SEO Tips that will Land Your Organic Content on the First Page of Google

It’s no secret that Google has become an invaluable tool in today’s society. In fact, the average user searches Google multiple times a day. Whether it’s looking up the correct spelling of a word, the best restaurant to satisfy your cravings, or something more advanced like how to SEO optimize your website, Google has become the “go-to” place for all your information needs.

For businesses, having your website show up on the first page of a Google search is crucial. When your results show on the first page of a Google search result you improve your visibility, customer engagement, drive more traffic to your site, and it’s a great way to earn trust from your future clients.

Here are just a few stats that will really drive home exactly why Google rankings are so important.

• On average, there are 5.6 billion searches per day
• First result of the first page has an average 36.4% clickthrough rate
• Second result of the first page has an average 12.5% clickthrough rate
• Third result of the first page has an average 9.5% clickthrough rate

As you can imagine from the stats above, the clickthrough rates only go down the farther down the search results you go. To put it into even more perspective, there are usually around 10 search results displayed per page, and the 10th result of the first page only receives about a 2.2% clickthrough rate.

So how can you get your search results to show up at the top of the first page without running ads? By utilizing Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. Here are just a few of our best SEO tips that will help increase your chances of landing at the top of the first page of a Google search.

1. Get clear on your keywords.

Every page of your website is going to be different, especially if you have a blog with different topics. However, one of the most important things to remember when planning out your keywords is to make sure the keywords of different pages don’t compete with each other.

Keywords can be anything from single words to phrases. Keep in mind that your keywords are the actually words and questions that people will be typing into the Google search bar. When selecting your keywords, try to ask yourself what would your customers search for. Look at your blogs and think of the questions that your blog will answer and add those questions to your keyword list for that specific page.

2. Put your keywords to work!

Now that you’ve mapped out your keywords for each page, it’s time to utilize them by putting them in the appropriate places. Here is a quick rundown of where you should put your keywords.

• Meta Description – This is the link summary that populates up when you’re searching in Google. Make sure you incorporate your keywords into your meta description, but careful not to oversaturate.
• Title and URL of your page – When deciding the title or URL of your page or blog post, make sure you word them to include a few keywords for even better SEO results.
• Image Alt-Tags – This is a great way to sneak in some extra keywords. Just name your image with a keyword or two and not only will your article show up more towards the top of your Google search, but it also increases the chance of the image showing up when people are doing an image search, landing them back on your site if they decide to click through for more information.
• In the body of your page – Whether it’s an “about us” page or a blog post, the most logical place to put your keywords is in the body of your web pages. But we do caution you don’t just dump your keywords in and oversaturate your article or page. If Google detects that you are dumping too many keywords to the point your content doesn’t even make sense to the average reader, they can actually penalize you and knock you down in rankings instead of up.

3. Make sure Google knows your location!

If you have a brick and mortar business it is vital that Google knows where you are so your website comes up when people search for “near me” locations. You can accomplish this by putting your address in the footer of your website, in the “contact us” or “about us” pages on your site, and even including the name of your city and state in a few of your blogs.

4. Mobile optimization

A few years ago Google completely revamped it’s algorithm and ranking system by showing mobile optimized sites first, and this is still the case today. The world runs on mobile now and if your site isn’t mobile optimized, your other SEO efforts will have been for nothing. This is a vital step!

5. User-friendly

In addition to your website being mobile ready, it is also extremely important that your website is user-friendly. If your website is engaging, easy to read, and easy to navigate, your visitors will stay on your website longer. Believe it or not, Google also takes into consideration how long a user stays on a site, therefore, when your site is user-friendly it will be ranked higher.

BONUS TIP: Another great way to increase your Google rankings is to set up your Google Businesss Listing. It’s free to set up and if you have a local business the advantages of setting up your listing are huge!

So there you have it, our best tips to get your website on the first page of Google. For even more information on SEO, internet marketing, web design and hosting, or business automation, please feel free to hop over to our services page or contact us today!