Ranking on Google, what’s the real story?

Marketing your small business using search engine rankings is more important than ever today in this digital age. Regarding search engine optimization, Google is king, with 4.3 billion people using the platform every day.

Maximizing visibility and getting your brand recognized means taking advantage of the organic positioning on Google by analyzing what factors play heavily into ranking high, such as fresh content and keyword usage. As a marketer, it’s essential to have an SEO strategy with a solid concentration on utilizing the tactics for improving online visibility through a higher Google ranking - ultimately delivering more eyes to see and interact with your business or products.

This is the challenge businesses face – how do they rank higher on Google? We get asked this question weekly, if not daily, so we thought we would write a guide breaking everything down.

What is Google Ranking, and why does it matter?

Let’s start by breaking down what ranking on Google means and why it matters for your business. Ranking on Google refers to how high your website appears in the organic search results when someone searches for a keyword-based query related to your business or industry. Google ranking is an important metric for determining the success of any website. Google, as the leading search engine, holds tremendous influence over how web browsers consume content. When someone searches for a keyword-based query related to your business or industry, they are likely to make their decision based on where you appear on Google’s organic search results. The top-ranking page gets the most search traffic 49% of the time, while 0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page.

That’s why gaining insight into Google ranking is critical: it determines how visible you are in the digital landscape and how much of an impact you can make. Putting effort into understanding Google ranking and taking steps to improve your overall search visibility will open up opportunities for potential growth.

What factors contribute to Google’s ranking?

Google is one of the most influential and helpful search engines, and its algorithm for determining website rankings is constantly growing and evolving. This process has become so complex and sophisticated that Google’s true ranking system is often considered a closely guarded secret. All website owners must stay up to date with Google’s ever-changing landscape to stay ahead of the game and ensure their website remains ‘visible’ in Google search results.

Here are just a few of the contributing factors:

Keywords
Keywords are an essential component of Google ranking because they help Google’s search engine determine the relevance of a particular website to a user’s query. If a website includes relevant keywords, Google can quickly recognize the content and place it higher in search results. Therefore, your content must always be meaningful without peppering it with too many keywords, or it will be penalized by Google.

Backlinks
Backlinks are clickable links from one website to another. Yet, not all backlinks are created equal - some have far more power to influence rankings than others positively. Therefore, Google suggests that marketers should focus on obtaining backlinks from reputable websites related to their own to experience the most significant benefits in terms of Google rankings.

Relevance
Google is constantly working to stay one step ahead of the game regarding understanding and anticipating user needs, which means its ranking algorithms are constantly changing. Google uses machine learning and artificial intelligence systems to analyze content and find information that might be relevant to a particular query. To stay competitive, you must also understand how Google interprets relevance so that your content can be just as attractive to Google’s algorithm.

Freshness
Ensuring your website has up-to-date, fresh content is vital for maximizing Google rankings. Google ranks websites by analyzing the content on their pages—the fresher your content is, the higher Google will rank your website. When Google sees new and original material on a web page, it provides strong signals that the information is valuable and worth sharing with others. A well-placed article or blog post can significantly improve Google rankings. Furthermore, Google recognizes timely updates as indicators of an active website that can provide visitors with regularly updated resources and knowledgeable insights for whatever topic it may be about.

Mobile-friendliness
Google made a significant change in 2019 when it shifted to a mobile-first indexing system, making mobile-friendliness a ranking factor for Google searches on desktop as well. Making sure websites are optimized for multiple platforms gives users the best search experience with Google, providing them with fresh and up-to-date content no matter what device they’re searching from.

Page speed
Google has taken page speed into account as a ranking factor since 2010 on desktop and in 2018 on mobile. Now, Google exclusively uses Core Web Vitals (CWV) to measure page speed: LCP, FID, and CLS. These signals measure the loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability of pages, helping to ensure Google ranks websites with a quality user experience at the top of its SERP. The bottom line is that optimizing your website’s page speed is essential for Google visibility.

Ultimately, ranking high on Google depends on thoughtfully using all of the factors above to ensure your website stands out.

So, how do you rank higher on Google?
The process of ranking high on google is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Savvy businesses can leverage SEO to ensure Google ranks their website highly when people enter relevant queries. A successful SEO strategy involves optimizing the front end of your website, with content stuffed with relevant keywords and the back end - such as alt text on images and links back to your website.

Businesses need to stay updated on Google’s algorithm changes and employ other tactics to obtain higher rankings on Google. However, with some effort and know-how, high Google rankings are achievable for any business looking to take its online presence to the next level.

Google’s search engine ranking can make or break the success of your site. There are a few key tips to help boost your Google ranking, such as properly structuring your site for Google crawlers, including relevant keywords throughout your content, and concentrating on building quality links from authoritative sites. If done correctly, these tips can help propel your site up Google’s rankings and give you greater visibility online.

Search engine optimization can be a daunting task.
JER Marketing is proud to have a creative team of experienced professionals working together for over twelve years. With flexible work arrangements across the United States, JER’s creative team produces exceptional services that are tailored to each client’s unique requirements.

So, if you need a helping hand ranking higher on Google, contact us today?