How can I quickly improve my website ranking and which SEO signals should be focused first?

Of course, there are many different ways of running an online promotion in Google’s organic search listing – actually, you can find myriads of at some point diverse approaches to running the Search Engine Optimization organically. Nevertheless, I personally believe that the lion’s share of currently performing website ranking SEO strategies are simply falling into something around 8-10 primary categories – depending mainly on the areas of website optimization (i.e., on-page/off-page SEO, content writing, Social Media engagement, etc.), in line with being determined with the core ranking factors used by Google itself to evaluate the overall performance of every webpage within its index. Ultimately, that means you don’t necessarily need to rush out in a desperate hope to instantly get everything in place with your website – of course, if you don’t want to be quickly overwhelmed with too much different stuff to be done, revised, tracked, and so on. In other words, I mean that you can simply focus your effort on the following issues related to website ranking & SEO potential – let’s quickly run through some primary areas of your initial focus, backed with the major things that should be emphasized, as well as the commonest actions necessary to that point. All that being said, below let’s delve into greater detail.

How to Improve Your Website Ranking with SEO Spot-Check

Step One: Test Your Site Performance

The first thing to be done is inspecting your website’s custom URL structure – simply to assure nothing can prevent Google’s search crawlers from accessing your site, or whether there are any crawlability issues causing obstacles to putting you into the web index properly. Taken in general, the main things to be done over there are usually related to providing a readable, user-friendly content body, as well as its crawlable format (i.e., all visuals like images/videos should always be embedded with the right metadata – the search engines can “read”/”understand” them without additional text explanations). That’s why, before anything else, to achieve a deserved website ranking with SEO-friendly pages – your first step is to eliminate any existing obstacles to scanning/indexing you with Googlebots.

That way, don’t forget to revise the rest of potentially arising technical considerations related to on-page SEO (i.e., over-optimized or, vice versa, incomplete/missing Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Link Text Anchors, Custom URLs, Sitemap XML, Internal Link Profile, etc.). Doing so, all you need to finally move to the next stage is simply revising every web page so that the search engines are readily able to get you indexed at ease – and without providing a crawlable and fully accessible website structure, none of the further website ranking and SEO considerations even matter. That’s it.

Step Two: Reconsider List of Target Keywords

No need to say that your web copy is actually the only thing that makes you stand out of the cutthroat-level competition ruling over the modern online search – it means that running another in-depth keyword research for uncovering some new keyword opportunities (and their long-tail variations, in particular) will never hurt you. Remember, to keep targeting the right search terms which are actually used by the lion’s share of your potential clients/buyers, your content is meant to address their main “pain points,” arising among the target audience most frequently. That way, it would always be a good idea to revise your main set of top relevant contextual keywords you’re currently using to keep the whole content body well-optimized – both your web copy itself, and the major on-page SEO elements as well. So, all you need is to try to focus the primary user intent behind the search (i.e., exactly what product/service or a certain piece of industry/business-related information they actually want to see on your web pages). 

Delve Deeper into Prospecting Keyword Opportunities

And when it comes to targeting your further content optimization efforts, I recommend handling a two-stage keyword analysis – basic revision procedure of your core keywords (per each major content category/website section), to be followed with evolving a set of secondary search terms that are closely on topic. As a result, your core content objective is to stay always up-to-date with its general business topics, in line with making all related article/posts (i.e., those created for marketing purposes – seen both directly on your own web pages, and affiliate third-party sites/blogs) feature a natural mix of purely relevant contextual keywords, their long-tail variations, as well as the rest of related LSI search terms/synonyms frequently used by the searchers to find your business website or a particular product/service you’re offering over there. Among the others, consider refining and developing your existing main list of the core target search terms with a bit more advanced online keyword research tools available in open access, such as Ubersuggest, KeywordTool.io, KWFinder, or SEMRush – and you’re done.

Step Three: Technical Side of On-Page SEO

Next, let’s quickly run through the main issues and working stuff related mainly to your site’s Search Engine Optimization directly at the on-page level. OF course, given that you’ve already got a strong original web copy & high-quality content body – then you must look fine, at least in the eyes of the users. But what about a bit more technically-related side of your website’s on-page content structure? Should you have any doubts whether everything is in place and looks crawling/indexing friendly for the major search engines (like Google itself), make sure to revise the following keyword-rich elements coming with every single web page of your site. Here they are:

• Title Tags – considering that page titles carry arguably the greatest weight in website ranking and SEO content relevancy, make sure you’re utilizing their strong potential in full (i.e., try to put your most valuable keyword assets as close to each title’s beginning as you can). At the same time, however, don’t forget to polish their look for turning your clickable headers in Google’s SERPs into maximum catchy and intriguing messages, which are really worth being clicked through.
• Meta Descriptions – take a moment to spot-check your site for any missing/incomplete or duplicate shreds of metadata. Doing so, avoid including unnecessary filler words or anything else that actually doesn’t make sense for the users (of course, a lot of big brands are “guilty” of this – but that is still not too good for them, let’s face it). Think about your Meta Descriptions as small content captions giving an enticing summary to every single web page, and each one is seen by the searchers – displayed right under their clickable titles in Google’s relevant search listings. So, instead of just copy-pasting a certain part of the related on-page content – that simply doesn’t work anymore – you should work on high-quality and only original Meta Descriptions that will offer a clear value proposition. That’s it. 
• Miscellaneous Stuff – after all, don’t forget to run a spot-check to see whether everything is fine with the rest of key on-page SEO elements. Among the others, I recommend revising your Image ALT Tags, Custom URLs, Internal Link Structure with Text Anchors – and you’re done.

Step Four: Gain Stronger Online Presence

At last, here comes an equally important area of the off-page Search Engine Optimization – and make sure you’re not underscoring a really great positive impact potentially available for every business owner, who is wise enough to proactively start building a robust online presence over there. Put simply, Social Media can become a solid base needed to get the initial foundation for all your further effort regarding stronger website authority & net positive business reputation in the industry. Ultimately, that will directly contribute your efficient website ranking/SEO promotion, in line with making it possible for your business to be strategically positioned as a truly authoritative voice in the industry. So, just make sure you’re utilizing a great marketing potential of top popular Social Media websites in full. 

Learn the Ropes

Of course, you should focus precisely on those social platforms, which are more likely to become your sure-fire mode of potential customer outreach. I mean that it’s necessary to run at least some basic research for identifying the most promising user engagement opportunities within your well-targeted potential clients/buyers – you should take a moment to have a deep delve into the main spheres of their interest, and simply play with the basic profile filters on each potentially benefiting platform trying to find the right place populated by a sufficiently vast target audience. For example, you can certainly benefit from using one of the leading social sites like Facebook/Twitter to set up a broader outreach or, say, offer a fully accessible customer service option. You might as well get a bit deeper by targeting a narrower, and therefore much better targeted, potential market niche (for example, using LinkedIn to keep up with a specific business industry/field of employment. To make most out of your website ranking and off-page SEO via user demographics, it’s possible to find a content-hungry audience on community-specific platforms like Slack, as well as the other similar social sites which are now rapidly gaining in popularity. 

Also, it would be an equally good idea to supply your website ranking & SEO progress with a bit of harder effort – you can always invest some time and labor in reworking a meaningful part of your plain-text writings. Ultimately, to evolve your standard articles/posts into something bright and visually appealing. Apart from betting only on photos targeted at, say, Instagram/Pinterest-like social sites, I recommend that you also create some useful infographics, custom spreadsheets, top lists, case studies, etc. These forms of content commonly provide the best chances of getting popular (or even viral) on popular social sites and dedicated blogs dwelled by a reasonable number of your potential (but still undeveloped) clients/buyers.

Dazzle With Multimedia

And now I’m going to act like captain obvious telling you that every business owner can always try to benefit from utilizing a truly incredible potential of YouTube videos. Yes, when done properly and for the right purpose, that can turn your product/service reviews, tutorials, and arguably any other creative movie format/clip topic into a powerful tool that will help you build a broader online exposure, in line with contributing your global public awareness in the eyes of all – both from the standpoint of the search engines, and for happy users within your main target audience too. Note, however, that most of us are really enjoying a casual multimedia content only in case it can really deliver a fully measurable added value upon reading/watching. Ideally, your short articles, deeply informative posts, and any other dazzling & enticing form of on-page content should be occasionally mixed with a sufficient amount of “sticky” elements providing a potentially higher level of user engagement. In other words, embedding your best masterpieces in content marketing with a reasonably pushy suggestion or, say, making your top relevant articles/posts appear with a readily accessible next step popping up just in front of every visitor on short notice – can make things even better than you may think. The thing is that featuring a good level of booming user engagement DOES matter not only for your website ranking & SEO performance, but is also determining the average number of the actual user clicks on your web pages. Therefore, featuring a reasonable amount of different clickable Call-To-Action Buttons definitely pays off. 

Hold Only Moderate Expansion

So, the only thing you need to keep in mind when embedding your site with clickable things like Hyperlinks, Like/Share/Repost Buttons, Banner Ads, Fillable Lead Generation Forms, Content Comment Sections, Dazzling Pop-Ups and so on – is to make sure that, after all, you actually don’t overdo with that, mainly due to potential issues with the average bounce rate, dwelling time, as well as the overall level of good User Experience/Accessible Navigation (of course, if you don’t want to make the reader overwhelmed or, God forbid, annoyed with too many interactive elements). At last, take a moment to reconsider your homepage, custom landings and the rest of most visited service pages – and feel free to drop some clearly articulated CTAs over there. Doing so, great user interaction will not only contribute to your consistently growing website ranking and organic SEO improvements needed for that, but (in fact, even more importantly) assure a solid self-driven generation of your well-established brand name, constantly enhancing public exposure, and gradually growing customer trust & loyalty – without consuming too much of your time/effort. That’s it.