How to Retain Your Top Rankings In Search Engines?

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Staying on top of the charts isn’t just an aspiration for a music artist. It’s also a goal for all businesses who want their website to rank high on search engines. The benefits of a top-rank mean more visibility, sales, reputation, and overall growth.
Generating traffic and retaining a top website rank is the ultimate accolade for SEO specialists, but it takes a lot of planning and strategizing. However, once you’ve achieved a top-rank, that’s when the real game begins.
Consistent ranking and retaining a top position isn’t an easy feat; however, we can help you on this quest with a few of our suggestions.
Let’s begin!

Tips to Retain Your Top Rankings in Search Engines

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Many of these are logical but can sometimes be overlooked, so keep them in mind when doing an SEO audit.

1. Improve Your Website Speed

The page loading time or overall speed it takes to load your website should be as fast as possible, for two main reasons.
Reason one, site speed is one of Google's main factors to help determine a website rank.
Additionally, they've also urged webmasters to reduce the page loading time to less than a second for mobile devices and less than 3 seconds for traditional devices. So, whether your website is accessed on a desktop or mobile device, Google favors an uber-fast loading speed.
The second reason is the human trait of patience, which users have very little of when waiting for a page to load. Users have millions of sites to get answers/results from, so if your website isn't loading fast enough, it will increase the page abandonment rate.
A simple fix for this:

• Upgrade to a faster and more reliable host service
• Compress all image files on your website
• Increase download speeds by using a content delivery network (CDN).

Related : Highly Effective CDN-SEO Tips to Boost Your Rankings

2. Produce Fresh Content Consistently

According to Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, one factor that helps increase a website's rank is its content.
As cited in the guidelines, the information the website offers has to be accurate, comprehensive, original, and professionally presented. Additionally, the content should be relevant and fresh.
To remain high on the ranks:

• Ensure old content is updated with the latest trends and news related to your niche.
• Additionally, creating consistent organic content is another way to keep your audience engaged and return for more.

When search engines see that an increasing number of people view your website and drive traffic, they deem your website and an authoritative and reliable source, therefore increasing your rank.

3. Build Your Social Media Following

Your website and your social media aren't two mutually exclusive components. Now more than ever, having a solid presence on a social media platform can help your company's website rank higher.
A following or community isn't just great for marketing. It's great for increasing rank to direct the traffic generated from your social media platforms to your website.
Having a marketing campaign that pushes traffic to your website will help it rank higher.
Additionally, it's not just your company website that ranks on search engines; your social media profiles rank too.
Depending on the niche, it's more likely that its social media profile will appear above its website in the top results. It used to mean that having a website made a company look legitimate; however, with the popularity of social media, users now equate a social media presence with legitimacy.

4. Pay Attention to Engagement Metrics

Various engagement metrics influence the overall organic position of your website. So, it's important to keep a close watch on it.
For example, the more time a user spends on a page sends feedback to search engines that the content found on your site is valuable, resulting in a higher rank.
Lower bounce rates or the percentage of users who leave without site interaction are also factors that send valuable feedback, which impacts your ranking on search engines.
Google wants to provide the best search result, so websites with high user engagement are rewarded with a better rank.

5. Do Better Link Building

The delicate world of backlinks and link building can be hard to figure out. Focusing on quantity rather than quality can get your website penalized, which is a major setback and can result in a drastic drop in rankings.
Additionally, excessive backlinks to one particle page or gaining too many backlinks at high speed is an immediate red flag, which again can result in a drop in rank.
The main aim of Google and other search engines is to offer relevant and useful search results to users. Therefore, when it comes to backlinks, it's best to diversify your profile, expand your inbound links to different pages.
Reach out to the creators of the backlinks and form meaningful associations, thereby giving your backlink and your page more authority from a search engine's perspective.

6. Update Metadata

Accurate and updated metadata is just as important as curating fresh content - this is especially important if your site has gone through multiple upgrades or an overhaul.
Old pages can have outdated metadata that is redundant; conduct a thorough check of all your existing metadata to ensure that it is still relevant to the page.
Keyword-rich title and description metadata can improve your ranking and help maintain your existing rank.
Concise copy that is enticing and engaging will attract more traffic to your site. Keep this in mind when you change or create metadata for your website.

7. Use Alt Tags

The advancement of algorithms has changed the way websites get ranked. Text-only websites are a thing of the past because search engines can now accurately sift through video and image content and determine if it's of any value to a user's search query.
Therefore, using alt tags or alternative tag descriptions can help the algorithms rank the overall video and visual content on your website, resulting in a higher website ranking.
When creating alt tags, it's best to keep it simple by being specific, descriptive, accurate, and unique. Don't overcomplicate the video/image content description.
For example, if your picture contains a puppy with a bow tie, instead of inputting 'puppy bow tie,' in the alt tag space, be more specific 'black puppy with oversize bow tie in the garden.'
Your alt tags are an opportunity for search engines to determine your keywords and user search intent. Therefore, it isn't advisable to keep the alt tag space empty on your website; it can significantly impact your ranking.

Related : How to Redesign Your Website & Retain the Search Engine Rankings at the Same Time?

SEO Competitor Tracking Tools

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Stay ahead of the curb and maintain your website's rank by looking at what competitors are doing.
Let's look at some SEO competitor tracking tools that professionals and newbies can use to help their rank.

1. Alexa

Apart from being a home assistant Alexa, an Amazon-powered company, is also an SEO and competitive software tracking tool that many companies utilize. Compare bounce rates, reach, traffic, rank etc., using Alexa's easy-to-use tab interface.
The stats can be monitored according to a time frame to get a better picture of how competitors have been doing over a time period and anticipate any future jumps or declines in their ranking.
Besides competitor analysis, Alexa is also a great tool for content research, keyword research, checking backlinks, SEO analysis, and target audience analysis. It's your one-stop-shop for all your SEO needs.
Basic plans start at USD 19.99/ month.

2. SE Ranking

This SEO software is a 360 SEO analysis for your website. It's one of the most comprehensive software tools that are easy to use and offers a range of features, data, and competitor analysis to impact your website and SEO strategy.
A vital feature of the SE Ranking platform is that it helps you monitor a competitor's search ranking on any search engine and the target region.
You can get reports on a competitor's average position, website visibility, traffic and discover the keyword and ad data they use in their paid or organic campaigns.
Another great feature is the in-depth website audit tool that SE Rankings offers. It finds on and off-page issues and provides suggestions on fixing them, making this a great tool to have when you want to boost your website's rank.
Basic plans start at USD 31/month.

3. Spyfu

Spyfu is an SEO tracking tool that many SEO specialists use to procure data about competitors. This software can identify other competing domains in your niche and give you data on every Google Ad keyword, rank, and ad variation in the last 14 years.
Going a step further, Spyfu also offers features such as:

• PPC negative match recommendations,
• Competitor's Google ad campaign and test history,
• Check competitor backlinks,
• track your own SEO and keyword ranking,
• it has a PPC ad rank tracker, etc.

A host of other vital data is available at your fingertips with Spyfu. Data like this can significantly outmaneuver your competition and help your website maintain or increase in rank.
Basic annual plans start at USD 33/month.

4. SEMrush

Another top-rated online visibility platform is SEMrush. As it cites on its website, one can do SEO, content marketing, competitor research, PPC, and social media marketing from just one platform.
Brands like Quora, IBM, Walmart, Apple, and Forbes, to name a few, trust and use SEMrush for their marketing and SEO needs.
Impressively, with a SEMrush account, you can access 20 billion keywords, 310 million ads, and 17 billion URLs (crawled per day) which is considered the world's largest database currently.
However, SEMrush doesn't only offer you massive amounts of data about your company or competitor's website, but it also analyzes it for you by giving you strategy and recommendations.
Their reports and tools offer solutions, insights, and analytics to improve your website's ranking further.
Basic plans start at USD 119/month.

5. Ahrefs

Part of being competitive is knowing what backlinks other companies in your niche are using. So, if you're trying to procure quality backlink data, then using Ahrefs is the best route to take. This SEO software suite also contains tools for link building, rank tracking, site audits, keyword research, competing domains, etc.
Additionally, under the competitor analysis umbrella, Ahrefs offers a set of critical reports that many who use it find valuable.
Such as:

• Reports that list competitors based on the number of related keywords.
• Keyword research reports for Google, YouTube, and Amazon.
• Competitor backlink reports and strategies
• Reports that list content that has performed well on social media on any given topic. Etc.

Ahrefs is a great SEO tool and resource to use to grow your traffic. More traffic means your website has more authority in the eyes of search engines, which will lead to a higher website rank. Basic plans start at USD 99/ month.

FAQs on Tips to Retain Rankings

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Now that we've dealt with the main tips and tools to maintain your website's rank, let's dive into the FAQs on the same subject.

Q1: How Do I Retain Keywords Ranking on the First Page of Google SERP?

The easiest way to manage your keyword ranking and your website ranking are to hire an SEO specialist or a digital marketing firm who can do the work for you. Never underestimate the unique perspective and value that an expert can bring.
However, if you have the experience yourself, it would be advisable to do your research based on competitor analysis. Once you've done that, then prepare a strategy that considers their keyword data, backlink analysis, website tracking, content, etc.
SEO and marketing platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, SE Ranking, Spyfu can offer you valuable information, solutions, and strategies on keyword ranking, among other features. So, having an account with any of these SEO software suits will undoubtedly be beneficial to retain your keyword ranking on Google.

Q2: How Can I Preserve SEO & SERP Ranking When Redeveloping a Website?

Redeveloping a website is a delicate process and should be done with the help of experts who can guide you and ensure that there is no drop in ranking.
However, the four main points to consider are:

• Maintain the same URLs
• Maintain the core navigational structure
• Navigation and internal link text shouldn't be changed
• Maintain content, including the titles and headings.
• Maintain keyword density, ALT tags, header tags, and URL structure.

Additionally, any changes made to your website should be done slowly and not all at once. Any drastic changes can impact your rank and confuse your base of accustomed users to your current website.
Changes made piece by piece can also pinpoint fluctuations that may occur to your rank, making it easy to identify and problem-solve.

Q3: How Can I Improve My Website Ranking?

The best way to improve your website's ranking is to conduct an SEO audit by hiring an SEO specialist or getting a subscription to an SEO software tool. Having a robust SEO strategy and plan is still the best way to get better visibility on SERP and increase your rank.
Factors to keep in mind when creating an SEO plan:

• Content : Curate authentic and high-quality content keeping in mind the company's identity and user search intent.
• Page Speed : All search engines prefer websites with a high average page load speed, and the preferred speed should be less than 3 seconds on desktop/laptop and under 1 second on mobile devices.
• Link Building : search engines deem your website trustworthy if you have quality and relevant backlinks. Therefore, link building is essential for overall rank. Avoid buying and amassing links faster; this can cause your website to get a penalty, resulting in a drastic drop in rank.
• Keyword Research : the world of keywords is constantly changing, so do a proper keyword research analysis to ensure that the right ones are being curated for your website.
• Responsive for Mobile : Statistics indicate that more and more people are using their handheld devices to access websites. Therefore, having a website that is responsive for mobile will help it rank on Google, which favors mobile-friendly sites.
• URL Optimization : Ensure that your URLs are concise, short, and relevant. URL optimization is also helpful for link building as people click on URLs, so the easier it is to understand, the more traffic it will get, resulting in a higher rank.

Maintain Your Website Rank!

• We hope you got all the information you need to increase and/or maintain your website rank.
• We wish you luck on this endeavor, as we know how competitive ranking on a search engine can be.
• Make sure to bookmark this page so that the information is readily available.

Do come back for more valuable content about SEO, website rankings, and any other query related to digital marketing.