If you have an online business or a website, that means you are on the run up to rank high on Google. But one question that still bothers you is, ” how to rank higher on Google?”

Rightly so because Google is a search behemoth and if you look at the metrics of other search engines, they may seem like tiny stars gazing at a giant galaxy.

However, ranking on Google is like those new-age games played by millions despite knowing that there will be just one or two winners.

Do you know that the top Google result receives 31.7% of all hits, while the second page receives only 0.78% of clicks? 

Yeah, that’s a pretty drastic difference but let me ask you this, how many times have you gone down till the footer of Google and clicked on page two? 

So, that means if you are not there, your target audience is being hijacked by other sites and these could well be your competitors. 

You need to act quickly, and this is the best time because every minute you skip implementing SEO for your site, a ton of your users are lured by your competitors.

Here in this blog post, we’ll show you exactly what you need to do to improve and shoot up your current ranking on Google.

Before we deep dive, listen to what Cody Jensen, Founder and CEO of SearchBloom said to us about some smart ways to rank higher on Google.

Here are 10 Things You Need To Know About About How to Rank Higher on Google Search

1. Do Some Heavy Keyword Research

Think about it this way – you know people are interested in the product, service, or content you are publishing. 

That’s why you started the website in the first place. 

So, what is it that they are doing to access the information they are looking for? The answer is simple: they Google it. 

Now, we have come to the most important question. 

What is it they are keying in that search bar to access the information?

That’s what makes the money flow into your pockets. Those strings of words that they use to express what’s in the mind are the building blocks of your SEO strategy. 

We call them the keywords. 

The essence of every internet marketing strategy should be keyword research because that’s how you understand the audience and their interests.

The objective of keyword research is to find out what the target group is looking for and how you as a website owner can use these keyword ideas and create content that makes the users happy.

Learn more about keyword research here.

2. Create Content Based On Search Intent 

Now that you know keywords are the most indispensable SEO factor, let me tell you a bit about the search intent.

Let’s take a look at one scenario. 

My new house is in the completion stage and I now want the interior design to be done. The problem is it’s my first house and I’m a complete dud when it comes to interior designs. 

However, I’m the least bothered because I have a go-to source. Google. 

So, why worry? Here is my thought process to help you understand the term search intent. 

Thought 1: Benefits of doing interior design

Thought 2: What are the latest trends in interior designing?

Thought 3: How much will interior designing cost?

Thought 4: Which are the interior design firms in Manhattan that I can trust

Thought 5: Contact a design company

Now, assume that you are the interior designer I’m hunting for. How can you get my attention to your firm instead of your competitors? 

The answer is simple. You have to follow my thought process and help me with relevant information at each stage until I become your client. 

To achieve this, you need to make sure there is relevant content that satisfies my intent. 

For example, if I see your service page when looking for benefits, I’m going to hit the back button because I’m yet to decide.

That’s why you need to orient your content for each of these stages to get the maximum benefit out of doing SEO. 

When writing content for each of these pages you must optimize it using keywords that match my intent. 

Now, let’s give a definition to the term Search Intent. 

The phrase “search intent” (also known as “user intent” or “audience intent”) refers to the goal behind every search query your users enter. Generally speaking, everyone who searches for terms on the internet expects to discover something. 

Types of Search Intent 

Informational Intent

The first is informational intent. A large number of searches online are done by folks looking for information. That may be information about stocks, the weather, SEO, or anything under the sun. People with an informative intent have a specific query or wish to learn more about a certain issue.

Navigational Intent

The second type of search intent is known as navigational intent. People with this purpose want to go to a specific website. If you provide useful and relevant information to those who click on your site, the website will rank higher. 

Transactional Intent

Transactional intent is the third form of search intent. Many people buy things on the internet and search the web for the greatest deal. People search with transactional intent when they want to buy something.

Commercial Investigating Intent 

Sometimes, people plan to buy something in the (near) future and use the internet to do their research. These folks have transactional intent as well, but they require more time and persuasion. This search intent is commonly referred to as commercial investigating intent.

Learn More About Search Intent Of Users.

3. Examine And Fix Current Google Penalties

There are many stumbling blocks before you rank #1 on Google. Most of these can be easily tackled with the help of a reputed SEO agency.

However, there are times when the ghost from the past may haunt websites. And we call that Ghost – Google Penalty. 

It’s the worst nightmare of most SEOs and website owners alike because once a website enters the bad book of Google, ranking it is a mammoth task. 

You don’t have to worry. If you have purchased a new domain and not an expired one, then you are generally safe. 

Also, one thing to note is the SEO agency you are right now collaborating with has to be the best and shouldn’t use any blackhat SEO practices that can land you in deep trouble. 

Checking Google Penalty history is easy if you are already using any of the SEO tools. 

Look for a steep decrease in organic traffic; this is the first indication of Google not liking the site for some reason. 

The most common culprit for this is unnatural backlinks that flout Google’s guidelines. 

Here is how you can check for unnatural backlinks. 

Analyze All Your Backlinks :

Check the number of links pointing to your site and see if they are genuine links coming from contextually relevant sites. If the answer is no, that means your agency is building links that are harming your site, eating it from the inside using your money. 

The quick fix is immediate divorce with that agency and finds another trustable SEO agency that can help you get rid of the spammy ones by doing a disavow and then build quality backlinks. 

Anchor Text Analysis

Anchor text is the text that becomes your link and points to your page. If you find a majority of your anchor text the same, then you need to make a course correction right away. 

Exact match anchor text is a sign of low-quality link building and Google hates it to the core. It’s one thing that can result in Google penalizing your site. 

Check if the Site is Hacked

Another reason why Google may have stopped sending users to your site is that it was hacked. If Google finds malicious codes on a site, it temporarily removes them from the search.

You can check if your site is hacked by analyzing it using the Google Safe Browsing test. 

Once you remove the malicious codes and resubmit the sitemap to Google, the pages will reappear as and when the search engine’s spiders visit your site. 

Learn More About Google Penalties.

4. Try To Reduce Bounce Rate/Engagement Rate

What Exactly Is a Bounce Rate? 

The percentage of visitors that leave a webpage without performing a certain action, such as clicking on a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase, is referred to as the bounce rate.

Google won’t look too highly upon your site if it has people visiting your site and quickly exiting. 

However, bounce rate numbers shouldn’t bother you if your website has a heavy focus on content. When users get all the information on a single page, they literally don’t have to visit other pages. 

But that said, keep a close watch on the time spent on a page, if the time spent is below not match the length of your content, it’s something to worry about. 

Learn how to reduce the bounce rate of your website.

5. Only Publish High-Quality Content 

Sometimes, I think the Internet is like our orbit. But why?

Because there is a lot of good content out there just like our satellites but it’s also home to stale and low-quality content like the tons of debris out there floating aimlessly in our orbit. 

By high-quality content, we mean not just content that is free from grammatical errors and is relevant and informative, but also content that’s shareable and that other sites will want to link to.

Since Google places a lot of importance on backlinks, this is a point to definitely keep in mind. Also, most prominent websites are now using Pillar Cluster Content Strategy to rank higher on Google. 

Learn more about pillar cluster content strategy.

Long-Form Content

While there is no “ideal” word limit for blog articles, content that’s 3k+ words seems to perform well in terms of link development.

Visual Content 

Also, consider adding visual content like maps, videos, flowcharts, and infographics.

Uniqueness 

Try to be original when creating content.

Easy to Read; No Grammatical Errors 

Make sure your content is simple to understand and free from grammatical mistakes.

Check out our podcast episode with Brandon Doyle, Founder – Wallaroo Media, about creating evergreen content that drives consistent traffic. 

6. Improve On-Site and Technical SEO

On-page SEO (sometimes referred to as “on-site SEO”) and technical SEO are two important factors that lie under the hood of your website. 

When you have great content supplemented with on-page and technical SEO perfection, you have the perfect recipe to rank on Google.

Some of the most common On-page SEO techniques include improving title tags, content, internal links, and URLs, etc. 

Crawlable by search engines: 

Robots are used by search engines to crawl or spider your website. The robots use links to find information on your site. A well-designed internal linking structure will ensure that they realize what the most significant material on your site is. 

However, there are more methods for guiding robots. You may, for example, prevent them from crawling specific material if you don’t want them to go there. You may also allow them to crawl a page but instruct them not to display it in search results or follow the links on that page.

Cut Out Dead Links

A lot of websites have (at least) some dead links because a website is a work in progress: people create and break stuff. Luckily, there are tools available to assist you in recovering dead links on your website. 

Delete Duplicate Content

Search engines may become confused if you have the same material on various pages of your site – or even on other sites. This may end up with all pages with the same content be ranked lower. 

You might be dealing with duplicate information without even realizing it. Due to technical issues, different URLs may display the same information. This makes no difference to a visitor, but it does to a search engine, which will view the identical information on a different URL.

Learn more about On-Page SEO Techniques

Technical SEO on the other hand is often discussed along with the speed of your website and its accessibility. However, unlike the other SEO techniques we discussed till now, technical SEO isn’t that easy to implement, provided you have the right resources or expertise. 

Here is a complete checklist of technical SEO techniques.

If you are interested in knowing how to optimize your website for speed or making it accessible to the users and search engines without them fumbling on an error page, click the links below.

How to Optimize Your Page Experience 

How to Optimize Your .htaccess file

Podcast: Technical SEO Tips For Startups

7. Familiarize Yourself With The Google Algorithm 

Google is constantly updating its algorithm, which means your website should constantly adopt new techniques and strategies that Google suggests to make the search experience better for its users. 

In the days prior to 2012, Google’s algorithm was highly vulnerable to ranking deceit websites that used shortcuts such as spammy links and content. 

To thwart both these vulnerabilities of its algorithm, search engine giant launched two updates in back-to-back years – Penguin and Panda updates. 

Learn more about the recent Google Algorithms.

8. Tracking And Monitoring Metrics

Now, it’s time to monitor certain key metrics for your website to see what else needs to be tweaked. These are the most important metrics to consider.

Organic Traffic 

It is critical to understand how people reach your site via Google. Previously, organic search generated the majority of page traffic, beating out non-organic sources such as sponsored search and social media. 

These days, social media, email, and paid advertisements frequently trump other ways with regards to attracting organic traffic – though this varies greatly by industry. 

Log in to your Google Analytics account and look at the acquisition channels report to find out how many people come to your site.

Keywords Used to Visit Your Site

It’s important to pay attention to the keywords that drive visitors to your site in addition to analyzing search traffic. While this is more difficult to evaluate than it previously was, it’s still definitely possible. 

This can be done using Google Search Console (formerly called Google Webmaster Tools). It may inform you how many clicks you get in organic search results for specific keywords.

In addition to this, there are tons of other tools out there that can help you with identifying which keywords are driving more users to your pages. 

Check out top SEO Tools for 2023.

Consider Setting Up A SEO Dashboard 

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly SEO dashboard, we recommend Google Analytics, but if you have money to spare, we recommend something like SEMRush or Ahrefs.

These tools will help you understand how well your website is performing month over month and help you decide the action plan for the coming months. Also, tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs can also warn you about drop in keyword rankings if you have your site added as a project. 

These tools offer free and seamless integration with Google Analytics, thus providing you with near accurate data. 

Check out this interesting Podcast we had with Cody Jenson of SearchBloom, where he discusses about the tips to rank on Google Smartly.

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