Many studies have been done, and a lot has already been written, about how to improve your chances of getting high Google rankings for your website in 2015. These studies have thrown up some very interesting conclusions.
One of the most surprising observations to come out of the studies is that social signals will play an increasingly important role in Google's ranking algorithm. Some have even argued that the combined impact of social signals will surpass backlinks as the dominant overall ranking factor. If this is true, then it's possibly the biggest fundamental shift in how Google ranks sites in the last decade.
But this doesn't necessarily mean that businesses or websites that don't have linked social media channels will not be ranked by Google; it just indicates a relative growth in the importance of social signals over other factors.
On-page factors will continue to be of massive importance in determining how well your site ranks. The key things that you need to consider are as follows:
- In general, the shorter domains and URl’s rank better than longer ones.
- Sub-domains are slightly harder to rank than main domains.
- Placing the keyword early in the title is four times more important than having it in a domain or URL.
- Including a meta description, H1 tag and H2 tag all have a positive correlation.
- You should include your keyword in the meta description title and body of the content.
- Keyword density is not important anymore.
Let’s also take a look at on page content, which is something else we have great control over and it provides the perfect ranking foundation. The following are key things to consider to rank your site in 2015:
- Longer content generally ranks better (provided of course the quality is good). You should aim for a minimum of six hundred words but I would encourage a thousand.
- Try and include relevant images and videos where possible.
- Don’t add external links that use a keyword that you want to rank for. For example, if you want to rank for how to start a blog, don’t add a link to another website with that anchor text.
- You should also create internal links from other pages with keyword focused anchors. So find other pages on your blog and add internal links with the keyword you want to rank for to that page. You should also link the page to itself with your target keyword.
Not surprisingly, Backlinks will continue to play a big part in determining a website's ranking. These are some of the key things to consider:
- The quantity of backlinks is important. But the quality and contextuality of these links will play a more significant role. In other words, focus on getting links from web pages that attract good volumes of traffic and where the content of those pages closely relate to your site.
- You should be diversifying anchor text wildly; forty percent of your links should include keyword variations, e.g. Kids Balance Bikes, Balance Bike for 2 Year Old, Best Balance Bikes etc. Use brand URL and neutral anchors like “click here” for the other sixty percent.
- Sites that rank well tend to have a balance mix of no-follow links diverse keywords and generic anchors.
So let’s start looking at how we can put it all together. First of all you need to change your mindset. Google has fundamentally changed how it ranks websites over the past year and you need to evolve with that. We are going to see social signals play a much stronger role over the coming years and, while backlinks are still very important, I wouldn’t be surprised to see less and less reliance on them in rankings over time. So it is important that you create a diverse mix of social signals and backlinks.
It’s time to evolve your approach to SEO. But, don’t worry, it’s easier than you think. First of all you need to realise that social signals and backlinks aren’t the main ranking factors…great content is. If you publish crappy content that has no value, or doesn’t help people in any way, then it won’t get shared. It's critical that you create content that is engaging and helps people solve their problems in one way or another. An easy way to create great content is just by selecting the specific topic and solving five problems the average Joe faces with that topic. (Read my previous blog post about easy & effective ways to create content for your website)
So what is the best way to rank your website in 2015?
Step 1: First of all, fine tune your website and make sure it’s optimised to drive social signals. Every visitor offers you the potential of a social share which means higher rankings and more traffic.
Step 2: Create the very best piece of content on the web for your target keywords. Find out what your prospects' problems and worries are and help them out with your content. See what other content is available on the web and improve on it. Once you have done that you can start engaging your target audience directly with a content promotion in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. Not only will this bring you traffic, but it will also drive social signals and relevant links from quality sites.
Step 3: Try and replicate the highest quality backlinks of the websites that rank in the top positions for your keywords. We know that Google likes these sites because they are high in the rankings so why not use this data to boost your own backlink profile? Here are some backlink checking tools which offer free options which are more than enough for most users:
https://ahrefs.com/
https://www.semrush.com/
https://majestic.com/
So that’s how to rank your website in Google in 2015 and beyond. If you would like more information about how I can help you with an SEO project, get in touch via the contact form or give me a call on 087 6150581.
SEO obsessed, rugby-loving Welshman living in Ireland since 2002. Freelance SEO and Wordpress web design consultant based in Killaloe, Co Clare.
Thanks for putting this post together William. There are some very interesting points here and a few surprises – I’ll be sure to keep this advice in mind when optimizing my own sites.
Awesome tricks thanks for share, as a SEO expert definitely will use it, even i am going to use these from now 😛
I concur about your first point of the importance of social signals going into 2015 and beyond. I’m seeing this more and more in my testing. It looks like Google is placing more weight behind social interaction at the expense of (anchor text) backlinks.
Spectacular post. Thanks for the sharing.
I think right now, its better to obtain whitehat links which are focused on the long-term goals rather than short-term gains.
Though a webmaster cannot fully understand the complexity of search engine algorithm, you (the writer) has put the basics in front of us. Well, these basics are hard enough to be implemented and time consuming too. That’s why SEOs are made for.
I wonder if you find, as I often do, that most want the tricky way to get their emails read when, in actuality, they should focus more on writing about subjects that will interest their target audience. If they do that, the other part takes care of itself.
BloggingRex
very useful information and i will follow your eteps and thanks for sharing
I really like the way you pin point the facts but can you please elaborate how much do follow link count matters.
Example, if my website is having 20,000 back links from 4 domains only, Does it worth to get top rankings?
Hey William, if keyword density is not effective anymore, how much content do you think is necessary for SEO rankings?
Thanks for this info..i will try to make this change in my website .
Your Step 2 for ranking websites via content sharing is my favorite and in fact it is according to the new trends and rules of search engines like Google. Writing long content with less number of links will bring sites high in ranking.
Awesome post thanks for share us, its helpful tricks for SEO expert.
Brilliant article and those websites are fantastic! Thanks for your help!
very good explanation on getting high PR on google page.Thank you for sharing such useful stuff.
Ah.. well, i need one clarification. What is exactly meant by “using long tail keywords”. Can anybody clear it?
https://www.wordstream.com/long-tail-keywords
Have a read of this, should clear up any confusion.
I’m speechless. It’s fantastic sharing. Everyone interested in boost ranking must read this article. Thank you admin!
Hi William, just found your site and enjoying poking around and having a read. Lots of good stuff here and I like the straight-forward style. One thing that could possibly be added to this particular post is the power of local search.
I just did a website for my daughter (in the UK), and apart from onsite optimisation I put some effort into setting her up as a local business on G+ and Google Maps. In conjunction ensured the onsite schema markup was all in place etc. Early days, and she’s not in a massively competitive niche, but even so the search results have responded quickly and she’s ranking well for the initial keywords we focussed on.
Getting her on to the idea of blogging now – see if we can get some social signal momentum 🙂
One more thought, and maybe goes without saying, but design for mobile use as well.
Curious, is it possible for a web page to have a PR of 0? yet it’s web presence is strong filled with Backlinks & other forms of advertising linking back to it?
I’ve been diving into the SEO world for a while now but I’ve only had the time to actually dive a little deeper.. It is tougher than it looks.
For example when it comes to backlinks, my own site only has 50 backlinks currently and one of my top competitors are in the 10 million backlinks, way way ahead of me.
Very nice tips.
Great Post!!
An excellent steps you’ve mentioned in your post for ranking high in Google. And the high quality back links and compelling content can plays an imperative role in website ranking.
Thank you for sharing.
really nice tips and helpful, thank you 🙂
This is a grate Post. I really love it. Thanks a lot.
Thank you for sharing such informative article for us.
wow.. thank you very much for amazing seo tips. i have used this for my website and since last 8 to 10 days now my webmaster tools indicates all fields in Green color.. that means i have more seo result … thank you so much
nice suggestion
You can rank long tail keywords quickly.
Agreed. Social signals do play significant role in google rankings. Great article!
Large size content always rank better than short and it improves page views also if inter linking done perfectly.
Thanks you! I will try like your recommend.
Great post about high ranking for google and your tips are very beneficial for any newbie bloggers who want to obtain high ranking for google! Keep up the good work and I am glad that I found your article
Good and unique content is still the greatest way for you to reach this. To get better web traffic for your website, off page optimization is very important.
Thanks for sharing this great post! hope this can helping my website =)
I have found point 3 under “”So what is the best way to rank your website in 2015?”” very useful. I would like to add on some more information to this with your business listed through an optimized search engine placement, it improves your chance of reaching potential clients.
Having your business listed online, will not only inform customers about your existence, but will also turn out to be the perfect showcase of your services.
I found this article very interesting, although the long tail keywords, that has been mentioned before, that it can be a little complicated to understand for beginners like me. Anyway, I’d like to express my gratitude,at last, i’m starting to learn things that i can use on my local business.
Thank you for sharing.
Psicólogos Madrid
I have only one word to say, WoW. I read the article what a awesome article, improving my adsense from google ranking but, traffic is not that much. thank you for sharing. I have a lot of work you will find a lovely support.This post is very inspiring me. I always take your advices very seriously, keep posted.
Great tips, thanks so much. Solid advice. 600 words of thoughtful content is a bit of work, now to aim for 1000 🙂
Really great !! article , keep it up .
Great tips to follow, I am going to use these tips. At the moment one of my blog is lost somewhere and could not get on top of the google. So, I will be definitely using these techniques to optimise my blog.
Thanks for great information.
beautifully described article as usual, Thank you!
beautifully described article as usual, Thanks you! for great tricks and tactics 🙂
Thanks William for the information. I will try them out on my own site.
Great article
Thank you very much for amazing google ranking tips. Really These strategy do play significant role in google rankings. Great article!
I find this information very helpful. I would certainly follow these tips and see results for myself. Hope they will work!
Great tips William, thanks!
Hello,
I have come across some sites ranking on page 1 of SERPs for competitive keywords but with zero relative content, barely any content at all. No paid campaigns, just backlinks (just 10-20 in some cases) all using the keywords as the anchor text, I have done all kinds of checks to see if there is anything else enabling such a high ranking but have found nothing. I guess it is possible to rank purely based on backlink anchor text? Regards, Carrie
Hi Carrie,
Thanks for commenting. In short, yes it is possible to rank well for keywords with low volume of content a relatively small number of backlinks. There are many reasons why a website considered to be poor quality could outrank others – e.g. age of domain, quality of backlinks, social signals etc. But the fact it, if a site has little in the way of engaging content, it’s unlikely a visitor will stay around for long. Ranking is one thing, getting a visitor to interact with the site and “convert” is another thing altogether.
This article is full of useful information and advice. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much for the amazing article. Can we expect anymore changes in 2016?
Nice article guys! Found some useful tips that will help me going forward with SEO for my girlfriends website. Thanks
Thank you for writing this blog entry. I have a question, do you suggest making a lot of backlinks at once (like 30,000 per day) or just ..5 or 6 at a time?
Hi Megan, thanks for dropping by.
5 or 6 high quality, contextual links per week from relevant sites would be great. But the first step is to produce great content that would appeal to the audience of the sites you’re targeting. 5 or 6 good quality links per month would be fine. Remember, SEO requires planning, execution and patience. Automated link-building, done badly, will only get you into trouble.
Great Post!!
Awesome tricks thanks for share.thanks for this info,thanks for sharing this information.
Hello Sir,
It’s actually a great and useful piece of info. I’m happy that you just shared this useful info with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
Superb post !! My website is new and was searching for some worthy article to gain knowledge from.
Thanks again 🙂
the article has very useful information of improving the rank of the websites with the google ranking.
thank you
the article has very useful information of improving the rank of the websites with the google ranking.
The article was very informative .Thanks for share this .now we can easily top ranking our website
Thanks for the post. These tips will serve a great help
As a marketing personnel this content is really helpful for me. Thanks for the nice content.
Hy,
Step by Step great Initial Article for Rank website in Google and other search engine. I think you would add to some extra features like authority business listing specially directory, review generate, all place submit and more. Anyway, everything is totally good and informative. I share this article every new marketer which helps to learn with actual ranking guideline.
Awesome tips! Social signals plays an important role in SEO and in the coming years. Active presence on social media platforms like Facebook ,twitter,Pinterest, Linkedin will have a positive impact on organic search rankings.
This article is full of useful information and advice. Thank you so much for sharing
Thanks for this useful post. You explained all the important SEO very well.
Times changed a bit in 2017, but surprisingly all advice here is till relevant today. Good job
I agree that Long posts perform better than short posts and reviving old posts for traffic is really important to grab organic traffic and better search rankings.
Thanks for sharing
Great article, have been struggling with an old .com domain so just purchased the .ie instead for Ireland and it has already started ranking WAY better than the old one. There were piles of spammy links coming from motorsport forums that I have disavowed but are still there. I ended cutting the permanent redirect until this is sorted. Done so many articles on the .com and it broke my heart as it did not gain ranking. I am convinced it is the spammy links. I think i can go forth and blog without issue on my spanking new domain. LOL .
Nice article with great insights.
Great Article reveals that how to get ranking in google serp’s…
Just came across your site and will bookmark it for future reference. Lots to read here. My problem is finding the time to implement all your suggestions. I have been blogging and writing since 2012 and other than a year long college course in digital technology have self-taught when and where possible. My site is large, very large, and is hosted by wordpress.com premium. I am on my way to 9.5 million views with approx 8,000 views a day, visitors 3 to 4 thousand a day from over 200 countries. I rank first page for many search terms, sometimes the first listing. Not sure how I managed this. Trying to monetise my site has been difficult as the High traffic warrants a dedicated server which would be too costly monthly when only small income generated. I am now trying to monetise where I can but feel like I am running a large department store single handed. Was accepted by Word Ads last year and now generating about 4-500 dollars a month (wordpress pay in dollars). This has given me a lift but need much more than this to make a living. I write full time. Signed up to.Amazon Associates and now trying to incorporate that into my work. Seeking sponsored posts. Was cleared for an enterprise grant to purchase professional video recording equipment so to start a companion YouTube Channel for my site. Have to learn how to use it! Tried selling some premium content via PDF download but didn’t generate much interest (viewers used to getting everything for free). In the midst of this trying to create new content and post regularly along with admin etc. and configure new theme with some glitches. Conscious of the need to grow traffic with proper SEO but feel overwhelmed with all I should know and don’t, and by all I should be doing but can’t get to. How can i fit it all in. There are over 300 pages on my site, with some being 40 to 50 word pages long! I have a huge amount still to write which should keep me going for a few years. It’s a bit like an online university. Am exhausted banging it all out in my little back bedroom in Kildare!
Hi Vivien. Thanks for stopping by.
Your website is very impressive. Such a huge amount of valuable content. I’m a big advocate of giving away information for free, but I imagine many of your readers would happily pay for an ebook containing some of your premium content, or an online course.
I wish you continued success with your website, and I best of luck with the new videos!
Impressive Guidelines that helps how to get placed serp page.
Thanks
This is really a great stuff for sharing. Keep it up .Thanks for sharing.
This is really great work. Thank you for sharing such a useful information here in the blog.
Thanks bro
An insightful article I must confess.
It’s about time I do a total revamp of my site. Your tips will sure assist me.
Thanks
Thanks alot for the google ranking tips William we realy appreciate your this effort.
Please update to 2019
Ye it’s definitely on my list of things to do this Summer Alex. Been a bit busy lately. Lots of Google algorithm changes since I wrote this so I need to schedule some time to bring the post up to date.
Thanks alot for the google ranking tips William we realy appreciate your this effort.
Impressive! I like your blog. Thanks for the post
You’ve included some nice and useful resources to learn SEO. I complete agree with you Still I enjoy reading the article. it is very informative & useful article for SEO. Thank you for sharing.