Important Google Rank Tips
Hey folks,
I have seen a lot of debates among members about the importance of article length and how to achieve higher rankings in Google. Another member just asked this same question and I realized that, other than seeing what some of the WA members and ambassadors had to say, I didn't have a clue.
I have just begun researching this very important topic. I managed to attract over 1000 followers and over 2 million visitors to the blog I started in 2011 (the one I recently sold). I did so using organic SEO methods. Basically, I just wrote whatever the heck I wanted to, rather than focusing on keywords. I never once even checked my Google ranking, lol.
I am now finding myself wondering what my results might have been had I applied some of the techniques taught here in Wealthy Affiliate? I sold my blog, so will never know but I am going to try and force myself to focus on incorporating these techniques into the sites and blog I am working on now.
I found a link to an article that shares the results of analyzing 1 million Google search results to answer the question:
Which factors correlate with first page search engine rankings?
Here is a link to the article:
http://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking#
I'd love to start a healthy and helpful discussion about this topic. I am hoping that each of the ambassadors and more experienced members who read this blog will comment and share their personal experience and understanding of how to achieve higher Google Rankings (or write a post on the topic themselves if they haven't already and share it in the comments on this post). I realize that there are quite a few WA resources on this topic, but clearly people are still struggling, so let's see if we can help!
In community,
Joy
PS: please share the love and click like. :) Thanks!
Recent Comments
76
I did an interesting research lately, and found that although Google has made a lot of changes and improvements on their ranking algorithm, one thing has not changed for all these years -content and links pointing towards your website still remain the top ranking factors.
I have went through reports and articles by the well-known SEO experts: MOZ, Backlinko, SearchEngineLand, etc, they all reported the same thing, backlinks is indeed the single most important factor.
Previously, I was doing so many different stuff, I guess for SEO optimization, this is the thing we have to focus on.
Hope you find this useful and would like to know your thoughts on this.
Axton
Hey Axton (awesome name, by the way!)
I fully agree. I have not been focusing on Google Ranking, even though I achieved positive ranking, but I approach my online business from a very community-oriented mentality...so building connections and networking with people who have similar businesses.
My blog had 26 links from other sites plus countless comments I made included a link to my blog...so my networking likely contributed to my Google Ranking. Also, my blog was on Wordpress.com and people shared my posts on a near daily basis, so that helped too...Thanks so much for sharing your experience and knowledge!
Joy
Hey my dear Joy, my answers will be too long, so I just wrote a post on it, lol. : How To Rank On Google's First Page - In Response to Joy's Post
Thanks Joy, for reminding me about Brian Dean, whose backlinko.com articles I had subscribed to in the past. His tutorials are sometimes very technical but I think there are some valuable strategies he teaches that can really help a site get traffic, that are pretty straightforward. I am only on Course 2 lesson 4 at WA, so I wonder if WA covers some of this kind of stuff later on. I imagine so. One thing I have discovered: SEO is vital and getting more and more difficult so it is worthwhile learning every white hat strategy that can give you an edge. I strongly believe great content alone is sadly no longer enough, thanks to google's algo.
With one exception: youtube! On youtube, views depend on suggested videos, which depend on the initial traffic a video gets, which depends on 1) Video Title; 2)Thumbnail; 3)Content.
I am the author of a video that has generated 6 million views in 3 1/2 years for a client (promotional video for a hotel) and I have a a video on my own channel (also shot for a hotel) that has received close to 1/2 million views in just over a year (reaching as many as 1000 views an hour). Neither video benefited from any SEO strategy as 80% of the views are generated by 'suggested videos'.
Youtube, as LindaRiel reminded me, is the #2 search engine after google and can be leveraged to generate a ton of traffic to a site.
I would be happy to write a blog about my (up and down) experiences with youtube and my channel, which after 14 months has 18 videos, 3/4 million views and 3.5K subscribers - but 00.00 revenue!! (due to my choice not to monetize my videos)
Maybe others here could find it useful to learn from the successes and failures I have had. Let me know!
Hi Chrissies, Thanks for your interest! I will be happy to write a blog about my youtube experiences so far. Although the numbers may sound impressive, it has been more of a learning experience that taught me that not all youtube traffic is valuable (even forgetting the low quality pranks and jokes type of content) i hope I will now be able to achieve more quality traffic to my new travel vlog!
Wow, I am in the middle of writing my posts for the 7 Day Post Challenge and also reading everyone else's posts, so I am not sure I am even fully absorbing what you shared but I will definitely make it a point to come back and re-read what you wrote and also check out your Youtube Channel!
Thank you so much for your incredibly valuable contribution to this on-going discussion and I do look forward to reading your post! If you choose to write one, please share a link in the comments on this post and also in the 7 Day Post Challenge as a resource for the challengers!
In community,
Joy
I learned this lesson with my blog as well and the synchronicity is that I had great traffic and also chose not to monetize. Hmm.
There are many reasons for you to top Google rankings. Good content, being reviewed by another site, plenty of comments, age of site, use of keywords, it is quite a long list and now they are using AI bots the game is going to be changing. So in the end what Google wants is for everyone to have a good user experience which is why your site worked, Joy. Use Kyle's training until you make your 'mark' online.
This is interesting Joy. I checked out that article and there are a few things listed that are covered in the training cert courses. Interesting to note that backlinks remain a factor in achieving good seo.
I'm a bit dismayed/unsure/concerned that backlinks hasn't been covered in the training (yet). I've read many people say backlinking is a bad idea and you can be penalized. I know it depends on the site rank where it is placed etc. When I created my old sites in a previous life I got so-called quality links on Fiverr but I don't want to go down that road again.
I'm going to follow what is in the training. I do tend to backlink on my own site, if that's the correct term which I believe also helps with ranking.
It's a minefield.
For me, I imagine that part of my traffic success was all the interviews, guest post and articles I wrote, which all had links to my blog....I had a tendency to get myself featured on high ranking sites who linked to me because I did them a favor so it was a win-win situation....
What I believe is to create content solely for the readers and not focusing on for the bot. Just like what you did, did not put much attention on SEO and just write. This is going to be a long term strategy. Writing for the bot may allow you to get good rankings at the start but in the long term what matters is the visitors and whether they convert to customer.
However, keyword research is very important in my opinion. After choosing a good keyword, start writing for human and don't be so concerned about all the technical things like keyword density and all. Anyway, Google will be better and better at determining whether a content is valuable for people. So creating content solely for human should be the crucial long term strategy.
I just read through your link and it was full of great information. My takeaway is that I need to go back to adding images (not too many!) to my posts. I stopped doing that and I really need to pick it back up. I also need to write longer posts and build more relationships to get and share backlinks.
Thanks!
Jessica
I just started reading Brian Dean's weblinko seo resources. there are a lot of great insights and information. With so much confusion about seo implementation plans out there (and I have been approached by so many seo firms), I decided that I will just try to learn this seo thing and try to do it. But its a lot of work to do that. It will be nice to see a comprehensive tutorial on most important aspects of it here on WA community. Maybe its there some where, I have seen one yet. Someone should point me to them. seo is useful, I also think great content is equally important.
I'm not sure if there is already such a resource here at WA. If so, I have not seen it yet. Thanks for your input! - Joy
Hello Joy, thank you for your blog post, it makes for interesting reading! First of all, I am no SEO expert but I actually sometimes think that we overcomplicate Google rankings. I am aware that there are things we can do to help our website to rank better, but is actually really worth the effort?! I believe that you wrote good and useful information that was on your heart and people liked it and it made your website successful! So if you had spent time researching how to rank and what your stats were, you probably wouldn't have had much time to blog!
Just a few simple thoughts, I would be interested to hear what other people have the same subject.
All the best to you Joy, Roy.
PS: I haven't read your article as yet, but I'll take a look shortly.
Thaks, Roy! Very useful insights. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts! - Joy
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Here is a link to the lovely JewelCarol's post on this topic. Awesome resources. Thanks Jewel! How To Rank On Google's First Page - In Response to Joy's Post