You can also run sentiment analysis to learn how people speak of your brand. If your website handles any sensitive information, display security seals and trust signals (e.g., SSL certificates) prominently on your homepage. This reassures users that their data is secure and protected. Structure your homepage content with a clear hierarchy, highlighting the most important content sections and linking to relevant sub-pages within your website. Users should easily understand the breadth of information you offer and navigate seamlessly to the content they need.

What To Do With The Results
This allows me to track when we first gained SERP features for these keywords, beginning in April 2023. Plus, if you don’t have the budget for an external SEO tool (such as Semrush) I’d recommend using GSC as it’s free. You may notice major adjustments to the SERPs that appear. Either way, you’ll gain a clearer picture of the SERP positions when using Incognito mode.
A great way to find broken links is to look to your competitors. You can’t just take a “publish and pray” approach to content marketing and HOPE that people link to you. But for your content to get links people need to actually see it. The more backlinks your site has, the higher you may be able to rank. That’s because, as you might already know, Google’s algorithm takes into account backlinks.
The 50/50 Rule of Link Building
Since the cluster pages link to and from the pillar content, as well as to each other, this keeps all of your links tightly organized around the same topic. To build out your niche expertise, you can use the hub and spoke method (also known as pillar page and cluster content). With this method, you create a hub/pillar page on a particular topic, usually a broad, high-volume keyword. This serves as the main resource for that topic, and your various H2s cover different child keywords within that topic.
To accurately check your rankings, you need to use tools. We knew that backlinks were one of the most important ranking factors. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher you will rank in search results. All in all, backlinks from high authority websites are more valuable, and will boost your rankings more, than links from lower rated sites. Acquiring these links sends a signal to Google that your content is trustworthy, since other high-quality websites vouch for it. When you monitor your keyword rankings, you can identify which websites and competitors are ranking for the same keywords you’re targeting.
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize your site’s presence in Google Search results. While it doesn’t provide exhaustive keyword ranking data, it does offer essential features to track and analyze your site’s visibility. By monitoring rankings, you can identify high-performing keywords and prioritize them in your content strategy to attract more targeted traffic. The term "Google Sandbox" refers to a theorized filter within Google's search algorithms. This filter would supposedly hinder new websites from ranking high in search results for a period of time, regardless of the quality of their content.
The Top 10 Google Ranking Factors for 2024 (+How to Optimize for Them)
Over the past few years, Google has been relying more on user experience signals to help rank pages. The lack of internal links or poorly utilized anchor text might be contributing to a page’s inability to rank well. Based on
Bing Ranker following Google’s March 2024 Core Update, AI-generated content can hurt your Google ranking. Notice we say can instead of will, as the use of AI tools like ChatGPT or Jasper has not shown to be a direct trigger of decreased ranking.
In this instance, I’ve chosen to only identify new keywords that are ranking in the top 10 positions on the SERPs. If you click on the “Keywords” widget, you’ll be presented with a bar graph that provides you with further insight into your keyword ranking positions. If you’re looking to get a better understanding of the total number of keywords you’re ranking for, then you can use the Organic Research tool. Within the Position Tracking tool, you can also review how your keyword rankings have changed over time. With the Position Tracking tool, you can select keywords and the tool will periodically update you on how your ranking positions have changed. Semrush is a multifunctional SEO tool that can be used to track your keyword rankings in several different ways.
As you can see, we have more keywords in positions than we do in the top 3 positions. Within the tool, you can analyze your new, improved, lost, and declined keywords. This will keep you in the loop of any changes to your ranking positions. If you’d like to receive automated reports, you can tick the “Send me weekly ranking updates via email” option. The line graph will display your keyword ranking history over the past three months.