RANKING:
It's all about the SERP

How to boost your Doc's ranking in search engines

Step #3: Ranking

Let's look at ranking opportunities

Ranking:

The order in which websites appear on a search engine results page (SERP).

If there's one thing you'll be used to talking about when it comes to SEO, it's ranking. The order in which your content appears in search engines makes a huge difference to how much traffic it rakes in.

Search engines want to rank good content higher than less relevant material and spam. That way, happy searchers will come back the next time they have a query.

How does a search engine decide which pieces of content in its index are best? While the exact formula is unknown, content that is relevant to the searcher, frequently cited by other sources and which shows high engagement from its readers is generally likely to rank higher.

Building connections with links

For search engines, links mark legitimacy. If your Doc is linked to by another topic relevant blog, it’s a signal that it is a legitimate and useful source. If it's referenced by several well-regarded sites, it gets top legitimacy marks. The more useful your content looks to search engines, the higher the chances are of it rising up the ranks.

Backlinks and interlinking

The best way to prove yourself worthy of a high rank is by other sources linking to your content. These types of links are called inbound links or backlinks.

You've likely been targeted with some illicit backlinks requests via email at some point. There are also sites out there that try to use artificial links to boost their position. Aside from being morally dubious, this method leads to many sites being deindexed by search engines. In short: don't do it. Instead, focus on creating really high-quality content that other sites naturally want to reference.

Links between your Turtl Docs, as well as from your Turtl Doc to your website would serve as backlinks, signaling the value of your content to the search engines. Additionally backlinks contribute to brand and product awareness, while providing another avenue for search engine discovery.

Tip

Consider incorporating a range of content types into your strategy to attract valuable backlinks, from original data, and innovative interpretations of new research to content presented in a new way.

Content quality

Whether it's down to causation or correlation, content that is better tends to rank higher. Engagement is one of the signals considered when search engines order their results. If your Doc is attracting a lot of readers and keeping them engaged for a long time, search engines could identify this as a source of content users find valuable. Luckily, Turtl was made for this.

Mobile optimization

In your toolbar at the top of the editing window, you'll see these options. Click the second from the left to go to mobile view. The better your experience is on mobile, the higher the reading quality will be for a large proportion of your readers. Not checking the mobile view before you press publish might just mean that you're cutting out some of your readers, and increasing your bounce rate in the process. Two things that are likely to influence your ranking.

Interactive widgets

Images, videos, polls, maps, quotes...any widget you decide to add to your Content Page is going to help boost engagement. Plus, the more you add, the more trackable elements of your content you have. Which leads to...

Analytics

Measure your content engagement using your Doc analytics. Average read-time, bounce rate, and click-through-rates are key metrics to look out to gauge how engaged your readers are with your content. If you notice a Doc isn't doing as well in these areas as it should, consider adding more widgets or reviewing your content to improve its engagement and chances of ranking highly. Find other ways to assess your content's performance using metrics in our analytics guide.