How to rank higher on Google in 2020

In 2020, Google's ranking algorithm prioritizes three core areas: technical excellence, content relevance, and user experience signals. The most immediate lever you can pull is ensuring your website meets Core Web Vitals benchmarks—particularly page speed, visual stability, and interactivity. Run sites through PageSpeed Insights and prioritize fixing LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) issues, which often involve image optimization and render-blocking resources. A slow site won't rank competitively regardless of content quality, so this isn't optional work. Beyond speed, make sure your site architecture is clean: XML sitemaps are submitted, crawl errors are eliminated, and URL structures are logical. Many clients still run sites with broken internal linking patterns or duplicate content issues that actively hurt rankings. Fixing these technical foundations should be your first move before any content play.

Content itself needs to solve actual search intent, not just target keywords. Google's 2020 algorithm updates emphasize E-A-T (Expertise, Authorship, Trustworthiness), which means thin content gets buried regardless of keyword matching. Create comprehensive, well-researched pieces that outperform competitors by actually answering questions more thoroughly. Include proper schema markup so Google understands your content structure—this is low-hanging fruit many agencies overlook. For competitive keywords, you'll need topical authority: instead of single posts targeting individual keywords, build content clusters around themes where related articles internally link to a pillar piece. This signals to Google that you're an authoritative source on a topic.

The third component is backlinks, which remain crucial but have shifted. In 2020, quality matters dramatically more than quantity. One link from a relevant, high-authority domain beats fifty from low-quality directories. Focus on building relationships with industry publishers, getting quoted in relevant publications, and creating content worthy of natural linking. Guest posting still works when targeting genuinely relevant sites. Local SEO also matters more than ever if you serve specific geographic areas—ensure NAP consistency across directories, get legitimate Google reviews, and optimize your Google Business Profile with complete information and regular posts.

Don't chase algorithm rumors. Stick to these fundamentals: fix technical issues, create genuinely better content than competitors, earn quality backlinks, and optimize for user experience. These factors compound over time and remain the stable foundation for rankings regardless of minor algorithm tweaks.