Google gets approximately 99,000 search queries every second, resulting in about 8.5 billion searches daily and roughly 2 trillion global searches annually!

As such, Google commands 92% of the mobile search engine market share worldwide, along with 72% of the desktop market.

All those zeroes are also why it’s critical to have a website that can compete — the first five organic results on a search page get 67.60% of all clicks, and the next five account for only 3.73%. It’s all downhill from there.

To get web traffic, you need to be near the top — and that starts with search engine optimization (SEO).

What is SEO?

The higher you rank in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) for your target keywords, the more people will visit your website or webpage. That’s where SEO comes in.

The goal of SEO is to increase the quantity of organic (non-paid) traffic your website content receives from search engines.

On-page SEO factors like content, tags, internal links, and even site architecture can help improve search visibility and increase traffic. Here are some ways to maximize your onsite SEO.

How to Rank Higher on Google in Six Steps

1. Be Relevant

Publishing high-quality, relevant, and authoritative content is a leading driver of search engine rankings — and there’s really no way around it. After all, Google’s main job is to show its users the best results.

Part of effectively creating that content means identifying keyword phrases your target audience might be searching for. These search terms will be integral to include in your content.

You can also check a webpage’s keyword ranking — its organic ranking position in search results for any given keyword — to see how it stacks up to others.

2. Write Strategically

While your content should flaunt expertise and relevance for your audiences, it also should prioritize SEO best practices. Threading the needle to achieve both of those objectives can be challenging.

Keep these things in mind:

Focus on readability: Content that is consumer-friendly, digestible, and easily scannable is essential so users can easily find information.
Try bulleted lists: Just like this list, bullets help readers more easily process content.
Don’t stuff keywords: Keyword stuffing is basically the overuse of keywords to improve website ranking quickly. But it will get you nowhere fast, so don’t try to outsmart the system.

3. Keep it Fresh

Yes, search engines want quality content with keywords used appropriately — they want you to update it regularly, too. It is a clear indicator of a site’s relevance. So, it’s crucial to audit your content regularly and update it where needed.

A blog is an excellent tool to keep a steady stream of fresh content — content that prioritizes your keywords — flowing into your site while helping to educate or inform your audience.

4. Optimize Images

While images, videos, and infographics may not be the first thing you think about when it comes to improving your site’s ranking, visual content can be an essential traffic driver when implemented correctly.

Images not only enhance text-based content, they send users directly to your site.

That’s because more than 36% of consumers use visual search when online shopping.
To ensure your images check the box, consider the following:

Image file size and format: Make sure to use image formats that are web-friendly and not too large to prevent slow site loading.
Customize file names and use alt tags: Always update file names and describe your images and videos with alternative text descriptions; it’s another way search engines can locate your page.
Mobile optimized: Just like your site, your images should appear correctly on mobile and be optimized to adjust to smaller screens.
Uniqueness: Not only do you want to ensure you can legally use your images, but it’s also beneficial to limit the use of stock photos that have frequently been implemented elsewhere.

5. Ensure You Have a Solid Foundation

Website architecture and page experience are not only important to your intended audiences, but they can also affect search engine rankings.

Google defines page experience as “a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value — both on mobile and desktop devices.”

You want users to easily find products, services, and other information efficiently and effectively. Consider an easy-to-follow navigation menu, strategic internal links, and prioritizing your most important pages when evaluating your site architecture.

6. Don’t Sleep on Backlinks

A backlink is a link on another website that points to your content — and it’s surprisingly effective in helping your search ranking. That’s because search engines use several off-page signals to determine whether your site can be trusted — one of the leading signals is backlinks.
Backlinks legitimize your site to search engines. There are some vital link-building strategies you can try, including:

Link-worthy content: Creating valuable content will naturally attract links. This could be anything from infographics to free quizzes, downloadable assets, and other interactive pages.
Guest blogging: Getting the word out about your content and writing for other sites is a great way to extend your reach and get some backlinks in the mix.
Broken link auditing: Going on the hunt for links that no longer work on other sites and suggesting links to your pages as replacements can be a lot of work, but it will pay dividends.
Adding links: By adding your own set of relevant external links to your content, you’re also improving authority and credibility.

Multiple other on-page SEO factors can help improve your website’s ranking. But, if you want to know how to rank on Google in 30 days, there are no foolproof hacks.

SEO is a long game, and results don’t often appear immediately. You’re also never finished with SEO; it’s a continuous process that requires constant attention and improvement.

For all those reasons and more, SEO may seem overwhelming. At Denver Post Media, we’re in the business of helping brands and companies achieve their marketing and advertising goals — including SEO and website ranking.