Every new blogger dreams of ranking their blog post on first page of the Google. However, this can not be achieved in one single day with one single post. It requires months of hard work and research. There are a lot of factors which one needs to consider before ranking naturally on first page of the search results.
Companies spend a lot of their resources in order to rank on the first page for particular keyword. They all want a profitable and searchable blog. So individual bloggers will have to face all such competitors in order to get ranked on the first page. There are some rules which you need to follow when you write a blog post.
You will have to practice and implement the following rules in order to rank on first page. But, remember it does not mean that your every post will be on the first page. There are a lot of factors which affects ranking these days. So make them a habit and it should be good to go.
Use of proper keywords
Content of your blog post is the most important thing for better ranking. Make sure that title of your blog post matches with the content of it. Do not use too many relevant keywords in one single post. Its called spamming and not blogging. A true blogger will never do that.
There is a lot of information around this topic on the internet. However, I personally suggest to not to over focus on this one thing. Its acceptable that you include few keywords which normal people like you and me can understand.
Newbies are often misled by this. They use too many relevant keywords which looks spam and nothing else. So the algorithm neglects such websites and in turn your post ranks lower. Use keywords only where it is required and do not over use it.
Earn backlinks for your blog posts
This is another topic which is discussed a lot but not correctly every time. Whenever newbies hear the word “backlinks”, they start thinking of all the spammy ways to get them. Well, if it was so easy then everyone would have got it. Right?
You don’t have to build backlinks but you have to earn them. Give other person a reason to include your link to their website. Your post’s content should add some value in order to earn a backlink. Its that simple, still newbies rush to build them overnight.
Responsive web design
Its 2017 and we all know that most of the users come from smartphones these days. So its very important that you have a mobile friendly web design. If you will have a mobile friendly website then chances are there that your blog post will rank well. It helps in reducing bounce rate and results will be great in the long run.
Google is taking steps frequently in order to focus on this one thing. It recently introduced Accelerated Mobile Pages(AMP) so that content loads faster on mobile devices.
On-page SEO
Apart from using keywords which normal people would search for, there is a lot that could be done in on-page SEO. Use bold, italics and underlined characters wherever possible. You can also use the famous header tags (h1 to h6) to structure the blog post properly. These things help users as well as search engines in finding the important part of the blog post quickly.
Interlink your blog posts in order to provide more content to your visitors. This will reduce bounce rate and your post will rank higher. When you link other posts of the websites, make sure that they are relevant.
Improve domain authority
Domain authority is another ranking signal for your blog post. The internet is of lot of spam activities these days. To build trust with your users as well as search engines, you will have to improve domain authority.
You may have just purchased a domain name for your blog. So I am not saying that you will improve its authority overnight. But, you can improve it by carefully following all of the rest of the points here. Its kind of a certification that you are a good blogger and you are here to share some good piece of info.
Once you prove that you are an authority, your blog posts would naturally rank well.
Make your blog HTTPS
This is another ranking signal because it ensures that your website is trusted and secure. Like internet is full of spam activities, it is also often attacked with fraudulent activities. A SSL certificate ensures that your domain is free from any such activities.
You can either purchase a SSL certificate from your hosting partner or you can get it from content delivery networks like CloudFlare. This is one of the criteria of ranking blog posts higher these days. So you may not want to miss it.
Write posts consistently
Consistency is yet another ranking signal which you can not afford to miss. Make sure that your blog is not dead and it keeps supplying information on regular basis. There is an advantage to blogs that are updated regularly than those that are not.
You can also update your old blog posts whenever you have new information to share. This strategy sometimes helps your old posts to rank again.
Write unique and quality content
Along with consistency you will also have to make sure that your blog posts stand out from the rest. Your blog posts should be original and not copied from anywhere. Quality blog posts rank better than those that are rewritten.
If you keep on adding the same content which has been written multiple times on other websites then it will not have positive impact. By adding such content, your readers as well as search engines will lose interest in your website. It will be difficult to rank your blog posts in such case. So always be unique while writing a new blog post.
Above all of this, you also need some patience because it takes time for search engines to crawl your new content.
Final thoughts
These are some of the points/rules which you need to keep in mind while writing a blog post. Your blog post should be unique, adding value and search engine optimized in order to rank on first page of Google search results.