How To Get a High Rank on Google
In the early days of the internet your search engine options were few and slow, the results were often unhelpful, and you had to be careful of how you typed in your search. Now, the world of ecommerce is becoming bigger and more competitive every day, this means more websites trying to break into the top ten on Google. Not everyone can be successful, but with an eye to the top and a few tips, you can see your website come up first for relevant keywords.
Enhance Your Website
Enhancing your website can mean everything from changing up the colors to make it easier to read, to making sure that you have an SSL certificate installed. You may be asking what is SSL and why do I need it? A Secure Sockets Layer is a security protocol for sending information over the internet. In 2014, Google announced that having this certificate installed will rank you higher in the results lists because it shows that you have information such as credit card numbers and other sensitive information properly encrypted. This is installed on the server side, so you may have to contact your server support team to see what types of encryptions they use and how that is affecting your search rankings.
Upgrade it for Mobile
Not every website has been optimized for mobile viewing, which can slow the web crawlers down and negatively impact your rankings. You can do this by enabling mobile views on your website so that the format changes to fit the different screen ratios as well as by thinking about the first few tasks that users will usually perform on your site. If you focus on easing the use for those tasks on mobile devices, your customers will spend more quality time on your website and be more likely to come back.
Improve for Speed
It is a good idea to factor in how much the graphics and videos slow down both the mobile and desktop versions of your site as well as how much scrolling will be needed to accomplish tasks because page speed is used in the ranking criteria. A big help in this area is being conscious of how your images and videos are uploaded to the site. By using a good image editing program you can compress and optimize your files before uploading them as well as determine if they fit well in the space provided to keep your site looking professional. Using the right plugins for browser catching and script handling can also help you streamline your site and improve speed.
Fix Your Links
Having both incoming and outgoing links is a good way to increase your rankings in search engines as well as increase incoming traffic from other sites, when those links are broken, however, they can drag you down. There are tools available to help you find and fix broken links on your website as well as tools to see where your site is being linked.
Optimize Content
Relying on content alone to list your site in the rankings will be a slow and frustrating process but using it in conjunction with the other tips on this list will have you soaring in no time. Your content needs to be relevant, fresh and frequently updated. This means knowing which keywords you want to be ranked for and have a separate page of content for each keyword. It also means having reader-friendly articles with the keyword scattered throughout which provide information, a product description or the latest related news.
The higher your rankings in search engine results lists, the more traffic you are likely to get to your site. Search engines like Google are constantly looking for ways to improve their ranking criteria to meet the needs of users, so you should be looking for ways to keep up or get ahead. This means making sure that your website looks good and runs well in both desktop and mobile formats, that you have the proper security protocols and that you have quality content.
