Picture this: you just created the world’s best compilation of recipes, but not just any recipes, Christmas cookie recipes. That’s right, you’ve crafted a list of everything from the classic snickerdoodles to the ones that turn your mouth (and entire kitchen) green to the delicacies they only have on the finest dessert menus. Your page looks great too; lots of red accents, the perfect font, and a heading and title image that would catch anyone’s eye. Now your only issue is, how do you get people’s eyes to your page? As much as we would all love to think we are diggers and will search through Google results endlessly to find the best of the best of what we are looking for, most of us have found “the one” by the bottom of the first page of results. Which makes sense; Google’s job is to try to show us what we are looking for as quickly as possible. But once you have what the reader is looking for, how do you make sure your site will have an optimal ranking? Below I’ve listed four great ways to increase your website’s ranking, and ensure your Christmas cookie brilliance is being seen by the largest possible audience.
- Find your best key phrase and stick with it. It’s really hard for a webpage to rank highly for more than more key word phrase, unless they are extremely similar. (For example, your webpage may be able to rank well for “Christmas cookie recipes” and “Christmas cookie ideas” but not for “holiday baking recipes” as well.) Once you have your key phrase, try and incorporate it in multiple areas on your page, including your title, heading, main body, and the URL if possible. However, be careful not to overdue it. Make sure the phrase flows naturally with the rest of the webpage; don’t create clutter or make your page appear unprofessional.
- Make it your own, literally! The more unique and original content you can include on your page, the better. If all of the recipes you included in your list can be found on five other websites as well, it is going to be a lot more difficult for your page to rank well against these others. So, maybe try creating some of your own recipes! It’s okay provide links to other webpages here and there (as long as they are quality sites as well) but try and showcase as much original, high quality content of your own as possible.
- Find some friends (or fans)! The more external webpages you can get to provide links to your webpage, the more legitimate your website will appear. Having other credible websites providing links to your page increases the perceived quality of your website, which in turn increases your ranking. So get some of your friends (who enjoy baking and blogging as much as you do) to try out your recipes and provide the links to them on their websites. Not only is this on its own giving your webpages more exposure, but it is increasing your chances of making it to that first page of search results.
- Be patient, higher rankings don’t always happen overnight. Even if you redesign your entire webpage and become the golden child for that top search result spot, Google has made it clear that your ranking won’t change over night; these things take time. What is important is to keep making changes and never stop improving your webpages. And if one change doesn’t work, try try again!
I hope you found these tips helpful in improving your webpage. I’m a huge baker, especially around the holidays, so hopefully the next time I search for a great Christmas cookie recipe, your webpage will be at the top of my list!
References:
Price, Chuck. “5 Proven Ways to Increase Your Google Rankings.” Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Journal, 9 Oct. 2018, www.searchenginejournal.com/improve-google-rankings/246483/#close.
“Five Ways to Improve Your Site’s Ranking (SEO).” Michigan Technological University, www.mtu.edu/umc/services/digital/seo/.
Larson, Jeff, and Stuart Draper. Digital Marketing Essentials. Edify, 2014, Edify, edify.stukent.com/app/publication/d801ea3f-55b7-4374-ac5a-03d0e2cff93f/cb47ca6c-e25b-460e-a11e-acb31043218b/9360d5e9-ea3c-4674-83a9-306ae005add1/25fcd625-0453-4844-8075-d4799d62f0a4/view.
