How To Get My Website To Show Up on Google: 7 Expert SEO Tips

You know Google rankings matter, but how do you get your website to show up on Google, and what can I do to boost my rankings?

Google rankings matter. First, nail the basics and ensure your site is following best practices to have the opportunity to show up on Google.

From there, it’s an intense battle to get your website pages to rank on the first page of Google. The difference between those on the first page and everyone else often lies in your SEO strategy.

Learn how to implement straightforward, high-impact SEO tips to give yourself the best chance of ranking on Google.

This guide will cover the basics of indexing your website on Google to make sure it’s regularly –and correctly!– crawled. Following these expert SEO tips will improve your website's SEO performance and increase the likelihood of ranking well on Google.

How To Get My Website To Show Up On Google: Trends in Organic Search

Understanding organic search is critical if you want to boost traffic and conversions for your website and your business. But what exactly is organic search, and how does it impact your business?

Organic search refers to unpaid search results that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs) based on their relevance to the user's query. Unlike paid ads, these results earn their positions through effective search engine optimization strategies. When we talk about "showing up on Google," we're typically referring to ranking well in these organic search results.

Organic search matters for several reasons:

Trust: Users often trust organic results more than paid advertisements.
Cost-effectiveness: While it requires upfront effort, organic search doesn't involve direct payment for ad placement.
Long-term benefits: A well-optimized site can maintain good rankings over time, providing ongoing value. (In other words, you invest in creating quality content once that delivers for months and quarters to come rather than losing all traffic the second you turn off your paid ads).
Higher click-through rates: Organic results generally receive more clicks than paid ads, especially for non-commercial queries and colder leads.

If you want your website to show up on Google, you need to understand more than just the basics of SEO. Like much of the B2B and marketing world, change is the only constant in SEO! So, what are some of the trends you need to keep an eye on if you want to get your website to show up on Google this quarter?

User Intent: Google is getting better at understanding what users really want when they search. It's not just about keywords anymore, but about providing content that truly answers the user's question or solves their problem.
Mobile-First Indexing: With most searches now happening on mobile devices, Google primarily uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking.
Core Web Vitals: These metrics, which measure loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability, are now crucial ranking factors.
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): Google is placing increasing importance on content demonstrating these qualities, especially for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics.
Video Content: With the rise of platforms like TikTok and YouTube, video content is becoming increasingly important in SEO strategies.
Voice Search Optimization: As smart speakers and voice assistants become more popular, optimizing for voice search is increasingly important.

Now, for the million-dollar question: How will artificial intelligence (AI) impact your organic search efforts? How does AI impact organic search?

There’s a few key areas where AI pops up in SEO conversations:

Search Algorithms: AI helps search engines understand context and user intent better, leading to more relevant results.
Content Creation: AI tools generate and optimize content for SEO purposes, though it's important to note that you and your team should carefully review and edit AI-generated content.
Personalization: AI enables search engines to deliver increasingly personalized results based on user behavior and preferences.
Image and Video Recognition: AI improves search engines' ability to understand and index visual content.
Natural Language Processing: This AI technology helps search engines understand and process human language more effectively, impacting both voice search and traditional text-based queries.

As AI continues to evolve, it's likely to play an even more significant role in shaping organic search. For website owners and SEO professionals, staying informed about these AI-driven changes and adapting strategies will be key now and in the future.

While these trends are important, the fundamentals of good SEO remain crucial: creating high-quality, relevant content, ensuring your site is technically sound, and building a strong, natural backlink profile.

Let’s go beyond these surface-level tips and dig into our expert advice for how to get your website to show up on Google.

1. Create a Clear Site Architecture

The first expert tip you should consider when optimizing your site for search engines is to ensure you have a clear site architecture. Your site architecture is critical to the navigability of your website, both for users and search engines.

Start by making sure all your pages and posts have clear, well-defined headings and subheadings. These elements make your page more skimmable and help Google understand and index your site more efficiently.

Next, take a look at your internal linking strategy. Are you linking related pages together, giving visitors the opportunity to explore and engage with more of your site by offering them related content and clear next steps? This step will help keep visitors from bouncing from your site while also letting Google know how your pages relate to one another.

Finally, consider conducting a technical SEO audit. This type of audit can help you find challenges that prevent Google from properly indexing your site.

2. Prioritize Content Quality

Content is king. I’m not just saying that because I’m a content marketer, either! If you want to master SEO you need to prioritize content, so the second expert tip for how to get your website to show up on Google is to prioritize the quality of your content.

Think about it: when you're searching for information, don't you prefer websites that give you precisely what you're looking for? That's what Google wants to provide to its users, and its algorithm prioritizes sites that offer that experience in search results.

Maintaining an active blog is a great way to consistently serve up fresh, relevant content. Mix it up with a blend of niche topics and broader subjects in your field. This variety caters to different segments of your audience and signals to Google that your site is a valuable resource in your niche.

Be sure to target high-volume search terms in your posts and pages, but don’t just throw a bunch of keyphrases into a jumbled word salad. If you want to rank, you need to provide content that meets the searcher’s intent for the keywords you’re targeting.

Focus on creating content that answers questions, solves problems, and provides real value to your audience. Do this consistently, and you'll likely see your search rankings improve over time.

3. Optimize Your Website For Mobile

More than half of current internet traffic happens on mobile. Mobile optimization isn’t just a “nice-to-have” anymore: it’s a must-have. If you don’t optimize your site for mobile, half of your site visitors will bounce. But even if, somehow, all your traffic happens to come from desktop users, those users are less likely to find you in the first place. Why?

Mobile-first indexing.

Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in their results pages. So, if your site isn’t optimized, you’re missing out on both traffic and rankings.

How can you optimize your site for mobile?

First and foremost, it's about responsive design. Your website should adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes, from the largest desktop monitor to the smallest smartphone. This responsiveness means your visitors will not have to use awkward zooming or horizontal scrolling.

Navigation is another critical factor. Your neat row of menu items on a smaller screen might turn into a jumbled mess. Simplify your navigation for mobile users, prioritizing thumb-friendly buttons and easily tappable links.

Finally, when it comes to content, ensure all your text is readable without zooming and that images fit nicely within the screen.

Remember, mobile users are often looking for quick, easily digestible information. By providing a smooth, fast, and valuable mobile experience, you're giving visitors what they want and sending positive signals to Google about your site's quality.

4. Increase Your Page Load Speeds

Modern internet users are impatient. 40% of internet users will bounce from a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. If you want to keep your visitors from bouncing and, as a result, earn a higher spot in Google’s results, you need to increase your page load speeds.

Start with the basics: optimize your images (compress them without losing quality), minimize the use of plugins, and limit redirects. Caching your web pages can also make a big difference, allowing returning visitors to load your site even faster.

Tools like Google's Page Speed Insights and GT Metrix can give you a clear picture of your site's performance and offer specific recommendations for improvement. You should also keep an eye on Google’s Core Web Vitals.

These metrics measure loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability — all critical factors in user experience. Meeting these standards isn't just good for your visitors; it's also essential for your search rankings.

Pro-tip: If this sounds a bit technical, it might be worth bringing in some expert help to ensure your site is up to speed (pun intended).

5. Obtain High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are one of the cornerstones of any SEO strategy. But here's the catch: not all backlinks are created equal. A handful of high-quality backlinks from respected, relevant websites in your industry can be worth more than hundreds of links from low-quality or irrelevant sites. In fact, those low-quality links can even hurt your rankings if Google suspects you're trying to game the system.

So how do you get these valuable backlinks? The best way is organically, through creating content so good that other sites want to reference it. Writing guest posts for industry blogs, creating shareable infographics, or publishing original research are all great ways to build your reference history. Even optimizing your social media profiles with links back to your site can help.

When it comes to backlinks, quality trumps quantity every time. Focus on building relationships with other reputable sites in your niche and creating link-worthy content. It might take more time and effort, but improved search rankings payoff is worth it.

6. Prioritize User Experience

When we think about SEO, it’s easy to focus on doing what it takes to impress Google itself. However, if you want to impress Google’s algorithm, you need to impress your human visitors first. That’s why our sixth expert tip is to prioritize UX.

To gauge your site's user experience, keep an eye on metrics like bounce rate (how quickly people leave your site), time on page (how long they stick around), and pages per session (how many pages they visit). These metrics can give you valuable insights into how engaging your content is and how easy your site is to navigate.

If you notice high bounce rates on certain pages, it might be time to revamp that content or improve the page's loading speed. If users are spending little time on your site and then bouncing, you must prioritize ways to make your content more engaging or valuable. Why?

Google's algorithm is increasingly focused on rewarding sites that put users first. This means it’s all the more important to create trustworthy, accurate content that truly meets user needs. In other words, don’t try to beat the system: the best way to get your website to show up on Google is to be worthy of ranking by providing a genuinely good experience for your users.

7. Submit Your Sitemap

Last but not least, you should submit your sitemap to Google. It's a simple step that can have a big impact on how quickly and thoroughly Google indexes your site.

Here's how to do it:

Access Google Search Console. If you still need to set this up, you'll need to verify your domain ownership. Once you're in, look for the "sitemaps" option under the "index.”
Add your sitemap URL. Typically, this is something like "yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml". Click "submit," and you're done! Google will now use this sitemap to crawl your site more efficiently.

But don't stop there. It's a good idea to double-check if your site is actually showing up in Google's search index. You can do this by performing a site search – just type "site:yourwebsite.com" into Google. This search will show you which of your pages Google has indexed.

Submitting your sitemap doesn't guarantee that all your pages will be indexed immediately, but it does help Google discover your content more quickly and thoroughly. It's a simple step that can boost your SEO efforts.

How To Get My Website To Show Up on Google: Crush Your Organic Marketing

The tips we've covered are a solid foundation for jumpstarting your SEO efforts and improving your visibility on Google. But the tips and tricks in this post are just the beginning of your journey to success.

You need more than a handful of tactics to truly dominate the SERPs and crush your organic marketing goals. You need a comprehensive, holistic website strategy that aligns with your business objectives and resonates with your target audience.

Want to take your website from merely showing up on Google to becoming a powerhouse that converts visitors and fills your sales pipeline? Check out our free training, "The 4 Pillars of a Winning Website." This resource will guide you through creating a website that ranks well and drives real business results.

Mallory is a Growth Marketer at Lean Labs, working with brands to ignite their growth engine through conceptualizing, implementing, and optimizing growth marketing strategies.

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