How To Optimise Your Website For Google SERP
Did you know that businesses or websites on the first page of Google receive 95% of overall traffic for any particular search query? This means that if you're on any other page, you'll need to fight for the small 5% who stray past the first page!
So, it's pretty clear that appearing on the first page of a search engine does a lot in helping your business thrive - and not being there means that you're losing out on a lot of potential customers.
There are a few things that you can do that can help you rank better on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ultimately get you the ranking that you want.
So what are some of the things you can do to get those rankings?
1. Keywords in Title Tag: Having the right keyword in your title tag will do a lot to boost your SERP within that given keyword.
However, there are a few rules to remember:
a. You shouldn't repeat your keyword in your title tag, or you may be penalised.
b. You should stay within the 65-character limit, as anything after that can't be seen and doesn't count.
c. Long tail keywords are effective, as these have lower competition, and despite typically low search volumes, often bring you quality leads.
2. Keep your website mobile friendly: Either choose a mobile responsive template or have a professional website developer create a mobile responsive design for your business.
3. Optimise for local search: There are so many people these days that enter a simple search of something similar to, 'hotels near me' or 'salon near me' - and it's a proven way of driving business, as these people are often looking for quick, local solutions.
Be available on the local sites, create your unique identity in the description, make the customer reviews visible, and provide your contact details and address. The aim is to make it as easy and accessible as possible for people who want your product or service to be able to find you.
4. 'Age' of your page domain: Generally, the longer your website has been around, the more 'trustworthy' it is, improving its SEO and page rank. It's more ideal to have held your domain for at least 2 years, but the longer it's been around, the better.
5. Robots.txt: This file contributes to security and privacy by not letting some pages be indexed or crawled. From an SEO standpoint, having this file is an expected component of a good website.
6. Sitemap: Sitemaps are used as a 'table of contents' for your website – and is an indicator that all your pages have been crawled and indexed. Having and submitting a sitemap indicates that you're a legitimate business/website owner.
7. Have analytics installed: Not only will having analytics on your website give you insight into the popularity of certain pages or blogs, but it is an expectation from search engines like Google that you'll have an analytics tool installed. Not having it installed can negatively impact your page rank and SEO.
While this article skims on the basics of SEO, SERPS and page rankings – there's actually a lot more that you can do to get your business on to the first page of Google. If you've reached the end of this article scratching your head and you need a professional SEO company in Melbourne to help you get to the top rankings, contact Webplanners today at (03) 9510 0717. We offer a wide range of SEO Services in Melbourne.
And if you want to improve your ranking on Google's SERP but don't know where to start, request a free SEO Audit from us!