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Google is a handy tool if you are a business owner and try to get as many customers as possible by utilizing paid and organic traffic. Today, we’re going to be deep-diving into the latter. Businesses that rank better and are close to or on the top page generate the most organic traffic.
Algorithms crawl the web and, through a series of metrics, determine which pages are the most useful (and relevant) for what the user searches.
But, reaching the top of the first page on Google is tricky.
Trying to understand Google’s algorithms might seem overly complex and might seem that the first page on Google would be near impossible for your business. However, there are specific cool tips that you can implement to rank better on search engines.
Today we will cover the key action points for your business (you can also think of it as a checklist) to rank better on search engines organically.
Let’s jump into it.
For the most part, the business model around Google is to remain the #1 search engine globally by providing the most relevant content to the searchers. That’s one of the reasons why they decided to build Quality Score.
Google’s search results have become robust with Knowledge Panels, answer boxes, expandable related questions, local results, etc. No wonder there are so many ways to make your website stand out, especially when the prize is a lot of organic traffic and better CTR. It’s worthwhile to build toward a strategy for the business to rank better on the top page.
Reaping the benefits of being on the top page of Google can not be neglected and can only change the business for the better. Below we have listed the most important ones for you and your business.
Businesses that rank better on Google have the luxury of being part of the busiest internet marketplace and with the most users. The statistics show over 167 billion Google searches per month, so getting to the first page should be the business’s top priority.
Since the dawn of time, people have created businesses to help solve a specific issue. While the benefit is the improvement of technologies, lifestyle, etc., the downside is that it also has made life convenient for us.
Life being convenient also affected our attention span, which has continued to decline. That translates to the user finding whatever they were searching for on the first page. The percentage of traffic, conversions, and CTR is significantly smaller for pages #2 and onward.
The statistics show that websites on the first page get the most traffic, but there is a difference in CTR even between them. A study calculated the different positions on the first page and broke them down into percentages:
The same study shows that the CTR percentage continues to decline for the website down the first page, with result #10 having a CTR of 2.2% (the reason being that there are usually a maximum of 10 organic results per page, which is less than local results, ads, etc.).
The point here is simple – the lower your website is ranked, the more you miss out on more traffic.
Your website being on the top of the first page on Google means more clicks, which means more people visit your website, and therefore more people get exposed to your brand.
The more people affected by this brand exposure, the higher chance your business will become a household name.
Not only does this help with more sales, but it also helps in increasing credibility and quickly building social proof in the eyes of potential and current clients. People tend to trust and buy more services/products from businesses they or their peers know, so use that to your advantage!
For a business to rank better, that means potentially generating more sales (or conversions) which is a vital goal at the end of the day.
The math is simple here – The more users on the website, the higher the chance that more of them will purchase your product/service, which is supported by the fact that “63% of all shopping begins online, even if the purchase itself happens in a store“.
“75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines“.
Businesses that rank better on the top page of Google for specific keywords also have other benefits, such as building social proof with potential and existing clients.
Additionally, more clicks, more users on the website, and more brand exposure mean that you can quickly build social proof with potential clients by becoming a household name and presenting client reviews.
Most people look at reviews before deciding to make a purchase, so build your business credentials by asking clients to I’ve your feedback and share it on Google and your website.
The goal of the business is to drive results, and one of the ways we can do that is by ranking on the top page for keywords that our target audience uses.
This will result in sales and more leads. In general, having a lead generation funnel is important because, most of the time, your target audience might want to learn more before buying your product/service.
When they enquire with you about more information, that is your opportunity to get more extra sales with little or no upfront investment.
One thing that is always needed to have is a well-rounded website by creating and publishing high-quality content, and this is also true for reaching the top page. It can be repurposed and redistributed across various marketing channels, including social media posts, email campaigns, Google & Facebook ads, etc.
In a nutshell, shifting your focus toward valuable, unique, and evergreen content will provide your business with the opportunity to engage your target audience and raise conversions. The more specific the content (with long-tail keywords, for example), the higher it will initially rank and continue to climb the ranks as more people visit that page.
Additionally, you can read more about how to create high-quality content here.
Having covered the benefits of ranking higher on the first page on Google, below, we have listed the top 8 tips to rank better on Google.
Since the goal is to reach the top of Google, and the broader keywords already have a lot of competition, we need to make sure that we pick the right keywords. However, there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach to keywords.
The right keywords for your business depend on a lot of factors.
If you own a local business, it’s best to focus on geographic keywords (also known as geo-targeting). On the other hand, if your business is predominantly online-based, geographic keywords aren’t practical for the most part.
The goal is to find keywords that genuinely match your business, mission, vision, product/service, etc., with low competition. To rank better with more specific keywords with less competition is relatively more straightforward, while ranking high with broader keywords is almost impossible.
So, don’t skip your keyword research, as it’s an essential part of ranking on search engines.
Here are a few good keyword examples:
Ideally, if you are offering multiple products/services, each web page should target specific keywords to ensure that the pages aren’t competing. By doing so, we would have a smaller and targeted traffic per keyword. That is why we would recommend combining different keywords and ending up with a big laser-specific audience.
Google has a few tools to help you find the right keyword for your business, which you can access by clicking here.
Not just any search strategy. Creating a well-oiled local search strategy is easier to implement and see results than global search engine rankings. In this case, businesses with local stores are at an advantage compared to other companies.
There are a few tactics that you can do to implement for your website to rank high when someone does a local search, including:
In a previous blog post, we discussed that having a complete translation of the website and regional and country-specific pages can significantly up your local search rankings, get closer to the local audience, and build a long-lasting relationship with them.
This means a website and content aimed at the local audience for local businesses. For global companies, it means having a variation of the same website in the local language and dialect.
We recommend reading this blog post for more information about this topic.
A critical one is to claim your Google Business profile for your website to appear when a user searches for your business name or business type in your local area.
With more than half of people searching for products or services locally on Google, your local traffic will significantly increase.
Local search results on search engines can produce results based on the searcher’s keywords and other factors, such as local dictionaries. In a nutshell, Google uses local dictionaries, Yellow Pages, Yelp, etc., to drive search results and produce business for users within a specific area.
That is why it’s essential to set up business profiles on those to rank locally, as mentioned earlier. On top of that, make sure that the information about your business on your GMB (Google My Business) account is up-to-date.
So far, Google’s mission to produce search engine results that are most relevant and useful to what the user searches have been steadily improving. Creating, publishing, scheduling, and maintaining high-quality content helps Google help your business.
Although we have a dedicated an entire blog post on how to produce high-quality content, we have listed the most common characteristics of high-quality content:
For content to be most effective (and therefore considered high-quality), it has to be truly useful for the reader. This would mean providing statistics, case studies, and opinions to produce educational and entertaining content.
It will also help if you generate inbound links, which will boost your rankings.
Like producing value, having readable content is also a way to keep readers on your website with helpful content. This would include adding a place between paragraphs, videos, photos, and headings for visual and reading purposes.
Keep up to speed with Google’s trends to make sure that you understand how to keep creating and maintaining high-quality content.
At this point, Google has the initiative to lower search rankings to websites with ads in their content. As a rule of thumb, use ads on your website only if you generate a lot of revenue from 3rd party advertising. If you don’t, we would recommend going without ads.
While not the easiest thing to do, since it’s challenging to get other websites to link to your website, it is one crucial factor to ranking better on Google. An exciting term that we go back to from time to time is networking, which is also helpful for businesses and not just people on a social level.
Building a relationship with other businesses and setting up a process of referrals will result in extra traffic, leads, and ultimately sales.
One thing to keep in mind is to avoid backlink scams and paid ones since search engines don’t favor them—quite the contrary. Google has crawlers and algorithms that identify these and will drop your rank accordingly if you believe you are engaged in so-called “black hat” SEO.
On the note of backlines, social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc., are excellent sources of reaching your target audience and getting them to your website. Since social media is a big part of today’s businesses, Google puts more faith in search rankings.
The key here is to great potential and existing clients in a more compatible way with social media platforms.
For example, Instagram’s algorithms favor more video, story, and frequent posts.
Research the social media platforms carefully and build a content strategy around them to emphasize your goals.
Also related to tip #2, another free tip to get your website closer to the profitable first page on Google is to target geo-specific queries.
The website needs to specifically indicate the city, street, and geographic area, which is most commonly done in the “contact us” or “about us” pages on your website. Alternatively, that information can also be displayed through blog posts and services pages.
It’s valuable information for Google to present your business if the user searches for the area, city, and industry.
Try as you might, you won’t find a top-ranked website on Google that isn’t mobile responsive.
Most people use phones and tablets while surfing the web rather than computers and laptops. This is highlighted by the fact that most local searches are performed via mobile devices 63%.
That is why Google favors mobile-friendly websites. So, make sure to develop and optimize the website for as many screen sizes as possible and maintain the functionality.
It will ensure that the UX is more effective, and our Google search rank will improve accordingly. Although not a “free tip,” it’s a more important one to rank high on Google and offer a better experience for the clients.
That segues into the following topic:
Having a mobile-friendly website is only a tiny piece of the puzzle. The website also needs to be appealing and structured in a way that helps us achieve our goals. Its entire journey needs to have the user experience in mind.
A simple test determines this: Get a group of what you would consider your target audience that is not familiar with your website and let them open your website.
Your client pathway is straightforward if the website is intuitive and gets them to the page where they can convert. However, if they find it challenging to navigate your website, it’s time to make some changes.
It might also be helpful to set up a consultation with a UX designer or hire a company that would help you improve your website’s UX.
One of the most critical parts of any website is the kind of action you would like the client to take, represented in a button or call to action. Moderation is the key here.
We want to balance having too many buttons everywhere and having the client break a sweat and scroll through your entire website just to find the button.
Having a FAQ page would reduce a significant amount of back and forth with potential and existing clients. You have to find the most commonly asked questions and post them on that page for reference. Thank us later.
An underrated part of any website offers free helpful content to your target audience. The blog’s goals are to build long-lasting relationships with potential and existing clients.
Having an intuitive website keeps users on the website as much as possible, leading to more potential conversion. Once Google notices that your website is UX friendly, it will reward you with a higher rank, leading to more visitors, a better ranking, etc.
More traffic = higher rank.
If the goal to rank better on Google is Mount Everest, we need to be prepared to climb like Jim Whittaker. Most of the tips mentioned above are steps you can take to reach the top.
It’s simple: Businesses that rank better on search engines have higher CTR, more traffic, and more conversions. That is why it’s essential to spend time and ensure our website is optimized to achieve that goal and achieve our other business goals.
So, focus on creating a search strategy, better website UX, mobile-friendly website, high-quality content, and choose the right keywords.
If you are still unsure about where to start, we at SEO Jokers are happy to have a chat with you on how to set up your website and optimize it for better Google ranking. To learn more, click here.
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