Taking position number one on Google is like hitting a jackpot. This may sound cliche but it’s true. And it’s the reason why businesses invest in SEO in the first place. A study by Chitika discovered that the first position alone receives about 33 percent traffic, compared to about 18 percent of the second position and even lower for the rest. It’s not that lonely to be at the top when you talk about SEO. We are talking about free organic traffic that will last for a long time to come, provided you do proper maintenance for your SEO ranking.
So now comes the question: What does it take to be number one on Google?
Choose Your Keywords Wisely
This cannot be emphasized enough. Your keyword research is the most important part of your digital marketing game plan. If you choose to rank for an obscure keyword like “yummy dummy doll”, you could reach top positions in a matter of days. However, the question is: Why would you want to rank for it from the beginning? If the keyword doesn’t serve your end goal (You have no product named Yummy Dummy doll to sell) then the traffic is worthless. Not only that, obscure keywords don’t get searched often by users, so the potential traffic will be low even for top positions.
Use a keyword research tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to find keywords with decent search traffic and low competition. Those are the golden eggs.
Landing Pages
Many businesses don’ split-test their landing pages enough. They set up AdWords or Facebook campaigns, spend thousands of dollars driving traffic to the homepage, and wonder why their CPC is high because the relevance score is low.
Businesses that offer multiple products or services can increase their conversion rate simply by optimizing the landing pages. Visitors who click on a footwear ad arrive at your site expecting to see shoes, sandals, high heels, etc. They will hit the back button if your site is full of other items not related to what they are looking for. For the same service, split-test two or more landing pages to see what works best.
Publish Fresh Content Frequently
The Content Marketing Institute reported that about 88% of B2B businesses use content marketing as an integral part of their digital marketing strategy. Google favors sites that publish fresh high-quality content on a regular basis. On top of that, it’s a good way to establish yourself as a go-to authority in your chosen niche and increase the number of loyal customers.
Strategic Link Building
Inbound links are the most important factor that accounts for a site’s ranking, according to Moz. Here are some tips to help you get quality backlinks:
- Publish quality evergreen content that people want to share and link to.
- Guest-blog on other high-authority, high-traffic blogs and get backlinks back to your site.
- Add your site to local business directories.
- Build your social media presence and inform users of newly published content through those channels.
Use Google AdWords
If you don’t have the patience or time to wait for organic results to kick in, why not start with Google AdWords? Depending on how much you are willing to bid on a keyword, you can reach number one almost instantly overnight through ad placement. In fact, it’s recommended that new businesses start with Google AdWords to generate traffic first while still working on their SEO rankings.
Feeling overwhelmed right now? You don’t have to do everything listed above yourself to reach number 1 on Google. That’s why ConsciousMKTG is here for you. Contact us to get connected to our digital marketing experts!