You’re probably thinking that it’s not possible to boost rankings that way.
After all, time and again, you have been told that the more content you have on your website, the more links you get, and then ultimately get higher rankings.
Yes, that is still true.
But what if I told you there are other ways to boost rankings without any of those?
Content marketing and link building are not the only ways to improve your rankings.
And no matter how many times Google updates its algorithms, there are a few things that still work to boost rankings without building any links or creating content.
Do you want to know how?
Keep reading…
What Posts Usually Rank on the Top Positions of Google?
Google is probably the most used search engine in the world. Admit it. You use it, too. Now, what does it want to rank at the top pages?
In a nutshell, Google doesn’t care about link building or on-page SEO the most.
Well, it does still matter but what Google wants to rank at the top are websites that users love.
Think about this scenario. If Google listed sites that you don’t like, then you would probably not want to use Google anymore.
If the number of users using Google decreases, they will make lesser money from their ads.
This is just one of the reasons why Google cares about what you would think. As a result, they will only rank the websites that you will love.
So now, let’s get started with those hacks you want to know about.
Boost Rankings: Optimize Your CTRs
CTRs or click-through rate is the number of users who will click on a specific link to the number of users who view that advertisement, post or page.
Now, imagine this. If 500 people searched the keyword “backlinks” on Google and clicked on the post that’s on number 2 listing, what does that mean to Google?
A situation like this tells Google that the number 2 listing is more relevant than the number 1 listing to which Google would move that listing to number 1.
Do you see now?
From a Twitter post, Rand Fishkin decided to test something. His experiment went on like this.
He asked people to Google search the phrase “best-grilled steak” and to click on the first listing.
Once that page loads hit the back button, and then click on the fourth listing.
The result was stunning! In just 70 minutes, the fourth listing jumped to the first top position.
Eventually, the page’s ranking directly went back down since users felt that the listing was not that great in comparison to the other listings.
The fourth listing only went up because of Rand’s experiment, thanks to his loyal following.
So what does this mean? Google cares about what you think more than you know.
They’ll even adjust rankings in just a few minutes because they want to show you pages that are relevant to your search query.
It doesn’t matter how good your on-page SEO is or how many backlinks your page has.
Google will still keep its users in mind
So if you want to boost rankings, all you have to do is generate more clicks (well, in a legitimate way, of course!) than the listings that are above you.
In a few hours or days, you will notice that your page’s rank slowly climbs up without you building any more links or writing content.
But, how do you get clicks?
It’s simple – adjust your title tag and meta description tag. Make it more appealing to users.
To do this, install the Yoast SEO plugin on your WordPress blog and make some adjustments to your titles and meta descriptions.
Here’s what you can do.
Make people curious
Make titles that are appealing enough for people to want to click them, just like when it comes to the blogger outreach quality process, and sending emails that pique the recipient’s curiosity.
Take, for example, if you’re going for the keyword “olive oil”, you can change your title to “10 Proven Benefits Of Olive Oil (#6 Will Shock You)”.
Now, don’t you want to click on that after reading it? You’re left wondering what that #6 is and to satisfy your curiosity, you go ahead and click it.
One thing you can do is read magazines, since they often have appealing headlines and titles on their cover.
This will help you create titles that would be great in getting people to click on your post.
Add keywords
People most often click on the listings which include the phrase or keyword that they are searching for.
So always make sure you are including the right keywords in your description and title. Yoast SEO will help you with this.
Show People What They Want
And not only that but show them also when they want it. Pretty easy, right?
From Rand Fishin’s experiment, you may have noticed that he asked people to click the back button.
You wouldn’t want this happening, since it will significantly hurt your rankings!
When people click the back button, it sends signals to Google that they don’t like what they see.
As such, it is good always to optimize your website with optimal user experience in mind. If you do, people won’t click the back button as much.
To help you, here’s what you can do.
Use Qualaroo
Go to Qualaroo and survey people. Ask people who are on your website this question: “how can I improve this page?”
You’ll be surprised at how many ideas you’ll get. You can also use Qualaroo to find out why people visit your website.
Conclusion
If you’re only focusing on blogging, link building or on-page SEO, you will not be able to dominate Google and other search engines.
Why is that?
Because all of those things are what your competitors are focusing on. You need to do more than that if you want to stand out.
When you focus on doing what is best for your readers, audience, and users, you are increasing your chances of beating everyone else.
And hence, you’ll boost rankings to the max!
