How to Get Your Website to Rank on Google

We wish there was a simple answer to this question, but getting your website to rank on Google isn’t something you can tick off a list and move on from. You can spend time optimising your website, publish a load of new content and see your rankings improve, only for things to start shifting again a few months later.

It’s frustrating, but it’s also why SEO needs to be treated as an ongoing part of your marketing rather than a one-off project.

That doesn’t mean you need to spend every waking hour worrying about Google, but it does mean you should keep an eye on what’s happening, understand where the opportunities are and keep improving the things that matter.

So, if you’re looking to improve your website’s visibility, where should you actually start?

Start with what your customers are searching for

This sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to get wrong. It’s tempting to look at the biggest keywords in your industry and decide that those are the ones you need to rank for, but a common problem is that the biggest keywords are usually the most competitive, and they aren’t necessarily the searches that are going to bring you the right people.

Start with your audience instead

• What are your customers actually searching for? 
• What do they want to know before they buy?
• What problems are they trying to solve? 
• Which searches suggest they’re actually looking for the products or services you offer?

There will probably be some obvious keywords in there, but there should also be plenty that aren’t quite so obvious.

For a B2B business, this is particularly important. The person looking for a very specific product, service or solution might only be part of a relatively small search audience, but they’re potentially much more valuable than thousands of people searching for something vaguely related to your industry.

We’d always rather see a business ranking well for the searches that matter to its customers than chasing impressive-looking numbers that don’t lead anywhere.

Don't overlook the website itself

Once you know what you’re trying to rank for, it’s worth taking a proper look at the website itself.

• Can Google crawl and understand the site? 
• Is the structure logical? 
• Are your important pages easy to find? 
• Are page titles and headings doing their job? 
• Is the site quick enough? 
• Does it work properly on mobile?

These things aren’t particularly exciting, but they’re important!

If you’re redesigning your website, changing your navigation or adding a new section, SEO should be part of that conversation from the beginning. Otherwise, you can end up with a beautifully designed website that has made life harder for search engines.

That’s not to say every SEO issue requires a website rebuild, either. Quite often, there are relatively straightforward improvements that can make a difference. The trick is knowing which ones are actually worth your time.

Stop writing blogs just because you need a blog

We see a lot of marketing plans that says something along the lines of “publish two blogs per month”. While that sounds productive, if you’re writing two articles nobody is looking for, you’ve just created two more things to maintain.

Content should start with a reason, so if there’s a question your customers keep asking, a search term you’re not currently visible for or maybe you’ve got a new perspective on a topic your industry is talking about, that’s much more useful than content for the sake of content. 

Don't forget the pages that actually make you money

There’s a lot of focus on blogs when people talk about SEO, but your most important pages are usually the ones sitting closer to the point of enquiry.

For example, if someone finds your website through Google and lands on a service page, what happens next? It should be obvious what you do and answer the questions they are likely to have.

Making sure that your customers have enough confidence to take the next step is vital. 

This is something we’ve seen with Polypipe Building Services. We have worked on SEO alongside landing-page improvements and user experience, including bringing key calls to action higher up the page and making the messaging clearer.

The result was a 122% increase in conversion rate, alongside improvements in average time on page and bounce rate.

That’s a good example of SEO working best when it sits alongside the rest of your digital marketing. Getting someone to your website is one thing but getting them to do something useful when they’re there is another.

Give search engines a reason to trust you

There isn’t a magic number of blogs you need to publish or backlinks you need to acquire before Google decides your website is trustworthy, the bigger picture is much more important. 

• Does your website demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about?
• Is your content genuinely useful? 
• Are other relevant websites talking about you? 
• Do you have evidence of your experience? 
• Are you building up useful information around the subjects you want to be known for?

For a B2B business, this is where things like case studies, technical content, industry articles, useful resources and genuinely knowledgeable blog content can all play a role.

However, it’s important to remember that you can’t suddenly manufacture years of industry expertise because you want to rank for a competitive search term. But you can start making better use of the expertise that already exists within your business.

And then there's Google itself...

Just when you think you’ve got everything figured out, Google changes something, or your competitors do, or your customers start searching differently. There are so many reasons that you might see your ranking drop, but this doesn’t mean that your strategy isn’t working!

SEO isn’t something you finish

Even if you manage to reach the top of the results for an important search, there’s no guarantee you’ll stay there. Someone else is trying to take that position, and the search results themselves are constantly changing.

We’ve taken this approach with Polydeck, where SEO sits within a wider digital strategy alongside content marketing and ongoing performance tracking. The work isn’t treated as a one-off exercise that finishes when the content launches.

And that’s really how we’d encourage any business to think about SEO, an ongoing part of your marketing.

So, how do you actually improve your Google rankings?

There isn’t a guaranteed formula, but there are some things that are worth getting right.

1. Understand your audience. Know what they’re searching for and, just as importantly, why.
2. Focus on the right opportunities. Don’t chase keywords simply because they have high search volume.
3. Get your website foundations right. Make sure your site is technically sound, easy to navigate and easy for search engines to understand.
4. Create useful content. Give people a reason to read it.
5. Look after your important pages. Your service and product pages deserve just as much attention as your blog.
6. Keep building authority. Make the expertise that’s already inside your business visible online.
7. Keep an eye on performance. Rankings, traffic and conversions can all tell you something useful, but none of them should be looked at in isolation.

Need a hand with your SEO?

If SEO is something you know you should be doing more of, but your internal team doesn’t have the time or specialist resource to keep on top of it, that’s where an outside perspective can help.

At Monitor, we work with in-house marketing teams to identify SEO opportunities, improve websites, develop content and keep an eye on what’s actually happening in search.

We’ll never promise to get you to number one overnight (and you should be wary of anyone who does), but we do support our clients in building an SEO approach that supports their wider marketing and keeps improving over time.

If you’d like to talk to us about your SEO strategy, get in touch below.