Do you know why your website is not ranking on Google? You’ve put a lot of effort into writing content for your site hoping to get it on the first page of Google but you don’t seem to be making any progress. Do you want to know how you can improve your site’s ranking? In no particular order of importance, below is a list of 6 easy steps you can take to improve your SEO ranking with Google.

1. Check your page titles

check page titleDon’t expect your website to rank number 1 on Google for your chosen keywords, if your page titles aren’t even relevant to the keywords you expect your potential clients to be searching for. The meta titles are the first things checked by professional SEO companies. The title tag is what appears at the top of your browser windows, it is also displayed in search engine results. This title tag is what indicates to search engine spiders and users what your page is about. Most search engines, including Google, only display around 60 characters of the page title. This is one reason to keep your page title short, relevant and compelling. If the title doesn’t look interesting, users are going to ignore it and move on to the search engine result that catches their attention the most. Think about how you skim over and click only on the links that interest you when you do a web search. That’s how you need to think when optimizing your page titles. What catches your attention? What is likely to compel users to click because they feel that they’re missing out on something important?

2. Write content containing strategic keywords

keyword research analysisTo improve your ranking with Google, your website must first contain words that your potential clients will be searching for. The content should be also created by your local SEO agency. How else do you think anyone is going to find your page? If your page doesn’t contain the keywords your potential clients would search for, it isn’t going to turn up in the search results. It may not even rank on Google, or it might even rank well on a totally irrelevant keyword. Start by identifying a keyword phrase for each article you write. What is your article about? What is the most likely phrase that users will search for to find information on that topic? Once you have identified your keyword phrase, try to repeat it several times throughout your article. Mention your keyword phrase at least once or twice in the first and last paragraphs and then spread the phrase out naturally among the remaining paragraphs. Don’t repeat your keyword phrase so often that it become obnoxious and sticks out. You want the keyword phrase to naturally blend into your article, remember that you are writing for the user, not the search engine. You don’t want an article that ranks well but is so badly written that those who find it don’t bother reading it anyway.

3. Update your website’s content regularly

content is kingIf your website doesn’t have a blog, think about adding one. The more content your site contains, the higher the chance of search engines indexing your content. Again, identify all the keywords and keyword phrases you would like your site to rank high on. Be certain that those keywords are actually what users will be searching for. Use tools such as Google Analytics to identify the most highly searched for keywords. You must also remember that the most highly searched for keywords are also the hardest keywords to get your site ranking high on. Once you have your list of keyword phrases, write an article based on each phrase. Search engine bots and users look for high quality content, and a regularly updated site indicates authority and relevance.

4. Utilize alternative text descriptions

If you are going to be using audio, visual and video media content on your site, you will want to use alt tags. Alternative text helps search engines find your media content, the description you give in the alternative text of your media content is treated just like regular text content on the page. Alternative text also enables visually impaired people to know what’s shown in an image as the screen reading software can read out the alt text.

5. Don’t forget to insert metadata

Metadata is basically just information about the contents of your page. However, forgetting or simply not bothering to add metadata will impair your sites ranking. Simply adding metadata to the pages on your site is sometimes enough to significantly improve your ranking with Google. Title metadata is very important as it is responsible for the page titles you see at the top of browser windows as well as the page title in search engine results. Most website CMS systems auto generate title metadata although many will also give you the option to customize it. The description metadata should be a short, concise and appealing description of your page’s contents. The description metadata is that short snippet of text you see displayed beneath the title metadata in a search engine result. Keyword metadata are the keyword phrases that users will be searching for to potentially find your page. Don’t overdo this, you want a maximum of about 8 keyword phrases with a maximum of 4 words each. Too many keyword phrases could result in the search engine simply ignoring your keyword metadata as it is bordering on spam.

6. Use keyword laden links

Try not to use links with displayed text such as “Click Here”. Links like these have no SEO value, instead use the name of the link’s destination as the visible text of the link. Using keywords in the visible text for links pointing to other pages on your own site will indicate to search engines that your page is relevant to users searching for that particular keyword.

use keyword laden links

Now that you have taken these important steps to improve your site’s ranking in Google, don’t forget to monitor your progress. You won’t know if all your effort is actually paying off unless you keep track of your standing with the top search engines. Don’t forget to check your referral logs as well, they should give you a good insight into which search engines visitors are arriving at your site by as well as the keywords that are most successful in referring visitors to your site. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Keep what works and discard what doesn’t – you will start to see results in no time.