Improve your Google position easily with these 10 tips
Online visibility is vital for any business. What if I told you it’s easy to master the basics? This article will teach you 10 easy tips that directly impact your page’s Google position. Let’s get crackin’! 😁
I have no idea how Google works, teach me
Do you know how Google Search works? Good for you. Skip to the next heading
You don’t know how Google Search works? That’s okay. No one knows anything at the start. In short, this is how Google Search works:
- With automated scripts called crawlers Google explores the web. It tries finding as many pages as possible and follows links on those pages to other pages. And so on.
- The found pages are analyzed to figure out what they’re about. Google looks at text, images and video’s to do this.
- Finally all of the above is served to the naive Google visitor who just wants to know today’s weather.
Without further ado, let’s get on with those sweet easy tips!
Keyphrase density
Keyphrase density is the number of times you mention your focus keyphrase in your text, compared to the total text of that page. You’ll want to aim for a keyphrase density of 0.5% — 2.5%.
A (focus) keyphrase is the phrase you’d like your specific webpage to rank for.
Calculating your keyphrase density is straightforward:
Total number of words / Keyphrase mentiones
Make sure the calculation above always ends up between 0.5% — 2.5% for your page. Beware for far-fetched keyphrase usage to make sure that Google, and more importantly your readers, will like it.
Keyphrase in metadata
What is metadata you ask? Mozilla states the following:
Metadata is — in its very simplest definition — data that describes data. For example, an HTML document is data, but HTML can also contain metadata in its
<head>element that describes the document — for example who wrote it, and its summary.
Now that’s out of the way, Google is all about relevance. You search for “world’s best dev blog” and Google will try to find the most relevant results for you (probably this website 😇).
This relevance is based on a few things, including keyphrase usage in metadata. Google uses metadata to show your page in the search results. If your metadata isn’t any good, Google won’t show it.
Make sure you mention your keyphrase in your meta title, meta description and slug.
Keyphrase in headings
Do you read every word on this page (you should)? Or do you scan the headings to get a gist of what i’m trying to say and just roll with that? Probably the latter!
Google does something similar to that. Make sure you mention your keyphrase in an H1 and a couple of your other headings. Again: don't overdo it and make it valuable.
At least two images with keyphrase in alt attribute
Google will be a fan of you if you already did all of the above. If you’re hoping to make Google your ambassador, please read along.
You’ll want to have at least two relevant images on your page that contain the focus keyphrase in the alt attribute (and preferably even in the title attribute and file name). The alt attribute is vital, because if a visitor uses a screenreader, they also want to “see” the image.
Collect those backlinks
Backlinks are the crème de la crème of the indicators that Google uses to determine your website’s worth. If a lot of websites link to your website it must be good, right?
Collecting backlinks can be a tedious task. Publishing your blogs on other platforms is a great way to start. When you do, provide a canonical URL to keep Google happy and to prove that you are the content’s real OG.
The SEO matrix
Optimising your content for Google may seem endless and pointless. Don’t be fooled! It’s a one-time* investment that compounds over time.
*Ofcourse it’s a wise thing to revisit your older content once or twice a year and maybe add a link or two. But you know what I mean.
This blog post is based on a model that I call The SEO Matrix ⚡️. It’s a spreadsheet with all of the indicators that Google uses to rank a page.
I’m currently finalizing the spreadsheet for publishing. If you’d like to steal it from me when it’s available, sign up to my newsletter on my website. I will notify you once it’s available!
