13 Ways To Increase A Site’s Position on Google (CheckList)

In this SEO post, I’m going to highlight a quick “Best Ways To Increase A Site’s Ranking” in 13 steps that have helped me, which I hope helps you in return. I’ve been in the game for a long time now so I guess you can consider this post as a “give-back”.

The ways that I outline are “tried and tested” methods to rank websites. Granted, the algorithm changes frequently but the methods I outline below just work. Period.

Let’s consider these as the “snap shots” of what it is you need to do.

If you agree let me know!

#1 Don’t Repeat Content	#6 “Rich Snippets” Schema	#11 Make Sure Your Site Loads FAST!
#2 Get Links High-Quality Websites	#7 Make Sure Google Has Indexed Your Sitemap	#12 Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly!
#3 Be Wise With Out-Bound Links	#8 Create Consistent, Useful and Relevant Content	#13 Use HTTPS
#4 Page/Post Has A Unique Title	#9 Use HTML correctly
#5 Continue To Add Meta Data	#10 Try To Include Social Media

#1 Don’t Repeat Content

Many bloggers, webmasters and digital marketers seize on an idea and squeeze it dry. You’ve got to broaden the field when it comes to your subject matter.

The main point to take onboard with this tip is that when you publish varied content you are really widening the net for what Google will index you for as subsequently what will be linked from other sites.

Think of it this way: each blog post (whether it’s a Pillar Post, Responsive or Staple) is like a fishing line waiting to get hooked, or in our case, “linked”.

#2 Get Links From Niche-Related High-Quality Websites

OK – do NOT kick the arse out of this.

It is very easy to spend 80% of your time on stuff that doesn’t move the needle and I can promise you that if you spend a lot of time trying to get links you’ll get none.

Do what I do. I just fire up my absolutely amazing (Free) Professional SEO SpyGlass Tool once a week (at most) to check on my competitor’s NEW backlinks and I’ll see if it’s worth me contacting the webmaster of that site to see whether they’d also like to consider linking to me too.

Links are important but I’d argue that content is more important because it you have crappy content then no-one will link to you.

I nice growth-hack to get new links, albeit a simple one, is to create data tables – and what I mean is comparative sets of data that help your readers make decisions. There are dozens of (non-irritating) link-baiting hacks you can deploy so go ahead and use them but like I said at the start of this tip, don’t overdo it with spending time to find links, instead, spend that time creating amazing content that will get linked to.

#3 Be Wise With Your OBL (Out-Bound Links)

I don’t link too much on my site but when I do I make sure I link to high-value domains. Don’t be tempted to link to dodgy or controversial sites because OBL (Outbound Links) is one of the few actions you can take that you have total control over.

If you’re comfortable to link directly to an authoritative site then just go ahead and place the URL directly, but if you’re in doubt then go ahead and apply the nofollow attribute.

In 2023 these are the Google-recommended link attributes that you should be using:

• nofollow (for sites you don’t fully trust)
• sponsored (for affiliate links and paid content)
• ugc (user-generated content)

If in doubt definitely go with the “nofollow” attribute.

If you leave it blank, i.e. just the link, the <a href="">anchor</a> then it is actually dofollow by default.

#4 Make Sure Each Page/Post Has A Unique Title

As well as making sure each blog post or page has a unique title (with your keywords) you should also ensure that the URL or slug also contains your keywords in a human-friendly way.

The title of this post is “13 Ways To Increase A Site’s Position on Google” but you’ll notice that the slug is “checklist-to-increase-site-ranking”. I purposely remove the “13” from the slug because I may add more or fewer items to this post which would nullify the slug’s authenticity.

I always slightly mix my post title and URL but of course, they remain on topic and 100% relevant to the content that the reader is expecting to read.

#5 Continue To Add Meta Data

Yes, yes, yes I know – Meta Data, especially the “Meta Description” is now mostly disregarded by Google, and has been for quite some time now, but I still include it, because, well why not? It Google feels that your Meta Description is accurate then let it be, it will be indexed as such.

A nice hack to get your Meta Description to be included within your result is to bold the first two or three sentences of your post which contains a type of TL;DR answer to the post. As long as you answer the post succinctly then Google will likely use your Meta Description and subsequently trust the rest of your site .

#6 Use Schema For “Rich Snippets”

This is vital, especially for when you’re trying to rank local SEO sites. There’s not much to say on this aside from that it’s easy to implement and you just need to go and do it!

#7 Make Sure Google Has Indexed Your Sitemap

Yes, I know. These days you don’t need to manually submit your sitemap to Google, but the Google Search Console (GSC) has a feature that allows you to do so – so do it!

A nice thing about this feature in GSC is that you’ll see it as being successfully stored within your search profile.

There’s no need to explain why it’s important to submit your sitemap suffice to say that whatever you can do to help Google will help you.

#8 Create Consistent, Useful and Relevant Content

By Consistent Content I mean, try to do post content as often as you can. I’ve been long convinced that Google uses consistency as a positive signal.

By Useful Content I mean, does it really answer the question that the searcher has asked? If not, make sure it does!

By Relevant Content I mean, does the content actually fit into the overall theme of your site?

#9 Use HTML correctly

Your HTML and site (OnSite) SEO are vital because it tells Google what’s important within your resource.

Placing keywords and semantic keywords within the structure (i.e. headings) of your pages will clearly organize how your content is structured both for Google and humans.

Examples of using HTML correctly include:

• Proper usage of <header> tags in the hierarchical format
• ALT text on images
• Usage of paragraph tags where necessary

#10 Try To Include Social Media

I’m convinced that a positive signal Google considers is how much Social and rich media engagement does the page have?

A resource with an embedded YouTube video will not only increase dwell time on your site (positive signal) but will also likely encourage page depth scroll (positive signal) and merely having a relevant video will also show that you’re using other medium’s to convey your message (positive signal).

Furthermore, remember, Google (Alphabet) owns YouTube and the cynic in me thinks that there is a favor to get traffic back in YouTube!

#11 Make Sure Your Site Loads FAST!

My site (the one you’re on) loads at blazingly fast speeds, something I cover here. The reasons are obvious. If a site takes longer than three seconds to load the visitor will go elsewhere.

All testing these days is done mobile-first, which leads me onto the next tip…

#12 Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly!

We’re rapidly moving to a mobile-dominated environment so with that being said, make sure that your site is 100% mobile friendly.

#13 Use HTTPS

Using HTTPS (the security SSL) setting on the http bit of your domain is now a ranking criterion. It’s free and it’s inexcusable if you don’t have one.

In Summary

That’s it! That was a whistle-stop “cheap as chips” overview of the “must do” things to get your content and site ranked on Google.

Generally, if you follow these tips listed in this resource, your website will naturally rank better with Google – but only over time.

Patience is key.

If you try to speed this process up and start going blackhat and trying to trick the system (like we did back in the day) then you’ll lose and never rank for anything..

Good luck!