Top 5 SEO Techniques to Get Better Google Rankings
In a world with millions of websites, it’s more important than ever to get found on the web. And that means getting friendly with Google, the most-used search engine on the planet.
To do that, you’ll need to learn some simple Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
First, you’ll need to do some keyword research to see what words people are typing into Google to find sites like yours. To do this, you can get a free account at ads.google.com. you can go to Tools and Settings > Keyword Planner.
Type in some words related to your products and services to get ideas. Look at the number of searches per month and take note of the keyword phrases with the highest number of searches. Also, use long tail keywords that have three or more words in the phrase. Cut and paste a list of keyword phrases into a document and save it to use in your website posts.
Check out these simple techniques to help your site get indexed correctly in Google and even improve your rankings:
- Use headings and subheadings in the text on your site.
If your look in the code view, you’ll see H1, H2 and H3 tags in your editor. When you are composing a post, you might see them listed as Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. in the visual editor. Heading 1 denotes the most important heading, and you should put your keywords for your article in this heading. Use related keywords for other headings, and try to break up blocks of text with these headings often to help readers skim your page and to assist Google to find your keywords.
- Use your keywords at least a few times throughout the body of your post.
You don’t need to use the same keyword phrases every time. In fact, you should vary your wording. Google is smart enough to know that terms like “real estate” and “home buying” and “properties” relate to each other, and it will give you credit for all of these words.
- Use your keywords in the title of your post.
This is very important, because in WordPress, your post title will be used in the URL (web address) of your page. Google takes note of this when scanning your page for relevant terms.
- Use your keywords to name your images.
Google looks for keywords everywhere. You can also put the keywords in the image title tag, or in the caption or image description. You don’t need to go overboard, but doing this can’t hurt. And remember to vary the words you use, so the phrases aren’t exactly the same.
- Meta tags don’t really matter.
Meta tags (found in the HTML code of your website) used to be a big deal in SEO, but Google gives them little or no weight now, so don’t bother with them.
Google cares much more about the words you use in your actual post that your readers will see. In fact, Google wants you to create your content for readers, not for the search engines. But it’s still a good practice to make sure your important keywords are in the post name/heading and in the text. Everything else is gravy.
While there are several on-page SEO techniques, these are the basic ones that are most important to get listed and get ranked.
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