It has been much harder to rank content like articles and posts higher in Google compared to other search engines. Google is one of the most competitive search engines: where millions of websites compete for the highest rankings. Here are some ways you can rank your content higher in Google search results.
1. Research Keywords
Google displays results using keywords in your search query. When a query or group of keywords becomes popular to search, websites will make content that ranks high in those search results. But the problem is websites have already written about those topics and keywords. So, when researching keywords, you should find keywords with low competition (using tools like this one) that are popular enough.
You can also try predicting what keywords will become popular. (Example: if you want to rank for “Masala vs Marsala 2023”, you can write an article called “Masala vs. Marsala (2023)” but write it in 2022 to rank high the next year. Note: Your content will not be considered “evergreen content” for years to come, as it is specified to one specific year range.)
2. Never Use AI to Write Content
Never write content using generative AI. It may seem tempting to have ChatGPT write a full-length article, but they have many errors and misinformation within them. Plus, if you ask AI to write an article about a current event, it will not have enough information to supply you with an accurate article. ChatGPT says it has “Limited knowledge of world and events after 2021” to give you valid information. Bing and Google also sometimes prevent AI-written content from indexing high and even prevent it from being indexed at all.
3. Test Speed Performance
One of the main factors in getting your website indexed on Google is its speed. Especially if you run a WordPress website, speed is a major issue that makes it hard to rank high on Google. Luckily, this can be solved quite easily. If you have a website run by HTML, you can condense images to smaller formats like WebP. The same can be done with various WordPress plugins. You can also reduce your website’s number of CSS and JS files by compressing them into one file. With WordPress websites, you can also use faster themes while deleting optional plugins. You can also use Page Speed Insights to see how you can rank your website higher on Google.
4. Make Your Website Accessible
Modern-day search engines always look for websites with great accessibility features (screen readers, image meta-data, etc.). But people often overlook that this is a great way to index your pages higher. So the next time you put an image in your article or post, you should make sure to add alternative text for it. Not only is it a great accessibility feature, but it helps your images rank high in Google Image Searches and displays text if your image cannot load. Some other ways to make your website accessible are by making it readable by screen readers, adding a “Skip to content” link, and adding keyboard shortcuts for your website.
5. Fix Grammar and Fact-check
It is important to check articles and posts for grammar before publishing them. Google will never index your website properly if they have spelling, punctuation, or other grammatical errors. This can be fixed easily by using Grammar checking plugins like Grammarly or Writer. This is one of the easiest ways to get your content to rank better in Google search results.
6. Use Your Domain Name to Your Advantage
Though Google focuses more on valuable content than your domain name, search engines like Bing tend to rank websites higher with great domain names. When Masala Marsala was created in January of 2022, we started with a home page explaining the difference between Masala and Marsala. Now, by searching “Masala vs. Marsala” on Bing, you will see that masalamarsala.com ranks first using the power of its domain name.
7. Always add a Meta Description and Title
Always remember to add a meta description and title when publishing content to the web. If you never do this, Google will not know how to index your website properly, and you may rank lower for high-competition search terms. Using terms related to your topic in your meta description and title tend to rank your website higher. You end up ranking for more keyboards than before.
Additional Tips
When writing content, it’s always good to use SEO tools to analyze how your content will index on Google. Many free options can be found on the internet, but WordPress users can use Yoast SEO or RankMath to rank their websites higher. These plugins optimize your website for search results and give you tips to improve your website’s search appearance.
Cover photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash (and edited by MM Tech)