Ask any website owner or web page writer what they want most in life and they will tell you the same thing: appear in the coveted spot at the top of page 1 of Google. Ranking high on Google is guaranteed traffic since 99% of people never go to page 2, and a searcher is most likely to click on only the first two or three links. The road to the top of the Google Page 1 mountain may be tricky, yet for some websites, it appears to be a walk in the park. For others… not so much. Here’s why:
What Makes a Website Easier to Rank on Google?
Here are six ways your website can generate more SEO juices and rise up the Google ladder:
1. Are you writing high-quality content?
It goes without saying that if you’re searching for something, you want the page or article you click on to fully give you what you seek. For example, if you’re looking for the best running shoes, you will want an article that discusses comfort, speed, reliability, material, price, and more. What you definitely don’t want is an article that says, “Here’s our pick for the number one running shoe in 2024,” but lists no reasons.
High-quality content that’s well-researched, accurate, and reliable can make a huge difference in building credibility and reader retention. Ironically, posts by websites such as Reddit or Quora rank highly because you’re likely to find an answer to your question fast instead of reading through 3500 words only to find the answer in the conclusion.
2. How is your keyword research?
Keyword research is perhaps the easiest and simplest element of SEO. Predicting or researching what users are more likely to search for is a good way to be able to answer their questions. Keyword research has always been linked to good articles. You can easily guess the keywords related to a topic, even by asking yourself how you would search for that question or topic. For example, are you more likely to research “Ipswich dentists” or “Who are the dentists located in Ipswich?” So, by just adding the keywords “Ipswich dentists” several times on your page or article, it will be easier to rank and reach the user with the achy teeth.
Keyword research goes hand-in-hand with high-quality content in the sense that it will confirm or deny some of your details or claims in your pages or articles, too. Now, is keyword research absolutely mandatory? Not really, and you can get away without doing any keyword research, but why take the risk and the hard way to the top of Google when you can just add keywords?
3. How well does your website work on a mobile device?
Mobile compatibility for website pages has been talked about in digital marketing for years but it’s still very much overlooked, especially when site owners include images. Large images are a big problem when they take too long to load or slow a site down. It’s easy to make a desktop page look good because, well, you’re making it on a desktop, but how often do you switch to mobile navigation to check that nothing looks a little squiffy?
Another important point is to make sure your website looks good on all mobile devices, not just the fancy big mobiles that don’t fit in pockets. Tech dinosaurs with first-generation iPhones need to be able to see your website clearly too.
4. Is your website fast?
Speed greatly improves website traffic. You can test your website’s speed easily on GTmetrix or Pingdom. Another option is Google PageSpeed Insights, though it doesn’t really measure how fast your website is; it just checks it against a list of ideal criteria that would make the website faster. So, GTMetrix and Pingdom are your best bet!
Just like mobile viewing, you need to make sure your website works fast for everyone, not just you. You might have super fast broadband at home, but if the thousands (hopefully millions) of people who want to use your website don’t, then you need to make it faster!
5. How good is your website security?
By now, most people have HTTP or SSL and the little padlock on the browser, but sometimes you need to dig a little deeper for better cybersecurity. Protecting your website is just as important as making it, so you constantly need to check if your website is safe and secure.
The easiest way to do that is to do a Google search for SSL Checker, add your website URL to it, and you will find out if there’s anything you need to fix. It’s like going for an oil change and suddenly discovering a sensor or two that needs fixing, and just like it’s harder for your car to drag race a Prius if it has a problem, it’s harder for your website to rank on Google if it does, too.
6. User experience
Lastly, it’s all about comfort, accessibility, and ease of use of your website. Writing good, high-quality articles and pages is great, but it’s brought down if your readers can’t find them, can’t scroll down on your website, or if the text is hard to read (like dark grey text on a black background). If it’s difficult to use, it’s difficult to rank on Google, as it prioritises efficient, fast, secure, well-written websites.
What Makes a Website HARDER to Rank on Google?
Now that we know how to rank easily on Google, here are the things that can make your website less likely to rank:
1. Competition
Competition makes or breaks any business. When making a website you need to ask a few questions, like what are your competitors doing? Are you in a very competitive industry or one of the handful of providers doing what you do in a large market? It’s the big fish/small pond-small fish/big pond scenario. If you’re one of many, many people, it’s going to make it harder to rank. So, for example, if you are trying to rank a powerwashing company website and there are 50 powerwashing companies in town, it’s going to be quite difficult to rank yours. Of course, nothing is ever impossible, just harder.
An overcrowded market is even worse when the competition is already well-known. If you’re a smartphone company making Android phones, it’s going to be exceedingly hard to compete with the big leagues like Samsung. However, if you’re in a relatively smaller market like, say, car phone holders, you can dominate with marketing and SEO far more easily. An interesting thing to note is that Rolex’s website doesn’t actually rank the highest on Google for luxury watches, meaning even they can up their SEO game.
2. Bad website structure
Good websites offer good content, but they also look good. So many websites are difficult to navigate. How many times have you tried applying for a job on a company website and had to scroll down to the very bottom of the page to find a tiny, hidden “Work with us” button? So, for your own website, look to improve things like the primary navigation and menu. Would they make sense to Google?
A very common disadvantage website builders do for themselves is the tab that says “Services” at the top of websites. Most of the time, if you click on that tab, it gives you a dropdown box that lists your services internally. That sounds terrific, but wouldn’t it be easier to add your services to the primary navigation? Even better, Google will know how important these services are and give you a boost up its page.
3. Technical SEO issues
Finding the nitty-gritty technical SEO issues with your website can be difficult, especially if you’re not well-versed in SEO. To find any potential technical issues, the ideal thing to do is to download Screaming Frog for free and run it on your site. If you’re fairly new to the world of SEO, you might not find it that easy. Your next best option is to pay for a Semrush or Ahrefs subscription and look at the SEO audit. Lastly, somewhat of a last resort for technical SEO issues is Ubersuggest; chuck your URL in, and see what you need to fix. It’s not going to be your most accurate option, but if it works, it works.
4. Lack of backlinks
Backlinking is perhaps the second most famous SEO tool in the arsenal after keyword research. If no one is talking about a website and linking back to it constantly, Google will assume it’s unimportant. But there’s a huge caveat: DO NOT BUY BACKLINKS. Paid-for backlinks can be detected by search engines and their usage is punishable by penalties. Word of mouth is your best friend here, so get people talking.
An easy thing to do in the UK is to draw in your local chamber of commerce to list you in the directory, and that will be helpful. Backlinks are somewhat like the popular kid boosting a child up a bit until they are in a better social position.
5. A website’s novelty
A new website has no track record, and while having a clean slate is beneficial, new websites are harder to rank. In this sense, clients or agencies will often run a sort of background check on a site to make sure there’s no assorted past of bought backlinks and terrible stuff. In some ways, it’s like a detective digging through the website’s past.
6. Neglecting local SEO
Having the ambition to reach millions of users and readers all over the world is admirable, but if you’re not making a local impact, Google sees that and doesn’t like it. Google is a champion of local and in-context marketing. A very simple method of achieving this is by setting up a Google business profile (previously known as Google My Business) and getting listed in a few business directories connected to your area. Don’t overlook local SEO, especially with reviews.
Takeaway
Overall, ranking on Google’s first page is a tricky goal that needs a lot of research, but by using the above six strategies like using backlinks, keyword research, mobile compatibility, writing high-quality content, speed, and security, you’re on your way to the no. 1 spot. But watch out for the competitors who might have better website structure, no SEO technical mistakes, more backlinks (not bought), with mastery of local SEO and a few years’ experience under their belt. At the end of the day, your website is your website, but there are always ways of making it better.
Last Updated on November 12, 2024
