What Can I Do to Improve My Visibility on Google?

To improve your visibility on Google, you need to show up in three places: The organic results, the local pack and Google Maps, and AI-generated answers like AI Overviews and AI Mode. Search engine optimization (SEO) is how you earn all three, and paid search ads can put you at the top of results while SEO builds.

Here are seven ways to improve your visibility on Google:

1. Target Long-Tail Keywords
2. Satisfy User Search Intent
3. Set Up Your Google Business Profile
4. Improve Your Page Load Speeds
5. Use Responsive Design
6. Integrate Links
7. Launch A Google PPC Campaign

Read on to learn more, and then subscribe to Revenue Weekly — our email newsletter — for more digital marketing tips from the agency with over 30 years of experience!

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7 expert methods to help you improve Google visibility

Each method below helps Google find, understand, and surface your pages, whether in the organic results, the local pack, or AI Overviews. Learn how to improve Google visibility for your business in these seven ways!

1. Target long-tail keywords

One of the first steps in any SEO campaign is to begin targeting specific keywords in Google. When you incorporate keywords into your web content, it helps Google understand what that content covers and which searches it fits.

But some keywords are better than others. Specifically, long-tail keywords — those that are several words long — are some of the best ones you can target. Due to being longer, they carry two major benefits:

• Specificity: Long-tail keywords are more specific to particular audiences.
• Competition: Long-tail keywords come with less competition since fewer businesses are trying to target them.

Long-tail queries are also where Google most often shows AI Overviews. In WebFX’s study of 2.37M U.S. keywords, more than half of queries with 7+ words showed an AI Overview, so answer the question in your page’s first few sentences.

You can still target some short-tail keywords, but focusing mostly on long-tail keywords is an excellent way to improve Google rankings. 

2. Satisfy user search intent

Whenever users discover your content in Google, they find it by entering a specific query. If your content doesn’t give them what they’re looking for, they won’t stick around. So, to maintain your traffic, you need to write content that satisfies user search intent.

The best way to optimize for search intent is to see what’s already ranking for a given keyword, including whether an AI Overview appears and which sources it cites.

For queries people also ask AI tools, teams use OmniSEO®, WebFX’s AI search visibility platform, to see which sources Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity cite and which competitors appear beside them.

Based on what you find, you can get a good feel for what users want when they look up that keyword. Then you can write your content to satisfy that search intent.

3. Set up your Google Business Profile

Content on your website isn’t the only way to rank in Google. You can also drive your SEO efforts through Google’s platforms, most notably Google Business Profile. Google Business Profile is a platform where businesses can create profiles featuring basic information about themselves. Those profiles then appear in local 3-packs for relevant searches. So, when you create a profile for your business, you have a shot at dominating local searches.   You may already have an account associated with your business, in which case you can claim it by providing proof of ownership for your company. From there, you can fill out all the available information about your business and start appearing in relevant local search results. A complete, accurate Google Business Profile can help local customers get your website found on Google’s local results and Maps.

To see whether your profile is working, check its performance report for calls, direction requests, and website clicks.

4. Improve your page load speeds

When users visit your site, they expect it to load quickly. Google measures that experience with Core Web Vitals, and Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report shows which of your pages fall short. If your site fails to meet those expectations, most people will immediately hit the “back” button, causing you to lose out on traffic and go down in rankings. To improve Google rankings for your site, try boosting your page load speeds. There are several ways to help your pages load faster, including:

• Minifying code
• Caching web pages
• Limiting redirects
• Compressing images

When you follow each of the above steps, you’ll speed up your site significantly, helping you retain more traffic and improve your overall brand visibility.

5. Use responsive design

A large share of Internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Furthermore, Google ranks sites based on their mobile format, not their desktop one. So, if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you won’t only miss out on most traffic — you likely won’t rank at all.

To ensure that you rank highly in the search results and remain clearly visible to users, implement responsive design on your site. Responsive design is a format where pages change their layout to fit the screen they appear on, be it a computer or a phone.       Using responsive design will make your site mobile-friendly, boosting its place in rankings and allowing you to retain more traffic.

6. Integrate links

Links are one of the best available tools for SEO. There are two kinds of links you can benefit from:

• Internal links: You can create internal links on a page by linking from it to other pages on your site.

• Backlinks: Backlinks refer to when third-party websites link to your content.

Internal links are useful because they help you keep traffic on your site longer — a user might start on one page, but then follow a link to a different one to keep reading. Backlinks, meanwhile, help promote you in search results. When reputable sites link to you, Google sees you as reputable too, and ranks you higher. To earn backlinks, find broken or outdated links on reputable sites in your industry. Then recommend that those sites replace the old links with new ones to your content.

7. Launch a Google PPC campaign

While all the tips on this list so far have focused on SEO and how to rank in Google organically, there’s also one additional option for appearing in search results, alongside organic listings and AI Overviews: Paid search ads. In Google Ads, you can set up PPC advertising campaigns to target particular keywords. Whenever someone searches for a keyword you bid on, you have a shot at your ad appearing at the very top of search results, where it can easily catch users’ eyes.  

You can boost your ads’ chances of appearing by adjusting your bidding strategy and earning a higher Quality Score (Google’s assessment of your ads’ overall quality). The great news is, you only have to pay for your ads when people click on them!

P.S. Need help launching PPC ads? Learn about our PPC services at WebFX!

How to show up in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode

To show up in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, your pages need to answer specific questions clearly, and your brand needs mentions on the sources Google’s AI already cites.

Those summaries change what a ranking is worth. A Pew Research Center study found that users clicked a link 8% of the time on results pages with AI Overviews, compared with 15% on pages without them. That means a page can hold its position and still lose visits unless the answer cites it.

1. Find the queries that trigger AI answers. Search your priority keywords and note which ones show an AI Overview and which sites it cites. Those cited sites are your real competition for that query.
2. Answer the question up front. Open each page with a direct answer of two to four sentences, then back it up with steps, examples, or data Google can quote.
3. Earn mentions on the sources AI cites. Pitch the publications, directories, and review sites that AI Overviews pull from in your industry. As part of its AI search optimization, Thompson Tractor earned placements in the sources Google AI Overviews cited and published content answering common AI questions. It saw a 136% increase in visibility in Google AI Overviews.
4. Track visibility, not just clicks. Compare impressions and clicks in Google Search Console to spot queries where your pages still appear but earn fewer visits. Then revise the titles and opening answers on those pages first.

WebFX knows what to do to help you rank in Google

Now that you know what it takes to improve Google visibility, it’s time to start putting that information into action — and WebFX would love to help you! With over 1,100 client testimonials, we’re the agency businesses trust to drive stellar SEO results.

With our SEO services, you’ll get help optimizing your campaigns for each of the tips listed above, including visibility in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Furthermore, you’ll be assigned a dedicated account representative to work closely with you on every aspect of your campaigns. To get started with us, give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!