As digital marketers, one of the most common questions we get from our clients is how to get that coveted number 1 spot on Google’s Search Results Page. There’s a science behind Google’s Search Results Algorithm and it’s constantly evolving but that doesn’t mean that ranking high is out of reach. In this article, I’m going to break down my tried and true method on how to rank higher on Google.

Check the Intent of Your Search Query

The first step in my method on how to rank on Google is to check the intent of your search query. A page can be beautifully designed but if it doesn’t fit Google’s qualifications of your preferred keywords, you’re going to have a hard time getting a good ranking. Perform a search for the query that you want to rank number one for. Look at what results are delivered back to you. What do the top few websites look like? Is it a list? A product? Or a product category? What gets the algorithm’s attention when it comes to this keyword? Keep this in mind as you start designing your page.

Analyze the Top Results

Once you get a feel for the websites on the first results page, take a deeper dive into the top few sites. Get a feel for the content and how it’s optimized for SEO. Look into the details that probably helped them achieve their high rank. Just as it’s important for your user experience, page speed is a very important box to check when it comes to how to rank on Google. In fact, Google has been using page speed as a factor in desktop rankings since April 9, 2010, and mobile rankings since July 9, 2018. After looking at the page speed, check out the pages’ Core Web Vitals. What do their loading, interactivity, and visual stability look like? These are all important factors for your user experience, which is why Google ranks them so highly in their algorithm. They don’t want to send their users to hard-to-navigate or vulnerable websites. Since a large portion of the public now uses their phones and tablets as their sole source of internet access, another important detail involved in how to rank higher on Google is whether or not a site is mobile-friendly. A quality site that is user-friendly both on a desktop and on mobile is a great way to rank higher. Another thing to look at is the safety of the top sites. Are they vulnerable to threats or do they pose a threat to their users? If they’re ranked high by Google, the answer is probably no.

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Examples of Sites That Rank High on Google

Let’s take a look at some examples of sites that have successfully figured out how to rank on Google. For this exercise, I’m going to use the search query “best shoes.” When I search “best shoes”, a lot of things come up but, for our purposes, we’re going to look at the first two sites. You’ll notice that these two sites’ titles and snippets have some things in common:

• Both of them are lists. Google, and internet users, love lists! Well-organized lists are easy for readers to quickly skim through and get the answers that they’re looking for.
• Both mention “Best” and “Sneakers” right in the title. There is absolutely no question regarding what information you’re going to obtain from these sites.
• Both list the year in the title. This is great because it lets Google know that these lists are updated and that this information is current.
• Both have a little bit of catchy content after their titles. This gives the user an idea of what comes next and invites them to keep reading.

If you wanted to rank for the search query “best shoes”, you would want to follow this same formula that Luxe and GQ did.

Dive Deeper into the Search Results

Now that we’ve analyzed the initial results, let’s look more closely at the content contained on these pages. We want to know why their content grabbed the attention of Google’s algorithm. The first site, Luxe, contains well-organized content. The paragraphs are broken up by headings and subheadings. It even gives a great breakdown right at the top of the page for people who don’t have the time to read the entire article. It also contains a complete list of the sneakers they recommend with links to where to purchase them and information on what category they would fall into. After the list, they go into more detail about each shoe for people who want to do more research. The site also contains quality photos and graphics. This site is a little bit older but it has been well-kept and updated over time.e. Frequently updating your site will help to build authority with the algorithm because it shows that, even if the site is older, it is well taken care of and contains up-to-date information. It also has a lot of quality backlinks, which means others believe this site to be a reliable source of information. Similar to the Luxe article, the second site, GQ, is a hub page, meaning it’s one central page that contains links to other pages on the same topic. This page’s content is also well-organized with headings and subheadings. The keywords “best sneakers”, “sneakers”, “best shoes”, and “shoes” all appear frequently and organically. This site was built on a quality domain and has a lot of backlinks that help to build its authority. This site was recently published but also shows a lot of recent updates, which helps to ensure that it contains quality and up-to-date information. If you were building a site that you want to rank high on Google for the search query “best shoes”, you would want to take a look at these pages and format your page in a similar fashion ─ well-organized copy, clean graphics, quality domains, up-to-date information, and quality backlinks.

Quick Tips on How to Rank Higher on Google

There is a science behind ranking higher on Google but once you know the formula, you’ll have no problem producing high quality and high ranking sites.

• Check the intent of the search query.
• Analyze the top results.
• Check their page speed, their mobile compatibility, and their core web vitals.

Following this formula will help your site rank higher and higher on Google every time. Of course, if you get stuck on how to increase your rankings, give us a call. One of the expert marketers at Ignite Visibility would love to walk you through exactly how to rank on Google and help get your site to that coveted number one spot!   About the author: John Lincoln (MBA) is CEO of Ignite Visibility (a 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Inc. 5000 company) a highly sought-after digital marketing strategist, industry speaker and author of two books, \"The Forecaster Method\" and \"Digital Influencer.\" Over the course of his career, Lincoln has worked with over 1,000 online businesses ranging from small startups to amazing clients such as Office Depot, Tony Robbins, Morgan Stanley, Fox, USA Today, COX and The Knot World Wide. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a contributor, he does not write all of the articles and in many cases he is supported to ensure timely content.