Here are some quick tips you can use right away to improve your site’s ranking.
1. Title Tags – one of the most important keys to ranking is the title tag. Make sure each page has a unique title tag and use around 2 – 3 keywords, but make them so they create variations. If you serve a specific local or regional market, it can also be helpful to list your main location in the title tag. Using geo modifiers helps you to rank more quickly and show up for more buying keyword phrases.
2. Don’t Over Optimize – Don’t overoptimize the pages you want to rank well. I believe this is the main cause of the ‘Sandbox’ filter. The old way to get a site to rank was to have the keyword in the domain, the title, the h1 tag, an h2 tag, and the first sentence bolded and italicized. When you do this, it is obvious to a search engine that you are trying to rank for this keyword. Search engines don’t like to be manipulated, so you have to be more subtle. If your site is perfectly optimized and you’re moving up from #15 to #7 to #3 and then suddenly you disappear, then you’ve probably triggered this filter. There are exceptions. Sometimes, it is just the engine doing some recalculating. Other times, you’re getting filtered. Don’t overoptimize and you’ll be less likely to get filtered.
3. Links to Links – Many people know that link building will help your site to rank better. But most people go about it the wrong way. If you want a page to rank and not fall back quickly, then you need to build links to your links. If all the pages that link to your page are brand new and have no backlinks of their own, then your page is not going to rank or it won’t rank for very long. In addition to building links to your main pages, you have to build links to your links.
4. Website Speed – If you’re website is slow, your visitors will notice, and they will probably leave quickly. Make sure your website loads quickly and doesn’t have any problems displaying in the most common browsers.
5. Unique, Engaging Content – We shouldn’t even have to say this, but to rank well and keep on ranking well, you really need to have fresh, high quality content on your site. What do you offer that differentiates you from everyone else? Make sure the content on your site is fresh and interesting, and your rankings will stick.
