How to Improve Google Search Results in 5 Simple Steps

No matter what the industry or size of your business.

Any company that wants to remain competitive in the digital marketplace needs to find ways to improve their visibility online.

Oftentimes this has business owners wondering how to improve Google search results for their company.

The answer? Search engine optimization (or SEO) is one of the best ways to do this

By optimizing your site and blog content for search engines like Google, you can work to expand your reach and drive more relevant traffic to your site.

Getting you one step closer to solving your wonders of how to improve Google search results for your company.

The truth is: SEO is not a quick or short-term tactic. It takes time and consistent effort.

But the payoff is significant for those who want to reach more potential customers online.

That means that if you want to learn how to improve Google search rankings for your business, you’re going to have to work at it.

Below, we’ve put together a guide that includes 5 steps you’ll need to follow to improve your rankings on Google.

5 Simple Steps on How to Improve Google Search Results

Step 1: Start with a solid site structure.

If you’re wondering how to improve Google search results for your business, the first step is to start with a solid foundation for your website structure.

No matter how much quality content you produce, your SEO efforts will go unnoticed by Google you have poor website structure.

When your site is difficult for users to navigate, then it is probably hard for Google to “read” or crawl.

When this happens, search engine rankings tend to suffer.

To remedy this, you’ll want to ensure that your website is user-friendly. This means that it’s easy for users to access, load, read, and navigate.

And this doesn’t just mean desktop users. Your website should be responsive for all types of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Here are a few steps you can take to get started:

Conduct a technical SEO audit on your website.

If you want to learn how to improve Google search results, you’ll first need to perform a technical SEO audit of your company site.

This allows you to see where your site stands when it comes to SEO.

So that you can make adjustments to improve your chances of ranking higher on the Google search engine results pages (SERPs).

Though you can conduct a technical SEO audit for your own site, many businesses choose to work with an experienced SEO company instead.

A comprehensive technical audit involves taking an in-depth look at different aspects of your site such as crawl errors, indexing, and hosting.

A full-service audit will also include a look at different aspects of content and linking that also impact your SEO.

If you choose to work with an SEO agency, they will also provide recommendations as part of your SEO audit.

If you truly want to know how to improve Google search results for your business.

You take these recommendations seriously and develop an implementation plan to put these suggestions into action.

(A reputable SEO company can also help with implementation if you don’t have an SEO expert on your in-house team.)

A full-service SEO website audit looks at all aspects of your site’s search engine optimization.

Fix and re-write any duplicate content on your site.

Though not necessarily a technical issue, duplicate content is often related to some of the technical SEO issues that your business might encounter.

The most common duplicate content problem is having multiple versions of the same page content on your site.

For example, Google might consider the following URLs as 4 different pages with duplicate content:

•         http://www.site.com
•         https://www.site.com
•         http://site.com
•         https://site.com

You will need to resolve this issue by setting up the proper redirect rules for these URLs.

Again, this may not be something that you are able to do yourself.

If you don’t have a web developer in-house, reach out to an agency for help with web design services.

Once you have fixed these issues, you’ll also want to look at any other duplicate content on your website.

You can find duplicate content by running an audit with a tool like Copyscape.

Google tends to penalize sites that contain duplicate content, so it’s important that every page of your site content is unique.

You can use a plagiarism checker like Copyscape to easily find which content is duplicated from other sites.

When you find pages that have duplicate content, you will then need to re-write the portions that are identical or similar to other sites.

Rephrase the sentences or find other ways to communicate the same meaning.

This will help ensure that all of your site content is unique, reducing the likelihood of Google penalizing your site in the search results.

Step 2: Do your keyword research.

Many people who are looking for how to improve Google search results for their business already know about the importance of keyword research.

Strategic SEO keyword research involves finding the right keywords that your target audience uses to find products, services, and brands like yours.

Once you have a list of effective keywords, you can start creating targeted content that can appear in the search engines for relevant queries.

Google Keyword Planner is a free and effective tool for helping you identify relevant SEO keywords.

We’ve put together a few tips for how to improve Google search ranking for your company through quality keyword research:

Make a list of the most important topics that are relevant to your business.

The best place to start your keyword research to improve Google search results is to develop a list of relevant topics.

What general topics do you want to rank for on Google?

These topics can be:

• related to your product or service offerings
• important within your industry
• related to the challenges your brand solves

In addition to considering what your business offers, you may also want to think about the topics that are most valuable to your target audience.

What do they need more information on before they make a purchasing decision?

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes to consider which topics would be most appropriate as a starting place for keyword research.

Brainstorm some keyword phrases that fall into these topic categories.

Once you have a few topic categories that you’d like to rank for, it’s time to identify some general keywords that you think fall into these categories.

These are keyword phrases that you think your target customers are using to find brands like yours online.

This won’t be a final list of keywords, but it gives you a starting point for creating a list that you can research and narrow down further.

If you’re stuck, try taking a look at which keywords your company’s site is already ranking for. You can find this information using Google Analytics.

Take a look at your site’s traffic sources.

Review your organic search traffic to identify some of the keywords that people use to find your site on Google.

Research keyword search terms that are related to your list.

Now that you know a little bit more about how to improve Google search results, it’s time to get a little more creative.

In addition to this initial keyword list, you’ll also want to brainstorm some related keyword search terms that…

…search engine users might also type in to find your brand’s site.

If you’re stuck, you can once again turn to Google.

Type some of the keywords from your list into the Google search engine and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the related keywords.

You may want to take these suggestions for related keyword phrases into consideration when developing your own list,…

…(but only if they are relevant and appropriate).

Here’s what a related search list might look like for the keyword “organic coffee.”

Find additional long-tail keywords.

Now that you have some general keywords, you’ll want to mix them up with some effective long-tail keywords.

While the standard keyword phrase is 1 to 3 words, SEO long-tail keywords are longer keyword phrases that are typically more specific and contain three of more words.

By combining both standard keywords and long-tail keywords, you can work to develop a more balanced approach to SEO.

Keeping both your short and long-term goals in mind.

For example, let’s say that you are trying to rank for the term “organic coffee.”

There’s a good chance that the competition for this keyword is pretty high as there are other coffee shops and companies out there trying to rank for the same thing.

By adding in some long-tail keywords like “how to choose the best organic coffee” or “organic coffee vs. coffee” will help…

…you attract more specific traffic without all the competition.

Another important thing to note is the undeniable rise of voice searches.

This is a huge turn around from the traditional keyword typed based queries into using devices’s voice assistants.

And this transition means a lot to marketers because voice queries are different from the typical keywords we’ve been using for years now.

In voice searches, it uses natural language usually in the form of questions using long tail phrases.

See where your competitors rank for certain keywords.

One way to find out how to improve Google search rankings for your business is by keeping up with your competitors.

When it comes to keyword research, that means consistently monitoring which SEO keywords your competitors are using to reach their audience.

And, where they rank for these keywords.

Just because your competitor is using certain keywords doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the best for your business.

However, it helps to take a look at the keywords they rank for to see if there are any keyword phrases that…

…you might be missing when building your own keyword strategy.

If you find that your competitors are ranking for certain keywords that you also want to rank for.

It’s time to really get to work on how to improve Google search results.

Step 3: Start writing great content that emphasizes keywords.

Now that you have a list of keywords that you’d like to rank for.

Let’s talk about how content plays a role in how to improve Google search results for your business.

The more quality content that you have published on your site, the more likely you will be to rank higher on the Google SERPs.

Content marketing plays a vital role in your search engine optimization efforts.

If you want to learn how to improve Google search rankings, you can’t just write any content.

You need to focus on creating well-researched, well-written content that’s detailed and provides value for your readers.

This is the only way that you can get your target audience to stay and engage further once they’ve made their way to your website.

Here are just a few things to keep in mind as you start developing SEO-driven content for your website:

• Vary your content length. The 500-word blog post is no longer best practice.

  Longer content tends to rank significantly higher than short posts.

  So make sure that you vary your content length, providing both short, informative posts that are easy to consume and longer.

  More detailed articles that are comprehensive.

• Include both keywords and LSI keywords in your content.
  

  The goal when writing helpful, optimized content is not to stuff as many keywords as you can onto the page.

  Though you want to use the keyword throughout your content.

  You should also include LSI keywords (or synonyms) within the content as Google will also use these to determine the page relevancy.

• Keep readers engaged. It’s not enough to just get readers to your page.

  You have to keep them engaged if you want to increase your time on page and reduce bounce rates.

  Both of which contribute to how to improve Google search results.

  Write engaging content that provides value and be sure to include attractive visuals throughout.

  Break up the content into sections and use bullet points or numbered lists to make it easy to read.

• Tell a story. One of the best ways to keep readers engaged while providing value is by telling a story.

  Rather than making every site page or blog post read like a research article, try using customer stories and case studies to relate to your audience.

  This helps the reader better visualize how your brand can help them.

Though the quantity of your content does matter to Google, so does the quality.

For this reason, it’s important that you find someone on your team who is a skilled writer and editor to create content for your brand.

If you don’t have someone in-house, consider hiring an agency for blog writing services.

Outsourcing your blog posts ensures that you’re getting quality content without having to take time away from other vital tasks.

Step 4: Take a second look at your links.

Both internal and external linking impacts your search engine optimization.

When it comes to how to improve Google search results for your business, you’ll need to spend some time reviewing your…

…internal linking strategy as well as finding new opportunities to build reputable links back to your own content.

You can start by fixing broken links. These are links to web pages or content that no longer work.

It may be that an improper URL was entered by the person who published the content. Or it could also be due to a site page being removed.

No matter what the reason, it’s important not to ignore broken links. These can impact your search engine rankings.

You can use a site crawling tool to find the broken links and then work to fix them.

Once you’ve fixed the broken links, it’s time to work on your link-building practices.

When you link to content whether externally or internally, it’s important that you pay attention to the anchor text.

These are the words that appear as a link in the text.

It’s vital that you choose relevant phrases as anchor text. You can use target keywords within the anchor text.

But to avoid penalties from Google, you should also change it up a bit, linking other relevant phrases as well.

Building links to your site’s content and using relevant links within your content is important for…

…building SEO and improving your Google search rankings.

When it comes to link building, there is a right way and a wrong way.

While some businesses will do whatever it takes to build links to their site, these links aren’t always high quality.

And are therefore useless to their SEO efforts.

If you want to build quality links, you’ll need to start by creating content that’s worth linking to.

The better quality your content is, the more likely others will be to link to your articles within their own content.

And that’s how to improve Google search results in a cost effective way.

Step 5: Focus on on-page optimization.

On-page search engine optimization is an important part of how to improve Google search results for your company.

This involves optimizing all of the small details on each page to make sure that both Google and its users will find and love your content.

No matter how great your content is, there’s a good chance it will stay buried if you don’t focus on on-page SEO in addition to content creation.

This chart shows a nice breakdown of the different elements of both on-page and off-page SEO.

Here are a few important elements you’ll need to pay attention to as you work to optimize for on-page SEO:

Title Tag

The title tag is one of the most important factors of your on-page SEO.

It should include the keyword you’re trying to rank for, which should be placed as close to the beginning of the title as possible.

URLs

Your URL for each page should also include the keyword. Try to keep the URLs short and sweet.

Shorter URLs tend to rank higher on the Google search engine results.

Headings – H1, H2, H3

You will also need to format your content with heading tags like H1, H2, and H3. The target keyword should be in your H1, which will be your title.

You should also include the keyword in at least one sub-heading, which you will format as an H2.

Content

When it comes to your actual content, be sure to use the keyword in the first 100 words on the page.

You should also try to use images, videos, graphs, and other engaging visual content on the page.

This helps reduce the bounce rate and increase time on page, which are two important Google ranking factors.

Outbound Links

Each piece of content should contain one or more relevant outbound links to content outside of your site.

This helps signal to Google that your content is well-researched. But it also helps Google figure out what your page is about.

Internal Links

You should also link to 2-3 different pages within your own site on each piece of content.

Insert these links in logical places and make sure you are linking to relevant content on your site.

This not only helps improve SEO but offers a better user experience.

Meta Description

Each page published to your site will also contain a meta description.

This is a short description of the page content that should entice search engine users to click on your page.

This should contain the keyword while accurately describing what the page is about.

Images

For the images that you use in your content, make sure that they are optimized. The image file names should include your target keyword.

The target keyword should also be included in the Image Alt Text.

Focusing on making sure these on-page elements are in place will help you learn how to improve Google search results.

The easier it is for Google to crawl your site pages and blog posts.

The more likely Google will be to serve these pages on the search engine results page for relevant queries.

What to Do Now That You Know How to Improve Google Search Results

Now that you know how to improve Google search rankings for your business, it’s time to get started.

Don’t waste your time with quick fixes or ways to cheat the system.

If you want long-lasting and significant results from your search engine optimization efforts.

Then you need to dedicate the time and resources to improving your SEO.

The steps above are a good starting point for how to improve Google search results for your brand.

However, some companies just don’t have the time, resources, or expertise to manage their own SEO efforts.

If you need help improving your rankings on Google, it might be time to call in the experts.

At LYFE Marketing, we have a team of SEO experts that know just the answer to the question – how to improve Google search rankings?

Our experienced team offers both on-page website SEO services and ongoing monthly SEO management services for business of all sizes.

From a variety of industries.

When you’re ready to get started, get in touch with us or tell us a little more about your business here, and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.