How to Boost Your Google Ranking

Your website is the foundation from which to build your SEO strategy. A poorly designed website that lacks the correct coding and user functionality is difficult to navigate, with pages that load slowly and un-inspiring content is not going to attract visitors, or Google. Conducting a website audit will highlight all the areas where improvements are needed to develop a responsive, well-designed website. 

Ensuring your website is mobile-optimised is crucial, particularly when more than 80% of internet users search the web via a mobile device. Users expect the website they are viewing to give them the same experience they would get on a desktop and if they don’t, they won’t hang around. Whilst many websites are optimised for mobile these days, there are still many websites that don’t work in synergy with mobile devices. Mobile-first indexing is a major factor for Google when ranking web pages. To quote Google: “Since the majority of users now access Google Search with a mobile device, Googlebot primarily crawls and indexes pages with the smartphone agent going forward.” 

Relevancy is another of Google’s ranking factors. Researching the keywords and phrases that are relevant to user searches is a key aspect of SEO optimisation. However, once you have a list of all your keywords, the next stage is to make sure they appear in the right places, including H1/H2/H3 titles. For example, if you are selling shoes and you have ‘red shoes’ and ‘black shoes’ as specific keyword search terms, there’s no point adding both to the page titles or meta descriptions for each product. Create separate keyword lists for different sections on your website to reach the right audiences. 

Page loading speed is one of the top-ranking factors for Google, no matter whether your website is viewed on a desktop or via a mobile device. The main reason why web pages load slowly is images. Ensuring images are optimised for performance will make a significant difference to page loading speeds. It’s good practice to get into the habit of checking how quickly your web pages load, particularly when any changes have been made to the website. 

Late in 2021, Google announced the launch of Google’s Page Experience as a factor in determining ranking whereby page experience metrics for website URLs, particularly on mobile devices, will be used by Google’s algorithm as a ranking signal. There are two aspects to a good page experience – technical optimisation and user experience (UX) design. The technical aspects include page loading speeds, SSL certifications, sitemaps, image compression and mobile optimisation. UX design is site navigation, i.e. can a user easily find what they are looking for, useful and relevant content that is informative, as well as call-to-action buttons. 

Part of relevancy is website content – the more readable, informative and engaging your on-page content is, the higher Google will index your web pages. But it’s not about cramming your content with as many keywords as possible – Google has got wise to that tactic and will penalise that web page, or even the entire site. Considering each page of your content as a separate landing page will help ensure that the content is concise, clear, readable, informative, relevant, contains the right keywords for that page and no more, and has call-to-action buttons. Don’t forget to optimise your directory and social media content, too, because Google’s algorithm crawls that information as well. 

Internal links and backlinks (also known as inbound links) are an essential part of any SEO strategy. Aim for high authority links to other trusted websites that generate high traffic, like a professional organisation or trade website, as well as back to your online content, such as relevant blogs or case studies.