Over 75% of users never look beyond the first page of search results.
Getting your website to page 1 on Google has never been more important.
With the first five search results accounting for over 67% of clicks, getting to the top of page 1 should be every businesses top priority.
Of course, understanding Google’s indexing algorithms isn’t necessarily straightforward. Furthermore, you are competing with millions of other websites who also want to secure the top spots. Fortunately, help is at hand.
At ClickSlice we know what it takes to get your business to page 1 of Google. If you want your rankings to soar, take a look at these top tips for SEO success…
1 - Choose A Keyword
The first thing you need to determine is what keyword (search phrase) you want to be on page 1 for. Your site doesn’t need to rank highly for every search a user makes.
Instead, you want to rank highly for keywords with high buyer intent, AKA the keywords that are most likely to generate your business money.
Let’s imagine you run a plumbing business based in London… targeting a keyword like “How do I unblock a sink” is probably not the best strategy as people who search for this are typically interested in learning how to unblock a sink themselves, meaning they will not require your services.
You’re much better off targeting a keyword with a high buyer intent behind it such as “Sink unblocking London”.
People who search for “Sink unblocking London” are interested in finding someone who can unblock their sink. Which as a plumber would be a service you offer, making it a perfect keyword to target.
Pro tip: If you run a SAB (Service Area business) you can rinse and repeat this method for all the locations you target.
2 - Check The Competition
Now you’ve got your keywords finalised, it’s time to look at who you’re competing against.
Just as it’d be tough to start a successful supermarket store across the road from Tesco, it’s difficult to rank on the first page of Google when the competition is fierce.
So the next step is to understand the competitive landscape—starting with who you’re up against.
To do that, search for your keyword and look at the first page of results.
If all you see is massive well-known brands and you’re a small start-up that nobody has ever heard of, then getting to the first page is going to be quite tough.. At least in the short to medium time frame.
For example, look at the search results for “car insurance.”
Every result is from a huge brand—Admiral, MoneySavingExpert, GoCompare etc.
This is a clear sign that those who are looking for car insurance typically want it from a well known, established brand. Ranking on page 1 against these guys would be tall order even for the smartest SEO.
Make sure you take note of the websites you see on page 1 for the keywords you want to target, if over 50% of them are big well-known brands, then have a rethink and niche down some more.
Once you find the keywords you are happy with you to need to optimise your actual page to include these keywords on them, however, just don’t just stuff them anywhere, you want to include them in the key placeholders.
Find out where we place keywords by downloading our EXACT 5 step process we use at ClickSlice when optimising websites to get them on page 1.
3 - High-Quality Content
Once users are on your site, it’s your job to keep them there. Whilst getting your keywords included in the key place holders are critical, users won’t stick around for subpar content. That’s why you need strategic content optimisation and management to ensure you get on page 1 on Google.
When you fill your webpages with innovative and original content, you’re giving users a reason to stay on your site and increasing the amount of time they spend on each page. This is a massive ranking factor and something Google measures.
If people are coming onto your website and only spending 2 seconds on your page then its a signal to Google that your content isn’t great, as a result, Google will give your website lower rankings, resulting in no organic traffic.
You want to make sure your content read wells, is engaging and gives people a reason to read on.
Also, pay close attention so what you are writing on your website and ensure it answers exactly what the person searches for.
For example, you would have found this article by searching for “How to get on page 1 on google” or something along those lines, as a result, this whole article is focused on giving you information about how you can get onto page 1. If we were to start talking about Youtube ads or something irrelevant then you would lose interest.
Your customers are no different, focus on providing high quality and relevant content
Pro Tip – Everything you publish on and off your site is ‘content’. From your homepage and blog to your social media posts and meta descriptions; everything you publish online should be part of your content optimisation strategy.
4 - Backlinks
What happens behind the scenes of your website is just as important as what users can see. Backlinks are simply a mention of your website on an external website, backlinks are seen as a vote of confidence in the eyes of Google.
However, you don’t want just any old backlink for your site, you want high-quality backlinks that are relevant.
Securing backlinks from high-authority domains is one of the most effective ways to boost your rankings. Of course, obtaining these backlinks isn’t easy. Domain authority is based on a score from 1-100; the higher your score, the better your domain authority.
When high authority domains are linking to your webpages, it boosts the reputation and authority of your site.
One way to obtain backlinks to your website is to reach out to authoritative websites in your niche and ask if you can submit a guest post on their website.
A guest post is simply where you write an article as a “Guest” and it gets posted on an external website.
The article you write for the site would contain a link in it which links back to your website.
It’s a little time intensive and explains why over 55% of webpages don’t have any backlinks at all.
However, it’s 100% worth the effort. In fact, It’s exactly the method we used to rank ClickSlice on page 1 on google for “local SEO services London”.
5 - Site Functionality
Lastly, to rank highly, your site needs to be SEO-friendly and deliver a great user experience (UX). This means fixing broken links, optimising the structure and increasing loading speeds. In addition, you’ll need to ensure your site meets Google’s mobile-first indexing requirements. (Hint – responsive web design is an easy and effective way to achieve this).
By making your site intuitive and logical, you’re on the right track. A slick design can certainly enhance a website, but its functionality needs to come first. Think of your site’s structure as its foundations – without a solid grounding, everything else falls apart.
Make it easy for users to navigate your site, even if they’re first-time visitors.
By maintaining an intuitive, user-friendly and fully functional website, you have the building blocks you need to get on page 1 on Google.
Get on Page 1 on Google – And Stay There!
Getting to page 1 on Google can transform your business. With increased brand awareness, higher conversion rates and increased sales, higher rankings quickly equate to better commercial performance.
But getting to page 1 on Google isn’t your only aim. Staying on page 1 on Google is just as important for long-term business success.
With over 200 Google algorithms to contend with, maintaining placement on page 1 isn’t easy. In fact, it requires consistent optimisation across an ever-increasing list of parameters.
In addition, you’ll need to predict how Google’s ranking and indexing algorithms will change over time. As new tech comes to the forefront, for example, you need to know how it will change user behaviour and algorithms in order to optimise your content and maintain your rankings.
While these 5 tips give you the basics of things you need to consider to improve your website rankings, we’ve also put together the EXACT 5 step process we use at ClickSlice to optimise websites to get them on page 1.
Grab a FREE copy of it today and start getting your website moving in the right direction.
