6 tips to improve your Google ranking in 2023

How can you improve your Google ranking in 2021? A study by the highly respected SearchMetrics agency analyzes the current ranking factors and is packed with insights. Many SEO agencies have recently been wondering what the best SEO strategy to adopt is since the arrival of the RankBrain algorithm, which is based on artificial intelligence techniques, how to structure their content effectively, and whether social media really matters for improving rankings.

How can you improve your website’s organic search ranking?

Even though it’s hard to establish universal rules, as Google’s algorithms increasingly adapt in real time, here are six tips and conclusions based on the study that could help SEOs and marketers get a clearer view in their quest for better organic rankings.

1. Focus on content relevance

Google’s results are now increasingly influenced by context. The Mountain View company even uses its own data (from Chrome, Analytics, or Android) to measure user satisfaction and deliver increasingly relevant results.

Evolution of the Google algorithm according to Searchmetrics. © Searchmetrics.

How do you build a relevant content strategy in this context? First, according to Searchmetrics, it has become essential to determine the type of content to publish based on the target audience you’ve chosen. SearchMetrics uses the example of a simple recipe search on Google. In this example, rather than publishing a long block of text, wouldn’t it be better to write a list of key points and pair that list with a video?

Once you’ve found the type of content, you need to offer users and search engines what’s known as “holistic” content, meaning content designed with a “global” or “comprehensive” approach. The goal here is to precisely answer the user’s question by taking their real intent into account: what are they looking for, why are they looking for it, and what information do they want to get from their query?

The answers to these questions should help you better adapt to what the user wants by taking into account all the issues they might be raising through their query.

Analyzing user intent can be a tedious task, especially when you have to produce a lot of content. For a given keyword, the Semji platform analyzes the SERP (Google results page) and the top-ranking content. Thanks to artificial intelligence, the solution builds SEO recommendations that let you respond as relevantly as possible to the questions and needs expressed by users.

Ask us for a demo of Semji to understand your audience’s search intent.

To achieve this comprehensive content, you need to gather and structure individual search terms into broader semantic fields, in which relevant terms related to identical or similar topics are grouped by search intent.

This global approach, semantically appealing and built on quality writing, should not only make texts more widely read and shared on social media but should also help you rank well in Google on many different queries at once. The long-tail queries you create, which contain more than three keywords, will offer lower search volume but will let you respond more precisely to users’ queries and thus potentially bring in a more qualified audience.

To find these queries, you can use keyword tools like “Answer the Public”, which extracts Google suggestions by pairing them with the questions or prepositions most often typed into Google.

Sample of the suggestions provided by the “Answerthepublic” tool. @ Answerthepublic.

How did Searchmetrics reach this conclusion? The agency started from a study of the top-ranking US sites:

• Unsurprisingly, the URLs with the content judged most relevant occupy positions 3 to 6 of the Top 10 in Searchmetrics’ ranking, with the top two spots reserved for brand sites that benefit from their reputation and popularity.

Comparison of content relevance across sites relative to their Google ranking. © Searchmetrics

• We also observe that content is getting longer and longer, 1,633 words for desktop computers and 1,222 words for mobile. The explanation seems to come from the production of the holistic, global approach mentioned above by the top-ranking sites. We can also add that a well-developed, carefully crafted and illustrated article generally earns a larger number of shares and natural backlinks, which helps its ranking, hence a virtuous SEO circle effect.

• Comparison of words on pages relative to their Google ranking between desktop and mobile sites in 2016. © Searchmetrics

• Compared to last year, keywords appear less often in the content, the title, the H1, and the H2 of pages in the Top 20 of the ranking.

**Semji**is an all-in-one SEO platform that helps you produce content that is impactful and visible to your audience. It improves your pages’ performance and boosts their visibility in the SERPs (results pages).

In just a few seconds, Semji analyzes your content and gives you recommendations to implement, such as:

• Suggesting new topics to cover
• Semantically enriching your pages and articles by working on new keywords searched by your audience
• Optimizing your Hn tags
• Adding a certain number of links to include in your content, and more.

Semji helps your content stand out from your competitors by targeting the topics that interest your audience and meeting Google’s requirements. It’s THE solution to accelerate your performance and strengthen your content strategy.

2. Secure your website with HTTPS

For sites that exchange password and credit card data, switching to the secure HTTPS connection is mandatory. Starting in 2017, the Chrome 56 browser began flagging HTTP login pages as “not secure”. Today, more than half of the pages in the Top 10 currently use HTTPS.

Comparison of the number of sites with an HTTPS connection between 2016 and 2015 relative to their Google ranking. © Searchmetrics

3. Mobile-friendly sites are essential

Currently, according to the SearchMetrics study, 100% of the sites in the top 100 are mobile-compatible (responsive, dedicated site, dynamic serving). Mobile has become so important that Google is about to launch the “mobile first index”: whereas Google previously used “desktop” pages to index its pages, Google will now use the content of mobile pages to build its index.

To provide a good user experience on mobile, you need to strike a good balance between rich content (with images, videos, etc.) and page load speed. We recommend using GTmetrix, which centralizes the Google PageSpeed and Yahoo YSlow scores and offers improvement suggestions from both, with the option to generate a video to view how the site renders second by second.

Overview of Trivago.fr’s GTmetrix performance scores

4. Social signals matter

The Searchmetrics study shows that social signals are especially present for sites in the top 2 spots of the ranking. This importance then fades quickly (particularly for Twitter and Google Plus). This is explained by the fact that the top ranking spot is generally awarded to brands that benefit from their reputation on social media. The correlation between social signals and ranking is strong. As you know, correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation, so the only certainty we have is that, compared to last year, the number of shares and likes for the highest-ranking sites has increased. This is clear evidence that brands are working on and further improving their image on social media.

Comparison between 2016 and 2015 of the number of Facebook social signals on sites relative to their Google ranking. © Searchmetrics

5. Improve the user experience

Although they appear somewhat less often in the studied sites than two years ago, the Searchmetrics study still makes internal links a key element for good rankings. Internal links help users and search engines better understand and explore the site’s structure. So it’s more useful than ever to have a well-thought-out site architecture to improve the user experience. Another tip, again to enhance the user experience, is to have pages that load quickly and are readable on all devices. The load time for top 10 pages is between 7 and 8 seconds. Google recommends a load time of 3 to 4 seconds.

Often overlooked when we talk about user experience, the writing or even the copywriting of your pages is nonetheless essential. A landing page or blog post written in a smooth style, with clear headings and a logical outline, are all elements that will improve your site’s user experience. It’s important to remember that the quality of your writing will also play a decisive role! It’s never pleasant to read text full of mistakes, especially when they appear in headings or subheadings. The credibility of the site and the author is naturally called into question. To cover your bases, we strongly recommend equipping yourself with a next-generation spell checker like MerciApp. Thanks to a browser extension, this type of checker can analyze the text fields of nearly all commonly used sites and tools.

6. Correlation remains important for backlinks

The study highlights the still-clear correlation between the presence of backlinks and good Google rankings. The top-ranking US sites studied are thus the ones with the most backlinks.

With this in mind, opting for a link building strategy, with contextual links placed within high-quality content, can align with the evolution of Google’s algorithms.

Comparison of the number of backlinks on sites relative to their Google ranking between 2016 and 2015. © Searchmetrics

Despite this strong correlation, backlinks seem to be losing importance. This decline is explained by the rise in mobile traffic. By their very nature, mobile devices are not well suited to creating “traditional” links, whereas they are used heavily to share an article on social media.

Limited to the US version of sites and based on correlations, that is, the observation of a fact without analysis of its direct cause, this study should be approached with the necessary SEO critical thinking; it should be taken for what it is, a Big Data study based on correlation statistics. Regarding backlinks, we should recall the recent statement by Andrey Lipattsev, Google’s Search Quality Senior Strategist, on the importance of links for Google. They remain essential among the factors for good Google rankings. Complete and relevant content with no backlinks, or with low-quality backlinks, will struggle to emerge from the SERPs (search engine results).

Nonetheless, this study is still full of insights. It shows, if proof were needed, that you need to respond ever more precisely to users’ expectations by offering them the most polished user experience to improve your Google ranking.

This article was written with the help of our SEO experts. At Semji, we do everything we can to help you boost your content performance. You can also contact us to discuss your needs. Our team will advise you on Semji’s features and can support you in deploying your content strategy.

Ask us now for a demo of Semji and discover how to create higher-performing content in less time.