How to Get On the First Page of Google: The Secret Strategy That Improves Your Ranking
There are some questions that business owners and bloggers ask themselves every day. They ask, “How do we get on the first page of Google? What does it take? How do I do it?”
The reasons why are clear. More people turn to search engines when they’re trying to answer a question or find a service. They’re more than likely to use Google more than any other search engine.
Here’s why being on the first page is important: about 75% of searchers stay on the first page of Google. The first page of search results gets a large majority of the clicks. These clicks often turn into store visits and phone calls.
In other words, if you want more traffic from search engines and more business, you need to be on page one. Keep reading to learn how to get on the first page of Google and get more customers.
Know How Google Works
Do you know how Google’s search algorithm works? That’s the first step in getting ranked on the first page of Google.
Google’s algorithm uses about 200 ranking factors to determine search results. They include the business location relative to the searcher, site speed, mobile usability, relevancy, quality content, and site security.
Once you understand what’s important to Google, you can start to focus your attention on making changes to your site. You have to be careful here because you have to make sure that your site works for search engines and for users.
Audit of Your Online Presence
Once you know what makes Google tick, you can see how your site compares and where improvements can be made. You want to audit your entire online presence, not just your website.
There are onsite and offsite factors that make up Google’s algorithm. By focusing only on your website, you’re missing a lot of opportunities to get on the first page of Google.
Start your audit by taking a look at your website. Look at each page on several devices to make sure that it’s usable. You then want to check each page for relevant keywords and HTML tags.
Keywords and HTML tags tell Google what each page is about. This ensures that your site appears in searches that are relevant to Google’s users.
You also want to make sure that your site is set up for performance. Google and your visitors don’t like slow websites. Test your site speed using Google’s Page Speed Test and GTMetrix.
Once you check your site, take a look at external factors. Check to see how many sites link to your site. Do you have directory listings filled out? Make sure that these listings are accurate.
How to Get on the First Page of Google
Now that your audit is complete, it’s time to get to work. These are the areas that you want to focus on first to improve your search rankings.
Site Speed and Mobile Friendliness
Google loves fast websites. It knows that the longer people have to wait for a page to load, the more likely they will leave the site.
When you tested your site’s speed, you received feedback on what you can improve to make your site faster. Two common things that slow down websites are images and caching.
Images are the biggest files on a website. You want to make sure that you compress images when you upload them to your site. You can do that using a plugin or a photo editing tool that will make the files smaller without losing the quality of the image.
Caching is simply a way to speed up the delivery of your website. You can use a plugin that creates a temporary version of your website. This version gets served to visitors instead of going to your host’s servers to download your entire site.
Your site also has to be usable on mobile devices. If it’s not, switch your site’s design to a responsive template.
Site Security
Do you know if your website is giving users a secure connection between your host’s servers and your visitors’ browsers?
The easy way to tell is if your domain name starts with HTTP or HTTPS. HTTPS uses secure socket layers to create a secure connection. Users tend to trust these sites more.
Google has used HTTPS as a ranking factor for the past few years. If you don’t have HTTPS set up for your site, you’ll need to get an SSL certificate.
Keep People on Your Site
Your job isn’t to build a site for search engines. You need to have quality content to keep people on your site.
Your content should be helpful and engaging. It also should be set up to answer a specific question or solve a problem.
Think about your customer’s most common questions. Write in-depth articles that answer those questions.
Get Experts to Help You
Let’s face it, getting on the first page of Google can be a daunting task. It can take a long time to learn the ins and outs of SEO. Plus, Google’s algorithm changes frequently. What you learn today may not be relevant tomorrow.
Your time is important, and you have to think about how much effort you can put into getting on the first page of Google. You could be missing out on opportunities to build your business.
It may make sense for you get SEO services. That can free up your bandwidth to continue to build your business.
Getting on the First Page of Google
If you want more traffic to your website, you have to be on the first page of Google. You have a lot of competition, but it is possible.
Knowing how to get on the first page of Google starts with understanding the algorithm. Once you do that you can look at your site and make changes.
You’ll start to see your rankings climb and you’ll get more traffic and customers. For more small business tips, check out our tools and resources for small businesses.
