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In today’s world, your website’s ranking on Google matters more than ever. When users search for information, they usually want to find an answer as soon as possible and will almost always click on the first few links that they see on Google. In fact, research shows that 75% of users only look at the first page of search engine results. With that being said, you’ll want your website/blog/article to be on that first page.
So, how can you increase your website’s Google rank? Here are a few factors to remember when creating your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Inbound links make a significant difference
Inbound links, or “backlinks,” are hyperlinks that lead back to your website from another
website. Inbound links are important for Google ranking because they show that your website is credible. For example, if a trustworthy blog uses a backlink for your website while talking about web design, Google will use that information to find your website as also being a credible source for web design. In addition to your website traffic increasing from your rank, it will also increase from the referral source.
A few ways to link build include:
- Use inbound links on your blog. If you scratch someone else’s back, there is a greater chance that they’ll scratch yours in return. This also allows readers to see that you are trustworthy and helpful by linking other sources about the same topic in your blog post.
- Look out for your competitors’ backlinks. This allows your company to keep up with the competition by not only researching what your competitors are posting about but also by finding even more credible sources to use for your own inbound links.
- Keep up with your blog’s maintenance and content. Ultimately, it all goes back to the content you post for your readers. If you keep your content relevant and post regularly, other websites will notice and want to link your page to theirs.
The more you post about a topic, the better
Google takes into consideration how much you post about a specific topic. For example, if you have a wide selection of blog posts about B2B marketing, Google is going to think of you as a credible source for B2B marketing, therefore ranking you higher for those searches.
Obviously, you most likely won’t want every single one of your blog posts to be about one topic; but over time you can create enough topic clusters for your blog to be full of several topics, with multiple blog posts relating to each.
As a result, your blog won’t be cluttered with just one topic but will be written about enough for your website to be considered authoritative within that subject. Three questions to ask yourself when creating a topic cluster include:
- Does it make sense for your business to talk about this core topic?
- Will users search about this core topic?
- Will ranking be difficult for this core topic?
Your webpage content should be relevant to your keywords phrases
This does not mean for your blog post or website to repeatedly have your keyword phrases all over the page. Instead, Google looks at how relevant the content of your webpage is to your keywords. For example, if you have the keyword phrase “B2B brand development for SaaS,” you should be describing ways on how to develop a brand, examples of successful companies who do this, and why these factors work for SaaS. Google takes that into consideration when ranking so that they are sure that your webpage is actually a reliable source for that keyword.
Google will not be the only one to notice if your keywords are not very relevant to your webpage; users will notice as well. If a user searches for “how to write a blog post,” your website may show up in the results because it is listed as a related keyword phrase.
However, your webpage might only be talking about how to design a website and not about writing a blog. This can cause the user to immediately leave the page since it wasn’t relevant to their search. It can also increase your webpage’s bounce rate and decreases the session duration. As a result, you will have less views due to users thinking the page is irrelevant to their search, and it will decrease in views because your page will be ranked lower on Google.
To focus on keyword optimization, make sure that you reread your content and keyword phrases before publishing. You can change your content or keywords to correspond with each other, resulting in more page views and a higher Google ranking.
While optimizing your website can be overwhelming, keeping these SEO factors in mind can make the process easier. Contact us today, and subscribe to our blog for more information about SEO! At thinkdm2, we also specialize in digital marketing, web design, and branding to help businesses continue to grow. To learn more SEO strategies for your website and content, you can download our latest eBook, “Topic Clusters: The Current State of SEO.” If you've ever asked yourself, "what is a topic cluster," this eBook will certainly help!
