How to Rank Higher on a Google Search?

Article Overview:

Ranking higher means outperforming whoever's currently above you.

Start by studying what already ranks well, then create something demonstrably better. Improve the depth and clarity of your content. Speed up your site. Build more quality backlinks. Go after less competitive variations first, whilst building authority for tougher keywords. Track what works, double down on successes and keep refining what underperforms.

Article Summary:

Study Your Competition

Make Your Content Better

Go After Quick Wins

Technical Improvements Matter

Build Links Strategically

Keep Watching Progress

Wales Marketing's Methodology

Study Your Competition

Seriously examine what outranks you. Don't just glance at titles. Actually, read the top-ranking content. What makes it valuable? How comprehensive is it? What format works best? What questions does it answer that yours doesn't?

Look at their backlink profiles using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Where do their links come from? What content attracted those links? Can you create something even more valuable that naturally earns links similar to or better than those?

Check technical factors too. How fast do their pages load? What's their mobile experience like? Are they using schema markup? You don't need to copy them, but you do need to understand the standards you're competing against.

Make Your Content Better

Improve what you've already got:

• Add depth, covering angles competitors miss
• Include recent data showing your content's current
• Add visuals like images, charts or videos
• Improve formatting with clearer headings and sections
• Answer related questions
• Add original insights from your experience

Simply creating longer content doesn't help, though. Every addition needs genuine value. Ask yourself: Does this help someone understand the topic better or solve their problem? If not, leave it out.

Go After Quick Wins

If you rank positions 4-10, minor improvements can push you up significantly. Pages 11-20 are stuck and need more substantial work. Focus your efforts where you'll see returns fastest.

Look for keywords where you rank positions 6-15. These are tantalisingly close to page one. Improving content for these queries often delivers faster results than trying to crack highly competitive terms where you're nowhere near the top ten.

Watch for featured snippet opportunities. If you rank positions 1-5 but someone else holds the featured snippet at position zero, optimise your content to capture it. Featured snippets usually come from pages that give concise answers to questions with clear formatting.

Build Links Strategically

Consistently strengthen your authority:

• Create genuinely linkable assets: original research, comprehensive guides and useful tools
• Reach out relevant sites that might find your content valuable
• Write guest posts for respected industry publications
• Aim to get featured in industry roundups and expert compilations
• Build relationships with journalists who cover your field

Natural link building takes patience. You're building relationships and reputation, not just collecting links. Quality publications won't link to mediocre content. Everything comes back to creating genuine value.

Keep Watching Progress

Track rankings for your target keywords weekly, not daily. Daily tracking is too volatile to be useful. Look for trends over weeks and months. Rising steadily? Keep doing what works. Stalled or declining? Something needs adjusting.

Monitor competitors continuously, too. Are they improving their content? Building new links? Launching new features?

Staying ahead means adapting as the competitive landscape shifts around you.