Five Tips to find a new ranking for your business website on Google
The old business adage, “If you are not growing, you are dying” really needs to wither and die. (It’s an unrealistic goal in any economy, and a mentality that favours quantity over quality). However, there is merit in finding new ways to bring in new leads to keep your business sustainable, one of which is working to reach a higher ranking for your website on a search engine, such as Google.
Neil Patel, a digital marketing expert, gives the example of Ahrefs, an SEO tool and resources company. For all their internal links and backlinks, they were never able to rank at the top of Google, until they figured out what it was their users desired. As soon as they realized people were looking for a free tool, they knew to offer a free version of their product, with a chance to upgrade. Within a few weeks they were ranking at the top of Google.
New or old, if you want your website to rank higher on Google, there are some SEO industry tricks that need to be considered first.
1. Patel advises consider your user experience, first and foremost. If you are not giving your user what they desire, they will not come and find you. In the case of a business website that offers a product, such as a surveying software, or service, such as digital marketing.
2. Second, raise your domain score. Your website domain score, or domain authority, is a ranking score, measured from 1-100. The closer your score is to 100, the higher you will rank on a search engine result page, or SERP. There are several ways to improve your score:
a. Backlinks. According to Patel, the number one way to improve your ranking is backlinks. A backlink is created when one website links to another website, and the quality of that backlink is what is important.
In Patel’s example, if Huffington Post links to your website blog, service or product information, it will increase your domain score compared to if “Joe, the Plumber” links to you. However, relevancy matters, too. So, if you are a plumber, it is more effective if “Joe, the Plumber” links to your website, and even more effective if Home Depot were to find you.
3. Another way to improve traffic to your site, and therefore your ranking on a search engine is to use statistics in your content, such as blog posts. According to successful YouTubers, Jim and Ricky from Income School, people want numbers. They say “create content, but do an analysis of several stats you research online, rather than curating what is already there.
4. Unique content is another very relevant tip from Income School. Don’t be afraid to play the journalist and go collect information from the experts. A 1000-word article with a lot of fluff is less effective than a 500-word article of relevant, researched content. Like most things, better to choose quality over volume.
5. It seems obvious, but functioning links are very important. As soon as Google comes upon a 404 Error, a slow-loading page, duplicate content, or a broken link, among many things, the search engine sees it as a dead-end—not a good scenario if you want to increase your domain score.
When they say content is king, they are right. But it does matter what your content is constructed of. Like a healthy body—it’s not only about what you can see, artery health matters, too. If you can get others to link to your content, especially if it is relevant content, consider it a vote for you. You have information worth sharing, and others think so, too, and you will be well on your way to ranking higher on Google.