Optimizing your website to rank on the first page of Google is an ongoing battle that is constantly changing. Just as soon as you get your website to rank on the first page, Google goes and changes things up and you find your website falling 2, 3 or even 4 pages deep in the search results.
However, there are some fundamentally solid tasks you can do right now to improve your rankings and maintain your rankings on the first page of Google.
This article is going to take a look at those tasks you can do right now and provide you with monthly tasks Google loves that will keep your website showing up in the first page of search results.
Title Tag Optimization
Title tag optimization is the one thing you have to get right if you even want a chance of having your website rank on the first page of search results. The title tag tells search engines what your web page is about so it can index it properly.
Title tags are also important for the searcher as well. Most search engines only allow between 50 and 60 characters of your title tag to display in search results so you have to be very brief yet very descriptive to tell search engines what the page is about and to provide searchers with an eye catching headline.
If you have a WordPress website, we suggest using the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize your title tag and description tag. This plugin is free and makes it easy to add meta tags without having to know any coding.
Description Tag Optimization
Now that you have your title tag optimized, its time to tell searchers why they should click through to your website. The description tags is going to be your advertising copy that is directly under your title tag, or the blue clickable link, on search engine results pages.
Search engines typically display between 155 and 160 characters from your description tag on their results pages. Within this character limit you need to be able to tell the searcher why they should click through to your website.
User Experience
If you do a good job with your title tag and description tag you will initially notice a high click through rate to your website. However, if searchers are coming to your website and leaving just as fast as they got their you will notice your rankings fall significantly.
The objective of search engines is to provide the most relevant content to its searchers. If search engines notice a high bounce rate for a particular keyword or keyword phrase, it sends them a signal that says your website is not a good fit for that keyword.
So, if you notice a high bounce rate on any of your web pages, you have a couple of options. The first option is to create a new title tag and description tag that better suits what your web page is about. The second option is to create new content for the page that better suits what the user is searching for.
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization has came a long way from just words on a web page to include videos, images, infographics, calculators and so much more. Users expect more engaging content and providing them with alternatives to just text will keep them on your website longer.
On-page optimization also includes structuring header tags and semantic keywords within the on-page text. Header tags make it easier for searchers to scan a page and easily locate that initial content that they came looking for.
How To Improve Search Rankings Month After Month
In order to improve your search rankings month in and month out, you have to know what keywords users are searching that results in your website showing up in search results. The easiest way to do this is through Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is 100% free and provides website owners with the most valuable information regarding their website and searches.
When you are in Google Search Console you will notice a “Performance” tab. In the performance tab you can see a list of all the terms users searched for that led to your website showing up in search results. This tab will also tell you the position your website ranked for any given word its click through rate.
When in the performance section of Google Search Console, you will see another tab that says “Pages”. When you click on this tab you will see data that tells you how many times a specific page showed up on Google Search Console, its click through rate and average position.
To improve individual page rankings, simply click on any individual page and then click on the “Queries” tab. This will provide you with a list of keywords that were searched and led to your website showing up on Google.
From there, organize your keywords by impressions and locate the keywords that have a lot of impression but aren’t showing up on the first page. Once you have a list of keywords you can go back to your website and find ways to incorporate those keywords in your title tag, description tag and on-page.
Make it a point to go back into Google Search Console every 30 days to see how well your website is doing.
Conclusion
If you adhere to the recommendations made above we guarantee you will see your Google SEO rankings improve in the next 30 days or less. Therefore, we ask that you bookmark this page and come back in 30 days to let us and our readers know how well these tactics work for you.
