10 Ways to Make Your Website Rank Higher on Google

You’ve created your website a few months ago.

On top of looking good, it has all the pages you need to market your brand online. So, like the saying goes, if you build, they will come, right?

But your analytics stats say otherwise. In the months your website’s been up and running — you’ve gained little to zero traffic.

How do you change the numbers from bleak to better? Through SEO of course.

Busting the myth: Are website builders good for SEO?

People argue that website builders are useless for SEO.

Truth is, most website builders come with SEO-friendly features. These allow you to optimise your web pages for search engines like Google.

This quick guide covers on-page SEO tips you can try with your Sitebeat website, or any preferred platform.

10 Free Tricks to Optimise Your Website for SEO

1. Focus on keyword intent

When choosing keywords, focus on search intent — or the user’s goal in using a search word or phrase.

Is it to gather information about a product? Or maybe it’s to compare prices?

Google provides results based on search intent because they want to provide users with the most relevant answers.

Say you run an affordable bed and breakfast in Bali. Target transactional keywords like “cheap hotels Bali” or “backpackers hotel Ubud”.

Use these tips when choosing your keywords:

• List down ideal keywords based on your website’s pillar topics.
• Use free keyword research tools — like Google’s Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest — to generate a list of keywords to target.

Then, narrow down your keyword list by checking their rankings on a specific location, domain and device using SERP’s Rank Checker tool.

• Finally, know which keywords to prioritise based on organic competition.

2. Optimise your web pages for organic keywords

Conduct an on-page SEO audit first

If you have published web pages, you’d want to perform an audit to see where you stand from an SEO standpoint. This includes getting an overall look at your site navigation, heading tags, alt texts, and duplicate pages.

Ahref’s Joshua Hardwick has this simple but definitive guide to conducting a quick SEO audit on your website:

We also suggest preparing a spreadsheet that lists your webpages, keyword categories, and target keywords. This helps you effectively map out your targeted keywords across your website.

Add keywords to important parts of your website

Overstuffing your web pages with keywords leads to huge penalties from Google. There are prime places on your website where you should position your keywords:

• Page URLs
• Meta titles and descriptions
• Headings and content (i.e. H1, H2, and body)
• Image alt texts

3. Create quality content

SEO and content are like two peas in a pod.

In order to rank for a keyword you’re targeting, you need to provide quality — and yes, relevant — content to your target audience.

Think of content that gives readers a direct answer of what they’re searching for online.

Some SEO-friendly content include:

• Product Pages. Your product page does not just serve as SEO-friendly content, but also a PPC landing page. Two benefits in one!
• Blog Posts. Engaging and well-structured blog posts are a great way to build site authority and attract more clicks.

Pro tip: Write list posts! Lists are easy to consume compared to lengthy chunks of text.

• Articles and Guides. Include a variety of articles and guides on your website, like news articles, how-to guides, or interviews.
• Videos. Did you know that 62% of consumers watch a video product review before deciding on a purchase? If you’re not leveraging video, your website is missing out. From demo to 360° videos, the sky’s the limit when it comes to creating video content.

4. Offer high-quality images

Ever heard of the saying a picture paints a thousand words?

This couldn’t be any truer when it comes to online content. About 80% of users are more likely to read content that includes images. Additionally, prospects are twice as likely to convert when they see a product with a high-quality picture attached to it.

Google is also a big fan of images too! By adding alt text descriptions and image titles, you allow search engines to crawl and rank your website.

Alt text also assist visually impaired users using screen readings. This makes your website accessible to all.

5. Optimise URLs

While URLs aren’t a direct ranking factor, they provide search engines – and online users – a cue on what your website is about.

For example, search results for “on-page SEO” has the keyword within the URL:

It goes without saying that URLs are more than just links your web pages. So, make sure they’re properly optimised.

6. Get SSL/TLS

Have you noticed that websites on the first page of Google search results have HTTPS? That’s because the search engine sees HTTPS as a major ranking signal.

Google prioritises its user’s safety. So they make sure to provide only credible and trustworthy sources.

An HTTPS indicates a website is trustworthy. That's because it encrypts data that browsers and servers exchange with one another. In turn, it protects sensitive information users input into the site – addresses, bank details, etc.

Most website builders come with free SSL certificates on their packages. So you should have no issue with installing them on your website.

7. Create a custom 404 Page

404 page, Error Page, Page Not Found – you’ve probably come across this page while visiting a website before.

It’s what users see when they try to visit a non-existent page (mistyped URL, deleted, or moved) on a website. While a buzzkill for some, you can turn a frustrating situation into positive one by customising your 404 pages.

It might be tempting to skip this step and redirect users to your homepage instead. But this only makes Google index your homepage as a soft 404 error. As a result, search engines will crawl on that non-existent URL instead of your actual homepage.

And yes, it’ll hurt your rankings in the process.

8.  Monitor your stats through Google Analytics

Monitor and analyse your Google ranking with Google Analytics. This helps you identify how to improve your SEO strategies for higher rankings.

Focus on tracking your website visit, time on site, pages per session, and bounce rate, which are Google’s top ranking factors.

Google Analytics give you helpful insights about your website’s:

• Site visit: Number of first time and returning visitors
• Engagement rate: How long visitors stay on a specific page of your website
• Average page visit: Number of pages that a user visited before leaving your website
• Bounce rate: Number of visitors who visited your website and leaves right away.
• Email conversion: Number of visitors who subscribed to your email in your website

Here’s our step-by-step guide to integrating your Sitebeat website with Google Analytics.

9. Add your location on Google Maps

Running a brick and mortar? Consider adding your location on Google Maps to make it easy for customers to find you. It’s free and you’ll have no trouble directing users to your physical location.

This also links bank to SEO.

Use this guide to place your business location on Google Maps.

10. Update your SEO knowledge

SEO trends and best practices are always changing.  And there are always new ways to optimise your site for search engines.

Update and expand your SEO knowledge by:

• ReadingSEO-related blogs from Moz’s Whiteboard Friday ,Google Webmasters YouTube channel, Hubspot and of course, Learning Lab by Sitebeat
• Taking free online courses about SEO such as Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, Search Engine Land’s SEO Guide or Google SEO Start Guide.

Conclusion

Learning the ropes of SEO can be daunting at first time. It may also take time to see great results. But don’t give up yet and follow the seven tricks above.

In no time, you'll fulfil your SEO and business goals — ranking higher in Google and increasing conversions.