What does it take to ‘finally’ outrank your competitors in the organic search results pages? How to get on the first page of Google? It’d be worthwhile if you focus on your strongest competitors that are already occupying the top 10 organic listings.
It’s important to understand the different goals that getting a top ranking on Google can help your business to achieve.
Improve your visibility
If you had the choice between your business on the main road through town or a quiet side street. Which one would you choose? The main road, of course. The more people that see your website, the greater your brand awareness.
Drive website traffic
Snippets and answer boxes can only provide so much information. Don’t forget that it often takes several engagements with business before a person converts into a customer, so interactions with your website are important. Not being on the first page of Google has a huge disadvantage.
Increase your industry authority
Getting on the first page of Google requires regularly creating high-quality content that Google recognizes is satisfying the needs of its searchers. This takes time, but the increased traffic and trust that will result are well worth the investment. In addition, writing regularly about your industry and business will require you to stay in tune with what your target audience wants to know.
As well as what the latest updates are in your industry. Appearing on the first page of Google is important because it facilitates the development and maintenance of a robust knowledge base upon which your business can firmly stand.
Build your audience
As mentioned above, getting on the first page of Google requires creating high-quality, evergreen content. Your content-driven efforts to get on the first page of Google will provide you with more material and more opportunities to engage with your target audience, nurture leads and stay top of mind. Creating quality content means many different things to many different people, but common characteristics you should focus on include:
Adding value – Make sure the content you post is truly useful to your visitors. This will also help generate inbound links, which in turn will boost your rankings in Google.
Increasing readability – Make sure you’re using correct grammar and spelling. Learn how to produce content for the web, which means short paragraphs, short sentences, and lots of white space on the page.
Avoid advertisements above the fold. One of Google’s newest initiatives has to do with lowering the rankings of sites that use advertisements above the fold. Unless you’re generating significant revenue from third-party advertising, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Utilize social media.
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are wonderful sources of backlinks, and Google is giving increasing credence to these sources in terms of search engine rankings. Develop a social media marketing strategy, and integrate it into your overall website promotional efforts.
You have negative customer reviews, or none at all
Reviews are everything in the world of modern marketing, so if you don’t have any or you have negative reviews, this will seriously affect your Google rankings. When people visit your website, ask them to leave a Facebook or Google+ rating, or go one step further and create a Testimonials page on your website.
Determine your keywords
First, determine which search queries you want Google to answer with your website pages. he right keywords for your business are those that your ideal customers are typing in to get the products and services they need. For help choosing keywords for your business, try our Free Keyword Tool.
Update your information
Not being able to find your business, showing up to find it closed, or getting an operator when trying to call can not only deter a customer, but also lead them to distrust your business or write a negative review. Stay on top of your Google listing and make the necessary updates and changes so that it can be trusted enough to be at the top of the list.
Upload photos to your listing
Google My Business strives to equip consumers with as much information about a business as possible, before even encountering that business. This includes what it’s like to be at that business, so be sure to upload photos that depict not only the products and services your business offers but also the atmosphere and people that frequent it.
List your business on other directories
Google My Business is powerful, but you should still create and optimize listings on other popular directories. As with your Google Business Profile, make sure the rest of your online directory listings are complete and accurate, consistent across platforms, updated, and that you are collecting and responding to reviews. Don’t forget to add photos to your online listings as well.
Getting to the top of Google, or even just improving your ranking, is very doable, even for small businesses. It takes work and time, but it is one of the most important things you can do for your business. By knowing where and how to make adjustments, you can get your business the visibility it deserves.
