How to Improve Your Page Rank

Co-authored by Ross Taylor

Last Updated: July 28, 2022

When it comes to getting your site on the first page of Google, your page rank is a great indicator of how well your page is performing. Your page rank is based on a combination of the quality of your content, your search engine optimization, and your links and viewership. Improving all of these aspects will lead to an increase in your rank.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Providing quality content

1
Focus on your content. The most important factor for your page rank is the content on your site. If your content is original and useful, it will draw more visitors than a page with poor content. Creating good content is not a simple task, and involves a lot of different factors.
2
Update your website regularly with new content. Websites that stagnate and do not stay current will drop in the ranks. If you’re writing a blog, try to update at least once a week at the minimum.

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3
Ensure that your content matches your site description and keywords. If readers click away from your site after discovering that the content does not match their search, you will get penalized when they leave quickly.^{[1]
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Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Optimization

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Optimize your pages. Your content should be optimized for both keywords and conversational searches. The best way to do this is to make your article titles as close to the popular search query for that topic as possible. Make sure that your content answers the questions of the readers, or provides unique insight.
2
Avoid overloading your site with keywords. Google will recognize this and ding your ranking because of it.^{[2]
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- Make sure that your site’s meta description is accurate. This is displayed to users when your site shows up on searches. An accurate description will lead to more clicks top your site, and less bounces upon landing on your site.
- Google’s Hummingbird update for their search engine algorithms has made keywords much less important than conversational searches. This reflects changes in the way that people search for things. For example, instead of looking for the keyword “iPhone”, Google will look for pages that answer questions such as “Which is the best iPhone for me?”^{[3]
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3
Utilize backlinks. When search engines see that visitors are coming to your site from other sites, your page rank will increase. The more reputable the site the viewer originated from, the more impact this will have on your rank. You can add backlinks by commenting on other blogs and adding a link to your site when you sign off, or you can provide content for other websites and then link back to your site via your credit.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Other important promotions

1
Create and submit your sitemap. A sitemap is a text file that lays out the pages of your site. It makes it easier for the Google bots to find all of the links and content on your website, as well as determine their importance. There are a variety of websites that will generate a sitemap for you, or you can create one yourself. See this guide for more details.
2
Translate your website. If you can afford to hire translators or have a community willing to do the translation work, you can significantly increase your audience by making your pages available in other languages. This increase in traffic will help to increase your page rank.^{[4]
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3
Create an RSS feed. An RSS feed will help bring in new readers to your site, as well as retain existing ones. This will show consistent traffic, which will in turn positively affect your rank. You can use automated programs or create your own. This guide explains the process in detail.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Sharing

1
Capitalize on social networks. Social networks are a great way to spread backlinks among a large number of viewers. Viewers will link your site for you if your content proves valuable. This will in turn increase your traffic, which will lead to an increase in your rank.
- Creating a compelling link to your site is incredibly important for social networks. The reader needs to be intrigued enough to follow the link, and it needs to stand out from the deluge of news on their feed.
2
Become more shareable by providing your visitors a couple of easy ways to share your content would be a good start. For this, your set tweets should be below 120 characters so that it is easy for others to re-tweet. Also, try writing a great hook over the Facebook link, share along with adding up your own commentary. The content in which you share over your different social media platforms should be of good quality and worth reading.

Community Q&A

Question

So, each social media share counts as a backlink?

Adam Leech

Community Answer

Yes and no. It counts as a "social signal" to that web page. Social signals are also important to ranking.