How can you improve Google rankings? Check search demand first, then improve your website and content

To improve Google rankings, start by checking whether people search for your target keywords and whether the competition is manageable. Then check whether your site can be crawled properly, how quickly pages load, and how well they work on mobile devices, before addressing gaps in content and page elements. These are ways to tackle specific problems, not a checklist that guarantees a place on the first page. Priorities should depend on your website’s condition and business goals, rather than simply chasing tool scores.

Choose keywords with search demand and a realistic chance of competing

In a 2023 article, Da Vinci recommends considering search volume, clicks, trends, and competition together when choosing keywords, rather than relying on intuition. If hardly anyone searches for a term, even a high ranking may not deliver the expected results. If you target broad, highly competitive terms from the outset, attracting traffic in the short term may be difficult. (S6)

• If you already have content ideas, check demand and search trends for related terms before deciding which topics to invest in.
• Assess the competition, and do not assume that “easy to rank for” means “worth targeting.”
• Consider search volume and competition together rather than choosing keywords based on a single number.

Check for crawling and loading problems before producing content at scale

Da Vinci’s 2026 overview of its consulting work lists crawling, mobile browsing, HTTPS, structured data, and speed as initial checks. If your website has foundational problems, identify the specific obstacles first rather than simply publishing more articles. These are a consultant’s diagnostic recommendations, not a claim that fixing every item will directly improve rankings. (S13)

For speed, a 2023 Semrush article describes using PageSpeed Insights to check a URL’s Core Web Vitals and review improvement suggestions. If testing identifies problems with images or resources loaded by the page, consider image formats, reducing HTTP requests, and enabling browser caching. Caching mainly helps pages load on repeat visits. The loading-time improvements reported by the tool are estimates, not projected ranking gains. (S20)

Review elements page by page, and improve content rather than pad the word count

Backlinko’s 2024 on-page SEO guide recommends manually checking title tags, meta descriptions, images, and internal links, or using an auditing tool to identify omissions. This is useful for reviewing existing pages; optimization does not always mean writing new articles. (S7)

A discussion on Webmasters Stack Exchange recommends checking heading hierarchy, image alt text, and descriptive link text, while focusing on providing valuable content. Its criticism concerns large numbers of pages with thin content; it does not imply that every article must be long. These are also participants’ recommendations, not official Google rules. (S11)

Be clear about what each change is meant to solve

A 2026 Search Engine Journal article notes that sitewide or template-level changes generally have broader reach, and recommendations directly tied to core business goals also tend to have greater impact. When organizing tasks, document the problem, the scope of its impact, and the expected benefits before setting priorities, rather than blindly implementing every suggestion in a tool’s report. (S3)