How to increase your Google search engine ranking – the RealWeb Latvia experience
Nowadays, it is very important for a business to have a stable position on the Google search engine results page. The number of places on the first pages is decreasing as there is often paid advertising before the organic search results.
In order for a page to have a chance of being in the TOP10 of the Google search engine results page, it is necessary to talk about the so-called SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) of the website.
Customer: Young riders’ school (Jauno jātnieku skola)
The young riders’ school is an equestrian sports centre in “Zustrenes”, Inčukalns. It has been active since 2007. More than 15 purebred horses and ponies live here permanently. The range of school services includes horse riding lessons, paddock and arena rental, excursions, equine-assisted therapy and others. Another of the main activities of the school is organising competitions. The aim of the school is to become one of the leading equestrian sport centres in the Baltics, where competitions of various scales are organised.
Promotion type: Promoting the position in the Google search engine results page based on a keyword search.
Aim: To be in the TOP10 of the Google search engine results page with 11 keywords in Latvian and 10 keywords in Russian.
Prior to SEO promotion, none of the keywords important to the client were in the Google TOP10.
Weaknesses of the website:
Upon evaluating the technical and visual condition of the website, it was concluded that it was necessary to create a new website structure, as the existing one had usability problems, and to move the website to a new CMS system in order to be able to administer it properly and to implement the necessary technical changes that play a great role in the indexing options of a page in Google search.
Technical shortcomings that prevented the website from indexing in the TOP10 of the Google search engine:
- Duplicate pages – this prevents Google's robots from understanding which page to show to users, so it may display the incorrect one, resulting in the user not finding the right information and consequently leaving the page. If users only browse the website for a short period of time, Google considers the page irrelevant, and in subsequent searches this page will appear at the bottom of the search results.
- Many different technical errors in the website code – both JJS and CSS.
- The website is not adapted for a mobile version – statistics show that more and more people are using smartphones and tablets to surf the internet and search for information. Google has also introduced changes to its ranking criteria and is currently downgrading websites that have not been adapted for mobiles.
What actions were fulfilled?
- A technical SEO audit has been developed, revealing several technical errors.
- A sitemap.xml file was introduced on the website. Sitemap.xml is a file that stores information about the pages of the site to be included in the indexing (XML sitemap).
- The HTTPS protocol was introduced. According to an official statement from Google, since 2014, the HTTPS protocol has been used as one of the quality indicators for ranking sites in search results.
- The loading speed of the website has been improved and errors in the website code have been fixed.
- A detailed semantic core was compiled and a new website structure, design and content was introduced.
- An analysis of several competitors has been performed.
- Internal linking has been created.
Results:
10 out of 11 keywords in Latvian have entered the TOP10 of the Google search engine results page.
9 out of 10 keywords in Russian have entered the TOP10 of the Google search engine results page.
The number of new users has increased by 36%.
The client’s set goal (KPI) was met by 95%.
The bounce rate decreased by 5% and the number of pages viewed increased by 6%.
This project was worked on by a professional website optimisation team, consisting of Karīna Daņilova, Corporate Project Manager of SEO Services, and Jurijs Kirillovs, SEO Specialist.
Karīna’s task was to make sure that the client’s goals and wishes were achieved and that the work was completed on time, whereas Jurijs carefully worked on the technical side of the project by performing an in-depth audit, improving the page indexing processes, performing internal linking, and correcting the pages.
If you are interested in finding out detailed information about your website, you can get a free SEO consultation by filling out an application.