You’re stuck. Stuck on the second, third, fourth page…
… And no matter how much keyword optimization you do, you can’t move on up.
But that’s all about to change.
Because in this post, I’ll cover 10 must-use tips to improve keyword ranking in Google.
So, let’s dive in.
How To Improve Keyword Ranking In Google
Now, these aren’t your basics tips. There intermediate to advanced level, which means they call for a bit of SEO know-how…
… But don’t let that stop you from boosting your keyword ranking in Google. Here are the 10 tips:
Now you know how to improve keyword ranking in Google. But make sure to dive into each must-use tip. Because they include commentary from SEO experts.
1. Consolidate Overlapping Page Content
Your busy creating content. Which is a good thing. But eventually, your content is bound to overlap. And when this happens, it’s better to point traffic to content that’s delivering value vs stale content receiving no visitors.
Consolidating overlapping content is an overlooked technique to improve keyword ranking in Google.
But here’s how to do it.
Analyze all the pages on your website. First highlight pages with high traffic. This is the content you’ll want to optimize for.
Then look at pages that hardly receive any traffic. This is important. Because in many instances, the content is more or less a duplicate of a higher ranking page on your site.
If a page isn’t receiving any traffic, there is a high probability it’s providing little value to visitors. And Google values a good user experience. So getting rid of pages with no substance is a good move.
Use a 301 redirect at the ht-access level for pages you plan on migriating into a relevant parent page. This will carry over any SEO juice from rather than just deleting the page.
– Jason Park, Founder, Media Captain
2. Target Page 2 Queries
If you rank on page one for a target keyword, that’s great.
But:
Optimizing content for keywords you’re ranking 11 – 20 on will deliver instant value. These are your low-hanging fruit. Here’s a two-step process for optimizing page 2 keywords.
Step One: Homing-In On Page 2 Keywords
Every month I use Search Console to find keywords my content ranks for on page two of Google (positions 11-20).
These are keywords that you should focus efforts on. Because they need the least amount of optimization to produce the greatest results by moving up only a few spaces to page one.
– Jenn Barber, Content Strategist
Step Two: Mention Page 2 Keywords Strategically
After finding content ranking for keywords that are almost on page one, optimize them again for these search queries.
You can do this by keyword mentioning, interlinking your content, or editting metadata to include your page 2 keywords. I’ve personally found the interlinking strategy to be the strongest.
– Blake Mitchell, SEO Specialist, TechWyse
3. Sound Site Architecture
Take advantage of on-page elements Google uses to rank results. And when you do, make sure you’re optimizing these elements for a target keyword.
When I want to improve keyword ranking in Google for clients, my first step is always this:
Ensure the site is architecturally-sound.
This can be as simple as checking for broken links, ensuring H1’s, titles and meta descriptions are all present and optimized.
Whilst this may seem jovial, it’s the foundations of a website. Sure, you can build a house on poor foundations, but it’s always going to be volatile.
I think the same way about SEO. You can build links to a site with poor architecture, but it’s unlikely to perform as well as one with sound architecture.
– Jason Scott, Digital Marketing Specialist
4. Instant Recognition
One way to improve keyword ranking in Google is to lower cognitive load for searchers scanning a SERP. Here’s how you can do that:
A title tag is not only a strong signal to search engines indicating the page’s content, but it also serves as the headline of your organic result.
So, help visitors recognize your result immediately. Use the target keyword near the front of the title tag.
Dave Hermansen, CEO, Store Coach
5. Search Intent
Search intent is the underlying objective behind a user’s query. And creating content to meeting that objective is going to help you rank.
Maybe you’re creating stellar content around a keyword – but if you’re creating sales content for searchers who are looking for informational content, you’ll never rank well. Because you’re not optimizing to deliver value.
See what content formats are already ranking in the top positions for your target keyword. If it’s a video, then create a better video. Because what’s already ranking is most likely what people want to see.
– Anthony Tourville, Digital Growth Specialist, Bartlett Interactive
Here’s an example of Anthony’s point:
When I run “What is talent management” using Pagezii’s free keyword analysis tool, it categorizes this query as “discovery”. This means I’m looking for information on the subject. It also indicates I’m in the early stages of the buyer journey.
Optimizing for search intent is the key to outranking sites with mega domain authority. Like Wikipedia, for example. Because if your result provides more value – AKA matches search intent the best, you’re providing a higher-quality user experience.
6. Tap into Actual Search Queries
Did you know your own search analytics is a treasure trove to improve keyword ranking in Google? When I noticed this, it was like finally seeing the matrix. Here’s the run-down on this technique:
A simple way to improve keyword ranking in Google is to optimize for actual search queries people are using to reach pages on your site.
You can find this data using Google Search Console. It’s useful over traditional keyword research because it reveals thousands of search terms that people use when searching on Google, including long-tail question-based search terms which keyword tools don’t provide. All which trigger your content in SERPs.
Knowing and understanding what search terms drive traffic to your site is a key step to improve keyword ranking in Google.
– Will King, SEO Manager, Find Me a Gift
7. Use Context Building Keywords
Google is getting better at showing results for human readers. But how?
The answer – LSI keywords.
To improve keyword ranking in Google, I always recommend targeting LSI keywords. Not only does this help improve keyword position, but it also improves your chances of either landing a featured snippet or answering a ‘People Also Ask’ question. Both of which improve organic CTR.
Also – longer, more thorough articles tend to rank better. And targeting LSI keywords is a great way to lengthen an article without keyword stuffing.
– Sam Kesseinch, SEO Specialist, Rytech
8. Analyze Content Gaps
One way to improve keyword ranking in Google is to analyze current results in top position, and then out-do them. This is a technique called content gap analysis.
Content gap analysis is a great way to kick off your content research and improve keyword ranking in Google.
If you see competitors ranking for a keyword that’s relevant to your business, you’ll want to target that keyword.
Here’s how to do it:
Start by mentioning the target keyword in on-page elements for an existing site content. If you don’t have any pages on the topic, then create new content around this keyword.
Your goal is to figure out how competitors rank in a top position for the target keyword and then create higher quality content. You can use their content as a guide to understand what Google likes, so to speak.
– John Reinesch, SEO Strategist
9. Supercharge Site Speed
If you’re into SEO, you know site speed carries weight to improve keyword ranking in Google.
Site speed has always been a ranking factor in Google, yet many sites still aren’t capitalizing on this well-known ranking factor – especially on mobile, where the most searches now take place.
There are over two million blogs posted each day, so if your site isn’t loading fast enough, your visitors will most likely resort to an alternative solution.
Google urges webmasters to get their page load time down to less than one second for mobile devices, which is fast. But even if you can’t get it that low, consider that every second you shave off reduces page abandonment.
– April Davis, President, LUMA
10. Be Specific
There are over 1 billion websites on the world wide web today. That’s a lot. So to stand out, your content has tyo youch on a niche topic.
My tip to improve keyword ranking in google is to always stay focused.
Pick a topic and create content that is 100% focused on that topic. This way, Google knows what is your page about.
Stay away from touching on many topics on a single page. This is why long-tail keyword targeting is taking off. Because long-tail keywords are usually highly specific.
– Iskra Evtimova, SEO Specialist
10 Must-Use Tips to Improve Keyword Ranking In Google
You have the techniques. Now it’s time to roll your sleeves up and start cracking page one results.
And to help crack page one, take advantage of Pagezii’s free keyword analysis tool. Just enter a target keyword and get SEO scores, search-intent match, and overall outranking difficulty for Google’s page one.
