How To Rank For A Keyword On Google
Most businesses nowadays do some sort of online promotion. Getting organic (non-paid) visitors to your website is a great way to get new clients and potential buyers. Unfortunately, most businesses do not know how to improve their search ranking. The Internet is loaded with misinformation, bad advice, and outdated techniques for getting a higher ranking.
On-page SEO (search engine optimization) is a great way to get your website higher in search rankings, thus saving you money in the long run, and gaining you new customers.
Site speed
When you are developing a website, the speed that it operates is a very important factor. If your website is slow, hire a developer or coder to improve it. Websites that load slowly have a higher bounce rate and tend to appear lower in search rankings.
Navigation
The navigation of your website is very important. Visitors to your website need to be able to find what they are looking for- easily. The internal links from your website need to redirect customers to where they need to go. However, the fewer clicks customers need to perform, the better. The desired link should never be too far from the homepage.
Page titles
All of the pages on your website should be properly titled and have a purpose. That purpose, message, or description should be properly displayed in the page title. Use meta descriptions to summarize what the page is about. This can also be used to boost click-through rates.
Create content
This is an obvious one. You’ll need to figure out a few specific keywords that you will want to rank for. Then create relevant useful content based around those keywords. You should include variations of those keywords as well, and in the title and URL. For example, if your keyword is “buy a triathlon bike” you will want to write content outlining what to look for, which type to buy, and what they are for. You should create a page for each type of bike you have and information pertaining it. However, each page must have enough content for about 700-1000 words. Pages with very little content will not rank well.
Image text
When you add images to your website, you should add alternate text. This can be done through the back end of your website. Include your keyword on the images on each page, but be careful not to “over-stuff” with keywords, as this can end in a negative result with Google.
These are just the first initial steps in on-page SEO. You will need to do a lot of work writing content, optimizing your page, and building links in order to see results. In a later article, I’ll explain the importance of link building, how you can do it, and what role it plays in SEO.
