How to Rank Higher on Google Search?

After the hassle of launching your first website, you’ll quickly find out that the struggles don’t end here. 

Now, you need to consider how to rank higher on Google Search so that your products or services can reach as many people as possible. 

If you want to learn the tried-and-tested ways to rank a website on Google the right way, keep reading. 

Why is it important to rank high on Google Search? 

Finding ways on how to improve your Google Search ranking has little to do with vanity and a lot to do with business success. Ranking high can impact visibility, customer trust, and overall digital success. 

Here are a few reasons why you should never overlook SEO and your Google Search ranking: 

1. Organic traffic and conversions

According to a report by FirstPageSage, ranking a website in the first position will generate a business CTR of 39.8%, more than double the CTR of the second position and nearly four times as much as the third position. 

This shows that ranking high on Google will drive the majority of organic traffic for a keyword to the website that’s ranked highest. Consequently, the more organic traffic you have, the more chances you have for conversions. 

2. Customer trust

Users tend to trust organic search results more than paid ads, a sentiment echoed by magazines like Forbes. As people become more digitally savvy, they exhibit more mistrust toward paid advertisements. 

So, using SEO to appear in the top positions organically signals authority and credibility to the user. It tells them you’re not just there because you have money to spare but because you’ve given people what they need.

When users see your website at the top for numerous related searches, they’ll consider you an expert and award you with trust. 

3. Competitive advantage

Since securing a top position in search results helps you mine almost 40% of all clicks on a SERP page, it also allows you to outperform competitors. When most searchers come to you for answers, it’ll leave your competitors with less visibility and influence in the field. 

By continuously optimizing your website and putting the user first, you’ll maintain this edge and set a standard for your industry. 

4. Cost-effective marketing strategy

In paid search, every click a user makes incurs a cost, thus the term PPC (pay per click). 

You’re paying a fee every time a user clicks on your ad, even if they don’t convert. According to benchmark reports, the average CPC (cost per click) for paid ads is $2.32 across industries. Even with this investment, the average CTR is 1.91%, a far cry from the lowest CTR for an organic listing on the first results page. 

On the other hand, high-ranking organic pages attract clicks at no additional expense after the initial optimization efforts. In turn, this makes SEO a sustainable and cost-efficient marketing channel. 

5. Long-term growth

SEO is a long-haul journey, not a quick fix. A poll run by Ahrefs indicates that it takes 3 to 6 months for SEO results to become apparent. This slow payoff is the biggest hurdle businesses have to overcome. 

But, if you have the chops to establish a long-term strategy that builds cumulative benefits over time, your business will generate consistent traffic, leads, and conversions, as long as the content remains relevant. 

How does Google Search ranking work?

Google operates through 3 key processes: crawling, indexing, and ranking: 

1. Crawling is the discovery phase, where Googlebots (or spiders) scan the web to find new or updated pages. They follow these links and gather content to analyze. 

2. Indexing is the organization phase, where the data gathered goes to Google’s massive database. The system examines the content for keywords, freshness, relevance, etc. 

3. Ranking is the final phase when the system evaluates the pages and determines their order in SERPs for specific queries. 

The search engine determines rankings by a set of principles that ensure relevant results. Some key ranking factors include: 

• Quality content: Does your website have high-quality, informative content?

• Backlinks: Do other authoritative websites link to your content? How many?

• Technical SEO: Is your website crawlable, fast, and mobile-friendly? 

• Keyword optimization: Do you use relevant keywords throughout your content?

• User experience: Is it easy and enjoyable for users to navigate your website?

• Schema markup: Have you made it easy for Google to understand your content?

• Social signals: How many interactions (likes, shares) does your content receive?

• Brand signals: How do users perceive your brand online? 

And many more we won’t get into here. All of these factors work together to deliver results that are accurate, timely, and relevant. 

How to improve Google Search rankings?

You can rank your website higher on Google Search by optimizing it. 

While there’s no silver bullet to getting to that coveted #1 position, there are steps you can take to inch closer to it, including: 

• Choosing reasonable keywords 
• Focusing on topics and not just keywords 
• Identifying the search and content intent 
• Targeting more keywords with existing content 
• Writing high-quality, long-form content 
• Creating meaningful visuals
• Making content easily skimmable 
• Updating your content regularly 
• Improving title tags and meta descriptions 
• Optimizing headings and subheadings 
• Creating user-friendly URLs
• Aiming for featured snippets 
• Adding a table of contents 
• Implementing structured data 
• Checking internal links and anchor text
• Focusing on the mobile experience 
• Improving page speed and CWV metrics
• Resolving crawling and indexing issues 
• Fixing broken links and redirects 
• Creating a meaningful site structure
• Getting an SSL certificate 
• Obtaining valuable backlinks
• Building your online authority 
• Checking and resolving 
• Boosting your local SEO
• Monitoring website performance 
• Being patient and waiting

Let’s go over these methods. 

1. Choose reasonable keywords

Here’s a tough pill to swallow: sometimes it may be impossible to rank a website for highly competitive keywords, regardless of how optimized it is. 

This is especially true for new sites with low domain authority. There will always be big players who’ve built up the reputation to rank for competitive keywords. 

Instead of wasting money chasing broad keywords, focus on those with lower keyword difficulty (KD). KD tells you how hard it is to rank for a keyword, with lower values representing less competition (=easier ranking). 

For example, “how to create a home workout plan for beginners” will have a lower KD compared to a keyword like “home workout plan.” 

In SEO, we call the former “low-hanging fruit” i.e. terms that will help you build authority in the beginning. You can check out the KD in the Mangools KWFinder, in this column: 

Low KD keywords (the green values) are usually long-tail (phrases, often question-based). You can find them manually, by checking Google’s autocomplete: 

The “People Also Ask” boxes: 

And related searches at the bottom of the SERP: 

Or, you can do all this in KWFinder. Input your target keyword and click “Find keywords”:

Then, sort the keyword suggestions by increasing KD to display the keywords with the lowest difficulty first: 

You can also click on “Questions” to see other long-tail keywords: 

Now, you can see that “how to plan home workout” is a great long-tail keyword as it has a KD of 33, much lower than the seed keyword’s 53:

You can also use the Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR), an SEO technique made to find underserved keywords that are easy to rank for. It’s particularly useful for new websites because it involves finding low-competition keywords with high ranking potential. 

You can find a KGR keyword by dividing the number of search results with the keyword in the title by the monthly search volume (SV). The ratio should be ≤0.25 and SV under 250. We have a blog on KGR and some concrete examples to help you with this technique. 

2. Focus on topics (not just keywords)

A single webpage can rank well for multiple keywords. The reason is that Google associates related terms with the main topic of the content. So, even if you don’t intentionally target similar keywords, Google can understand what your content is about and may display it for any related queries. 

This is called semantic search – a concept that helps Google understand the context and relationships between words. 

Using KWFinder, you can target related keywords to improve your visibility. Here’s how: 

1. Identify the topic and the main keyword that represents your topic. Let’s say you want to write about “home workouts.” Choose your location and click “Find Keywords:”

2. Check the top-ranking URLs for your seed keyword and perform a competitor keyword analysis. 

The SERP overview section in the bottom right corner shows you a list of the top-ranking pages for “home workouts.” Open the first result. 

3. Use KWFinder’s “Search by Domain” feature to analyze the top-ranking URLs for your seed keyword. Here’s our process for the second result: 

KWFinder then returns a list of secondary keywords this URL ranks for: 

Here, you discover additional terms like “workouts from home” and “routines exercise.” If you notice that competitors rank for a larger keyword, you can revise your seed keyword to target the broader term. Save these keywords into a list for future use and analysis. 

4. Examine the SERPs for each secondary keyword. Check if any top-ranking pages rank because they include extra content or are better optimized. For example, a competitor’s page might rank for “quick fitness tips” because it includes an FAQ or video tutorial. Use this to improve your own content.  

5. Use your saved list of keywords to guide your content. You can expand your page to address the intent behind each keyword, add sections on related topics, and include multimedia. 

6. Track your rankings over time using SERPWatcher to see how well your page performs for the chosen keywords. If you notice underperforming areas, make updates. 

3. Identify the search and content intent

When looking to rank a website on Google, your content should align with what users expect when they enter a query. 

Search intent can be:

• Informational: Users are looking for information or answers, e.g. how to bake sourdough.

• Navigational: Users want to visit a specific page or brand, e.g. Facebook login.

• Commercial: Users are researching and comparing products but aren’t ready to buy yet, e.g. best laptops under $1000.

• Transactional: Users are ready to purchase or sign up for a service, e.g. buy iPhone 16 Pro online.

With SERPChecker you can see what a user with informational intent expects to see in their results: 

Versus a user with transactional intent: 

Google prioritizes content that satisfies the user’s intent. When you’re creating content with a specific keyword, check the top-ranking pages to see patterns in the type of content Google likes. 

For example: 

• A keyword like “best gaming laptops” will return listicles or comparisons. If you create a product page for this keyword, you’ll fail to rank because you’d miss the user intent. 

• A keyword like “buy gaming laptop” would return online stores or product listings. If you want to rank a blog post here, you won’t hit the mark. 

4. Target more keywords with existing content

Website owners can (and should) review the existing content that’s already ranking well in Google Search. 

When you find these pages, you can further improve their performance by: 

• Identifying secondary keywords: Find other keywords your page ranks for using the step-by-step process we’ve outlined above. 

• Analyzing competitors’ top-ranking pages: Review your competitors’ top-ranking pages for those keywords. Note their structure, headings, and unique additions.

When looking for secondary keywords, you can also use Google Search Console, KWFinder, and SERPChecker. 

In GSC, you can identify the secondary keywords by the number of clicks a given page receives from those keywords and their average ranking position. Here’s how you can do this: 

• Open GSC
• Navigate to Performance > Search Results 
• Filter by a specific page/content
• Review the keywords generating clicks, impressions, and their average position
• Export these keywords into a document and update your content to target them

You can also use KWFinder and SERPChecker to check the keywords the page already ranks for and compare them with keywords that competitors rank for by using the “Search by Domain” tab. You can use this function with both your own page and competitor pages.  

You can then add and track these secondary keywords to SERPWatcher. 

In the dashboard, you’ll see all the data, including keyword rankings on the left and metrics on the right: 

Add the new secondary keywords you want to track by clicking on the “Add keywords” button at the top: 

Then, you can track your rankings, changes, and estimated visits for your secondary keywords over time. 

5. Write high-quality, long-form content

Long-form content ties into the authority and expertise aspect of Google’s E-E-A-T, a concept that contributes to the previous one about targeting multiple keywords in a single topic. 

A 2024 Backlinko study that analyzed over 11 million Google search results discovered that content covering an entire topic can positively impact rankings. 

John Mueller, Google’s senior search analyst, shared on LinkedIn that “there is no universally ideal content length.” In the end, Google cares if your page brings value, not words. By providing this value, you’ll improve your rankings, gather natural backlinks, and increase user trust. 

Let’s take a keyword like “best wireless mouse” and see the top-ranking page using the SERPChecker. 

We see that the top results are listicles with a comparison of a few different wireless mice:

The first result contains in-depth information about popular wireless mice and ranks them based on specific criteria. The content includes first-hand experience with the products, along with technical information. 

If we go to the KWFinder and run the page to find the other keywords it ranks for, we’ll see that it also targets related queries: 

You can now use these insights to create your own high-quality piece of content. Here are some tips: 

• Conduct research and explore multiple sources 
• Address search intent and tailor your content to match 
• Use studies or data to offer unique insights 
• Avoid fluff and ensure every word contributes 
• Include expert input through collaborating with professionals or citing sources
• Diversify your media with images, videos, charts, and infographics 
• Don’t rely on AI tools that provide generic or paraphrased content

Still, it’s crucial to know when long-form content makes sense, and when it doesn’t. It’s valuable when: 

• The topic is broad and needs exploration (e.g., guides, case studies, how-tos) 
• You need to target multiple related keywords 
• The audience needs in-depth information (e.g., industry/trend reports, manuals) 

If you’re creating FAQ content, listicles, product pages, or targeting complex topics that rely on images, a 3,000-word blog shouldn’t be your answer. 

6. Create meaningful visuals

Aside from writing, you can increase search engine rankings by using visuals that explain the topics you’re covering. Google recommends optimizing your images to help users who prefer visual content discover your site. 

Visual content supplements the user experience and contributes to higher rankings due to: 

1. Google Images: Google indexes images and pushes them to appear in Image Search Results. Your images can appear at the top of Google Images, even though your content doesn’t rank high in regular searches. This is especially helpful for tutorial content. 

2. Featured snippets: Google includes images in featured snippets to accompany the bite-sized information displayed, even if they’re not from the same page: 

3. Image carousels: Your content may also appear in image carousels at the top of SERPs, especially for visual-heavy content, like this: 

Here are some tips to increase your chances of appearing in these placements: 

• Use good-quality, relevant images to supplement your text 
• Optimize image file names and include the target keywords 
• Write alt text that describes the content with the target keywords 
• Submit an image sitemap to tell Google about the images on your site
• Use responsive images that suit all devices 

7. Make content easily skimmable

We hate to break it to you but… hardly anybody’s going to read your 5,000-word blog post from beginning to end. According to studies, 35% of people skim content and only extract the information that’s relevant to them. 

This means that users will only scan for key points in your content to determine if it meets their needs. 

So, instead of making your users read through lines of irrelevant text, make your content skimmable. Here are a few ways to do this: 

• Use headings and subheadings to structure your content logically and help the reader identify the sections they need. We’ll talk more about this below. 

• Break up blocks of text into smaller paragraphs of two or three sentences to avoid “walls of text” that can be intimidating for readers. 

• Highlight important points or data with bold or italicized text to draw users to them without forcing them to read the entire page. 

• Include bullet points or numbered lists (like we do here) for tips or step-by-step guides. 

• Use information boxes to emphasize insights or summarize longer sections to give readers the essential takeaways. 

• Include visual elements like images, infographics, videos, or gifs to explain complex information. 

• Add white space around your text and images to reduce visual clutter and draw users’ eyes toward the content.

8. Update your content regularly

In SEO, there’s a thing called “ fresh content.” Google considers a piece of content “fresh” if it covers breaking news, trends, or updates, as they state on their How It Works page: 

Source: Google 

The search engine introduced the Freshness Update in 2011, aiming to make search results more precise. This update came after the infrastructure changes imposed by the Caffeine Update, which allowed Google to index pages so quickly that it boosted relevant content posted mere minutes ago.

It also looks at old pieces of content that have been updated to include new information. 

This is where you can shine – update older pieces with current data to get Google to recognize your effort to maintain relevance. This is why many top-ranking pages for competitive queries aren’t brand-new but rather well-maintained resources. 

Take this blog from Hubspot as an example – it covers 2024 marketing trends (with a 2024 timestamp):  

But it was actually published in 2017 and only updated in 2024 to include new information that’s surfaced in the meantime: 

Here’s how you can ensure your content is fresh and outlives algorithm changes: 

• Audit and update your content regularly to identify gaps or outdated elements.
• Track rankings over time to notice declines that call for updates. 
• Add new data, trends, and fresh statistics related to the topic. 
• Refresh your headlines, meta descriptions, and internal links. 

A good way to see if your content is due for a facelift is by using tools like SERPChecker. Enter the keyword your content targets and look for the top-ranking competitors on the results page. 

Click on the links and try to find any information they’ve covered that you haven’t. Analyze these gaps and see how you can include them in your content by providing fresh perspectives and more details. 

9. Improve title tags and meta descriptions

Nobody will see your content if you don’t optimize your title tags and meta descriptions. They’re the first elements users encounter on SERPs and thus, responsible for bringing in the clicks. 

Research done on the effect of title tags in indexing and higher rankings reveals that “the title tag is one of the most important factors in achieving high ranking on search engine results.” Search engines use them to understand the context of your content and display your website in SERPs, like here: 

Meta descriptions, while not a direct ranking factor, summarize your content and tell Google  what the page is about. It also helps users understand what to expect by clicking – a sales pitch, an educational resource, or something else. 

If you craft these elements effectively, you can increase your click-through rates (CTR), and, in turn, rank your website higher on Google Search. Here are a few tips on how you can do this for title tags:   

• Keep them short and descriptive by limiting them to 60 characters
• Include the primary keywords on the left, near the start to signal relevance 
• Use unique titles for every page and avoid duplication 
• Include your brand name where it makes sense to encourage recognition 
• Avoid keyword stuffing and use key terms naturally 
• Reflect the page content accurately and ensure it matches user intent. 

And here are some tips for meta descriptions: 

• Aim for 150-160 characters to ensure the description fits well across devices
• Incorporate the primary keyword to match user queries 
• Use calls-to-action like “Learn More” and “Subscribe” to encourage clicks
• Tailor the descriptions to search intent 
• Be honest about the content and don’t use misleading language 
• Explain what the user will gain by clicking the link 

After writing your titles and descriptions, use the Mangools SERP Simulator to visualize how your snippet will appear on Google. It’ll help you gauge the right length, bold any keywords, and customize your view: 

10. Optimize headings and subheadings

No piece of content on your page should be a block of text. 

According to the American Psychological Association, the median attention span is 40 seconds. This means that users won’t want to exert too much energy into reading your text wall, regardless of how well-researched it is. 

But, if you format your content into sections that allow users to skim, you’re more likely to retain their attention. An easy way to do this is with headings and subheadings. These small additions help readers locate the information they need and signals hierarchy for search engines.  

To rank a website on Google, include focus keywords into your H1s, H2s, and H3s. Having the keywords in the headings improves relevancy and doubles as a ranking signal. 

Let’s take “best hiking boots” as an example keyword you want to rank for. A good heading structure for a blog may be: 

• H1: Best Hiking Boots for 2024: A Complete Buyer’s Guide
• H2: Top features to look for in hiking boots

• H3: Durability 
• H3: Comfort 
• H3: Support for long hikes 
• H2: Top picks for the best hiking boots

• H3: Best hiking boots for men 
• H3: Best hiking boots for women

Why this is good: These headings are keyword-rich, clear, and follow a logical structure. The main keyword appears in the H1 and is supported by related terms in the subheadings. 

Here’s what a badly-optimized hierarchy may look like: 

• H1: “Hiking Boot Reviews”
  • H2: “Comfort is important”
  • H2: “What we like”
• H3: “Material details for hiking boots”
• H2: “Men vs women’s boots”

Why this is bad: These headings are vague and missing crucial keywords. Plus, they’re not hierarchal, which will confuse readers and search engines. 

11. Create user-friendly URLs

An effective way to rank a website on Google is to play around with the URLs. Your URLs are a vital part of your SEO strategy, and they should be nice to look at. 

Google uses URLs to determine the relevance of a webpage. If the URL tells search engines what the page is about, it will improve crawlability, usability, and trustworthiness, all of which contribute to better rankings. 

Let’s compare these URLs: 

• example.com/how-to-cook-potatoes
• example.com/index.php?id=12345&lang=en

Would you, as a user, have any idea what the second page is about? Probably not (but if you can – tell us how!). 

The first URL tells users and search engines what the page is about. The second one is confusing and unappealing because  offers no context. URLs like the first one are more likely to rank higher in Google and, as a result, attract more clicks. 

Here are some tips on how to optimize your URLs: 

• Include your focus keyword so that you don’t leasve space for Google to misunderstand your content. 

• Don’t stuff keywords into your URL. If you’re targeting “dog food guide,” your URL shouldn’t be example.com/dog-food-dog-wet-food-guide. This is spammy and may hurt your rankings. 

• Keep URLs short to help users remember them. Aim for a URL length of approximately 50-60 characters. 

• Avoid time-sensitive elements that will become outdated like example.com/best-winter-coats-2024. If you use a time variable, your URL won’t be relevant after 2024 is over, so you’ll have to update it to stay valid. 

• Avoid dynamic parameters which include query strings like ?id=1234 or &ref=5678. These URLs don’t lend well to keyword optimization. If this is unavoidable, use URL rewriting tools to make them more user-friendly. 

12. Aim for the featured snippets

The featured snippets are a great way to improve your site’s visibility and help it rank in the top 10 or even top 5 search results, even if you don’t already have the highest traditional ranking. 

The snippet is a concise, highlighted box at the top of SERPs that directly answers a user’s query. As such, it’s a coveted position that grabs attention and can drive organic traffic. 

Google prefers direct answers to questions under the headings. It’s got a no-fluff rule that encourages answering queries directly beneath the appropriate heading, like here: 

This page has answered the question right away, so it’s earned a place as a snippet. 

This works well for questions and step-by-step processes, too: 

See how there are no lengthy explanations – the user’s looking for steps and the page is optimized to outline them. The user can get a picture of the process without digging through word salad. 

There’s one thing underpinning this shift – you always need to think about the people reading your content. Help them by answering their questions and never create content for the sake of it. 

13. Add table of contents

A table of contents (ToC) is a section that organizes the content on your page through linking to H2 and H3 headings in a page. This section is necessary for easy navigation on your page and for improving the user experience (UX). 

Besides this, it also helps Google identify relevant content and gives you a better chance of earning organic snippets with anchor links. 

For example, let’s search for “how to create a home workout plan,” a phrase we expect to produce a guide or list. Here’s what we see: 

The steps below the meta description are anchor links. You know what you can expect from this blog and you can directly go to a step that interests you: 

To create anchor links, you need to: 

1. Use anchor tags (<a name=”section”>) to define target points 
2. Link the ToC items to their sections using hash links (#section)
3. Ensure headers (H2/H3) are clear and concise (no fluff)

You can use some SEO plugins to generate your ToC as well, including: 

• Simple TOC
• Joli Table of Contents
• Easy Table of Contents
• LuckyWP Table of Contents

14. Implement structured data

Schema markup is a type of structured data that helps search engines understand your content. It makes your content more relevant to search queries and eligible for rich results. 

While there’s little evidence that implementing structured data directly increases your search rankings, a case study published by Google cites that Rakuten has increased time on site 1.5x by using schema markup, which can indirectly influence rankings. So, it’s better to have them, even if you don’t see anything tangible in your rankings right away. 

Some examples of rich schema markups include: 

1. Review schema which displays star ratings and review counts: 

2. Product schema that highlights price, availability, and offers:

Source: Google 

3. Breadcrumb schema which shows the navigation path to a page: 

Source: Google 

4. Job posting schema which lists job details in Google’s job search interface: 

Source: Google 

5. Event schema that highlights event dates and locations

6. How-to and FAQ schema which provides instructions or answers

Refer to Google’s resources for a full list of supported structured data types.

To create structured data, you can use an online generator or SEO plugin. We’ll show you how to do it with the Google Structured Data Markup Helper: 

1. First, choose the data type you want to create structured data for, paste the URL or HTML source of the page, and select “Start Tagging”. We used our FAQ page.

2. Highlight parts of the page with important information and then identify the type of information in the dropdown that appears: 

3. Provide all the information needed for your data type and review it. 

4. Select “Create HTML” to generate the page code. You can then copy and paste it into the Rich Result test to see if there are any missing fields you need to provide. 

15. Check internal links and anchor texts

Google search rankings take into account how well-connected your site is to determine where you should be in the SERPs. One way to influence this is to ensure you’re following good internal linking practices and providing rich, descriptive anchor texts. 

Internal links distribute link-juice (i.e. authority) across your website. Authority is the shiny nugget Google loves to look at when ranking pages. Some tips to interlink effectively include:

• Using descriptive anchor texts with relevant keywords 
• Linking to relevant pages and ensuring the linked page matches the content 
• Avoiding overoptimization and forcing keywords in unrelated contexts
• Linking to important pages and cornerstone content to emphasize it
• Reviewing internal linking regularly and ensuring old pages link to new ones

When linking internally, use optimized anchor texts to increase the relevancy of the linked page for the specific keywords. This is how Google will understand your content, crawl it, and index it. 

For example, this is not what good anchor text looks like: 

“For more, click here.” 

Instead, here’s what you should do:

“Learn more in our beginner’s guide to SEO.” 

16. Focus on the mobile experience

Think With Google states that over 50% of web traffic comes from mobile, and 50% of smartphone users are more likely to use a company’s mobile site when browsing or shopping. 

This tells us that a good mobile experience is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s essential. Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites, and this has been a ranking factor for a while. 

Poor website optimization can lead to higher bounce rates, reduced engagement, and lower visibility in search results. Nobody wants to deal with a weird layout they have to zoom in on – so don’t make users do the leg work just to browse your site. 

Instead, work to improve the mobile experience by following some of these tips: 

• Implement responsive design so that the site automatically adjusts the layout based on screen size. 

• Mind the page load speed by compressing images and implementing lazy loading

• Simplify site menus and use a hamburger icon for mobile navigation to avoid clutter on smaller screens

• Test touch-friendly elements and ensure buttons and links are large enough to be tapped 

• Use the same robots tags on mobile and desktop versions to ensure Google crawls and indexes the pages correctly 

• Don’t change mobile and desktop content, stick to updating the layout and design, but leave the content the same across devices

17. Improve page speed and CWV metrics

The page speed and Core Web Vitals (CWV) are pivotal metrics to boost your search rankings because they reflect the quality of the user experience. 

CWV consists of 3 measures: 

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which evaluates how quickly the largest visible content loads. It should be less than 2.5 seconds. 

• First Input Delay (FID), which assesses how responsive the site is to user interactions. It should be less than 100 ms.  

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures visual stability by tracking unexpected layout movements. It should be less than 0.1.

These metrics affect user satisfaction, engagement, and conversion rates, so Google uses them as a ranking factor. Plus, they contribute to a faster and more stable website that keeps users engaged for longer and, as a result, decreases bounce rates and increases conversions. 

Some tips to improve page speed and CWV include: 

• Optimizing images by compressing them and using formats like WebP.
• Enabling browser caching to configure your server to store static resources locally
• Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute your content across servers
• Implementing lazy loading to show visual content when it’s in the user’s viewport 
• Reducing server response time by reducing heavy plugins and databases

To check your CWV and page speed, you can use the Mangools SEO Extension, Google PageSpeed Insights, and GSC. Here’s how: 

1. To check your site with the Mangools SEO Extension, install it on your browser. Then, visit the site you’d like to check and open the extension. Navigate to the “On-page SEO” tab in the menu above: 

Then, click “Page Speed” in the menu on the left:

You’ll now see this dashboard with a breakdown of your page speed with LCP and a performance score, the user page speed experience, and a section with issues that require your attention, along with tips on how to fix them: 

2. You can also use Google PageSpeed Insights by entering your website URL in the bar and clicking Analyze: 

Then, you can review your metrics across devices and consider specific suggestions for LCP, FID, and CLS. You’ll also see if you’ve passed or failed your CWV Assessment: 

Below, you’ll see all the issues that need attention, along with instructions on how to fix them. 

3. In GSC, navigate to Experience > Core Web Vitals. Review the metrics for both mobile and desktop versions of your site

Here, you can identify which URLs have poor metrics and prioritize your optimizations accordingly. 

18. Resolve crawling and indexing problems

To increase your search engine rankings, Google must first crawl and index your pages. If it can’t do this, your content won’t have a shot at appearing in search results, no matter how optimized it is. 

Issues with crawling or indexing can block a page from being visible to users. In turn, this may reduce traffic and ranking potential. 

This is why it’s crucial to discover and address these issues early on. You can do this with the GSC Inspection tool: 

1. Open and log into GSC. 
2. Navigate to the URL Inspection Tool.
3. Enter the URL of the page you want to analyze and look for: 

• Crawl status (to confirm whether the page has been crawled) 
• Indexing status (to see whether the page is indexed) 
• Errors (other details like noindex tags, blocked by robots.txt, or server errors) 

And the Page Indexing Report: 

1. Go to “Indexing” > “Pages” in the GSC sidebar. 
2. Check the “Why pages aren’t indexed” section to identify issues. 
3. Navigate to “Settings” > “Crawl stats” to analyze how often and efficiently Googlebot is crawling your site. Keep in mind that sudden drops in crawling may indicate an issue. 

Once you’ve addressed any issues, monitor the situation to see if all problems have been resolved. 

19. Fix broken links and redirect issues

Broken links and redirect issues occur when hyperlinks on a website point to invalid destinations, either because said destinations have moved or don’t exist anymore. 

Some common issues (and ways to fix them) include: 

1. Broken links (404 Errors) happen when links point to pages that don’t exist anymore. They may also appear when you link to a page with a typo in the URL or one that’s been removed without a redirect. 

To find these, scan your site with Mangools’ SEO Extension and navigate to the “On-page SEO” tab:  

Then, head to the “Outbound links” section on the left: 

Look over the links and see whether any point to 404 pages. You can filter to see only the broken links on a page. Then, update the links to point to working pages.

2. Redirect chains happen when a link goes through multiple redirects before reaching the destination page. Essentially, they’re taking the user (and Google) for a ride before pointing them where they want to go. This wastes time and impinges on good user experience practices. 

To fix it, check out the SEO spider tool from Screaming Frog to find the problematic links, audit link redirects, and even find duplicate content. Keep in mind that the free version only allows you to crawl 500 URLs.

3. Redirect loops are links that redirect users and crawlers back and forth without resolving to a final destination, which creates an endless loop. This occurs due to poor redirect configuration and prevents users and search engines from ever seeing the destination page. 

You can use the Redirect Path browser extension to find where the redirect loop begins. There are a few ways of fixing them, including deleting cookies, clearing browser cache, disabling and then re-enabling any plugins. If all esle fails, see if any third party services are causing the issue and address those first. 

These issues are problematic because they disrupt the user journey, slow down load times, waste crawl budget, and create roadblocks for link juice to pass. When these smaller issues compound, they lead to poor usability and crawlability which can harm your rankings, as it tells Google you don’t maintain your site well. 

20. Create a meaningful site structure

Ranking on Google Search also hinges on the presence of a well-structured site. Google prefers websites that provide a good user experience, are easy to crawl, and are contextually relevant. 

Proper site structures help bots navigate and index your pages efficiently, which impacts your rankings. John Mueller, a Google Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst, said during a Webmaster Hangout that it’s advisable to create a structure with meaningful categories: 

“I’d be careful to avoid setting up a situation where normal website navigation doesn’t

work. So we should be able to crawl from one URL to any other URL on your website just by following the links on the page. If we’re only seeing these URLs through your sitemap file, we don’t really know how they’re related to each other and it makes it hard to understand how relevant this piece of content is in the context of your website.”

Considering this, you need to plan and build an SEO-friendly site structure. Here are some tips from our SEO specialist, Daniel Polacek, to help you do that fuss-free: 

• Plan a hierarchy with a top-down structure (e.g., Homepage > Categories > Subcategories > Content) 
• Keep URLs short and descriptive, don’t use URLs like example.com/page23
• Use breadcrumbs to improve navigation and give extra context to users and SEs
• Minimize deep nesting and limit your structure to 3-4 levels for quick indexing 
• Interlink tactically so that pages are at most 3 clicks away from the homepage 
• Audit your URLs regularly and remove broken links 
• Create XML sitemaps and submit them in GSC for good crawl coverage 

21. Get an SSL certificate

Nowadays, people are becoming more skeptical when browsing online due to an influx of scams. This behavioral shift triggered Google to implement and require an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate for all legitimate websites in 2014. 

SSL certificates encrypt the connection between a user’s browser and your website so that sensitive data remains private. 

Thus, HTTPS (the result of having an SSL certificate) is a signal for users and search engines that you’re a good egg. 

Google prioritizes websites with secure connections and flags those without a certificate as “Not Secure” in browsers. This tag will scare off visitors and impact your rankings. 

Here’s what the difference in URLs looks like: 

• A secure URL: https://example.com
• An insecure URL: http://example.com 

If your website’s just fresh out the oven, see if your hosting provider offers free SSL certificates or ask how you can purchase one. Don’t let it get to a point where it starts causing issues – comply with Google and build trust from the very beginning. 

22. Obtain more valuable backlinks

Backlinks – links from other websites pointing to your site – are one of the most important Google ranking factors. The number of (good) backlinks demonstrates your site’s authority in a niche. 

So, the more high-quality websites link to your content, the more Google perceives it as trustworthy. 

In a sense, backlinks votes of confidence for your content. High-value backlinks can do wonders for your organic traffic and domain authority, but only if you incur them ethically by: 

• Finding broken links on other sites and suggesting your content as a replacement. You can do this with a tool like LinkMiner by inputting a website, clicking “Find Backlinks,” and viewing the table of all backlink data. Add the broken links to your “Favorites” list, and come back to them when you’re ready to conduct outreach. 

• Write guest posts on relevant topics for another site in your niche and include a contextual backlink to your site. You’ll need to do some pitching and be patient, but here’s a short email template to help you out. 

• Find a resource page that links to helpful content in your niche. Many websites host these pages to help users find information at a glance. Contact the site owner to pitch your resource and explain why it would be a good fit for their page. 

• Publish link-worthy content, including original research, infographics, or in-depth guides. Then, promote this content across social media, forums, or with influencers and professionals in your field. 

23. Build your online authority

Ranking a website on Google Search is a result of the efforts you’ve put into establishing credibility among your audience and search engines.

A site with high authority is more likely to rank well in SERPs because it’s deemed reliable, reputable, and a valuable source of information. 

Building your authority requires efforts to earn recognition from third-party sources, which Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines emphasize. Medical websites are good examples of EEAT, particularly those that provide health advice because they show: 

• Experience: The content is written or reviewed by licensed professionals. 
• Expertise: The content is created with experts with credentials displayed.
• Authoritativeness: The site is linked to in the medical community and cited. 
• Trustworthiness: The site lists its sources, is transparent, and uses HTTPS.

So, how does this relate to businesses? 

Here are a few tips to increase your website authority: 

• Earn backlinks from reputable sites in your niche, including industry publications, news outlets, or government websites.

• Create outreach campaigns to share your content with influencers and experts who might want to link to it.

• Write guest posts for authoritative blogs that serve your target audience in exchange for backlinks. 

• Encourage and collect reviews from review platforms and respond to them promptly. 

• Share engaging content on social media that help your audience and talk about trending topics. 

• Solve questions in forums like Quora or Reddit and include references to your site when appropriate (don’t spam!).

• Add authors with credentials and include links to their professional profiles or websites.

• Use data by creating or citing original research, surveys, or case studies that others may share, like infographics or videos. 

24. Check and resolve manual penalties

Manual penalties occur when Google’s human reviewers determine that a site has violated the Google Search Essentials or is incompatible with spam policies. These penalties can negatively impact your rankings or remove your site entirely from SERPs. 

Your site can trigger manual penalties as a result of engaging in manipulative or deceptive practices, including: 

• Spammy backlinks from low-quality or irrelevant sites 
• Thin or duplicate content scraped from other sites 
• Keyword stuffing to manipulate rankings
• Cloaking to show different content to users and search engines
• A compromised site due to hacking issues 

Google states that the reason they implement manual penalties is to prevent relevant pages from getting buried under irrelevant results that have manipulated the algorithm. 

Luckily, you can easily see (and address) manual penalties in GSC. You’ll also likely receive an email notification from that alerts you about your manual penalty. Click the link in the email to visit the Manual Actions report and: 

1. Navigate to the “Security & Manual Actions” section in the left-hand menu (if you’re not there yet).
2. View your list of detected issues.
3. Expand the manual action description panel on the report and follow the “Learn More” link to see more information. 
4. Make sure to fix the issue on all pages affected. 
5. Once you’ve fixed the problem, request a review and explain how you’ve tackled the issue.

If you believe you’ve been wrongly penalized, you can follow Matt Cutts’ instructions on submitting a reconsideration request. 

25. Boost your local SEO

If you have a brick-and-mortar location, you’ll need to optimize your website for local queries, too. This will help you connect with nearby customers and increase visibility in location-specific searches. 

Usually, these searches include geographic qualifiers like “near me” or a specific city name. When users input this query, Google determines which businesses to show in local SERPs based on: 

• Relevance, which refers to how well your business matches a user’s search (i.e. if a user searches for “vegan restaurants,” Google will prioritize listings explicitly tagged as “vegan” over generic restaurants). 
• Distance, which considers how close your business is to the searcher and their location. 
• Prominence, which evaluates your reputation and visibility by factoring in reviews, backlinks, and mentions. 

For example, here’s what a “pharmacy near me” search displays for people searching from Atlanta, Georgia:  

This results page would look entirely different for someone searching in New York, as it would display local pharmacies in the searcher’s vicinity. 

To improve your local SEO, we’ve compiled a few important tips and explanations: 

• Verify and optimize our Google My Business (GMB) profile to ensure you appear in local search results and on Google Maps.

• Include accurate and consistent information, such as your business name, address, phone number, website, and category.

• Regularly update your business hours, including holiday schedules and event-specific changes.

• Use attributes to highlight aspects of your business that may be relevant to consumers, like “free parking” or “dog-friendly.”

• Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews and respond to comments to show you value and engage with opinions. 

• Add photos and showcase products in your listing, including high-quality images of your storefront, and update them regularly.

• List your business on online directories like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Yellow Pages to increase your online presence and create backlinks to your site.

26. Monitor website performance

Checking rankings and monitoring your performance won’t improve your Google Search rankings directly. 

Still, it will help you identify opportunities for optimization and react quickly to any performance issues. This will then guide you to prioritize pages that need improvement and work on ways to increase their rankings over time. 

To track your site’s performance, you can use a mix of tools like the Mangools SERPWatcher, GSC, and Google Analytics. Here’s how: 

1. The SERPWatcher helps you track your site rankings for target keywords over time and gives you insight into visibility and weak areas. Monitor your site by: 

• Logging into your Mangools account. 
• Adding a tracking project (enter the domain, the keywords to monitor, and the target location). 
• Reviewing the Performance Index of the most important rank changes:

• Analyzing daily movements and search volume trends to spot drops or opportunities for improvement. Focus on keywords that are close to ranking on the first page (e.g., positions 11-20) and optimize content targeting them. 

2. Use GSC to see data about how often your pages appear in search results, how many users click on them, and your average position. Here’s how: 

• Log into your GSC account. 
• Go to Performance > Search Results.
• Filter by page, query, or date range to see specific metrics like impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position.
• Identify pages with high impressions but low CTR and improve the titles and descriptions to attract more clicks.

3. Use GA4 to track organic traffic behaviors and conversions (key events) like form submissions, purchases, or other custom goals. Do this by: 

• Logging into GA4.
• Going to Reports > Engagement > Events to track user actions like views, add to carts, clicks, downloads, or form submissions:

• Analyzing traffic from Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and filtering by Source/Medium to see how organic traffic contributes to conversions:

27. Be patient and wait (sometimes)

“Patience is a virtue” is a quote you must embody when working in SEO, although we think it’s more of a necessity than a virtue. 

There might be a culprit for this. It’s called the Google Sandbox effect. 

This unofficial term describes how new websites need time to gain visibility in search results, regardless of optimization. It’s a temporary filter (that may or may not exist) that polices which new websites are “mature” enough to rank prominently. 

Google has never confirmed its existence, but many SEO experts have observed it, including our own SEO specialist, Daniel. He explains the Sandbox effect as an unspecified amount of time new websites have to stew until Google evaluates their quality, relevance, and trustworthiness. 

This delay prevents spammy sites from climbing rankings and taing

And it makes sense – how can Google treat you as an expert in a topic when you’ve only existed for a month or two? Your site is still a baby – why should users take your advice?

The waiting period varies, but new websites can see ranking improvements within 3-6 months after optimizations, allowing a timeframe for Google to validate your authenticity, compare your content quality against competitors, and adjust rankings. 

The effect can be frustrating, but it’s not permanent. Once your site passes this “probationary period,” you’ll start seeing steady improvements in rankings, especially if you’ve followed all the other tips until now. 

Frequently asked questions

Why is my Google ranking so low?

There are many reasons why your Google rankings are low. Since Google rankings are determined based on a few factors (signals), various aspects may weigh you down, including weak SEO optimization, technical issues, low domain authority, strong competition, outdated or low-quality content, etc.

Is it possible to rank #1 on Google?

Yes, it’s possible to rank #1 on Google, but more often than not, it will require a lot of work. The #1 spot is competitive (because everyone’s after it), so you’ll need a robust mix of relevant content that matches search intent, high-quality information, a strong backlink profile with links from authoritative websites, a great user experience on the site, and a data-driven SEO strategy targeting relevant keywords. 

How do I index my website on Google?

To index your website, you should submit your sitemap to Google Search Console via the “Sitemaps” tab. Then, inspect your URLs in GSC and request indexing. Ensure your site has a logical structure that creates a meaningful structure and focus on acquiring links from external sites to encourage crawling. 

Can I pay Google to rank my website higher?

No, Google doesn’t accept payment for organic rankings, as they’re based on algorithms that consider relevance, content quality, backlinks, and user experience. If you want to pay to rank, you’ll need to invest in Google Ads (pay-per-click), which can place you at the top of search results as paid listings clearly labeled as “Sponsored.” But, you’ll need to bid for these positions, as you likely won’t be the only website targeting these keywords. 

How long does it take to rank high on Google?

Ranking higher typically takes 3 to 6 months, but it largely depends on competition, website authority, content quality, etc. SEO is a slow process and its success depends on testing, consistency, research, and reiterating. For some websites, it may even take up to a year to see results. 

What is the most expensive Google search?

According to data from HubSpot, the most expensive Google search is in the legal industry, with a top CPC (cost per click) of $1,090 for the keyword “Houston maritime attorney.”