Why is it important to appear among the first listed results on Google?
Before we begin, why is it important to appear among the first listed results on Google? It is simple. When you are looking for a restaurant or a specific product on Google, on which result do you click? You likely click on the first result you see. Indeed, the higher your website will appear in the search results, the more likely you will have visitors and sales opportunities. According to Digitad, Google’s first page of results represents more than 91% of all clicks. Therefore, you must not take your site’s position on search engines results lightly.
Google stood out from its competitors by offering search results based on relevance, not alphabetical order. Therefore, if you want to improve your website position in the search results, you need to have a credible site with relevant content. Do not forget that you are competing with millions of other websites. You must show that you are better than the others. For this reason, search engine optimization (SEO) is that important and essential to optimize your website for Google.
How to improve your position in search results?
If you just launched your website, it may appear far in the search results. It is normal, Google does not know your site yet, and this search engine prioritizes older websites. Here are a few tips on how you can improve your search results position.
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Are you using the right keywords?
When someone searches for something on Google, they use specific keywords. Do you know the keywords your target audience would use? Start by searching (you can surely look for keywords and questions on Google to see the results) and use these popular keywords at different places on your site (titles, texts, meta descriptions, etc). If you do not know where to start, here is an article that explains how to choose the right keywords for your website.
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Did you add relevant title tags to your website?
Google is a powerful search engine; however, it is still a robot. If you do not explain what your site is about, Google cannot guess it. A way you can help it understand the main theme of your website is to add a title tag to your web pages. Title tags are the title of the pages and have less than 60 characters. On search engines results, they appear in blue. It is also one of the places we should find your most important keywords.
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Did you add relevant meta descriptions to your website?
Meta descriptions, as its name suggests, are the description of the pages of your site. On the search results page, they appear as the description under the title tags. It is also a place where we should find your most important keywords. Meta description can have up to 250 characters. These descriptions are a summary of your web pages.
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Did you take the time to add header tags (H1)?
Once again, it is important to mention that Google likes websites that are well structured and where the content follows a certain logic. You can add a main title per page (header tag H1) to tell Google it is the most important title of this section. On WebSelf, you only need to click on a title and check the Main title box to be considered as the header tag.
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Are there links to your website?
Relevance and authority are two important points of reference for Google. This search engine will find positive to see that they are many links to your website. It means that you have a site with content of quality and authority. To know more about this topic, we invite you to read this article: How to get links to your website. The more there will be links to your site, the more it will help to improve your website position in search results.
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Is the content unique and relevant?
As we mentioned earlier, when you create a website, it competes with all other sites. You then need content of great quality. Moreover, make sure to have unique content since Google will penalize copying. Also, know how to use your most important keywords throughout different website sections, and do not be afraid to have texts. The number of words required is increasing. Before, it was recommended that to write at least 800 words for a blog article. Now, the ideal length for a blog article is 1600 words, the double!
On another topic, a blog can surely help you increase the number of texts we can find on your website.
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What about the bounce rate and the time spent on your site?
When Google indexes your website, it looks at different data like the bounce rate and the average time spent. The bounce rate is simply the percentage of visitors that have seen your site but left without doing anything. The more this rate is high, the more it will tell Google that your website did not meet the visitors’ expectations. This will penalize you. Similarly, Google will also analyze the average time spent on your site. The more the time lasts, the more it will be relevant to this search engine.
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Improve your site loading speed
You might have added many elements like pictures and videos during the creation of your site. This can have a direct impact on your website’s loading speed and its position on search results. The faster a site loads, the better it will be for your SEO. Many tools can help you know the loading speed of your site. If your website is considered slow, you can remove non-essential elements or optimize pictures to make them less heavy, for example.
In conclusion, we recommend you note down your results. Before trying to improve your search result position, save your current position and date. Then, after every modification, wait a few days and look if there were any improvements regarding your position on search engines. It may take a certain amount of time before Google notices your chances. Remember: it is not a sprint but a marathon. To help you follow these results, you can also get a Google Search Console account. Let’s get started!