Are you struggling to get your website to rank on the first page of Google search results? You’re not alone, websites are an important part of any marketing strategy. But with around 1.6 billion websites on the internet, it can be challenging to stand out from the crowd and get that sweet top 1 rank everyone desires so much.
With the right techniques, you can improve your website’s visibility and attract more organic traffic. In this blog, we’ll share 7 simple tricks to help you rank higher on Google anyone can do
1. Interlink Your Pages
Interlinking is the process of linking one page on your website to another. This not only helps users navigate your site more easily but also signals to Google that your pages are related and valuable.
If you have a blog about “Learn to play football in 30 minutes” and you want to write a blog about sports in general, try to include a paragraph or even a section with an H2/H3 tag that is focused on football. When interlinking, use relevant anchor text that describes the linked page’s content. You have to be descriptive, use strong keywords and be very specific when writing these anchor texts.
An example of a good anchor text in this case would be: “football is not hard and can be learned easily” or “learning to play football can be hard…”.
2. Optimize Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are the short snippets of text that appear in search results below the page title. While they don’t directly impact your search rankings, they can influence click-through rates. Write strong meta descriptions that describe your page’s content and encourage users to click through to your site.
Make sure to include your target keyword at the beginning of the text so it gets highlighted when a user searches for that term.
Include a call to action at the end, so the user is more eager to take the action you want. To click and read your post or check out the service/product. Call to actions are an important part of any text. They are for the users to make that final push they need to finish the desired outcome.
3. Improve Site Structure
Your website’s structure plays a crucial role in how search engines crawl and index your pages. Use a clear and logical hierarchy, with your most important pages accessible from the homepage. Use breadcrumb navigation to help users understand where they are on your site.
For simple websites with up to 10 pages the structure is not that difficult. Most websites follow the structure of having a few main pages (home, services, about us…). Few sub pages dedicated to specific services (google ads, content marketing, instagram marketing…).
But for web shops with 1000s of products, it’s important to have a hierarchical structure that helps both the user and Google.
The most effective structure in this case would be: domain(dot)com/category/subcategory/subsubcategory.
So if you sell books and toys, your structure could be yourdomain(dot)com/books/fantasy/harry-potter.
Try to avoid making users click more than 4 times to find your product. It usually leads to them getting frustrated and leaving your website which decreases your sales.
4. Optimize Images
Images can enhance the user experience and make your content more engaging. However, large image files can slow down your website’s loading speed, which can negatively impact your search rankings. Optimize your images by compressing them and adding relevant alt text descriptions.
There are many articles about the perfect size of an image. But what we found worked the best for us is to adjust based on the web design. We use 1120×630 in JPEG format since WEBP is not yet supported by every browser. This makes most of our images around 50kb or less in size. As long as your image is not blurry and not big the size generally does not matter.
The best way to make the images smaller is by using Photoshop’s Save For Web feature or using a website such as TinyPng
5. Implement 301 Redirects
If you’ve deleted or moved pages on your website, it’s important to set up 301 redirects to avoid broken links and 404 error pages. 301 redirects tell search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new location, ensuring that any link equity is passed on to the new page.
Recently we started working on a webshop with a bad URL structure and we had to change it. Some of the products were already showing on Google and had around 10 visitors a day.
After changing the URL to be more SEO friendly we had to put a 301 redirect on each of those pages so it wouldnt lose its ranking.
We see the mistake of not having 301 redirects after removing a page a lot. This leads to the page still showing on google, but users leave as soon as the page loads leading to an increase in bounce rate.
BONUS 301 TIP: If a product is out of stock dont just remove it from your webshop but add a 301 redirect to a similar product or the category of the product. This ensures your visitors wont be confused why they landed on a 404 page.
6. Update Old Content
Regularly updating your website’s content can help keep it fresh and relevant. Review your existing content and identify opportunities to update numbers, information, or improve the writing style. Updating old content can help you maintain your search rankings and provide more value to your readers.
If you wrote a blog about the best 10 laptops for students in 2021 and it’s 2024 now, there’s a big chance some of the models have long been discontinued. Update the list with new recommendations and within a few weeks, sometimes even days you will see the increase in new clicks.
Changes like these can help you target new and trending keywords that were not that popular when you first wrote the blog. Learn more about why is content marketing important.
7. Use Heading Tags
Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) help structure your content and make it easier for search engines to understand the hierarchy and importance of your pages. Use relevant keywords in your heading tags, but avoid keyword stuffing. Aim for a clear and logical structure that enhances the user experience.
Your main keyword title should be H1 tag. In this blog the title “how to optimize a website so it ranks on google – 7 simple tricks anyone can do” is H1 and H2 are reserved for each of the 7 steps. This creates a hierarchy of importance and helps users who just want to skim the content without reading in details.
Last words
By implementing these 7 tricks, you can optimize your website for better search engine visibility and attract more organic traffic. Remember, search engine optimization is an ongoing process, so be patient and consistent in your efforts.
If you want to improve your content marketing strategy check out the rest of our blogs or send us a message so we can create you a custom content marketing strategy.