How To Rank A Website on Google Step By Step
Every small business owner is invested in trying to improve their search visibility online. We are always looking for the best practices, that lead to the quickest results and largest return on investment. The truth of the matter is though, search engine optimization does not have any short cuts. You have to play the long game with SEO, and anyone that is promising quick results should be greeted with a high level of skepticism. In this blog post, we will show you how to rank a website on Google Step by Step, and how to boost your visibility.
How Long Does It Take To Improve Google Rankings?
It is a frustrating answer, but the truth is it depends. SEO success does not happen overnight. Each website is different, just like each business is different. There are a lot of variables that go into SEO success. Your skill, budget, level of competition, and how your website stacks up against the competition can all play a role in how quickly one can move up the search rankings. With that in mind, here is what you can do to ensure that you will have SEO success sooner rather than later.
Always Be Improving Your Website
In a recent interview, John Mueller (a senior webmaster trends analyst at Google) stated that SEO success does in fact take time. That is because Google’s search algorithm has to perform a re-evaluation of your entire site after changes have been implemented. So due to the number of factors in play, you should not expect rapid changes in SERPs. In this same interview, Mueller also confirmed that even if you make improvements to your website’s design and functionality it could still take a couple of months or even a full year to really have an impact.
Now for the positive takeaways from the article. Mueller said that it is best to keep working on your website consistently, with incremental improvement being your ultimate goal.
How To Rank A Website On Google. Ahrefs Has The Answers!
Ahrefs performed a recent study that produced some interesting information when it comes to how to rank a website on Google. Here are some of the main takeaways from that article:
- On average, a page that ranked in the top 10 search results was over 2 years old. Search results that were #1 were nearly 3 years old.
- Among the website pages that ranked in the top 10 search results only 22% of them were less than a year old.
- Most of the website pages that ranked in the top 10 search results were able to get there from not being found to top 2 in 2 to 6 months.
How To Rank A Website On Google. Improve Your Rankings
As you can see from the main takeaways in the Ahrefs report, it takes a lot of hard work, skill, and luck to rank in the top 10 search results on Google. So if you are ready to boost sales and conversions on your website here are 5 steps you should take. Keep in mind though, SEO is a longterm game.
1. Start With A Solid Foundation: The worst thing you can do is build a website that has poor structure and information architecture. If your website is difficult for users to navigate and Google to crawl, your rankings are likely to suffer. Think about your users first when designing a website, and start thinking mobile first! That is the pathway to success.
2. Perform a Technical SEO Audit: Google’s search algorithm contains hundreds if not thousands of signals and machine learning to determine search rankings. Here are a few things you will want to fix or take advantage of in your technical SEO audit
- Fix Duplicate Content – Duplicate content issues are often related to technical issues. An example of this would be having the domain name http://www.yoursite.com and https://www.yoursite.com Google would consider this different website pages with identical content. Make sure to fix this by establishing the proper redirect rules within your .htaccess file.
- Optimize for Mobile Search – Google recently rolled out a mobile-first indexing algorithm. This means that your website needs to be mobile-friendly. Not sure if it is, try their free Mobile-Friendly Website Test Tool.
- Think About Tasks – When building your website think about what you want users to do on your website once they have landed on it. What are the objectives of each website visit? Make sure that they can accomplish this on your website via their mobile phone with ease.
- Consider Your Website Performance – Are users having to scroll a lot on your website to find the products or services you offer? Do your website images take too long to load properly on your website? Google does take into account your page speed as a mobile search ranking factor. So your website’s load time is a huge factor in where you rank online. Especially in mobile search results.
- Build for Speed – Optimize your website for a fast performance on both a mobile phone or a desktop device. Make sure to monitor the speed and keep improving on it. You can use tools such as Google PageSpeed to test your website’s performance and get a benchmark. So how exactly do you build a website for speed? Glad you asked!
- Focus on your image file size. Before uploading images to your website try to optimize your website beforehand.
- Browser Caching. Browser caching stores resource files from your website on the user’s computer so that when they navigate to a new page, those resources don’t have to be loaded again.
- Fix Broken Links. Many website owners have a bad habit of ignoring broken links on their website. Search for broken links on your site and make sure to fix them.
3. On-Page SEO Optimization: When it comes to performing well on search results, you need to make sure you are telling Google what exactly your website is all about. In order to help Google easily understand what each page of your website is about elements such as schema can help. This includes information about your business, products, services, and more. You should also make sure to create unique, brief, and descriptive Meta Tag Titles and Meta Descriptions for your business.
The Conclusion: How to Rank A Website on Google
As Google continues to close the door on SEO shortcuts and spam tactics, anyone serious about their SEO campaigns should invest in the long term view. The strategies mentioned above in this post are tried and true, so make sure to keep these involved in your SEO approach. But like Google’s search algorithm, these tactics are changing every so often. So make sure to work on your website often, and continue to invest in SEO resources and tactics.
About MarketKeep
MarketKeep is a digital marketing agency for small businesses and start-ups based in Towson, Md. Our goal is to help small business owners plan, place, and optimize their digital marketing strategies. MarketKeep is proud to offer our clients the following services:
Website Design – As a website design company we build websites that represent you and your brand and instantly builds a connection with your customers online. To learn more about our website design capabilities please contact our website designers.
SEO Company – As a Maryland SEO Company, we partner with small businesses to help grow their organic presence online through on-page, off-page, and reputation management techniques. To learn more about our SEO services for small businesses please contact our SEO team.
Pay Per Click Experts – As your SEM Agency MarketKeep will plan, place, and optimize your SEM campaigns so that you are maximizing your SEM campaign. To learn more about our SEM Services please contact our SEM team.
Social Media Management – Tired of running your social media accounts on a daily basis? Not sure what to post? As your Social Media Marketing Assistants MarketKeep will plan, place, and optimize your social media strategies. To connect contact our Social Media Management Team today.
Local SEO – So many of us rely on our phones to find businesses and products that are close by. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to connect with customers in your backyard. As a Local SEO agency MarketKeep helps to position your business online to acquire Local SEO searches. Learn more by contacting our Local SEO Agency Team.