How to Rank on Google: A 7-Step Guide

If you’d like to know how to rank on Google, you need to understand SEO.

SEO stands for search engine optimization. And it’s a set of practices used to increase a website’s visibility on search engines like Google.

In this guide, we’ll explain what you can do to improve your rankings and grow organic (meaning unpaid) Google traffic.

How Does Google Rank a Page?

Google has shared some ranking factors (more on those below) publicly. And many SEOs have discovered suspected ranking factors via tests and case studies.

But webpages don’t just go from published to appearing in search results. Here’s an overview of how Google ranks a page.

Google discovers and ranks content in three stages:

1. Crawling: Google finds pages on the internet with automated programs called crawlers. After a page is found and crawled, Google downloads everything on the page. This includes text, images and videos.
2. Indexing: Google analyzes the text, images, and videos on the page. Then, Google may choose to store the information in its index (a database of webpages).
3. Serving search results: Google will show results from its index that are relevant to what someone is searching for.

Here’s a visual overview of the process:

Now, let’s get into some more specific Google ranking factors.

What Are Google’s Ranking Factors?

A ranking factor is something that can affect where (or whether) your webpages appear in results for terms users are entering into search engines.

And your SEO rankings are dependent...