Six Tips and Tricks to get a Higher Google Ranking
Buy and install an SSL certificate
If your site is http://www.whatever.ie instead of https://www.whatever.ie, Google will rank your site lower than a site with an SSL. Google’s Chrome browser will also flag the site as “Not Secure”, possibly scaring visitors away. You should install an SSL cert even if there’s no ecommerce transactions on your site. You can spot a site with an installed SSL cert as the web address starts with https and you can see the lock icon to the left of the website address bar. SSL certs need to be purchased and installed annually.
Put Your Video Content on YouTube
If you have video content, it’s best to upload it to YouTube or Vimeo instead of using up your bandwith when visitors download from your servers. Google owns YouTube so it’ll help your Google ranking to host the videos there and make sure you have relevant key words and phrases as well as links back to your site.
Get a Google for Business Listing
Having your business on a Google map also helps your search engine ranking and you can add key words and phrases, geographical areas that you cover as well as photos and video.
Install the Yoast Plugin
If you have a WordPress website, there’s a plugin called Yoast which will allow you to optimise pages search engine ranking. It operates on a traffic light system, so it’s red (poor), amber (good) and green (best) so you can see how well SEOed your site is as you play about with the wording.
Avoid Duplicate Content
If you you put up a post that’s verbatim copy of another elsewhere on the net, Google will mark down both. Be original and it’ll stand to you.
Update Your Site Frequently
Googles bots love a site that’s frequently updated, so keep a blog of latest news, announcements, awards, launches, testimonials, whatever. Just keep the website fresh and get that Google love. It also shows visitors and competitors that your business is alive and well. Noting says “Gone out of Business” like a most recent update more than a year ago.