If you are wondering how to get your blog to rank higher in Google results and to appear as a result of every relevant search is the biggest dream of today’s blogger, then you have come to the right place. Either you want to earn from blogging or use the blog to promote your brand awareness, ranking higher is your most overriding concern.
But ranking higher is not a child’s play. It needs a whole lot of technique and strategy to get your blog ranking higher in SERPs.
To learn the magic, you need to understand how Google and other search engines index your content and how indexing is different from ranking and how it affects your ability for ranking higher in search Google results.
How does Google index your blog content?
Google and other search engines have their system algorithm that considers user demand and quality of your content to take it into account for indexing. Their web crawlers crawl through your website and check if it is “index worthy”.
Indexing, in simple words, means that Google knows that your website exists and that’s it.
What is a Google ranking?
The position a search engine allots your blog content in SERPs (search engine result pages) is called it’s rank.
When you type “what is blog rank?” in the Google search bar it shows around 1,370,000 results to answer this query. These results are displayed over 48 pages. All results are indexed as they are in the search engine’s eye. But do you think the results on page 48 are “Ranked”?
You answered it for yourself, No!
Results on pages 31-40 are ranked higher than results on pages 41-48 and so on. To earn more traffic, you need to rank higher than all the competitors, in this case, 1,369,999 competitors.
Your blog content is only highly likely to be seen by the potential customers when it is shown on the first two pages because most of the people never go past even the first page. According to stats around 75% of searchers are reported to never go for the second page. The is why figuring out how to get your blog to rank higher in Google results is so critical to your business.
So, the highest rank you can attain is to appear as the first result on the first page.
Here are 5 tips on how to get your blog to rank higher in Google results.
1. Do your On-page SEO smartly
Optimizing individual pages of your blog is called on-page SEO. SEO (search engine optimization) of a single blog post, for example, will fall under on-page SEO.
- A good on-page SEO will help the search engine understand your content type better and easily. Hence it will be able to show your blog to the relevant audience more efficiently and frequently which means giving you a higher rank.
- Here are the tips to effectively do your on-page SEO:
- Do thorough keyword research in your relevant niche and choose keywords with high search volume and low competition.
- Keyword research enables you to understand your target audience’s demands better hence enabling you to create more relevant content for them. The more relevant your blog will be the higher it will be ranked by search engines.
- Put your target keyword at the start of your title tags to make it easy for the search engines to understand what your content is about.
- Use Target Keywords in the first 100 words of the blog.
- Put links to other sites within your content. Using outbound links enhance your page visibility. But use high-quality links only.
- Write catchy meta descriptions to grab the attention of the reader. Do it carefully for each page.
- Do not forget to put your target keyword in the URL too. Remember, “keyword is the backbone of your SEO”.
- DO NOT stuff your content with keywords by overly and absurdly putting them in the content. Be natural in embedding keywords only where they are really required. Try adding the keywords to your post strategically.
- Put 2-4 Internal Links (links to your previously published content) in every new post. It will reduce your bounce rate and increase your credibility in the eyes of search engines.
- Put Alt text and keyword-rich description to each and every image on your blog page.
- Try using less competitive – longtail keywords. They are low in competition hence increase your chance to rank higher. For example, targeting “SEO” will create more competition than using “tips for SEO optimization” as your keyword.
- Use LSI keywords in the body of your content.
- Make your website mobile-friendly to get more audience.
2. Earn value by Off-Page SEO
Taking your search engine optimization outside your website is referred to as off-page SEO. This is another way to prove your relevance to search engines.
The most relevant sites are the more valuable for search engines. Off-page SEO includes the techniques to promote your content over the internet by earning high-quality backlinks or by social media.
Here are some techniques to do your off-page SEO on point:
- Guest Posting is the best way to earn you high-quality backlinks.
- Email Marketing is another effective way to market your product and creating brand awareness. Getting more eyes gets you a higher rank.
- Collaborate or hire influential people in your field to promote your blog.
- Build links by exchanging content leading back to your blog.
- Use visuals like images, videos, charts, flyers to attract people and make them share your content. As much as you and your blog are promoted, your chances of ranking higher brighten.
Commenting on relevant Blogs can earn you an easy backlink in minutes. You just have to choose the most relevant site and paste your URL in the comment section with an invitation to people to read it.
3. Page loading speed
Page loading speed is one of the most important factors to rank your blog higher in SERPs. And it is a very logical reason.
Google algorithm prefers the fast loading pages over slow ones because they appear more valuable in terms of user-friendliness. You might have noticed that initial search results load faster than the laters.
The first 3 seconds after someone clicks on your page’s link are crucial. If your page fails to load in 3 seconds, the chances of the user leaving your page increase up to 32%.
Within the first 5 seconds, if your page does not load, these chances rise to 90%. The bounce rate rises higher up to 123% when your page fails to load within 10 seconds after the click. [*]
That means a super-fast loading page will make you more valuable in search engine’s eyes. What you can do to maximize your page loading speed:
- Activate Google’s AMP on your pages
- Compress all the images on your site
- Try to reduce the file sizes on your web pages
- Look for a better hosting service
- Remove unwanted third-party scripts
- Use specialized tools like Google’s page speed insight to have a look at how fast or slow your page is loading
- Use HTTP2
- Switch to PHP7
4. Publish longer content
Studies reveal that longer content helps to improve ranking on Google. Your content should contain a minimum of 1000 words at least to get you good ranks.
The longer is better in terms of content. Aim for 2000+ words every post to get a higher rank on Google. This practice will result in “long-tail” traffic that will boost your site’s exposure.
Here are some benefits you will earn by publishing longer content:
- More content allows more space for good keywords
- You will have more chances to place your internal and external links naturally
- Your content will appear more relevant to the search engines when it is engaging and makes people stay longer on your blog post.
- When people spend more time on your web page, it will reduce your bounce rate
- This tip has potential to raise your conversion rate too
5. Enhance user experience
Users are the most valuable asset for search engines. Your site’s credibility and ranking depend on the factor of how users are interacting with your webpages.
A user-friendly website means a fast, informative, and easy to navigate website. Optimizing your site for users gets you more conversions and minimize your bounce rate. It will make your blog’s chances of getting a higher rank even stronger.
How to improve your blog’s user experience (UX):
- For now, 60% of searches come from the mobile web. So, optimizing your webpages for mobile use will get you a higher rank.
- Make your site easy to navigate for the user by providing internal links.
- Content posted on your blog should be informative, readable, shareable, and clear. Avoid making your users confused.
- Design your site to make it easy for your visitors to navigate through.
- Make your website responsive and accessible.
- Provide quality content with the relevant information only.
Google’s ranking depends on several factors. If you are wondering how to get your blog to rank higher in Google results, you need to post high-quality content with understandable information. Above mentioned information will help you understand how Google ranking works.
The search engine will value you only when you are valuable for their users. Try to earn more value by posting the content people want to read, for that SEO is your only savior. In a nutshell, prepare your blog to get ranked in people’s hearts to get ranked higher in SERPs.
