Getting featured at the top of search results means you will get a lot of visits to your website. However, it is not an easy task to increase your SEO ranking and getting your website shown at the top of search results.
When talking about SEO most people think about the proper use of keywords but it is actually a more complex task. If you are not getting the results you want even after working diligently on the use of keywords then you will have to focus on other factor affecting the ranking of your website.
When planning to give a boost to your website ranking you need to focus on a number of things. Search engine algorithm in addition to the keywords also rates the duration a visitor spends on your website, broken links, bounce rate, pages viewed, etc.
We have listed some tips which you can follow if you want your website ranked higher in the search results
Table of Contents
1. High-quality contents
SEO ranking is also based on the time a visitor stays on your website. You can attract visitors and can make them stay for a long time by providing high quality and useful contents.
Your website ranking also increases when a user bookmarks your website. This will only happen if the user finds the information you provide usefully.
2. Loading time of your page
Most of the search engines take page loading time into account when deciding the search results ranking. No user likes to wait for page loading and they will surely stop visiting your website it takes a long time to load. This will also affect your dwell time and will ultimately reduce your website ranking.
If your website load time is long you can reduce it by using caching plug-ins, optimizing images, and decreasing the number of plug-ins. You can also work with a good web hosting provider that fits your needs the most. There are many server-side issues that can affect your website’s loading speed so having a provider you can trust to fix those issues if they come up is really important.
3. Header Tags
People will only like to read your content or information if it is well formatted. Good formatting of the contents of your website increases the overall user experience.
Header Tag of proper size could be used to divide your contents into smaller and readable sections. Keywords present in the header are also rated in the Search Engine Algorithm so you can include keywords to the header and can boost your rankings.
You can easily add header tags and keywords using WordPress.
4. Outbound links
You can add links to authority sites in your content to make your content more relevant and useful. The user can directly visit these sites and can get detailed information about that particular topic. This way you can also increase the reader’s time spent on your website.
Another benefit of doing this is that adding authority sites link to your website makes it trusted in the eye of Google and other popular search engines and they place your website high in the search rankings.
5. Adding Videos, Images, and Slideshows
Making your website look attractive plays a great role in attracting visitors. You can add images and videos to make your contents much more engaging and interactive.
According to a survey website containing videos and animation are much more liked by the users. It also sends positive signals to search engines about the website. Hence you must use them.
6. Broken links
You will surely get irritated on seeing a 404 page on clicking a website. Broken links leave a bad impact of your website in the mind of visitors.
Google, Bing, and other most widely used search engines consider these websites to be old and they started neglecting them. This can greatly affect your search rankings and above all your business. But you need not worry as there are many applications and websites which you can use to make your website free from broken links.
7. Easily Understandable content
Make sure you use words that are easy to read and understand. Using too complex words which are difficult to understand are not a good idea. This will make your visitors give up reading and they will leave your website which is definitely not what you want.
Website contents readability can be checked using the tools listed below.
- Readability-score.com
- Readability statistics
- The Readability test tool
8. Contact us page
Websites that a contact us page containing sufficient contact information are considered as trustworthy websites by Google and it places them at the top of search results. Thus adding a contact page is a great way to increase your SEO ranking.
9. Mobile optimization
Most of the people now use mobiles for accessing information. Therefore make sure your website is optimized properly on mobile phones. This will greatly increase the number of visitors.
10. Social Sharing
Social media mentions also play a great role in increasing the SEO ranking of the site. By installation sharing button you can allow a user to share your website contents.
By following these simple and easy tips you can make your website shown at the top of search results.