They say the best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google, and I have to agree with that. You must have heard this popular joke, which is famous among SEO geeks. Jokes aside, SEO company in Irvine reveals that 0.78% of people click on the second page of Google. You will be invisible if you are ranking on the second page of Google.
Let’s get straight into the seven steps, which can help you get ranked on the first page of the search engine. But before getting deeper into that, your website must have the following aspects to have a chance of ranking on the first page
- Mobile-friendly
- Secure (i.e., HTTPS not HTTP)
- Well-structured
- Fast loading;
- Easy to use (great UX, clear navigation, etc.);
- Free of other technical SEO issues.
These are not just the direct ranking factors of Google, but if your website does not fulfill these aspects, it will be more challenging to execute.
Ok, let’s get started with the best practices recommended by the SEO company in Irvine!
Step #1. Choose a keyword
If you have an online business, you must be familiar with the keyword research. If you have not done before, read some of the essential keyword research guides available for beginners, and find some juicy keywords.
Step #2. Check the competition
Finding your competition is a rigorous process. When competition is fierce, then it is hard to rank on the first page of Google. Therefore, the second most crucial step is to understand the competition landscape. It starts with who you are up against.
Search for the keywords that are already ranking on the first page of Google. In case these keywords from a popular brand, then ranking for those particular keywords is pretty hard. I don’t say it is impossible, but it is hard to get them ranked in the short or medium term. But if there are keywords that some of the new startups are ranking for then, you can always beat them.
Step #3. Choose or create a page
One thing that you need to keep in mind is, Google always ranks pages, not websites. So, for example, we can rank for “How to buy bitcoins?” and “how to buy bitcoins easily?” with two unique pages.
Chances are the page you are ranking may be your homepage, but it does not necessarily have to. Whichever page is ranking for a specific keyword, make sure it fulfills the search engine intent. Remember these three Cs while you are creating a page
- Content-type
- Content format
- Content angle
Step #4. The content must cover the topic in full
Mere having content which aligns search intent is not going to work. It must deserve to be placed on the first page. How do you ensure the piece of content fits the bill? Here is the thing:
Cover all the things users are looking for, and they expect to see. If you find people are looking for the “best laptop brands,” then you should list down that focuses heavily on luxury brands.
While you want to create content with a purpose of ranking, it is not all about “sprinkling in keywords” but increasing the usefulness, utility, and depth of your content.
If you want to take this idea a little further, you can do a content gap analysis for a page-level.
Step #5. Estimate how many backlinks you need
Backlinks are critical not because Google considers it one of the significant ranking factors, also because there is a positive relation between backlinks and organic search engines. A study of one billion pages shows there they both are positively related. The more backlinks you have, the higher is the chance of ranking on the first page of Google.
Step #6. Build more backlinks and add internal links
High-quality backlinks boost page authority. And high authority pages rank higher than pages with low page authority. At this stage, your focus should be on creating more backlinks. The only way to boost page authority to add relevant internal links.
Step #7. Be patient
Lastly, learn to be patient because it takes time to get ranked on the first page of Google.
Final thoughts
The SEO company in Irvine suggests that search engine ranking is an art and is less like science. So no one exactly knows how the algorithm works, and there is no formula for guaranteed ranking. Be ready to get your hands dirty, and do not let anybody tell you otherwise.