Why is it important to be well positioned in the results of the Google search engine?
Here is a joke that we often hear among people who are interested in SEO:
“Where is the best place to hide a corpse?
Answer: in the second page of Google search results.
Clearly, if you are not in the 1st results of Google, you are invisible.
In this article, you will see what SEO positioning is, and how to monitor it and improve it.
SEO Positioning: Definition
SEO positioning is simply the ranking of a page in a search engine (usually Google) for a given keyword.
A page has a good SEO positioning when it is in the first search results for a request made by an Internet user.
Your lens should be in the top 3 positions or at least on the 1st page.
Be careful.
The choice of the keyword(s) must be made according to the searches made by your potential customers in order to attract qualified traffic.
If you work well on your SEO positioning.
You will have better visibility on search engines.
Which will allow you to have a source of lead acquisition that does not depend on paid advertising.
Know and Follow Your SEO Positioning
Search engine ranking algorithms are constantly evolving to bring the most relevant results to their users.
For example, Google has made about twenty major updates over the past 10 years.
And remember that you are not alone in your market.
Your competitors also want to be well-positioned.
And therefore it is increasingly difficult to obtain the best position.
Hence the importance of knowing and monitoring your ranking to firstly see if your SEO strategy is bearing fruit and secondly to see if the average position of your pages remains stable.
How to Know the Position of a Site on Google
To know the position of a site on Google there are many free and paid tools.
It is interesting to use several of them because they do not all have the same data and you will therefore have more by crossing them.
The simplest tool to know the positioning of a site where you are the owner is to use the Search Console.
It is the tool that will have the most reliable data since it is part of the ecosystem, Google.
Even if you will not have all the information on the queries on which you are positioned.
You will have access to performance statistics which will allow you to know the keywords on which your pages are positioned and their average positions.
There are also other digital tools like Ubersuggest, SEMRush, and SEranking.
Which will also allow you to know the queries on which you are positioned.
But the advantage of these tools is that you can also use them to analyze competitor sites.
How to Track Your SEO Positions
As said before, it is important to track your positioning to measure the effectiveness of your SEO strategy.
To avoid doing it manually, there are many tracking tools that will let you know the ranking of your pages in search engine results.
These positioning tools usually have a dashboard with performance indicators that will allow you to quickly see any ranking changes in Google or other engines.
Here is a list of free and paid tools that you can use to track your keywords.
How to Improve Your Ranking in Search Engines
To improve the ranking of your site you must train in the fundamentals of SEO.
So that you can then do an in-depth analysis of your site and know what you can optimize.
Take the time to identify the actions that will allow you to obtain results quickly because SEO work is a job where your results will be seen mainly in the long term.
But sometimes a few small optimizations can bring you quick results.
Here are some things you can work on to improve your average site position…
Improve the Usability of Your Site
The main objective of search engines is to provide the best possible experience to their users.
And therefore the ergonomics of your website have an impact on its ranking.
At a minimum, ensure that it is a responsive design.
That is to say that it is displayed correctly on all screens: desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Your site must be fast, the slower your site, the more your visitor is likely to leave your site.
The architecture of your site must be clear and organized according to your main keywords.
To go further in optimizing the ergonomics of your site, I invite you to read this article.
Optimize Your Content for Internet Users
Again, the objective of search engines is to satisfy Internet users and you must therefore do the same if you want to be well-positioned.
Create quality content that responds to the intent of queries typed by visitors.
Here are some tips for optimizing your content:
- Start with a title that hooks your reader and makes them want to find out more.
- Use facts to prove what you say.
- Be simple, and use a vocabulary adapted to the level of understanding of your target.
- Optimize readability: use the right font, separate your content into sections, and illustrate your articles.
On-Page SEO
There are all the optimizations you will do on your page to help search engines know what to answer to what query you created your content.
But be careful, always keep in mind that the priority is to please the end users.
Here are some best practices to please Google:
- The Title tag: Use the keyword at the beginning, it must be unique and must not be too long.
- H1, H2, and H3 tags: they correspond to titles, your keyword must be in the H1 tag (or Title 1) and in some of your other tags (but be careful not to overdo it).
- The meta-description tag: even if it will not directly influence your ranking, integrating the keyword on which you want to be positioned can improve your click-through rate.
- The URL: use your keyword in the URL, it must be as short as possible so avoid linking words (the, the, of, etc.), and also avoid accents and special characters. A good URL should also allow you to quickly identify your page
- The ALT tag: this is the tag to fill in to help Google know what your image represents.
- Internal and external links: do not hesitate to make links to your other pages but also to external pages if this is relevant.
Off-Page SEO
This is what you will do to improve your SEO but without working directly on your site.
This part is often neglected because it is longer and it is necessary to go and find “partners”.
The goal of off-page SEO is to increase your site’s trust and authority in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
And for that, your site must be recommended by other sites that are perceived as having authority.
This results in having inbound links (or backlinks) pointing to your site.
The easiest way is to develop partnerships and write guest posts.
But be careful, favor quality over quantity, and do not overdo it by trying to have as many links as possible, or you risk being punished by Google.
Local SEO Positioning
If you are a local business and you have a Google My Business account.
Be aware that your GMB listing has an impact on the SEO of your site and vice versa.
So work on your local SEO, there are many factors you can optimize.
But the easiest way to improve your listing’s SEO ranking is to simply ask for customer testimonials.
You now know how to track and improve your SEO positioning.
Don’t forget that this is work for which you will see the results mainly in the long term, but don’t be discouraged and regularly monitor your rankings.
See you soon.
Thanks for Reading.
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