21 Definitive Tips To Boost Your Search Rankings

12
Apr 2014

Posted by: Category:Search Engine Optimization

 

Getting in top results is not as much easy as it used to be in its previous days. 

We all know it.

However, some strategically done updates & improvements can surely lift up you website’s ranking up to the first page of SERP.

It is usually time taking procedure to get first page ranking, but with the 21 steps specified below, you will surely be able to upthrust your site rankings speedily to the first page of SERP for at least few of your targeted keywords (provided that implementation quality is kept intact).


1. Get your domain registered for longer period:

As described in a Google Patent;

Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain”.

So make sure you have registered your domain for longer period. Longer domain registration time means more trust in eyes of search engines (especially Google) and in turns, better search engine rankings compared to short-registered domains.

 

2. Smartly place keywords in META tags:

Titles starting with keywords rank better according to MOZ. However, it doesn’t mean filling the title with repeated keywords. Make sure title tag is as shorter as it can be and as relevant as possible. The same applies for meta description too. Having keywords naturally placed in your META tags increases your website’s chances of getting top ranked in search engines.

 

 3. Increase the content length:

As per a detailed research by MOZ, posts with more words, in general, have higher rankings. As per the observation, most of the top 10 search results in SERPs included posts with more than 2,000 words. So, don’t hesitate spending some money for crafting informative & in-depth content on your website/blog. Hire expert writers if required. It will surely pay-off much more than its creation costs.

 

4. Feature only original content:

Importance of original content is always intact for search engine rankings, especially for Google. Content identified as duplicate or spun will more likely be included in Google’s Supplemental Index rather than primary search results.

 

5. Reduce the page loading time:

Search engines use page loading speed as a ranking factor as it directly relates to user convenience. However reducing page loading time is not that much simple, improvement of milliseconds in page loading time can easily reduce bouncing rate by significant percents and hence improve search engine rankings. Here are few best tips to reduce the page loading time of your website

 

6. Optimize your images:

Image optimization is much more important than you can think. At our blog, we have analyzed that a significant traffic (up to 20%) is coming from image search in Google and Bing due to properly tagged images. Using keywords and relevant descriptions in images can increase direct traffic and search rankings of your website and build more visibility in search engines and hence higher search engine rankings.

 

7. Markup the important content: 

Schema markup helps search engine more precisely categorize search results and hence if you markup your website for identifiable elements like Address, Product, Author, Review etc. It will get your webpage ranked higher in search results. Haven’t you seen search results with review snippets and menu links? It is all done with schema. However it is underused technique, we have fetched many first page rankings with efficient use of schema markups. It is especially more recommended for E-commerce websites.

 

8. Remove broken links: 

Broken links signal poor site quality and hence decreased search engine rankings, so check your full website for broken links and remove or replace all broken links. Also it is one of 200 search engine signals as claimed by popular SEOs.

 

9. Reduce URL length:

URL length is also one of search engine ranking signals. Longer URLs will reduce chances of higher rankings for particular webpage. So always make sure that URLs for your website and its inner pages as shorter and relevant as possible.

 

10. Get an SSL certificate:

Google has accepted that it indexes the SSL certificates of website, which, especially for Ecommerce websites, means that your website will be given more preference over the ones without SSL certificates.

 

11. Get listed & reviewed in business directories:

Websites listed and reviewed in business directories like Yelp & YellowPages are treated specially by search engines, especially for local businesses. So getting your business listed, verified and reviewed in local business websites will significantly improve your website rankings in search engines, especially for local businesses.

 

12. Make the content more readable:

The more readable the content is, the lesser the bounce rate will be & the higher the search engine rankings will be. So always make the content over your website more readable with bullets and numbered lists, sectioned paragraphs and engaging titles. However it doesn’t directly affect your search rankings, indirectly it affects a lot.

 

13. Create and submit your sitemap:

Sitemap helps search engine thoroughly index your website and improve its visibility. So make sure you have prepared complete XML sitemap of your website and once it’s done, submit it with the webmaster tools for different search engines to get it listed. It will enable search engines easily index your website and hence rank it more properly.

 

14. Reduce the number of redirects

And finally, reduce the number of redirects for webpages on your site. Not officially accepted by search engines, but in a webmaster help video, it is claimed that too many redirects can dilute the PR & likeliness of good search ranking for a webpage. It also discourages good user experience. So better not to ignore it.

 

15. Make your website Mobile Responsive:

While it’s not necessary, it is the fact that responsive sites get more preference when searched a keyword from mobile device (& also more preference by users). Mobile device surfers are more than 20% of Internet market & hence spending some money behind a mobile responsive design does make a sense for websites looking for good search engine rankings.

 

16. Diversify your link building sources

Get links from multiple different websites, however, preferably relevant to your niche. 10 links from 10 different sites count much more for search engine rankings compared to 10 links from 6 different sites. Get the point? So diversify the inbound links, it means more trust-ability  However, stay aware, build links only from high quality sites, low quality backlinks can ruin your ranking efforts.

 

17. Create an on-site blog

Among the best possible and significant SEO techniques, this is our favorite. Creating a blog increased our website traffic and search rankings almost 3X. For even non-interesting niches, it can increase the traffic up to 200%, so go on & create a sensible and useful blog that attracts more readers & engage them, and even better if the content is share-worthy. It will surely rank few of your posts in Top 10 search results (the only condition is, it should be relevant to your business & valuable enough).

 

18. Devote your marketing efforts for Google+:

It looks like Google+s for webpages are being taken into consideration by search engines to rank the pages. In future, it may become even more important. Especially for Businesses, it works much significantly as Google Places is closely collaborated with Google+. So instead of other social networking sites, devote your best marketing efforts towards Google+ & try to build up larger communities for your website. It also gives you direct traffic as a by-product.

 

19. Create dedicated landing pages

Get attractive landing page designed for each different kind of product/service, fill it with search engine optimized content and make it engaging & appealing for your customers. A dedicated & targeted landing page will more than double up your chances to get ranked for particular keyword related to your product/service. However it costs a bit more, it will surely boost up your rankings too.

 

20. Update your website more often

The frequency of updates over your website can directly increase your website traffic. As you can see in search engine results, especially Google, fresh content is given more preference in search results, especially for speedily changing industry.

Apart from updates in content, updates in the layouts and placing of content are also significant indicators of regularly updated website. It increases the website’s preference in search engine results.

& lastly,

21. Create sensible sub-domains for different products/services:

As believed by experts (e.g. MOZ expert panel), having keywords in subdomain boost your search engine ranking & it is not much hard to have done. Get your webmaster & tell him to transfer your existing webpages to relevant sub domains. It is quite a significant update for SEO benefits.

 

If your website is striving for top search engine rankings and want to get on first page legitimately, consider buying our top-class SEO service. We offer high-quality SEO services at quite affordable price and as per your business specific requirement.

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