Raise the Rank of Your Website in 2021

The digital realm has a lot of content. Fortunately, every second of every day, someone is searching for information. If you use the online space for marketing your products, you need the right people to see you. Good rankings on search engines are, therefore, critical. 

You get to build organic audiences, increasing your chances of conversion. However, with so much competition, it can be difficult to achieve this goal. 

This article will explore the topic of raising the rank of your website in 2021. Let’s get into it.

1. Improve Your Metrics With Google Analytics

If you do not have the right data, it can be difficult to know what to change on your website. You may continue to do the same things that are not working. Google Analytics provides an excellent way to gather and review the relevant metrics.  

You will see your overall position on search engines and get a deeper understanding of SEO that will enable you to target your messaging even better. Some of the information that must be part of your ranking strategy include:

• Browser choice amongst your target audiences (you can then tweak the website design to fit into the browser requirements)
• The type of devices they use
• Lead sources
• Competitor analysis

Remember, every step you take to improve rankings will require data. It allows for better decision-making. 

2. Utilize Competitor Analysis Data

Businesses rely on competitor analysis as a basis for many decisions they make. When you were setting up your site, your web design company of choice probably showed you competitor sites and displayed a proven understanding of that design industry. But the company you hire must also have data on whether the designs of your competitors are performing well or not.

You have to see how they look, what works, what to do better or what to avoid. And when your website is up and running, stealth-mode competitor analysis must continue. 

Don’t worry about them finding out what you’re doing. With the right VPN or proxy, you can hide your IP address and browse with complete anonymity.  

Look at the pages that performed very well on competitor sites and get valuable information such as where most of their traffic originates. Looking at their content will help you understand what audiences are responding to positively.  

There are tools such as SEMrush you can use for such checks. These tools will give you additional information like SEO tactics and keyword usage.

Access to this information can save you a lot of time. It opens up areas of opportunities while enabling you to avoid those that will not help your rankings.  

3. Page Loading Speed Is Still Critical in 2021

Page loading speed is something you’ll come across on various SEO resources every single year. Your website will never get a good ranking as long as the user experience (UX) is terrible. The upcoming Page Experience update, set to launch mid-June, will further solidify the importance of excellent UX.

Be consistent with page speed testing.  Tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and Test My Site will give you all the information you need, including:

• How your website scores in terms of performance
• Real-world field data
• Areas that may need improving

Simple but critical steps to increase loading speed include:

• Choose a web host provider that can give you sufficient bandwidth. It should be enough to handle the amount of traffic the website receives.
• Compress or resize pictures to reduce the file size.
• Delete any extensions or plugins you no longer use.
• Minify JavaScript, CSS and HTML.
• Use browser caching to reduce loading times.
• Do not allow too many page redirects.

4. Mobile First, the Rest Follows

You can probably count how many times you have not had your phone in your hand. Chances are, you form part of the over 50 percent of the global population that primarily uses phones to browse the internet.

Your website visitors must offer a fantastic experience on mobile devices. Professional web design companies focus on mobile UX first then customize it for desktop. Great designers ensure that even on the tiniest of screens, the browsing experience is still good.

You must get the mobile architecture right. There are more limitations when designing for mobile – you have little space and must fit in all relevant elements. It allows you only to take what is important to get the most functionality out of the design. The transition to desktop, then, becomes so much easier.  

5. You Still Can’t Get Away With Poor Content in 2021

The importance of content is not a new discussion. However, a ranking article without a mention of content would not be complete. You need to have had it all. Your content must be relevant, engaging and a response to a need.  But how do you achieve all this if you do not have a starting point?  

It takes so much more than sitting in front of the laptop and churning out content. What is guiding your content generation? What is the purpose and what justifications do you have for everything you write. If you do not already have a content strategy in place, start on one today.

Also, don’t forget that great content marketing doesn’t only include amazing texts. The overall package of good content includes multimedia content as well. High-definition images, carefully thought-out videos and even informative slideshows all contribute to the success of your content. When you have something that people will want to read, your ranking will organically improve.

6. Say Goodbye to Obsolete SEO Trends

SEO exploded into the digital marketing space about 20 years ago. Its actual birthday has been difficult to pinpoint. Since then, we have all kinds of experts implementing it. It is difficult to find fault with SEO as a digital marketing tactic. 

Many marketers see success with the correct implementation of these techniques. However, SEO is ever-evolving, and everyone in the digital space must keep up. It is time to say goodbye to obsolete SEO trends if you want to improve your rankings in 2021. So, what needs to stay behind in 2020?

• Keyword stuffing: Keywords are important in SEO; we all agree. But, are you one of those people who are guilty of keyword stuffing? You have probably come across some pretty bad examples of keyword overuse. The article ends up losing meaning, and Google will penalize you.
• Writing for web crawlers and not your audiences: Whatever content you produce should be relevant and engaging.
• Focusing more on quantity than quality with regards to link building: Not caring where links come from as long as you have plenty of them is a big mistake that could result in a low ranking. Check that you are linking to high-authority websites and avoid buying links.
• Having too many pages on your website, hoping that it will improve visibility: What you will end up with is too many pages that have zero relevance. Google will notice the low quality of content and may punish you with poor rankings.

Make sure you track the SEO performance and make the necessary changes when you need to.

7.  Say Hello to Effective New SEO Trends

The SEO landscape is never quiet, and it is always exciting to see what is coming up next. 

Voice search optimization brings convenience and simplicity to search. Your online visitors will enjoy a good UX if you incorporate it on your website. Search engines notice platforms that have high return rates. You can also be sure of higher traffic to your site.

Search intent focuses on meeting the needs of Google users. The main areas are:

• Informational, which would comprise the “what is” and “how-to” kind of content
• Transactional, which would include words like “call us,” “book an appointment” or “free trial”
• Commercial targets those who are ready to make a move or are at the stage of making a decision. Such content may appear as follows: “best perfumes for women;” “top-selling Amazon perfumes
• Navigational direct to a specific place, e.g., PayPal login

Natural language processing and machine learning provide richer content, while the use of structured data provides different ways to interact with content.

The Google AI algorithm takes into account different factors for ranking, including click frequency and duration of stay on the search result.

Video optimization takes advantage of the opportunities on platforms like YouTube. See what kind of content people are searching for around specific keywords. Use the search bar to type in the keyword you want to use. It will look something like this:

Now create the relevant titles, descriptions, or tags for your videos.

8. People Also Ask (PAA)

The PAA section has a lot of potential for good rankings. Yet, you have probably paid little attention to it. It can get you on Page 1 twice, and you get good visibility. Even if you are not on page 1, you can still appear in the PAA section.  

Final Thoughts

Search engines work 24/7 to look at content and rank sites accordingly. If you want good search results, you must take the right steps. Optimize your website for search engines with the right tactics. Our article has explored some ways you can raise the rank of your website in 2021.

Perfecting SEO is not easy and will take time. However, if you get it right, you will find yourself on search engines’ coveted first page of results.