Once upon a time, not so long ago in the land of the internet, the advice for getting a good ranking in the search engines was to stuff your website with keywords. Put them in the hidden meta description, in the meta keywords and make sure to include them repeatedly in the content of the page. Some website owners even tried keyword-stuffing by adding loads of key phrases as white text on a white background – sneaky hey? It really does make it sound like sprinkling a little keyword-dust would magically make your website number 1 in Google.
Of course there is no “magic” to SEO and there is no way of waving a magic wand to turn your frog of a website into a handsome prince that everyone will flock to see!
Over the years Google and other search engines have developed their algorithms hugely in order to ensure that they serve up the best content in response to searches on the web. Not only will these kinds of tricks no longer work, they could have a really negative impact on the ranking of your website. There are NO shortcuts for getting great results in searches. If you don’t have high-quality, useful content on your web page, then Google won’t serve it up at the top of its results.
There are, however, things that you, the website owner, can do on your website which will help to improve your ranking without the need to employ an SEO professional.
5 Ways to really affect your ranking in Google
- Fresh content is still King: Google loves new content. If you keep adding information to your site, the search robots will keep visiting to check what you’re offering. If your content is topical or “on-trend”, that will suit Google’s desire to serve up the best, most relevant content in response to search terms and UP the ranking your site will move. One way to do this is to add a blog to your website so you can offer articles, advice, tipsheets and more to your potential customers, and keep them coming back to see what’s new.
- Content for content’s sake: It is important to understand that all content is NOT equal! If your web page contains low-quality content with poor grammar and poor spelling; if it contains too many text links or lots of adverts, Google will judge the content to have been written by a “Content Mill” and DOWN the rankings your website will drop. Always make sure that you proof read your content and make sure it is well-written.
- Duplicate Content: It might be tempting to add new content to your site by copying from other websites. It would save you loads of valuable time after all. However Google recognises duplicate content and clearly they wouldn’t want to serve up the same information repeatedly, so DOWN the ranking your web page would go. Always make sure your content is unique. By all means look online for ideas about what to write… but makes sure you re-write and expand upon any ideas you want to share.
- A Website built to the latest standards: Google now takes into account how your website is constructed and how quickly it loads. Since March 2015 sites that aren’t “mobile-friendly” are penalised in mobile search results. If your site doesn’t pass their mobile-friendly test, then it really is time to arrange a re-vamp or DOWN you’ll move. You can find out by trying the mobile-test now. If your site is not a responsive design, you could be losing valuable ranking – time for a revamp!
- Social signals: Every business wanting to rank well in search results really should be involved in social media. Not only will a presence on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram give you the opportunity to put your business in front of hundreds, or even thousands of potential customers, but Google is able to track how much engagement your business enjoys. The better the engagement the more positive the effect is thought to be in search ranking… potentially UP your site can move.
No, there are no magic wands to drive your website up the search results, but it really isn’t difficult to improve your ranking with a little patience and by investing some time.
What are you waiting for?
