So, your websites not ranking well. What can you do about it? Well hopefully after reading the next few paragraphs we’ll be able to get your page into the top 10 results on the SERP. If you don’t know what the SERP is, that’s a problem but we’ll start there and try and get you caught up and put you on top.
For starters, let’s talk about the SERP. Even if you don’t know what it is, you really do, SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. All the pages that pop up when you type in any keyword or phrase to Google, Bing, or any other search engine (but let’s be honest you probably use google). Your page needs to be in the top 10 SERP results or else honestly you don’t stand a chance, after all when was the last time you went to the second or third page of google? Now cracking the code to the SERP sounds like it could be difficult, mysterious, and expensive. Luckily it isn’t!
Search engines use various means to find, rank and display websites, so once you crack this code getting your page up in the SERP ratings is very easy. There are 6 areas of a webpage that are weighted more heavily than most other parts, the URL, the title tag (title at the top of a webpage when first opened), header tags, main content, image text, and anchor text. If you’re selling a product or service, you need the name of that product or service in all of those places at least once, and in the main content you need to add it multiple times as you can within reason. Images are a very important of all pages and can make or break the overall design of a webpage. Unfortunately search engines cannot “see”, so when you’re adding images or other media to a page be sure to save the media with the keyword or phrase in the name. Using your keyword in these 6 areas is already going to give you an incredible boost in your SERP results and trying to get you to the front page. However, there is still more to do.
In order for your page to even show up in the list of SERP, the customer must first type in a keyword or phrase associated with your page. You must be strategic in what keywords you associate with your page, you want them to have high traffic, but not high enough that your page will simply disappear or not have a chance to stand out. You want to use specific words and link them to specific products instead of just assuming that people will automatically find your page off a very basic search. Longer phrases will have less traffic but if they’re done specifically can rocket your page to the top, so don’t be afraid to have some longer, more descriptive keywords for your website. Another tip from Michigan Tech University (link will be below) is be sure to update your content regularly so you can reach newer audiences continually, and if you’re updating your content be sure to also be updating your keywords and phrases! Otherwise that new audience will never find your site.
Two more major things that are easy for you to control are the quantity of your content, and the quality of your content. Googles search engine algorithms prefer pages with more content on them, all pages should have more than 100 words on them in order to get over the baseline that google has for a page with enough content on it. But don’t just throw down 101 words at random, that won’t cut it for long. Googles search engine algorithm is run by an AI named RankBrain, and it is getting much better at figuring out what pages deserves to be in the first 10 results, and what it can put on the third page without anybody missing anything. Below is a very interesting article written by a google employee who worked on rank brain, I recommend giving it a read through and try to find any other ways you can optimize your page. Make sure you spend time on your content! Draft, edit, peer review and iterate everything at least once, otherwise you’ll just be another third page of google result that very few people care about, and even fewer people ever see.
External links:
Michigan Tech University:
https://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/digital/seo/
Rank Brain Algorithm:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-algorithm-history/rankbrain/#close
