Ranking on the first page of Google, particularly the top three results, are what most businesses strive to achieve with their SEO goals. The reason being is that data shows that most user activity is captured in these spots. The top 3 results often account for 65-75% of the users clicks. There’s a good chance if your business isn’t in those top 3 results, you are likely missing out on business to your competitors.
So the questions lies with how do you get your business to rank at the top?
This is a difficult process and requires a carefully laid out SEO strategy, that is often achieved over a long period of time as opposed to a quick fix.
The DO’s
- A well laid out site– In order for google to rank your site, its robots need to be able to efficiently crawl through your site. The easier and faster they can read the content on your site the more likely you will be able to rank. You need to make sure your site has the right architecture, including proper meta titles and descriptions, helpful and useful content on the product or service you are selling, as well as a clear and well executed site map.
- Page speed– ensuring your site is efficient and loads quickly will be a big factor in google ranking your site. Users want fast responses, and google wants to show web pages that deliver users that speed. It also helps googles systems generate fast responses for its users if your site can be read quickly, particularly in the age of AI.
- Schema mark-up- This is a series of tags that are implemented on the back end of the site to give the search engines a clearer understanding of the content and context of your site and its meaning. Simple things like prices, ratings, recipes, reviews etc all help.
- Internal linking- a properly laid out site also has internal links from pages on your site to other pages within the site. This allows the robots to read about one product or service and be able to be easily directed to other important pages on a website. For example, you have a homewares site talking about selling rugs and then might link this to another page on the site talking about purchasing coffee tables that complement the rug. This allows google to also visit that page and index it, allowing both product terms to be found in google.
- Links to build authority- Once you have your site infrastructure set up correctly, the main piece of the puzzle is convincing google to trust that your website is the best match for that users search term. Trust is built in googles eyes when other sites within your industry or market are referring your site.
For example, a company looking to sell wedding dresses may have their company featured on a major wedding planning site. That link from the major wedding site that already ranks well with google flows on the trust that google has into your site. It’s not just one link, google will look at how many people are referring your site from all different places.
A careful strategy is required to reach out to have your business aligned with multiple trusted sources. Overtime, if your product or service is popular, websites will also naturally link to your brand when talking about that product or service in that industry.
- Keyword analysis and placement- A must do in SEO is identifying which are the best keywords your customers are likely to use to match with your products and services. These can be identified with SEO software, google console and your own understanding of the business you are in. Once you know what the words your customers are entering, you can strategically place these into your website content and titles, bearing in mind not to overuse and saturate your site with them.
The Don’t’s
Every business wants to rank at the top of Google as the increased traffic leads to a lot more revenue coming in. It’s tempting for businesses to want to take short cuts to get there fast, but in the long term short fixes might deliver quick results but long term pain.
- Poor links- The biggest don’t is poor linking. There are multiple seo agencies and companies out there that promise high quality links for a price. The issue is many of the sites they send links from are already deemed spam in googles eyes. They might be certain directory sites that google has already assessed and deemed to be set up deliberately to cheat SEO. In this case, a link for them is seen as the opposite of what you should be doing, and google can often punish your site as a result of what they perceive to be a devious act.
- Poorly written content- Googles primary aim is to deliver its user the best match for the query they put into the search engine. You need to ensure the content on your site is super useful to the user, and that your site is considered to have expert content, that is clear and concise and not just stuffed with keywords and unnecessary content in attempt to trick google.
- AI shortcuts- Google has explicitly said AI should only be used as a partial tool. Site content and articles purely written by AI systems like chat GPT can instantly see your sites rankings fall. Google wants unique, human content, that is super helpful to the users experience.
- Stagnant sites- Google likes to know your business is active and relevant. If you haven’t updated your site for years and have no fresh content, its robots may think your no longer the best match. Its best to have articles and blogs, like what your reading now, or updates to news and product and service information.
- Target niches and your local market- It’s great to go after the main stream words, but often there can be a lot of food left on the plate with niche words, and Local SEO can sometimes have more impact. Take an example of a plumber trying to come up for “Local plumber”. This would be a keyword lots of plumbers might also be chasing in the overall region you’re in. You might be better targeting suburbs near your workplace. Take a plumber in Parramatta, he might choose to target nearby areas such as “plumber Carlingford”, “plumber north rocks”, “plumber Westmead” etc.
Overall, good SEO strategy is a slow but impactful. Don’t cut corners and take risks, put in the effort to be an expert in your field and ensure your site adheres to the above formula and you will eventually out rank your competitors.
If you need help with your SEO, contact Nick Zahra and I can help.
