How to Rank Your Blog Higher in Google's Top Search {6 Easy Steps for Beginners}

Every time you put your time and energy into creating a blog, you simply expect it to reach a broad audience. Who doesn’t want their work to be valued? Definitely, each one of us would crave it. But it is not always you get what you deserve, not in this digitally overwhelmed world. So though you have put your heart and soul into your work, you might be surprised to see that the reach is not what it should actually be, or you might not be surprised if you have come across the word SEO already. 

The world is too big, and the internet is too vast for you to be found unless you put in a little extra effort to mark your presence. Unfortunately, many are lost because they think it is unnecessary to showcase your work and maintain quality, which is not entirely true. While you clearly need to follow the quality part, you should also know that no one will click your article unless they know it exists, and only if they read the quality is to be shown. 

Do you remember going to the second page of Google results when you search on any random topics? Well, I don’t. Most of us don’t scroll past two or three top results on the SERP, and in some cases, it might extend up to the last article on the first page; this is the reason to rank better to gain visibility. Understanding the need for you to improve your visibility, you may wonder how to do that. But, hey you, do not worry, we got your back! Keep reading the article, and you will find your way to rank top in the Google search. 

How does Google Search Works? 

To reach any destination, the key is to know the path; similarly, to rank better on the search page, you should see how the Google search algorithm works, the points you should know, and things you should follow religiously. 

It is becoming common nowadays. Google also has its own algorithm to categorize the millions of websites and blogs added to it every minute. Google first implemented this machine learning algorithm when it allegedly found that the most negligible quality contents are more visible than the deserving ones. This left both the reader and author groups upset, and that’s when Google jumped in with the solution of ranking the websites based on a few factors which are being updated every now and then. Google always rolls out an announcement beforehand if they plan to add any new criteria to its list. 

While Google maintains its algorithm’s flow as a well-protected secret, it is known that they are dependent on around 2000 machine-learning signals and your blog will rank based on how many signs you managed to crack.

Though we may not know all the 2000 signals that matter, Google has rolled out a few factors to help us improve.

What does Google Look for? 

The following is a list of few signals that Google’s algorithm wants you to focus on.

1. Keywords -

If and ever if you have done your research on How to have your blog on the first page of Google? I bet you could have found every article mentioning this word. Yes, Keyword is one of the critical and necessary things you should follow to reach a better place in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

To understand why Keywords are being stressed so much, you will have to put them in your reader’s shoes for once.

Consider yourself typing in a query into the Google search console, saying it is “How to make an ice cream at home,” the algorithm will skim the question and understand its meaning; it tries to match all the articles with the same purpose. When any blog has the same exact words as that in the query, it tends to think that article might better suit the reader and ranks it higher.

Though the keywords are not the only factor determining the blog’s rank, it is definitely an essential factor that cannot be simply ignored. 

2. Adequacy of the Content -

Now, you know that the algorithm looks for the keywords and has listed the blogs that have used the keywords for the highest number of times in it. Will you be happy with the result as a reader? It will make no utter sense to repeat the same keyword to rank better again and again. 

To overcome this issue, the algorithm checks for the content's adequacy: how relevant is the content to the query. This is measured by a few pieces of information, more than just keywords. First, the algorithm looks for the pictures and videos that may be relevant to the query entered. Here in our case, after sorting the blogs that have used the Keyword as required, it will filter the ones with pictures of ice creams and possibly a few videos linked to them.

This way, Google assumes that the content is helpful for the reader. 

3. Backlinking - 

Google measures the blog quantity based on the number of backlinks it has got. Backlinking is having your blog hyperlinked to any other blog that is similar to your topic.

Backlinking is more like a vote to a blog. The basic idea is that a blog must have been found helpful by the author to link it to his article. So, the number of times a blog is being backlinked is the number of times it has solved someone’s query.

Google counts the value of a backlink from a renowned website higher than that have a limited reach. So, for example, a backlink from “The Wired” would be considered valuable to that one from any essential website. 

Knowing that backlink matters, you should also know that not all the backlinks will be counted as a valid vote. For example, there are sites that backlink blogs for pay. To reduce this scam, Google approves the backlinks that are from blogs of the relevant topic only. Too many backlinks from irrelevant blogs may end up having your blog blocked. Similarly, too many backlinks in your blog might also reduce your reach. Make sure you backlink a good, quality website to increase your credibility and limit the number of links. 

4. Ease of Usage -

You will have to worry about this factor when you have your own website to publish your articles and not blogging sites like Medium or Blogger.

To give the user a pleasant experience, Google checks how easy your web page is to navigate and its compatibility with all platforms from MAC to Windows to mobile browsers.

You should be using lite images and videos to increase your web page's speed as Google accounts longer loading time as a setback. 

5. Plagiarism Check -

Plagiarism is one word that is as famous as Keywords across bloggers. To manage copyright issues and their credibility, Google strictly prohibits plagiarism on its web pages.

If you doubt whether Google will read all the contents uploaded to it, well yeah, it does. 

Google has software bots called The Search Engine Spider or The Crawlers that crawl through the web pages, and when it finds a page linked, they crawl through that page too and adds it to Google’s index. While in the act of crawling and indexing the webpages, if the bots come across any two websites that have a satisfactory amount of similarity, then the same website is ranked low, and views are to be terribly affected. 

Sometimes you may not intend to copy others' work and still be affected by crawlers for plagiarism due to some coincidently alike content that was not intentional. To avoid this issue, it is always advised to check for plagiarism before you publish an article. There are several free plagiarism checkers available online, so you may save your energy and time by doing this simple thing. 

6. Work on Your SEO -

All those mentioned above are the factors you have to keep in mind while writing a blog post. Once you are done creating a relevant article with lite images and documents, you will also invest your time in optimizing your post for SEO.

Online SEO plays a vital role in increasing your visibility. First, you have to concentrate on adding meta-keywords and a proper meta-description. However, SEO doesn’t stop there. Many SEO tools and WordPress plugins are available online to increase your reach; you can also take some professional help to have a better ranking.

Apart from these techniques, you have to increase the reach by marketing your post on other platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. This will increase the number of clicks, and the higher the clicks to your article, the better it ranks on the search results page. So, don’t be shy to advertise your work, which you have created with dedication and sincerity.

Conclusion - Above all, you should value your work first, which will give you the confidence to showcase it. I hope these tactics will help you, and your blog will rank in the top searches.