10 Tweaks That Can Boost Lagging Articles Onto Google’s First Page

10 Tweaks That Can Boost Lagging Articles Onto Google’s First Page

One thing people usually forget is if Google sees that you are not linking to your own article from your own website but are getting links from other websites, chances are you don't value your own content as much as others value it. Before you start trying to get links to your article from other blogs and websites, make sure that you link to it internally from other articles or pages on your own website. Pick at least three articles or pages where adding a link to the target post will add genuine value to the reader. The article now ranks no. 7 on Google's first page. When you add a link in your blog post, think long and hard about how well this link serves the reader. When Google starts seeing some activity on your page, they will push your rankings up if they see a good engagement on your blog post (i.e., people are not bouncing and are scrolling slowly and consuming your content). Google wants to rank engaging content. Use Google Page Insights to optimize your site. The more of these steps you implement, the higher your ranking will go.

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10 Tweaks That Can Boost Lagging Articles Onto Google's First Page

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You have dedicated a substantial amount of time and resources to creating a compelling piece of content, but it’s not ranking on the first page of Google. Hardly anyone looks beyond the first page, so if your article is stuck on page two or three, it’s practically invisible. It can be very frustrating trying to figure out what you can do to get it to rank higher, especially if it’s been buried for quite a while.

I’ve experienced this problem myself many times. You want to rank higher, but you just don’t know what to do. Here is a simple step-by-step process to help you rank higher. Follow these steps in the order listed.

1. Link internally to your article.

If you have an article you are trying to rank on your website, it should have at least two to three links pointing to it from your own website — either blog posts or other sections of your website.

Links to your website are vital for you to rank higher because they signal to Google that your article is valuable. One thing people usually forget is if Google sees that you are not linking to your own article from your own website but are getting links from other websites, chances are you don’t value your own content as much as others value it. This is not a good signal.

Before you start trying to get links to your article from other blogs and websites, make sure that you link to it internally from other articles or pages on your own website.

Pick at least three articles or pages where adding a link to the target post will add genuine value to the reader. Don’t just add a link without a sufficiently relevant context. You want this link to actually get clicks from the readers.

2. Resize your images.

Page loading speed is one of the most important ranking factors. Ideally you should try to maintain a load speed of less than 5 seconds. In 99 percent of cases, you can easily reduce the load time of your post by resizing all the images to be 150KB or less.

A few weeks ago, my article “How to Write a PR Release for a Product” was stuck on page 4 of Google. It’s been there for a month. I decided to run an experiment. I resized every image from about 2MB to 150KB. I then submitted the article to be re-crawled by Google. The article now ranks no. 7 on Google’s first page.

3. Remove pop-ups.

Pop-ups that load the moment a visitor lands on your site is a key culprit in increasing bounce rates. Pop-ups can be irritating and difficult to cancel, especially on mobile devices. Google doesn’t like websites with these types of pop-ups since it makes a poor user experience, particularly on mobile.

Like Google, I don’t care for such pop-ups. Instead, I ask for reader’s emails at the bottom of my blog posts. It makes for a much better user experience:

4. Guest blog to acquire quality and relevant links.

Most techniques for acquiring backlinks work only for websites that are not too authoritative. If you want links from websites with high domain authority, the easiest way is to write a guest post.

When you add a link in your blog post, think long and hard about how well this link serves the reader. Will the reader actually click this link? If the answer is maybe, don’t add the link. A link will only help you rank and give juice to your website if it’s getting clicks. You need to have a case for adding a link at a precise moment in the article.

Take a look at this example in my article on Orbit Media, which has a domain authority of 74. I have linked to a couple articles from my own blog. I did this because the links in the article serve the reader well if…

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