How to Rank Higher on Google with 9 Simple SEO Tips

9 simple tips to boost your search engine optimization.

You have a website. Great.

Perhaps it’s new. Perhaps it’s old. Regardless, you have a powerful tool to foster growth for your business.

Now, it’s about increasing traffic and creating value through this tool. There are many ways to achieve increased traffic, and you’re probably already doing a lot of it.

In this article, we will provide you with 9 simple SEO tips on how to enhance one of the most crucial sources of traffic for many: organic search. This process is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

Let’s get started.

When you search for something on Google, advanced algorithms are set in motion to find an answer that is as relevant as possible to what you are looking for. Previously, these codes were manually coded, involving a manual testing process to see if the changes were good enough to implement.

With Google’s Rankbrain, this process is automated, and machine learning now tries to improve the algorithm on its own. To do this job, Rankbrain tries to understand what you are searching for and how satisfied you are with the search by measuring interaction.

Do this:

Have understandable content that triggers interaction. Avoid long digressions and excessive filler words. Be concise, direct, and clear about what you want the user to do. Also, use synonyms for keywords and related phrases to make it easier for Google to understand what your content is about.

An effective way to reduce your bounce rate (people leaving your website without taking any action) is to tell the user what they get from being on your site (Outcome), that you know what you’re talking about (Proof), and give them a preview of what awaits them.

Did you know that 38% of people say they will stop interacting with a site if the design or layout is unattractive?

It’s your textual content that will get people to your site, and it’s the same content that will get people to take action on your site. However, if all that content is wrapped in an unattractive frame, they won’t stay long enough to hear what they should do and why.

An attractive site keeps people longer and engages more with the site, two very positive signals to Google. Plus, if they are on your site, they can’t be on the competitor’s site simultaneously.

Do this:

Place more emphasis on design and use beautiful images, videos, graphics, and other visual tools. It doesn’t hurt that a beautiful book has a beautiful cover.

Google is focused on matching your search with relevant results, and link-building can help you send the right signals to the search engine.

Do this:

Be generous and link a lot and often to other sites. It helps build credibility for your domain and tells the search engine that you are building your content on sources.

Also, link back to your own content. Make it easy for a user of your website to immerse themselves in your content. The signal you send is that people coming to your site interact a lot with it, and the content you have must, therefore, be good.

Engaging content is searchable content. Google seeks content that is relevant to you, and pages with a high click-through rate signal just that. Therefore, ensure your content is clickable.

I’m not talking about clickbaiting – you’ll be penalized in the long run when your bounce rate skyrockets.

Do this:

Use simple tricks like “how to do x” or “this is how you do y,” as we have done in this article. Numbers in headlines also help.

What better signal of a relevant page than one that has a high level of interaction from its visitors? Make sure you encourage action and interaction.

Do this:

If you write articles, encourage people to comment and respond to all the comments you receive. Show that you hear and value input, thoughts, ideas, and discussions.

Also, turn your conclusion into a call to conversion, whether it’s buying the fantastic product you’ve argued for, reading another article that you learn a lot from, or sharing thoughts, ideas, and input that can make you and your business better.

Traffic is organic, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give it a little push. A rolling stone has much more momentum than a stationary one.

Do this:

Promote everything you publish. Find others interested in your topic and contact them via email or Facebook messenger. Ask them if they would like to know when your post goes live and send it to them if they are interested.

Good content is regularly updated and always relevant. Maybe there was a development with your product? Perhaps you gained more ambassadors and good stories. Perhaps more arguments for using exactly what you offer emerged.

Do this:

Set aside a day each quarter to go through and revise the content on your site. Then, plan to promote the new updated content in a given timeframe.

A website that takes a long time to load can lead your users to choose other websites. Google’s research shows that the likelihood of a user bouncing increases by 32% if the loading time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds. If the page goes from 1 second to 5 seconds, the probability of a bounce increases by 90%. It is therefore important to ensure that your page has as low loading time as possible: You can use free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to check how long your page takes to load.

Do this:

One of the main causes of a slow website is image files that are not optimized. Therefore, make sure that the images ideally do not have a larger file size than 200kb. Feel free to use Google’s own file format: WebP, to ensure that your image files have the right file size. This will also give you a “bonus” from Google, as they reward websites that use their own tools and inventions.

Conclusion

There’s little magic behind ranking high on Google, but it can quickly become confusing if you delve too deep. The secret is targeted and conscious content work with the aim of creating value for your users, combined with having a site in good technical condition. By following these 9 tips, you should be well on your way to achieving that goal.

Need help implementing these plans and succeeding in becoming more searchable? SEO is a long-term process that often requires a longer time perspective to show results. We are happy to assist you with reviewing your SEO, working with content, and systematic technical work to make you more visible on Google. Contact us today or read more about how we work with search engine optimization here: Growth SEO.