a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
8. Mobile-friendly design and page speed
It’s no secret that mobile consumers are increasingly visiting your website. Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly. Optimize graphics, code, and content to ensure that each page loads quickly. Slow websites will lose visitors, and search engines will notice. This is why having a quick website will help you rank higher in search engines. When it comes to how to make your website rank, you need exceptional content, but website design and development are as vital.
9. Limit any duplicate content
New and unique material is favoured by search engines. Find any duplicate content and change it significantly or eliminate it entirely. Saying the same thing over and over has no benefit, and Google will penalise you for it. You’ll most likely have duplicate material in one of two instances.
- You’ve written a lot of content over the years and sometimes forget that you or someone else has already written a page or blog post on the same subject. This isn’t a complete duplicate, but if the material overlaps significantly, you should combine it into a single strong page.
- Your website contains many versions of the same page that you aren’t even aware of. This might be the result of someone copying a page by accident, or you’ve built various versions for different languages or tracking. You can use a canonical URL to tell search engines that you replicated a page on purpose. If you need canonical URLs, the Yoast plugin for WordPress makes it simple to do so. Learn how Yoast helps us enhance our search engine rankings.
10. Create an XML Sitemap and monitor crawl errors
Submit Sitemap
Search engines will index your pages faster if you submit a sitemap. After you’ve confirmed your site with Google Search Console in the first step, you may submit your sitemap to Google. You can also submit a sitemap through Bing’s webmaster tools dashboard.
Crawl Errors and Warnings
Links on pages are also crawled by search engines. To give your site the best chance of ranking well, keep an eye on any problems or broken links and rectify them or create redirects. On Google, you may get free broken link checkers.
Start improving search engine rankings
If you can tick all ten elements on this list, your website is probably already ranking well. If not, each one you can put into practise can help you enhance your search engine rating. With our expert SEO services, we can help you get started on this list or take your SEO to the next level. It takes time and effort to achieve high search engine results using effective SEO tactics.
Need help with getting your business found online? Stridec is a top SEO agency in Singapore that can help you achieve your objectives with a structured and effective SEO programme that will get your more customers and sales. Contact us for a discussion now.