We get asked this question more than pretty much any other question and it seems we are not alone.
Google also get asked (unsurprisingly) and so they have put together a neat guide which we found hidden in plain sight. Of course some of you may have spotted this already but just in case you didn’t here’s what Google say are the ways to do this;
- Provide high quality content on your site. Google tries to find the best answer for our users’ requests; if you write the best material, you’re in the game. Use the Search Analytics report to see which queries lead to your pages, and what the click-through rate is for links to your site.
- Make your site mobile friendly. Many users search on mobile devices; our search results favor pages that we think answer the user’s request best with the best possible user experience on their platform.
- Use informative titles and snippets. Good, clear titles and accurate meta tag descriptions help us understand the purpose of a page and generate useful snippets in our search results.
- Add structured data to enable additional search result features such as stars, event information, or site search boxes, which add to the user experience, making your site more valuable to readers. Read more about structured data or use our tools.
- Make sure that you follow our guidelines for good sites and avoid pitfalls that could affect your search ratings.
So there you are. No smoke and mirrors. No tricks and definitely no cheating.
If you need more than this then feel free to ask and we will be more than happy to help.
