With everybody searching for just about everything on Google these days, making sure that your website takes the coveted top ranking in the SERPs is crucial. Rank any lower, and you’re exposing your business to extra competition, namely from whoever’s taking up the spot above you in the search engine results. But, what can you do to make sure that you are exhausting all methods and strategies to give your website the best chance of a good ranking? With Google’s algorithm now being all about quality, we’ve put together some top tips to improve your search engine optimization.

Be Friendly to Mobiles

And tablets, for that matter. With more and more internet users ditching the classic desktop and laptop PC in favor for their mobile devices, Google has caught on and is penalizing any websites that don’t provide just as amazing an experience for their users who are viewing from a tablet or smartphone. When it comes to mobile friendliness, a responsive design is the best way to go. Responsive designs are easily the best option as they adapt to the screen the site is being viewed on, ensuring that your viewers will get the same awesome experience whether they’re using a tiny Android smartphone or an iPad Pro.

Quality Over Quantity

When it comes to content, any good search optimization company will tell you that it’s not about how many words that you have on the page. For ages, webmasters churned out content for the sake of getting as many keywords as possible out there – and although it may have worked for a while, the user experience became terrible and Google has done something about it. When writing content for your site, you should bear in mind that Google will be much more favorable to those sites which provide content that is clearly written with the user’s needs and interests in mind. Providing content that is highly shareable, rather than just keyword dense will put you in a much better position of hitting the top spots in the SERPs.

Site Performance

Your site performance alone could be having an effect on the way your website is appearing in Google search result rankings. This is because Google is now putting far more emphasis on the user experience, and giving top spots to sites that provide their users with a flawless experience when they visit. If your site takes forever to load, Google won’t favor you much – so make sure that you choose a website design or theme that loads quickly ready for your users to get started.

Use Social Media

Sharing is caring – and if you care about your website and where it appears in Google’s search results, making use of social media is important. You should ensure that your site uses different ‘share’ icons for the various social media sites, as well as provide links to your users to your own social media profiles where applicable.

Remember – the user always comes first!