Google plays a crucial role in getting websites found on the internet. It awards rankings to sites based on more than 250 different factors, frequently adding new requirements and changing its algorithm to decide which features are the most essential. Getting a good ranking will result in a better position on search engines and should result in more traffic to the site. This in turn will help to increase revenue and profits.
People are constantly asking themselves the question, how to rank my website on Google? It is difficult to give a clear answer on this because of the number of factors that determine rankings. Here are a few things that will help your site to get ranked.
1) The age of the domain
Older, established domains always receive higher rankings on Google because they award sites that are well maintained and kept active. A website will typically see increased performance after it is six months old.
2) A clean domain
Having a manual or algorithm penalty against your site will see it slip down the rankings. If you do have a problem with penalties it may be best starting off from scratch with a new domain, especially if it is a manual one. Algorithm changes can penalise sites that are slow to make changes and modernise. In these cases you can adapt your site but it will require work to get rid of the penalty and start moving in the right direction.
3) Selecting the right keywords
All websites are found for specific criteria. Choosing which ones you want your site to be found for is important but it is not as simple as going for the most common terms. You’ll need to weigh up the competition and decide where you can obtain rankings quickly. Focusing on low competition terms will get you traffic and set you up to go for the bigger ones.
4) The type of content
Your website can feature all kinds of content but certain ones are more likely to rank faster than others. Breaking news stories always have the best chance of ranking because they are more relevant at the time and people will be searching for those keywords.
5) Original content
Having fresh, interesting information on your site is really important and sites can get heavily penalised when they plagiarise and take content from elsewhere. Writing your own relevant, original articles and blogs can provide a boost to your rankings.
6) The number of posts
This is a big reason why older, established sites get better rankings. A website with one or two posts might rank well but one with a history of good, quality posts will outperform it.
7) Frequency of posting
By posting regularly you get more posts on the site and keep it active and fresh. This gives you double the benefits and means you are more likely to attract traffic.
8) Title of articles
Making your titles SEO relevant is important because it makes articles more likely to be found and rewards you for this. You need to be creative with these and get keywords in without making it seem like you are doing it intentionally. Writing relevant blogs about the right topics should help you to achieve this.
If you need help getting your website ranked you may want to talk to a web specialist about search engine optimisation (SEO) and other ways you can improve your ranking factors. At Web Consultancy we offer both of these, alongside professional design services. We can provide a keyword ranking report for you and conduct a check of your website to see how well it ranks as well as where you can improve it.