Did you know that you can get your website keyword list on Google’s Search Console? Its a list that provides information about your website rank. Your website must have the Google Webmaster Tools code installed for your to use this tool. You can download all your keywords and the report comes with four (4) columns. Here are what the columns mean:
- Queries: A query is what a User types on Google to search
- Clicks: A click is when a User clicks on your website from Google, the User chooses your website over other websites
- Impressions: An impression is when a User sees your Website on the Search Results but chooses to click on another website
- CTR: A CTR is a click-through-rate — its the percentage of Users who have clicked on your site vs. the number of Impressions your website received. The higher the percentage, the better
- Position: This is your websites position on the Search Engines. Notice sometimes you will have position no. 1.4 this means that based on all the data centers, this is the average of your position so your position will vary between 1 and 2 on the Search Engines depending on the data centre being used.
If you are not happy with your website rank based on your keyword list, here is a quick list of things to do to help increase your visibility.
Quick Things to do to help your Rank
- Get an SSL Certificate from a Trusted Authority — getting an SSL certificate lets Google know that you are a real business because when you apply for an SSL, your business will have to get verified by a third-party vendor before you can get a certificate. This is the quickest way of informing Google that you are serious about your online presence. Report from Search Engine Land: Google to give Secure Sites a Ranking boost
- Make sure your website is Mobile Responsive — if your site has lost ranking lately, its because the latest algorithm requires all websites to be mobile responsive as mobile users has already surpassed desktop users.
- Install Schema and Open Graph Protocol — this helps spiders, crawlers and bots quickly identify elements on your website. It also helps when your pages get a lot of likes and shares on the different social medias platforms because that informs Search Engines that your brand can be trusted.
- Make sure your website is FAST! — Check your site on Google’s Page Speed tool to test the speed of your website.
- Be active on Social Media — Social Media is now part of the ranking algorithm. More shares, likes and comments will always help increase your page visibility.
These quick ways are not going to guarantee top rankings but they will help increase your position a notch or two. There are other ranking factors such as trusted backlinks, relevant content and overall Company branding, which we will discuss later on.
The good news is if we built your website, a lot of Search Engine Requirements went into it such as:
- Semantically Structured Website
- Sitemap Included
- XML Sitemap Included
- No Flash or blocking of CSS, Java or Images
- We optimized for titles and meta descriptions
- And if we built your site in the last year you can be sure its was built to be mobile-friendly and responsive
The bad news is that isn’t enough. You will need to consistently update the website with new and relevant content and Google keeps adding new requirements. We always strive to be on top of their requirements and we try our best to inform you whenever there is a new algorithm update, which most recently was RankBrain.
RankBrain’s challenge is to enable your landing pages to be click-worthy.
