technical SEO analysis

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website’s Ranking (SEO) in Search Engines

We’ve all heard that if you improve your website’s ranking (SEO) in search engines, it can deliver powerful results. But a recent study by Backlinko puts rankings’ impact in perspective.

After analyzing 4 million Google search results, they found that “The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%.” [I]. That’s almost one-third of all searches. Comparatively, the #10 result had a click-through rate of only 2.4% [I].

If you’re trying to increase your brand’s online organic reach and aren’t ranking highly, you will probably have a tough hill to climb.

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The good news is that there are some simple strategies you can follow to help boost your website’s position on the search engine results page. While not a comprehensive list, we have put together 5 easy tips to help you improve your website’s ranking. Improve Your Website’s Ranking (SEO), so you get one step closer to reaching your target audience and converting your ideal leads.

Tip #1: Fulfill Search Intent with Relevant Content

Think about the last time you typed something into a search engine; you probably had a specific thing in mind you were looking for and were counting on the search engine (in most cases, Google) to deliver it.

This goal you have—or the why behind your query—is often referred to as “search intent.” [ii]

According to Ahrefs, there are four different kinds of search intent: [ii]

  • Informational—you’re looking for specific information
  • Navigational—you’re looking for a specific website
  • Transactional—you’re looking to buy something
  • Commercial investigation—you’re looking for insight before making a purchase

Search engines like Google want to provide their users with the right answers and information for their queries. So, if you can successfully create content that fulfills a user’s search intent, Google will rank your website higher so users can more easily find what they are looking for.

And one of the best ways to fulfill search intent is to create relevant and helpful content that is tailored to your user’s questions, desires, or pain point

The bottom line is that by creating valuable and relevant content for your specific audience, you’ll be better able to fulfill their search intent. Hence, pertinent content will improve your website’s ranking (SEO), and Google will be more incentivized to deliver them with your website as a top result.

Tip #2: Write Compelling and Descriptive Meta Descriptions

When you search for something, and a list of results comes up, you might notice that the websites or webpages listed sometimes have short paragraphs beneath them describing what the page is about. These are called meta descriptions.

According to YOAST, a meta description “brings you an opportunity to convince search engine users that your page will offer what they are looking for.” [iii].

So while meta descriptions don’t technically impact rankings, they can improve your click-through rate (CTR). As YOAST explains, “If more people click on your result, Google considers you to be a good result and will – based on your position – move you up the rankings.”[iii].

Too often, meta descriptions are overlooked or don’t receive the level of effort they rightly deserve.

Your meta descriptions should include enough detail so users know exactly what they will get if they click on your site and should be compelling enough that they want to click on it to gain whatever insight you offer.

The more confident a user is that your page will provide them with what they need, the more likely they will be to click on it and improve your website’s ranking (SEO).

Tip #3: Reduce Bounce Rates

By this point in the article, you might have noticed a theme—so much of ranking in search results has to do with providing users with what they’re looking for and what actually helps them. And one of the best ways to evaluate whether your content is doing that is by looking at bounce rates.

According to Neil Patel, “When a user (e.g., customer, prospect, or reader) visits your site on any page (known as an entrance page) and leaves without visiting other pages on the same domain, that’s a bounce… a high bounce rate is a symptom that something is wrong in your strategy – you’re not attracting the right site visitor or the visitors coming don’t have a good user experience.” [iv]

If your website has high bounce rates, it’s probably time to consider why that might be and things you can do to correct those issues. So while bounce rate itself might not be a direct ranking factor, it can very often be the symptom of things that are—such as broken links and other technical SEO issues.

Spend some time thinking about other things that might be contributing to high bounce rates. Maybe the content on your homepage is too text-heavy and difficult to digest—so users get frustrated and quickly move on. Or maybe your call to action isn’t clear, and your site is overly complicated to navigate.

Whatever it may be, investing in strategies to reduce your bounce rate can also enhance your users’ experience and improve your website’s ranking (SEO).

Tip #4: Optimize Your Website for Mobile User

Did you know that the majority of Google searches now occur on mobile devices? [v]

It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that Google now predominantly uses mobile content for indexing and ranking as opposed to desktop (as was done previously). [vi]

So if you’ve solely focused on the desktop user experience for your website and not the mobile, now is the time for a change. That’s not to say your desktop optimization doesn’t matter, but rather that the mobile experience should be equally smooth and optimized.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to test the mobile-friendliness of your website. Google has created a mobile-friendly tool (you can access it here) that will tell you whether your website is optimized for mobile use or not. [vii]

If you don’t pass the test, you should re-work and optimize your site so that it’s accessible and can be easily navigated by mobile users. A mobile-ready website can significantly improve your website’s ranking (SEO).

Tip #5: Get Backlinks from Relevant and Authoritative Websites

Finally, one of the most effective ways to boost your website’s ranking is to secure backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites.

As explained by Backlinko, backlinks are “links from one website to a page on another website. Google and other major search engines consider backlinks “votes” for a specific page. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have high organic search engine rankings.” [viii].

The more backlinks your website receives, the more credible your website becomes—especially if those backlinks are coming from authoritative sites that are relevant to your brand.

So how can you secure backlinks? There are many different strategies, but creating insightful and valuable content is a great place to start. In other words, you can try to be the “source” that other websites want to reference. [ix]

If other people consider your website an authority in your niche (via backlinks), Google will also begin considering it as one and improve your website’s ranking (SEO).

3) Identify SMART Goals and Assign Tasks

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Improve Your Website’s Ranking (SEO) with the right Partner

If you’ve made your way through this entire list of tips and feel overwhelmed by the idea of tackling them all on your own, there’s no need to worry. At ArchKATect, we specialize in digital marketing for healthcare brands. From creating content that’s valuable to your unique target audience to implementing strategies to reduce bounce rates, we can help you execute SEO best practices to help Improve your website’s ranking (SEO). We would love to partner with you and work together to give your website the best chance of reaching your target audience.

References AND RESOURCES

  1. Dean, B. (2019). We Analyzed 5 Million Google Search Results. Here’s What We Learned About Organic CTR. [online] Backlinko. Available at: https://backlinko.com/google-ctr-stats.
  1. Hardwick, J. (2019). Search Intent: The Overlooked ‘Ranking Factor’ You Should Be Optimizing for in 2019. [online] SEO Blog by Ahrefs. Available at: https://ahrefs.com/blog/search-intent/.
  1. (2019). https://www.facebook.com/michielheijmans (2019). How to create the perfect meta description • Yoast. [online] Yoast. Available at: https://yoast.com/meta-descriptions/.
  1. Patel, N. (2015). 13 Ways to Reduce Bounce Rate and Increase Your Conversions. [online] Neil Patel. Available at: https://neilpatel.com/blog/13-ways-to-reduce-bounce-rate-and-increase-your-conversions/.
  1. Backlinko. (2019). 69 Important SEO Statistics for 2021. [online] Available at:https://backlinko.com/seo-stats.
  1. Google Developers. (n.d.). Mobile-first indexing best practices | Search for Developers. [online] Available at: https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing.
  1. Google (2009). Mobile-Friendly Test – Google Search Console. [online] Google.com. Available at: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly.
  1. Backlinko. (n.d.). What are Backlinks? And How to Build Them in 2020. [online] Available at: https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/backlinks/.
  1. Backlinko. (2019). 17 Ways to Improve SEO Rankings in 2021. [online] Available at: https://backlinko.com/improve-your-seo.

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