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One thing that has remained true over the years is that organic ranking on Google is becoming more, not less, important over time. While social media has its place, there is no denying the power and long-lasting growth potential for a business that pays attention to ranking well among competitors on Google.
Over the years, the way to remain #1 on Google has varied–from having a lot of backlinks to having a lot of reviews. The chief aim of Google rankings has always been to deliver the best and most valuable content to the viewer. And, over the years, Google’s algorithm has become more adept at figuring out just what they need to look for in order to deliver the best content to you.
Today, I will be going over the seven most important things, listed in order of importance, you need to do to ensure you have the highest possible ranking on Google in 2021.
#1: User Experience
The number one factor for ranking on Google is user experience. User experience, or UX design, is about designing a digital product that is useful, easy to use, and a delight to interact with. It’s about creating a website experience that is relevant and meaningful to the user.
Now, if that sounds complicated, that’s because it is. UX design is a specialization within web design and experts focus their entire career on understanding how to do this well. Here at Sarah Rose Inc, user experience is something we prioritize in our brand strategy. But for those who are DIYing or just looking to improve their website, it is good to consider just how your user experiences your site.
Some ways to do this are:
- Install Hotjar, which is a website heatmap and behavorial analytics tool that offers insight into what people are looking at, clicking on, and grazing over
- Do a session of real-life user testing research with an online tool such as User Testing. You can create a one time test, gather participants, and ask them questions regarding your site or just ask for their feedback. Gain valuable and unbiased feedback from real users.
- Do a customer survey and ask your clients for feedback.
#2: Mobile-Friendliness
Did you know that when people are searching for something on their phones, over 96% of people use Google? But if your website ranks high (yay!) but then isn’t mobile optimized, you’re gonna lose those customers.
And for the vast majority of websites, they are designed desktop-first, which means mobile is an afterthought. Lucky for our clients, we use Showit, which allows us to build out two separate and fully optimized websites – one on desktop and one on mobile- since Showit offers a separate mobile editor. Just remember, in order to rank well on Google, you’ll need to focus on your mobile site design, and if forced to choose, prioritize it over desktop for the best conversion and ranking.
#3: High-Quality Content
Content isn’t something you can skirt around anymore. Every single platform, from Google to TikTok, pushes creators who provide high-quality content to their platforms. High-quality content means original, never before seen, and unique perspectives in the form of blogs, videos, or photos.
Re-shares, copying similar styles, duplicating posts, and other tactics that may have worked previously will now get your content de-prioritized and lower your ranking. Set aside time each week to brainstorm new ideas, posts, work, and content that will add meaningful insight to your audience and improve your authority in your field.
#4: Search Intent
Having good search intent just means that you need to insure that your content and your keywords align. Google looks for pages that give the user exactly what they wanted to find. So spending time making sure your content truly aligns with the keywords your user is likely searching for will improve your Google ranking.
To check and see if your page has good search intent, you’ll want to check for:
- Reduced bounce rates
- More page views
- More answer boxes
- Wider audience reach
#5: Backlinks
Backlinks are simply links from one website to another website. In this article, I’ve already shared a couple of backlinks to Hotjar and Usertesting. When creating content on your website, adding in quality backlinks that increase the user experience, strengthen your authority, and improve your content will help improve your ranking over time.
Also, the number of quality backlinks to your own website from other websites, will also improve your ranking as well. So getting listed on directories, getting featured in podcasts or magazines, or other mentions will help to improve your authority and ranking.
You can check the number of backlinks on your website and compare it to your competitors (you want to have more than them to rank higher) on sites like SEMrush, MOZ, or Ahrefs.
#6: Website Page Loading Speed
Some of us grew up with dial-up internet (ahem ?♀️), but users no longer are willing to wait more than a second or two for your page to download. Finding ways to improve your page loading speed is important to improving your ranking and decreasing your bounce rate on your website.
To check your website page loading speed, head over to webpagetest.org.
#7: Domain Authority
A domain authority is a score that Google created to rank websites on their ability to rank in a niche from one to one hundred. It basically is an indicator of the overall quality of the domain or website. The higher your score is to one hundred, the easier it will be for your to rank higher in search results.
Improving your domain authority takes time and dedication. There are no quick fixes here. Some of the things you’ll want to look at to increase your domain authority over time are:
- The number of referring domains pointing to the site
- The authority of each referring domain
- Follow vs. nofollow links pointing to the site (inbound links)
- Follow vs. nofollow links pointing away from the site (outbound links)
- The number of outbound links from each referring domain
- The total number of backlinks pointing to the site
- The number of referring IPs pointing to the site
- The number of referring subnets pointing to the site
If you’d like to check your domain authority, head on over to SEMrush, MOZ, or Ahrefs.
One thing that has remained true over the years is that organic ranking on Google is becoming more, not less, important over time. While social media has its place, there is no denying the power and long-lasting growth potential for a business that pays attention to ranking well among competitors on Google.
Over the years, the way to remain #1 on Google has varied–from having a lot of backlinks to having a lot of reviews. The chief aim of Google rankings has always been to deliver the best and most valuable content to the viewer. And, over the years, Google’s algorithm has become more adept at figuring out just what they need to look for in order to deliver the best content to you.
Today, I will be going over the seven most important things, listed in order of importance, you need to do to ensure you have the highest possible ranking on Google in 2021.
#1: User Experience
The number one factor for ranking on Google is user experience. User experience, or UX design, is about designing a digital product that is useful, easy to use, and a delight to interact with. It’s about creating a website experience that is relevant and meaningful to the user.
Now, if that sounds complicated, that’s because it is. UX design is a specialization within web design and experts focus their entire career on understanding how to do this well. Here at Sarah Rose Inc, user experience is something we prioritize in our brand strategy. But for those who are DIYing or just looking to improve their website, it is good to consider just how your user experiences your site.
Some ways to do this are:
- Install Hotjar, which is a website heatmap and behavorial analytics tool that offers insight into what people are looking at, clicking on, and grazing over
- Do a session of real-life user testing research with an online tool such as User Testing. You can create a one time test, gather participants, and ask them questions regarding your site or just ask for their feedback. Gain valuable and unbiased feedback from real users.
- Do a customer survey and ask your clients for feedback.
#2: Mobile-Friendliness
Did you know that when people are searching for something on their phones, over 96% of people use Google? But if your website ranks high (yay!) but then isn’t mobile optimized, you’re gonna lose those customers.
And for the vast majority of websites, they are designed desktop-first, which means mobile is an afterthought. Lucky for our clients, we use Showit, which allows us to build out two separate and fully optimized websites – one on desktop and one on mobile- since Showit offers a separate mobile editor. Just remember, in order to rank well on Google, you’ll need to focus on your mobile site design, and if forced to choose, prioritize it over desktop for the best conversion and ranking.
#3: High-Quality Content
Content isn’t something you can skirt around anymore. Every single platform, from Google to TikTok, pushes creators who provide high-quality content to their platforms. High-quality content means original, never before seen, and unique perspectives in the form of blogs, videos, or photos.
Re-shares, copying similar styles, duplicating posts, and other tactics that may have worked previously will now get your content de-prioritized and lower your ranking. Set aside time each week to brainstorm new ideas, posts, work, and content that will add meaningful insight to your audience and improve your authority in your field.
#4: Search Intent
Having good search intent just means that you need to insure that your content and your keywords align. Google looks for pages that give the user exactly what they wanted to find. So spending time making sure your content truly aligns with the keywords your user is likely searching for will improve your Google ranking.
To check and see if your page has good search intent, you’ll want to check for:
- Reduced bounce rates
- More page views
- More answer boxes
- Wider audience reach
#5: Backlinks
Backlinks are simply links from one website to another website. In this article, I’ve already shared a couple of backlinks to Hotjar and Usertesting. When creating content on your website, adding in quality backlinks that increase the user experience, strengthen your authority, and improve your content will help improve your ranking over time.
Also, the number of quality backlinks to your own website from other websites, will also improve your ranking as well. So getting listed on directories, getting featured in podcasts or magazines, or other mentions will help to improve your authority and ranking.
You can check the number of backlinks on your website and compare it to your competitors (you want to have more than them to rank higher) on sites like SEMrush, MOZ, or Ahrefs.
#6: Website Page Loading Speed
Some of us grew up with dial-up internet (ahem ?♀️), but users no longer are willing to wait more than a second or two for your page to download. Finding ways to improve your page loading speed is important to improving your ranking and decreasing your bounce rate on your website.
To check your website page loading speed, head over to webpagetest.org.
#7: Domain Authority
A domain authority is a score that Google created to rank websites on their ability to rank in a niche from one to one hundred. It basically is an indicator of the overall quality of the domain or website. The higher your score is to one hundred, the easier it will be for your to rank higher in search results.
Improving your domain authority takes time and dedication. There are no quick fixes here. Some of the things you’ll want to look at to increase your domain authority over time are:
- The number of referring domains pointing to the site
- The authority of each referring domain
- Follow vs. nofollow links pointing to the site (inbound links)
- Follow vs. nofollow links pointing away from the site (outbound links)
- The number of outbound links from each referring domain
- The total number of backlinks pointing to the site
- The number of referring IPs pointing to the site
- The number of referring subnets pointing to the site
If you’d like to check your domain authority, head on over to SEMrush, MOZ, or Ahrefs.
How To Improve Your Google Ranking In 2021
How To Improve Your Google Ranking In 2021
How To Improve Your Google Ranking In 2021
How To Improve Your Google Ranking In 2021
How To Improve Your Google Ranking In 2021
How To Improve Your Google Ranking In 2021
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