It is every web-owner’s dream to be on the front page of Google search list. However, very much like climbing Mt. Everest, only a few make it to the top. Moreover, it is those who are equipped with the right tools and a well-planned strategy that will be able to avoid falling down. In order to climb the rank of Google, one must know more about how the ranking system works. Here are explanations of why it is so hard to be on top of Google and some tips and tricks that will help you boost your position on the search engine.
Google is a number one search engine for a reason. This is simply because it provides user with the most relevant and useful search result and seems to know its user better after every search. How does Google do this? It all comes down to one single factor – content quality control. Therefore, if you want to be on top, you must convince Google that you have a good website filled with quality content that’s worth its attention.
Front Page of Google – The Factors:
Here are factors that Google takes into consideration when perform web ranking
- Content – This is the main factor that Google uses to determine your position on the search engine.
- Links – life juice of webpages
- Bounce Rate – Do people find your website useful?
- Social Signal – What reaction does your website gets from other users.
As simple as it may sounds, it actually requires a lot of time and effort to really work and develop these four areas before Google start recognizing your website. It took WCB about four months to get to the top on the search results and about a year before our business started getting a decent amount of customers through search engine results. Therefore, be persistent and the sweet reward will sure come after.
Content is the key factor that Google use to determine your web ranking. As much as Google is judging other websites, it is also being judge by the online world. With the title of a number one search engine, Google needs to maintain the quality of its search result. If it starts providing irrelevant information people will begin looking for an alternative search engine. This is why content is the number one priority in Google ranking system.
Coming up with good content can be quite a challenging task, but with enough effort, inspiration, and good research it is not an impossible mission. The trick is to find out your target audience and what they are asking for?
For Example: If you are working in a paint industry and you want to boost up your sale, it would be a good idea for you to create content which target towards people who work with paint, such as professional painter, decorator, DIY enthusiast, and etc.
Content Idea:
- Write a comparison of the types of paint for their purposes.
- Do a nice table for newbies to help them see what kind of paint they should use.
- A price comparison to help professionals decide whether your prices are competitive with the market.
Tips: Table is a great way of presenting material; it is short, precise, and people can grasps some information from it within the first glance. This increase the chance of your content being share online and Google loves that!
This is one of the major misconceptions that people have regarding good SEO practice. Keyword actually does no good for your website, and alternatively causes Google to think that it is a spam page. So forget about it and focus on creating quality content that is useful for people to read. To help you with content creation, here are some useful articles for you to check out:
quicksprout.com – How to Use Content Marketing for a Boring Industry
blog.hubspot.com – 15 Tips for Content Creators in Boring Iindustries
siegemedia.com – Content Marketing in Boring Industries
Just like growing a tree, you cannot force links to grow. While we want our content to be recognized as fast as they can, paying for a sketchy online company that promises a top rank for fifty-dollars per month is definitely not the right approach. This will not only get you nowhere, but will also cause your web ranking to plummet to the bottom of the search engine.
Front Page of Google – So how do we increase our website recognition without having Google thinks that we are a spam page?
The internet provides you with the ability to connect to people across the globe so why not use it to a full advantage? Write emails to company or website that is relevant or have helped you with their service.
For example, we just finished using Zurb Foundation to build our web agency website and we wanted to thank the guys at Zurb for creating something that was a certain shade of awesome. So we did, and as a result, they featured us on their case studies website after asking us a few simple follow up questions. Our website went from page rank eleven to two with that one link alone!
Another effective outreach method is to email the top people in your industry and ask for a Q&A interview. As soon as that goes live, it is very likely that the interviewee will share, like, or even link the interview to their website/blog. This is a very easy way of producing good content that give you quality relevant organic links.
Link bait is content that attract links. Often link bait items are very creative, funny, relevant, insightful, or a combination of all four. Link bait can come in many forms, ranging from news spoof, tutorial video, drawings, reviews, etc. One of the easiest ways to create link bait is to find a subject that is the talk of the town and put your own spin on it.
A good example of this is Zimbio questionnaire on “which character you are in game of thrones”. As you can expect, the quiz make the social media world went crazy and it is because it was created at the peak of the series’ popularity; therefore relevant, creative, and entertaining.
Tutorials and inspiration articles are also good link baits, they are very easy to put together and can really encourage readers to link and share. Furthermore, giving out free useful online tools and resources or helping people with their problem can greatly increase the number of organic links on your page. People only recommend the person they like, so be nice, the next person you helped might be the key that leads you to the most valuable links for your website.
In our case, one of our past students was so pleased with our courses and recommended us to the editor of Bangkok CNN travel. As a result we gained a quality link from a popular, relevant, quality website.
Social media has become one of the most powerful tools in today’s world, however many businesses still struggle to fully utilize its power or simply have no clue how to do it. When using correctly, social media is an ultimate weapon that can greatly help increasing your web ranking; it is also a very important part of your SEO strategy. The number one ground rule when working with social media is choosing the right one that suits your business model.
Here are our recommendations:
Facebook – Great for creating brand awareness, connection, feedback, and provide a direct channel to communicate with your customers
Twitter – a good platform for news-and-info-based business that allows you to see what your competitors are up to.
Instagram – Heaven for fashion, food, and photography industry
Pinterest – Perfect social media for arts, crafts, fashion, as well as graphic and interior design
LinkedIn – Very good online professional business networking
Google+ – It is a graveyard, but it will help with your web ranking
Despite its power, social media is not always useful for every business. It can be extremely difficult to get a good return of investment on social media alone. So ask yourself if your business really needs social media before investing time and effort into it. Here is a list of questions that will help you to decide if social media is something for you.
- Does your target audience use popular social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. on a regular basis?
- Do my target customers use popular social media to find out new information about product/service?
- Do you create interesting content that you are happy to share online?
- Is your product/service aim at customer? (i.e. not a business-to- business model – will you go to Facebook when trying to find a reliable supplier for your company? Hopefully, no)
If you say “yes” to any of the questions above, then social media is something that you might want to look into.
Another thing to keep in mind is people hate hard-sell, whether in real life or online world. Working with social media is like being at a party, if you go up to everyone and sell to their face, you will be ask to leave in no time. The magic ingredient for a successful online social network is 90% quality content + 10% direct sale.
Another reason why getting on top of Google is very difficult is because of “bounce rate”
Bounce rate is the numbers of users who enter the website and instantly leave without performing any action i.e. enter a website and immediately go back to Google or closes the window. It is a factor that Google use to see if users actually like your page. Website with high bounce rate will have its ranking reduced and will appear lower down the list of the search engine. There are three main reasons that responsible for high bounce rate:
This goes back to the quality of your content creation; make sure your title tag, meta data, and description match with the actual content on your web page. Don’t use misleading headlines that trick people into entering the website and leave them disappointed with irrelevant content. People will leave if they can’t find a good reason to stay on your page.
Forget about “don’t judge the book by its cover” it is in people’s nature to judge something based on the first impression of that thing/person. Just like how you judge people by the way they dressed, people judge the reliability of a company based on the appearance of the company’s website.
Regardless of the appearance of your website, it cannot make people stay if it’s not working. Always keep an eye out for broken link and make sure that your website is responsive, so it can be view on mobile devices. You want to also make it easy for people to navigate your page – never prioritize form over function.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are many factors that contribute to your ranking on Google. Being on the front page of Google is not something that is too far-fetched but requires a lot of hard work and effort. Ultimately, the success of your website comes from the time and quality that you put into it. After all, your goal is not to create a website that shoots to the top of Google overnight and disappears the next day, but a website that gets to the top because it deserve to be there.
This article is just a short preview of what you can find in our SEO e-book, which is available for free. If you find this article helpful and would like to learn more about the topic, please don’t forget to check it out.
