How to rank your new site on Google.

 

How to rank your new site on Google

Before you do anything, you need the right mindset – you want your website to appear when someone googles for keywords related to your niche, business, products or services.

For this, you need to optimize your site, so Google considers it high-quality and worth ranking your site on the top. This is what SEO (search engine optimization) is all about.

Having a new website and a good SEO strategy means you can start off on the right foot.

Step 1: Start with keyword research

Keyword research is the cornerstone of SEO. You need to figure out which keywords you want to rank for – aka ‘targeted keywords’.

Start by thinking which keywords best represent your business, what you do, and what you offer?!

This can be “dog food” if you’re selling pet food, “landscaping company in Toronto” if you’re running a local business, or “hardwood furniture” if you’re in the furniture business.

But simply guessing which keyword to rank for usually isn’t the best way to go. Yes, that’s an excellent approach to generate keyword ‘ideas’, but you need to analyze the search volume and competition of those keywords.

This will help you estimate the keyword popularity and how difficult it would be to rank.

Remember, not all keywords have the same value!

Luckily, there are many tools that can help you get precise data on every given keyword.

From free tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to premium (paid) tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs.

Step 2: Optimize pages for your target keywords

Once you identify the keyword that best represents your business, has enough search volume and isn’t insanely competitive, it’s time to optimize your site around those target keywords.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Target one primary keyword for every page on your site. To avoid competing against yourself, choose unique target keywords for each page.

Optimize your home page for your general business keyword, your product/services pages around your product/service keywords, and so on. You get the picture.

This process will help Google understand your website and pages, and which search phrases to rank you for.

3. Write keyword-rich page content

Make sure your page copy is compelling, relevant and easy to read. It’s essential to include your target keyword a few times in the text.

Your page content should be keyword rich.

Avoid keyword stuffing, which is not a good practice and might even get you to penalize by Google. Instead, include synonyms and variations of your target keyword to make the text natural and readable.

Another best practice is to drop your target keyword in the first 100 words of your text so visitors and Google can immediately see what the page is about.

Also, make sure you write long (1000+ words), quality content. Longer content not only helps in adding more keywords, but it also makes it more in-depth (which Google loves) and increases the marketing potential of your page.

4. Have click-worthy title tags and meta descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions appear in the search results. Their role is to convince searchers to click through to your website.

Google likes to see high click-through rates (CTR) that’s why you need to make compelling title tags and meta descriptions to capture more clicks.

Title tags are another page element that Google looks at to learn what the page is about, which makes it another excellent spot to insert your target keyword.

Make sure your title tag is catchy and attractive; it should grab the searcher’s attention. A good strategy is to put your target keyword at the beginning of the title, so it appears more relevant, and searchers are more likely to click on your result.

Keep your title tag short (50-60 characters), so they aren’t truncated in the search results, especially on small devices.

Meta descriptions don’t directly contribute to your rankings, but they assist your titles to get those clicks. So, make sure you describe what your page is about, include your target keyword and give a good reason for users to open your page.