A robust online presence is essential, and improving your site's rank on Google Search results can be crucial to your website's success. Optimizing your site for better visibility and a higher ranking requires a thought-out strategic approach. We'd love to share five practical tips to help you boost your site's rank on Google Search, attract more organic traffic, and help stay ahead of the competition.

Tip 1: Improve Your Web Page's SEO

Improving your On-Page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the best ways to improve your Google Search rankings. It is one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve - you can optimize your page in under 5 minutes. But how do you optimize your site around target keywords?

Ensure your primary keyword is toward the beginning of your title tag. 

Google puts more emphasis on key terms that show up early in your title tag. By front-loading your title tag with relevant keywords, your title tag on Google Search will start with that specific keyword.

Create lengthy content.

Longer content tends to rank better in search engines - especially for competitive keywords! While there are times when long-form content doesn't make sense (such as a product or service description or time-sensitive information like news), aim to publish long-form content consistently. For example, this post is 985 words long.

Use your keyword two to three times on your page. 

By adding relevant terms to your page, you're letting Google know that your page is about the keywords users are searching for in their query. Don't simply stuff your content with keywords, however. Make sure your content still sounds natural while you use your keyword.

Tip 2: Add LSI Keywords to Your Page

LSI keywords, or Latent Semantic Indexing keywords, are conceptually related terms that search engines use to understand the content on a webpage. Google's search algorithms can better categorize and organize your web pages when you use related words and phrases. While Google Search doesn't primarily rely on LSI keywords, it takes them into account as part of your page to determine its overall topic and how to organize it.

In the early days of SEO, search engines would discover a page's topic based solely on the keywords they found on the page. While keyword density was critical back then, Google Search now relies on related terms and words to understand a page's content more deeply.  

For example, if you were to publish a blog post about the term "North American Geology," Google will scan your page to see if you use the term in your title tag, content, image alt text, etc. It will also review your site for related keywords, like "quarry," "rocks," "limestone," or "million years." An SEO audit will ensure you use the best semantically related terms while implementing LSI keywords.

Tip 3: Match Your Content to Search Intent

One of the newest buzzwords in SEO is "Search Intent." Google now pays attention to how people interact with your website. If people generally get what they're looking for from your webpage, your Google Search Rank will improve. The key is ensuring your page gives a searcher EXACTLY what they are searching for. 

Different types of user intent include:

• Informational

"Best team in professional baseball this year," "Strategies to grow an email list," or "What are some great ways to engage my audience?" e.g.

• Navigational

"Facebook," "Instagram login," or "InterGen contact," e.g.

• Commercial

"Movie tickets," "Farmer's markets Milwaukee," or "Best phone cases," e.g.

• Transactional

"Renter's insurance quotes," "Buy groceries online," or "Trains from MSP to CHI," e.g.

Your page must be a tight fit for what somebody is searching for. When you do, Google will want to show your site to more people and improve your search ranking.

Tip 4: Make Your Informational Skimmable

Did you know that, on average, people spend 54-45 seconds on a webpage? You have less than a minute to make a lasting impression on your website's visitors. Even though people spend more time on the internet than ever, you compete with thousands of other sites and distractions for their attention. Only the best results attain and retain engagement.

To stick out:

1. Use direct and precise language in your sentences.
2. Write in an active voice and break up the text on your page into easy-to-read chunks using bullet points and subheadings.
3. Remember to add visuals to your page to help appeal to your site's visitors.

Tip 5: Publish High-Quality Content

You've probably heard that to rank well in Google, you must "publish high-quality content." While this is true, it can be challenging to make this happen. One good question to ask yourself when determining if your content is high-quality: is this content specific, helpful, engaging, and/or unique enough that people would share it with others?

Google's algorithm is primarily based on backlinks (links from one website to a page on another website through anchor text). The more backlinks your page has (or the more sites that link to your page's content), the more important Google believes your site to be. Every backlink tells search engines that this content is valuable, credible, and helpful.

What are some of the best ways to build backlinks into your site?

• Become an important data source
• Focus on long-term content.
• Publish visual content

Improving your site's Google Search rank and having a solid online presence is vital to having a successful website. Use our tips to optimize your website and improve your Google Search rank in no time. Remember - SEO is an ongoing process, so make sure you continuously monitor your site's performance, adapt to algorithm changes, and keep working on enhancing the user experience of your website. 

 Ready to take the Next Step?  We can help!

We can provide you with custom keyword research and recommendations for how to use those keywords to help your website perform better in Google Search results.

Our interGen team members will provide you with a list of keywords related to your business that potential customers are currently using in their web searches. These keywords will help you develop content that is more likely to reach your target consumers and generate more search engine traffic.  We'll also provide you with actionable recommendations for how to tweak your current On-Page SEO.

Contact us today to see what a sample Keyword Research Report looks like.