Ranking on Google’s Second Page Sucks — Here’s How to Do It
I’m still kind of mad about it, though.
The article was almost finished. It was entitled “How to rank on Google.”
Okay. The title needs work and is an overall bad SEO move. It has a keyword difficulty of 73 and only 400 monthly searches.
It was about an article on this platform that ranked on Google’s first page two days ago. Of course, I got to work and started writing tips on how to do it.
Today, that article about how to create a writing portfolio with no experience is sitting on Google’s second page. For someone who’s very competitive, there’s nothing worse than being second.
Getting your article on Google’s first page isn’t an easy task as other bloggers would sell to you.
There are a lot of competitors and factors, not to mention Google’s algorithm has a hint of mystery in it.
Google’s ranking system is continuously changing
In fact, they make thousands of changes every year.
It’s always updating to keep up with the boom of digital marketing. Truthfully, I think it’s also because of the tricks people do to crack its code.
In 2020, Google made 4,500 updates to Google Search. A year before that, in 2019, they made 3,200 changes.
There are however indications of how Google ranks websites and search results.
Of course, Google won’t be telling writers the exact secret formula. So these indications come from what information Google gives out and collective bloggers’ experiences.
Suck like me and rank on Google’s second page
My sister calls me a drama queen and I am. I know I should be grateful for even landing on Google’s second page. It still brings my article views every day although by the digit.
If you want to know how to rank on Google even if it’s on the second page, the short answer is SEO.
The long answer simplified is there are 200 known factors contributing to Google’s ranking system, and perhaps, more than that.
Here are 4 factors that helped rank my article on Google, even if it’s on the second page:
- Keywords
Keywords are how people find you and your blog. They are words and phrases that people usually search on Google.
For example “How to rank #1 on Google” is one of the keywords people would search for when they want to learn about ranking on Google.
Additionally, keywords help Google know what your article is about and how helpful it is to readers.
In general, it’s best to put 10% of your keywords in your article. So if it’s 1,000 words, your keyword should appear at least 10 times in your article but only do so if it sounds natural.
Otherwise, Google would detect your foolishness and call it spam.
Here are free keyword search tools for beginners.
- Readability
Readability means making it easier on the readers.
The attention span of most blog viewers is equal to countless teens scrolling for hours on TikTok — virtually none.
If you write a block of a paragraph, it would be harder to digest for readers. It may cause them to look for a better read or just skim your article and then leave.
This is bad for your reading time and ultimately might affect your SEO ranking.
Make it easy on the eyes and leave some white space.
- Domain authority
Domain authority is one of the factors to consider when applying SEO to your articles.
To put it simply, it is a scoring system created by Moz that predicts a website’s ranking on Google.
In 2019, the writing platform where I published my article had a score of 98 in domain authority and 219M backlink. The average domain authority score is between 40 and 50.
That definitely helped Google when ranking my article. Normally, articles would take 3 to 6 months to rank, this one ranked in 2 days.
- Alt text
Alt text is one SEO factor many new writers underestimate.
In an almost saturated industry like freelancing, it is important to make sure to check as many SEO factors as possible.
Simply put, alt text is the description of the images in your articles.
Your alt text should include your keywords and should be less than 125 characters.
Just make sure to put the right description for people with visual impairments. It is what is read to them if your blog has audio reading.
Am I stuck on the second page of Google?
What’s darkly comedic about writing an article on how to rank on Google’s first page and then having to rewrite it is this:
I’m back on Google’s first page just before finishing this article.
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