Ranking top on search engines has become a point of focus for all businesses fighting for the online space. The importance of being appropriately placed cannot be underestimated as it determines how visitors on search engines such as Google, Mozilla search bar, Bing among others see you. Although a lot of factors determine your ranking, some concerted actions can help you rank high, giving you mileage and proper visibility online.
At all times, bear in mind that this is an extraordinarily completive end of business where several elements determine your performance. Whereas it might not be easy to utilise all the factors to influence your ranking, you can combine a number of them, and you will be impressed by the outcome. Here are some factors you must give the forethought to help you rank higher on search engines, without getting too technical.
1. Domain
On Google ranking, your website is associated with a specific name; the domain name. Your choice of name is a key factor. Visitors will either use this specific name or a word(s) that direct them to your website. Although there might be users with names similar or close to yours, each domain name is unique in its own ways, and Google is able to direct users accordingly. Choosing a name that easily reflects your products and services is essential.
2. Keyword
Keyword or keywords are simply the phrases that searchers on Google use to sift through the immense information. If, for instance, you sell canvas shoes, using this phrase on your website will make it easier for people looking for such products to land on your page. Keywords can be used severally to enhance their effect on your ranking. Being specific and straight to the point is essential in creating keywords.
3. Country Code TLD (Top Level Domain)
This comes at the tail end of your domain name where you find .uk, za, cn, et-cetra. This helps in directing visitors and ranking within a particular jurisdiction. It might rank you well within the country but fail to achieve optimally on global ranking.
4. Content optimisation
Make your content relevant, authoritative, trustworthy and very presentable. People should have a reason to read stuff on your website. While at it, update content regularly. The content optimisation can be done in so many ways, but the most important thing is to ensure your content is outstanding amidst competitors.
5. Outbound and inbound Links (Backlinks)
While creating your content, link it up with like-minded, authoritative websites. This shows collaboration and gives your content more credibility. You can also link your content to other pages on your website. These include previously published articles. Also known as backlinks, they are a highly acclaimed way of giving your content more impetus.
6. Avoid duplicating content
Linking your content to others is an important factor, but be careful not to duplicate/ plagiarise the works of others. This will negatively affect your ranking on Google.
7. Domain Registration Period
Apparently, Google finds domains that have been registered for more than a year to be more trustworthy. In fact, those whose registration expiry date is several years ahead have chances of ranking higher since they are considered more trustworthy.
8. Page Response Time
How long does your website take to load data when visitors come searching? The easier it is for it to load, the higher the chances of ranking better on Google. After all, people will quickly move to an alternative site if yours takes the eternity to respond.
9. Multimedia Content
Using images, videos, graphs and other content enhancing methods will also contribute to helping you rank better. Such content is considered valuable and rich. Naturally, people get attracted to colourful as well as comical images. They will not only attract them to read and browse around the website more but will also create memorable impressions on them.
10. User Experience
How long do people last on your site? Using the RankBrain signal, Google is able to establish how long people take browsing through your site, which may translate to the relevance of content and/or quality. This is also determined by click-through-rate, which is simply continuous clicking through content on your site.
11. Direct Traffic
At the end of it all, all websites rely on traffic to make sales or hit their target. The more traffic your site gets, the better it ranks on search engines. You can use social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website.
12. Mobile Friendliness
With increased smartphone uptake and internet access on the move, there is a growing trend where people use their phones as the first stops for online searches. Using the mobile-first index, Google is now drawing results from mobile-optimised sites before analysing desktop responses.
13. Google Hummingbird
Before Google introduced this algorithm, the keyword was the main factor in determining to rank. With the Hummingbird, Google narrows down to the topic of a webpage. Again, it goes down to how best your content answers to the queries of people searching on through your website.
14. Content-Length
Research shows that websites ranking among the top ten on Google have an average content length of 2000 words. However, this doesn’t mean that everything you post must hit this mark. It is advisable to read the signs from your site visitors and know what and how they prefer their content served.
15. Updates
Keeping your website up-to-date technically and otherwise helps it to achieve a better ranking. This includes ensuring that the website doesn’t run down and that content remains relevant. You can also enhance this by making frequent blog updates on topical issues such as recent industry trends.
Conclusion
High ranking on search engines requires a combination of several matrices. To get results or rank in Google, you can contact well-optimised marketing company. The good thing is that there is no single approach to ensuring that you are properly positioned. However, it is important that you frequently check on new and updated algorithms that Google uses to rank websites. Among the simplest approaches nonetheless, is ensuring that content uploaded on your site achieves a competitive edge. A properly optimised website is one of the easiest ways of reaching a global audience and a wider market. Give it a try.