A few days back I wrote about how to optimize a blog post. Once I published the same I received as many as 10 mails suggesting me to write on how to rank a website in Google searches. I am quite sure many of my blog readers were also looking for the answer to this question of how to rank your website in Google?

Have you ever wondered why a certain website ranks higher than others in Google?

Have you ever realized why your website is not ranking for a Google search for a particular key phrase, or keyword?

I guess you all will answer a common answer, and it is that all these things are dependent of how Google ranks a particular website, and its algorithms.

Fair enough. Up to an extent you all are right, but if you consider about Google algorithms then you will find it really hard that they consider around hundreds of signals for determining the rank of a particular website for a particular keyword.

Is not it confusing?

Yes, it is confusing.

But, then why are you going deep inside it? Let’s understand some of the basic components which might help you to rank your website higher than your competitors. Although it is quite common that some of these factors are impossible to implement now, but still you can at least think about them, and hence I am writing this blog post on how to rank your website.

How to Rank Your Website?

As far as ranking a website in Bing is concerned, I already have written a post on it: SEO Advice for Ranking in Bing! On the other hand you might also don’t want to miss my other blog on 10 SEO Factors Which You Might Not Ignore in Developing a Business Website! These blogs might be useful for you.

Coming back to our original discussion on how to rank your website in Google:

Domain Name

The very first factor being analyzed by Google for the ranking of your website is its domain name. There are a few factors associated with the domain name of your website depending on which Google determines if they are going to rank your website or not.

So which are those factors associated with a domain name?

Here are the answers to the above question:

Keywords in Domain

Although with exact matched domain update by Google, popularly known as EMD update, people started to think that it is bad to have keywords in the domain name. Practically speaking having keywords in your domain name is not at all a negative factor, or having exact matched domain name is also not that bad, unless the website should have the same things for which the domain name means for.

Just for an example, let’s say my domain name is having a keyword “Twitter Tools”, and then it must have something to offer related to the tools which can help others to manage their twitter account. It should not offer some tools which can help you to manage your Gmail account. In this case it is a spam and Google will definitely penalize your website.

Also read my blog on: 20 Reasons Which Might Penalize Your Website by Google!

So the idea is that your website should provide the same services, products, etc. related to the keyword mentioned in your domain name. If not then it is a bad or negative signal for search engines, especially Google takes it quite seriously.

To be very frank a domain name which includes the keyword always has an upper hand over those sites which lack it.

Domain Age

Age of the domain name is also being considered as yet another factor to determine the rankings of a website.

It is always considered that the older domain names always have an edge over younger domain names.

This is the reason why many people prefer to purchase domain names from brokers, who register it a few years back and getting rewarded for it.

Although as I mentioned earlier that some of the factors are like that in which we cannot do anything, domain name and the age of the domains are of similar nature in which we can’t do much. So no need to worry about these two, rather you should focus about these things:

Domain Expiry Date

Domain expiry date suggests that how serious are you as far as a particular website is concerned. If a website is going to expire within a few months or within a year, Google will consider that the owner is not much serious about running this website. On the other hand if a domain name has domain expiry date of a few years later, then Google will think that the site owner is quite serious to run this website and this is the reason why the site owner registered this domain name for a longer duration.

So, if you too run a website, then it is in your hand that you can purchase the domain name for a longer duration so that Google or any other search engine will take it seriously.

Domain Drops

Dropped domains are also not considered good for ranking in Google. So try your best that your domain name should not drop.

Before registering a domain name ideally you should look for the domain history and avoid domain names which are previously dropped by someone, although it is not a very serious factor.

Domain Privacy

Privacy is good in some senses, but when it comes about the privacy of the information’s related to a domain name, Google considers that there must be something to hide about, which will give a negative signal to Google. Thus if you want higher rankings than your competitors you should not hide any public details about your domain name.

On Page Factors

So that is the all about the things which can influence the ranking of your website as far as the domain name of your website is concerned. Here are now some on page factors which might influence the ranking of your website:

Title Tags

Title tags are the first thing being looked upon by Google in any web page. So it is always suggested to give some time to develop unique, informative and quality title tags for each of the pages of your website.

Remember it cannot have more than 60-70 characters in it, else Google will ignore them.

Also the most influential place where you can put most relevant keywords for any page is the title tag only. So don’t forget about making them with proper care.

Keyword Density

Though keyword density is an old term, I will call it as the frequency of using a keyword in a particular web page. Ideally being the same thing but then if your page is using a particular keyword for some good number of times, it clearly gives an idea that this page is meant for that particular keyword only.

Though, above saying does not means that you can repeat a keyword in a page for n number of times, and Google will reward you for doing this. Yes they will definitely reward you for this, and it will come in the form of never featuring for the search results of that particular keyword.

You should maintain a proper density of using a particular keyword in a page, ideally it should not exceed from the 3 to 5% of the total no. of words.

Length of Content

As I already mentioned in my blog post on how to optimize a blog post that word count matters in the ranking of a blog post, similarly for a web page the length of content matters a lot.

It is always better to develop a web page with much needed information, more words to explain the same, so that it can become better than some shorter or superficial pages.

Uniqueness of Content

One of the most important factors for the ranking of a website is the uniqueness of the content of that website. You must never go for poor quality content, or content stolen from some website, it will definitely kill the scope of ranking of your website in Google.

Image Optimization

As I mentioned in the same post that Alt tags are vital, it remain same for any website no matter if it is it a blog or a proper business website only. So don’t forget to put relevant alt tags for all the images on your website.

Remember that an image with alt tags sends some highly important ranking signals to Google.

Website Factors

On the level of individual pages above points are valid, but when it comes to rank a particular website Google does not only emphasize on some factors related to domain name, and the on pages, but it also includes some site wide things. Let me give you some idea:

Site Loading Time

The most important factors which Google considers these days are the loading time of a particular website. If you have a web hosting which usually crashes down, or which take enough time to load your website, then it is the best time to get rid of them. What is the use of saving some bucks by using those poor quality web hosting providers, it is the best time to look for some quality web hosting providers.

My recommended web hosting providers are Hostgator and Godaddy, as many of you might be aware of.

Sitemaps

Sitemaps are also crucial as far as ranking of a website is concerned. Ideally you should develop two sitemaps one for the search engines, which is in XML and other one is for the users, which can be in HTML, PHP or any other language in which you have developed your website.

On the other hand these days you might have separate sitemap for the images and videos of your website. It is also one of the most important ranking factors as far as Google is concerned.

Contact Us Page

A good website is the one which must provide the opportunity of contacting the site administrators, owners, webmasters etc.

The more appropriate information you have on your website, Google will give more value to your website.

Site Updates

Site updates means how often a website is updated. Whether new contents are being added to the website, or whether old content of the website are being updated or not, are some of the criteria’s which Google definitely considers while deciding the ranking of a particular website.

Social Sharing

If your website is providing the option of sharing your website in social sites, especially in Google+, or not, is considered by Google as a ranking factor as well.

If you have not yet implemented social sharing options on your website, then go ahead and do provide the same to your users right now.

Off Page Factors

Being done with the entire above things for the ranking of your website will not guarantee you a good ranking in Google. It also requires some back links. Back links, though become a difficult thing to get these days, especially when Google become too strict with guest blogging as well, here are a few ways through which you can still get quality links towards your website:

Facebook

Facebook page of your website will give the boost towards the ranking of your website, although not that much influential as far as ranking in Google is concerned. But Google counts on social media signals and FB being the prominent social media website will always have an upper hand than others.

Try to get as many likes and FB shares of your website pages, it will definitely boost the ranking of your website.

Twitter

Twitter always gives very strong signals towards the ranking of your website in Google. The amount of tweets a web page has will always influence its ranking in Google.

So my dear friends don’t ever ignore the presence of your website over twitter, do follow what people are saying about your website over there. The sentiments also matters a lot.

Google+

Being the product of Google only, it has an upper hand over other social sharing websites. So your website also needs a presence on G+.

YouTube

Is your website having any presence on YouTube or not?

If yes, then it is good, else it is a negative point for your website. Remember who is the owner of YouTube? It is Google who owns YouTube and thus your presence on YouTube matters a lot for Google SERP.

Infographics

Infographics these days are being one of the finest ways to get back links towards your website. You all know the viral nature of these types of content, thus if you can be able to develop a killer looking infographics, you will start getting good number of links.

Though I overall mentioned all the most important ranking factors which can help your website to rank in Google, but then it all depends on your own ability to influence Google. You might do a small mistake and Google will not hesitate in penalizing your website, so always be remain careful with the things like paid links, content which allows adding links without doing anything, auto generated content and links, cloaking pages, poor quality links, etc.

I hope you all will like this blog post of mines, if so then please don’t hesitate to share your comments with us. If you do have some other points, please do share the same with us as well.