Getting indexed and ranked by Google is essential for driving relevant organic traffic to your website. But with over 200 factors impacting search visibility, where do you start?
Follow these tips to get on Google’s radar and work your way up the search results:
1. Optimize Technical SEO
Google wants to see signals that your site is well-built and trustworthy before it will index and rank pages highly.
Start with foundational technical SEO best practices:
- Mobile-friendly: With Google’s mobile-first index, ensure site is responsive and provides a great experience on phones.
- Fast site speed: Pages should load in under 2-3 seconds. Minify code, enable compression, and optimize images.
- Secure hosting: Support HTTPS across all site pages and implement SSL/TLS best practices.
- Safe backlinks: Avoid low-quality links from spammy or suspicious sites. Disavow toxic backlinks.
- Clean internal linking: Use descriptive anchor text and avoid broken internal links. Make it easy for Googlebot to crawl your site.
- Good code quality: Validate HTML markup, ensure proper use of headings, and keep CSS and JavaScript error-free.
Nailing the technical SEO basics communicates quality and trust to Google.
2. Create Compelling Title Tags
The <title> tag is the first on-page element Google evaluates. Title tags should:
- Clearly describe the specific page’s topic
- Use attractive wording that would make searchers click
- Incorporate 1-2 primary keywords naturally
- Be under 60 characters to avoid truncation
For example:
<title>5 Essential Tips for Brewing Better Coffee at Home</title>Unique, keyword-rich titles tell Google what each page is about.
3. Write Long-Form, Useful Content
Thin, low-value content doesn’t sustain rankings. Google’s algorithms increasingly favor in-depth, comprehensive content over 2,000 words.
Conduct extensive research on topics that truly add value for readers. Provide actionable advice they won’t find elsewhere.
Include multimedia elements like images, charts and videos. Break up long sections with subheadings and bullet points for skimmability.
The more Google sees long-dwelling visitors devouring your content, the more authority your site earns.
4. Get External Sites to Link to Your Content
Google considers quality backlinks as one of the top ranking signals.
Earn contextual links from relevant websites through:
- Reaching out to sites in your niche and offering valuable guest posts
- Creating resources and tools that websites in your industry want to reference
- Securing press mentions and reviews from authoritative sites
- Engaging consistently on forums and social media and providing helpful expertise
Focus on slow, steady link building over months. Each new quality backlink helps inch rankings up.
5. Optimize Internal Linking Structure
Linking to related content on your own site helps Google discover and crawl new pages.
Some best practices:
- Link from old evergreen content to newer in-depth content
- Create navigation links between content related to a broader topic
- Link relevant product or service pages when referenced in posts
- Include links within on-page content to highlight related resources
This shows Google what pages are topically connected.
6. Implement Structured Data Where Applicable
Adding structured data markup in JSON-LD, microdata or RDFa formats helps Google understand the content on any given page.
Relevant types of structured data include:
- Product schema for ecommerce sites
- Job postings for career sites
- Events/classes for online calendars
- Reviews and ratings for businesses
- Articles for publications
- Recipe schema for food blogs
With clearer data, Google can display pages with richer result previews.
7. Create and Verify Google Search Console Property
Search Console provides data on how Google bots view and index your site.
Connect your site to Search Console, then:
- Submit new sitemaps for crawling
- Review indexed pages and fix issues
- See clicks, impressions and position for keywords
- Identify and correct indexing errors
This free tool is invaluable for understanding how Google interprets your site.
8. Publish Fresh Content Consistently
Stale, outdated sites don’t attract searchers or earn trust. Publish new content on a regular schedule.
Consider authoring detailed, useful content around these:
- Trending topics and news stories in your industry
- Questions and pain points your audience asks
- Opportunities for data studies, expert interviews, or research-backed lists
- Guest contributions from recognized partners and influencers
New, meaty content shows Google your site is actively maintained and worth ranking.
9. Promote New Content
Don’t just publish and pray. Actively promote new posts and pages to boost visibility.
- Share content on relevant social media channels
- Reach out to niche sites for potential backlinks
- Promote through email newsletters and popups on site
- Distribute press releases for high-value content
- Encourage shares via social sharing buttons
Promotion expands your reach and gets more early links/mentions to signal value to Google.
10. Monitor and Improve Over Time
Track your site’s Google rankings and traffic regularly using tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, and Rank Tracker.
Experiment by optimizing and promoting old posts. See if you can surpass competitors by updating and relinking old content.
Keep iterating your link building, content promotion, and technical optimization efforts. Getting noticed by Google is an ongoing process, not a one-time job.
Getting into the top results for valuable keywords takes persistence. But by providing genuine value to searchers, your site will steadily get on Google’s radar.
Those are the secrets to getting your site noticed! Let me know in the comments if you have any other Google ranking tips I should try.