If you have a website and want to know how to rank it in 2023, then you’ll want to pay special attention to the tips listed here. Google’s updates have shaped the way websites are ranked these days with a large emphasis on the user experience.
Google states that its mission is to display the most accurate and relevant information when a user performs a search. Therefore, it will benefit you to learn what Google considers necessary for search engine ranking.
High-Quality Content is a Top Priority
The top priority is quality of content. Gone are the days when you could put up a one-page affiliate site with mostly ads and short articles of 350 words.
Google considers this thin content and of low quality. To pass their strict standards, content should be much longer and provide something of value to the reader. It must serve a purpose or be useful to the person reading it.
Accurate and Relevant
The second requirement is that it must be relevant. People try and rank for specific keywords, but those keywords need to match the content and the topic of the site. Don’t choose keywords just because they are popular, and you should select keywords and key phrases that are related to your website business and the content you write.
The search engines collect data about your site to produce accurate results and to show content that matches what the user types into the search box. The better your content is, the more people will come to your website.
An example of high-quality content would be something that:
- Tells a story
- Includes factual information, statistics, numbers
- Is interesting and engaging
- Includes links to authority sites
- Is shareable
Content that features these key points will bring readers to your website in droves.
Choose 1 – 3 Relevant Keywords
When creating content, it is better to choose one primary keyword, and a secondary keyword, as well as a related keyword, to use in your content. The outdated practise of keyword stuffing does nothing for ranking anymore. It would help if you determined which words users search to find you and focus on those.
Use your primary keyword up to 3 times throughout the content and your secondary and related keywords 1 to 2 times. Content that is a keyword -heavy is difficult to read, so use them as naturally as possible.
The best way to do that is to determine your target audience and write your content for them. Use your keywords where it makes sense to let the search engines and human readers know what your content is about.
Is Your Website, Mobile-friendly?
Statistics show that over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile devices. More people use their smartphones to search the Internet and shop. To best serve your customers and site visitors, your site should be optimized for viewing on mobile devices like phones, tablets and laptops. Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, meaning that if your site has a mobile-friendly version, it will be shown first in search results.
Google My Business
To help people find your business when they perform a local search, make sure to claim your business listing in Google My Business. Many business owners do not bother to check this to see if the information is accurate or leave it blank, which may be costing them, site visitors. Claiming your business listing helps Google locate your business contact information quickly when a user close to your location searches for a local business.
Social Signals
Creating a presence on social media does not boost your ranking directly, but forming relationships and providing helpful, useful content will get people in your network to visit your website, which does help your ranking. A lot of business owners don’t bother with social media, but they’re overlooking a large source of website traffic. If you find groups in your niche and regularly contribute meaningful content, you will see a rise in your site traffic. Do not spam anyone by sending messages to people trying to sell them on your product or service, that has the opposite effect. But if you let people know you’re there, the interested ones will find you.
Link Building
Link Building has done right can help you increase your website ranking. This does not mean spammy links to link farms or blogs that are not related to your niche. Google ranks your website (partially) by the number of sites linking to it, as well as other factors such as quality of content, relevancy, how long it has been on the Internet, and other factors that Google will not divulge.
How Do You Build Links That Count?
There are good ways to build links and bad ways to make links. Anything from low quality or low authority sites are bad links. Purchasing links is terrible, as well as those that you trade with other websites (link exchanges).
This does not mean that you cannot link to other authority websites; it just means the links must be from a high-quality source. One way to get links is to gain guest posts from high authority websites. This is entirely ethical and acceptable to search engines. You can find these sites yourself and contact them about guest posting, or pay for professional guest posting services like these:
Ranking your website in 2023 is going to require a bit more work due to the changes in the Google algorithm. It is not as easy as it was years ago. Still, the improvements those changes have made increased the quality of information available on the Internet and allows websites that excel in the areas mentioned above to rise to the top of search results.