Everyone wants to be on the first page of Google Here are our top tips on how to make that happen.
What is your Google ranking?
Google ranking refers to where a website appears in Google search results for a specific search term. The higher up the list a website appears the better. A high ranking is vitally important in today’s business environment, as it enables your products and services to be found ahead of your competitors. Even though it seems quite trivial, Google ranking can be the difference between your business getting sales or not.
There are tools you can use to find your exact ranking for certain keywords such as Google Search Console. To give you a rough idea though, you can do a Google search for your industry and location, for example ‘Accountant Rotorua’ (not your businesses name). It is a good idea to do this search on a computer that wouldn’t have visited your website before, or simply perform the search in a private browser window. It is important to do this because Google remembers the websites you have visited before, and will sometimes display them first, which will give you an inaccurate ranking.
If your website comes up at the top of the first page, fantastic! That means your site is doing well for that particular search term. If your site does not come up as high as you’d like, check out our top tips below on how you can improve your Google ranking. and get found online more.
What you can do now to improve your Google ranking
1. Regularly update your website content
Google likes websites that are regularly updated with fresh content. This shows Google that the content is likely to be relevant, and will therefore provide the searcher with the best experience. You can do this by regularly adding new pages/articles, or editing existing content and images.
2. Write detailed and relevant titles and descriptions for your web pages
When you view Google search results, you will see the title of a page, with a brief description underneath. The technical term for this is metadata, and it often serves as your first layer of marketing online. This is because it will likely be the first time a user comes across your business online. It’s important to write good, targeted content and always try to use the maximum number of characters available. If your website is WordPress, there is a great plugin by Yoast to help you with this.
3. Get listed on local search engines and directories
It is a good idea to list your organisation with free online business directories. As well as increasing the potential of customers finding you, it also provides links from other reputable websites back to yours. While Google keeps its algorithms a secret for the most part, we know that external links back to your website is one of the most important ranking factors. The logic goes that if a number of other websites are linking to your website, it must be worth visiting. For a list of online directories, see our list of the top 10 website directories for New Zealand businesses.
4. Encourage customer reviews and testimonials
Add a testimonial page to your website and invite customers to review your business. Sign up to relevant industry review sites such as TripAdvisor – a great review site for hospitality businesses.
5. Have a presence on social media
Social media platforms offer another place for customers to leave reviews, and a way for traffic to flow to your website. At the same time these reviews are shared with many other social media users, and can lead to increased business through customer referrals.
6. Improve your website’s loading speed
The idea behind this one is simple: No one likes a slow website. Nowadays, most people will actually abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Four or five seconds may not seem like very long, but in our world of ‘now’, it may as well be a few weeks. As a result of this attitude, Google is more likely to rank fast websites higher up, as it provides a better user experience.
Remember, these are not quick fixes. Google’s search engine robots constantly search the internet for new content and updates, but it is a big place, so your changes may take some time to take affect. Practice these tips regularly to have the best chance at achieving a high Google ranking and coming out on top!
If you don’t have the ability or the time to implement the above recommendations, or would like to gain a real edge over your competitors, get in touch with us at Dubzz today to see how we can help with your Google ranking.
