Whenever you search for your content on google, does it always appear on the first page? Or even the second?
But logically speaking, how often do you even move to the second page on google when searching for info?
Most of us simply search for a different keyword whenever what we are looking for doesn’t appear on the first page. That’s why you need to be creative as a blogger and master the most effective ways to increase your blog’s google rankings.
What do we mean by Google Rankings?
Simply put, ranking a blog on Google means having your website appear in the search results list when someone enters a term or query. This is a fundamental objective for most website owners, creating opportunities to increase website traffic significantly.
Writing blog posts that rank highly on Google is much more than just an art form; it’s science, backed by several time-tested strategies that can significantly increase the visibility and ranking of your content.
The benefits of your blog ranking high on google search
First, it improves brand recognition among customers. As time goes on, people start to notice your business and it grows in popularity. Furthermore, top Google ranks elevate the prestige and professionalism of your page.
Second, you obtain the upper hand over rivals in the market. Small and medium-sized businesses benefit greatly from SEO, which, among other things, boosts profitability and offers ideal development chances. More website visitors result in higher sales. Therefore, investing in SEO pays off immediately.
Third, you learn about user preferences. The use of carefully chosen keywords is advantageous while performing SEO. Thanks to them, you can learn what is frequently looked for in the industry, hence keeping up with evolving trends. You can learn a lot about client behavior if you combine the process with analytics and use it to your advantage.
Now, let’s discuss how to increase your blog’s search engine rankings on Google.
Top strategies to use to increase your blog’s google rankings
#1. Find and stick with your niche
Google wants to direct users to reliable websites that provide the best solutions to their questions. What other word would best describe that besides an expert? By focusing on a single specialty, you can make it easier for Google to associate your website with that subject.
Once you specialize in a specific niche, the continued production of content on that specific subject will give you a chance to develop unbeatable expertise. People will always be sure to get helpful content on that specific area of expertise on your blog site.
Google might question your true area of expertise if you write one article on “How to Make Money Online” and the next on “Soft Bread Recipe.” Your blogs should instead be centered on your expertise and the material your audience wants to read.
Use forums with a specific focus, like Quora, to uncover niche topics. Let’s imagine that you write articles about cuisine and beverage recipes.
As seen by a quick search on Quora using the keywords “vegetarian recipes” people are interested in reading about simple vegetarian recipes and ingredients for different vegetarian dishes. After that, you can move forward and write a blog article about various recipes, nutritional advantages, and ingredients.
Additionally, you can research a specialty using Wikipedia’s table of contents and the “see also” section.
Another place to find niche topics is Google’s “Related searches” section. Say that you want to write articles about vegetarian cooking. You can get some guidance on what to concentrate on from Google’s suggestions at the bottom of the search results page.
#2. Keyword Research and Use
The Google ranking system relies heavily on keywords. Good keywords are necessary if you want to rank higher in SEO.
Keywords are so crucial because they help people find your blog’s content. For your material to be found by searches, your keyword should be as precise and short as possible. You can think of keywords as signs pointing the way to your content.
It is crucial to know how to choose the most pertinent keywords and use them in your title.
What to consider when choosing a keyword
The following variables come into play while choosing the ideal keywords to aim for to rank on Google:
Volume: The number of times the term is searched each month.
Competition: How difficult it is to rank for that keyword.
The strength of your domain: How simple it will be for you to rank for keywords depends on domain authority. It will be simpler if your website has been around for some time and you have been producing high-quality material during that time.
Relevance: It makes no sense to rank for a term that won’t drive relevant visitors to your website.
The four primary categories of keyword intent are navigational, commercial, transactional, and informational. Currently, informational intent keywords are what you should focus on for SEO. However, even within your keywords with an informational aim, you need to delve further into the specific information the user is looking for when searching that phrase.
Make use of long-tail keywords. Few people are competing for a longer keyword because it has fewer Google results. So it’s simpler to rank highly for long-tail keywords.
Additionally, adding pertinent keywords to the titles of your blog posts will make it easier for Google to find your page. As a result, Google will assess in a matter of seconds how pertinent your material is to a search query.
Use keywords in the first 100 words of your blog. Your blog post will assist Google to understand the topic of your page faster if relevant keywords exist in the first 100 to 150 words.
#3. Headline
The first impression is the most important part of your blog hence your heading need to capture people’s attention. One of the strategies to grab your audience’s attention is to use the AIDA model. AIDA is a popular marketing model that can be useful when crafting blogs and headlines in particular. It can be useful to organize your articles because it divides the process into four stages: awareness, interest, desire, and action.
Once you’ve decided on the keywords you want to employ, BuzzSumo advises using them to create your headline. Additionally, BuzzSumo advises that for your blog title to be as successful as possible, you should use between 12 and 18 words.
Adding brackets or parentheses is another approach you can use. For whatever reason, blog post titles with parentheses rank 38% higher than those without.
#4. Blog length
It’s crucial to understand that there is no exact, “ideal” word count. Extremely brief material, like 100 words, has been shown to outperform blog articles with 1,000 words, indicating that any length can be effective with good writing.
However, studies have found that high-ranking postings typically have longer and more detailed descriptions. Comprehensive content is one of around 200 key variables that Google considers when determining its algorithm.
Google grants higher authority to questions with more complete responses, which improves their ranking on the search results page. Instead of writing short, snappy pieces, try to write blog posts that are between 2,000 and 3,000 words long to improve your blog post’s search engine optimization.
In terms of SEO, publishing longer material is advantageous. Longer articles typically attract more backlinks. In terms of shareability, it likewise performs better than short blog postings.
Longer postings also give you the opportunity to segment the material for use in social media and email drip campaigns, among other marketing channels.
#5. Search Engine Optimization (On-page-SEO)
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing the HTML and structure of your page to increase its search engine ranking potential. It is essential to achieving a high Google ranking.
The most crucial aspect of blogging is providing value to your audience, but you must show the search engines that value. Since Google doesn’t have a brain like a human, it doesn’t understand information quite the same way your audience does. It sort of speaks its own language, so if you want your blog to rank highly in the search results, you have to speak the right language to it.
We have discussed the use of keywords above but that is not enough. Make sure your keyword appears organically in the body of your blog and in the meta title, meta description, at least two H2s, image file names, image alt text, and the URL. However, remember that your audience comes first so you can’t just go around stuffing keywords into the content.
Add links from at least three additional pages on your website to the page as well. Include 1-3 links to reliable, pertinent pages on your page.
Optimize the meta description. Tell the reader what they will get by clicking on your page in 155–165 characters. The purpose of your meta description is to tell readers and search engines about the substance of your blog article. For Google and your readers to understand the content of your post, you must use your long-tail keyword.
#6. Speed optimization
Google began considering page loading speed when determining rankings as early as 2010. It closely monitors measures like load speed because it does not want to direct its users to websites that irritate them.
Although this ranking signal is always evolving, a certain speed must be met. At the moment, it is possible to meet it by meeting Google’s basic requirements for Core Web Vitals.
The relevancy of a page is more important than speed, despite how much users desire to get solutions to their problems quickly. So bear that in mind as you choose where to invest SEO resources.
Graphic aspects can impact page speed on your blog, but this is not the only factor that can change it. A slow blog site might also be caused by extraneous coding and excessive plugin usage. Your pages’ loading speed can be increased by removing unnecessary code.
Check out HTML-Cleaner if you’re unsure how to locate and get rid of junk code. It is a simple tool that does not need coding expertise. With the touch of a button, it merely highlights the extra code for you to erase.
You may also make a list of the plugins on your blog website. Choose which ones you require to maintain your blog operational on a daily basis and which ones were added as a temporary patch. The site’s front-end plugins are a threat to page speed, and it’s likely that you can delete more of these plugins than you realize to speed up your entire site.
#7. Mobile Optimization
The most popular platform for searches is mobile devices. Most internet purchases are made after a person uses their smartphone to conduct research on a particular good or service.
As time goes on, more people are turning to their mobile devices as their main internet connection.
If a website is not mobile-friendly, many consumers are frequently put off by it. They don’t want to spend time zooming in and attempting to locate the proper links on a website only intended for computers. In addition to being the way of the future, adaptive web design may determine whether a customer chooses you over a rival.
For a website to be mobile-friendly, Maintaining simplicity is the industry standard.
These days, most pre-made site themes are already mobile-friendly; you only need to change a few CTA buttons and increase a few font sizes. Then, routinely do a mobile site performance test and check your Google Analytics dashboard to monitor your site’s performance on mobile.
#8. Backlinks
A backlink is an external link pointing to your page, and these are significantly weighted ranking factors. Google is more likely to trust your information if there are more people endorsing it (linking to you) and if those people are more credible.
Enlist the help of relevant individuals to spread the word about your posts and collect backlinks. They could be bloggers with content that is comparable to or related to yours, social influencers, or other blog sites. Shout out to anyone you’ve featured in your blog and request them to spread the word about your article to their followers.
#9. Share your blog post on Social media
It has been established that Google gives social media signals weight when determining rankings.
You should be sharing your posts with your friends and followers, supposing you’ve already established your following across various channels.
If you don’t already have an audience, you can spend cheaply on social media ads to increase click-through rates and expand your fan base.
You can also share on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other online forums, but make sure you are aware of the group’s marketing rules to avoid running afoul of them for self-promotion.
You might gain from sharing on platforms other than your social media accounts and those you already use. Share documents on Scribd, infographics on Pinterest, presentations on SlideShare, and on business-related social media groups.
#10. Refresh old blog articles
You could assume you need to write new blog posts to increase your SEO. That’s somewhat true, but you should also spend a lot of time and effort on your current blog posts. Specifically, upgrading and reusing your existing material and deleting your out-of-date stuff.
This is because updating existing content allows you to see the benefits more quickly than creating brand-new material, which takes much longer to settle and establish authority on the search engine results page (SERP).
Not only will your updated content rank on the SERP quicker, increasing your amount of visits and leads, but updating old content also requires a lot less time and resources.
Conclusion
Take your time to learn your content and its performance as you strategically apply these great tips. Rome wasn’t built in a single day, so with time, you will notice an increase in your blog’s google rankings.
Always remember that providing the reader with value and acting ethically is what it’s all about.
You’ll have a great chance of increasing traffic if you create outstanding content that is tailored to your target demographic and deliver it via a quick, hassle-free user interface.
Although it requires dedication and diligence, success is attainable.