There is nothing worse for business owners than spending ages developing a website and watching your competitors outrank you on Google. This is where it is important to determine what Google is looking for in SEO. A series of small adaptations could make a massive difference.
There are a few important questions to ask yourself when improving your SEO and getting on Google’s good side:
1. Is Google aware of your content?
Your initial problem could be that your website isn’t in the Google index. A quick “site: search” check will let you know. If it isn’t, you may not have a strong online presence through web connections. Or, perhaps Google was unable to crawl your content due to errors, blocks, or poor site structure. Change your settings so that Google can crawl essential pages but not non-essential ones like search results.
2. Are you doing enough to get their attention?
Often, content fails to rank because it doesn’t have the right keywords, catchy titles, or effective meta tags to get ahead. There was a time when sites could spam keywords for all they were worth, but that won’t get you far anymore. Be smarter with LSI keywords, natural placement, and realistic percentages.
A strong title is short and to the point, with a clear indication of the value that readers will gain from the page or blog post. You can then utilise the description tag to improve SEO on Google. A simple 300-character meta tag about the page informs Google of the content. This can then form a snippet on Google to draw more visitors in. Make each tag unique, even if they are similar pages. You can also shorten the URL to make it easier to understand. Each attempt to streamline and simplify results makes a difference.
Also, make the most of tools like Google My Business and mark up data so that Google can present this more effectively. It takes a little effort to mark up business locations, opening hours, etc., but it makes you more visible.
3. Is your content accessible to Google and human users?
Accessibility is a big deal when it comes to understanding Google SEO expectations. In recent years, this has expanded to include mobile-friendly content for all those browsing on a smartphone. But, you may need to go back to basics with a better site map and streamlined navigation.
Users want simple steps from the homepage to their desired result or to checkout in online stores. A separate navigational page can help too. Google needs to be able to read the site in the exact same way. So, use this URL Inspection Tool to see what they can see. From there, you can try other tricks like breadcrumb lists as a route back to the homepage.
4. Is the content of high quality?
There is no point in spending time on these Google SEO tricks if you don’t put the effort into your content too. Every page of information or blog post should be well-written, with enough headings and paragraphs to keep readers interested. There should be a natural flow where it sounds like it was written by a real human. In fact, it can pay off to hire a real human content writer.
5. Are you prepared to keep improving and checking your performance?
Finally, don’t assume that you can run through these checks once and be done with them. The answer to what Google is looking for in SEO can change depending on various trends and adaptations. Give yourself an audit now and then. Make the most of Google’s Search Console and keep making improvements where you can.