Chances are you found this article on Google. It’s the most popular search engine with 91% of all searches. Every business needs to be here, and if you’re not on Google, you’re basically off the internet.
Unfortunately, there’s no quick and easy fix to get you on top of Google’s search results page (SERP). It takes time and constant effort, but it’s doable with effective search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
Importance of Google rankings
Before we go into specifics, we need to understand why search page rankings are essential. The core mission of Google is to “Deliver the most relevant and reliable information available.” First, the web page’s ranking has to be the most relevant and reliable to a given keyword. Even if you pay for Google ads, you won’t be listed organically.
To be on top without ads is worth it. According to Fit Small Business, people click the first organic result on Google 28.5% of the time. The click rate drops sharply with the second and third positions, and they have rates of 15.7% and 11%, respectively. It means that Google is accomplishing its mission quite well, but it also means that the winner takes most of the prize.
A problem here is that no one knows how the algorithm works. Sure, updates are made public from time to time, but it’s only a fraction of what’s happening. The inner workings cannot be made public because it would defeat the purpose of Google’s core mission. Despite this, SEO professionals know some tendencies, applying them to practice.
Tips for improvement
Usability is a convenient place to start. Your webpage has to be easy for Google to notice and a good experience for your visitors. From a technical side, these are your action points:
- Add a site map.
- Get an SSL certificate.
- Optimize your website for the mobile experience.
- Improve your website’s speed. You can check it here.
- Make sure to have only working links; fix all the broken ones.
- Update your website’s metadata and use alternative text descriptions.
Google’s search engine finds a match in meaning between a given search term and the content in a website. So, besides technical action, you have to create enough content with needed keywords. Repeat them several times on every page, and use emphasis tags, such as headings, bold, and italics.
Any content won’t do – it also has to be relevant. We are past the point where search engines take spamming for legitimate information. Algorithms follow real traffic, so try to attract visitors with genuinely worthy content. Relevance changes by the user, so it’s crucial to know your target audience. Find out who and where is looking for your website the most.
Nothing shows quality better than authoritativeness. Google measures authority by counting how many other websites link to yours. These links are called backlinks, and you want to get as much of them as possible. It’s better if your website is backlinked with other high authority websites. Backlinks will bring some customers themselves and will improve your authority in the eyes of Google.
Keeping track of your position
Now we have some basic idea how to improve our Google ranking. The next thing to do is to know the position you already have. You can find this information manually by using the performance report in Google. It provides various metrics for you to analyze, and the most important of them are:
- The average frequency and position,
- Best ranking pages,
- Click-through rate,
- Mobile usage volume.
Manually gathering this data is a huge hassle, and you will need to input your findings by hand and won’t have access location, device, or browser-specific data. The solution is to use Google Search API, and it will provide you with large quantities of real-time SERP data at your fingertips.
An API for Google Search offered by SERPMaster is an ideal tool for those who want an automated scraping solution.
Get started quickly with their easy integration, and don’t bother with technical details. All is taken care of while delivering accurate, coordinate-level data. Compared to other alternatives, it’s cheap as well. You won’t need to pay for features you don’t use, and you can try it out for free.
Google Search API will allow you to send requests and receive search results. Choose your desired format (CSV, JSON, or HTML) and let a bot automatically gather the data. With this information, you can know precisely how your website ranks in Google.
Conclusion
Skill, budget, level of search competition, and many other factors contribute to how long it will take to achieve top rankings. Tips provided here can shorten this process significantly. But still, you have to be prepared for the long game. Meanwhile, many potential searches are taking place now. Don’t waste any time.
