Every business that does an SEO campaign wants to rank for the first page of the Google SERPs.
Ranking for it is a tough job but it is achievable with the right SEO strategy and effort.
SEO changes almost all the time, but the very thing that has remained constant is the primary value of showing up on the first page of google SERPs.
If you are new to SEO, you first need to know that the ten simple blue links on the Google SERPs and a few ads added to them are over.
Even with all the new SERPs Features, rich results, and results personalization.
Although it remains a fact that ranking on the first page of Google SERPs for keywords that are important to your business is what drives more organic traffic acquisition.
According to research, the click-through rate for the 10th position on the first page of Google SERPs is 3.13%.
The click-through rate is low but it is still higher than ad click rates.
The research shows that there is no measure for pages below the 10th result that is because after the first 10th result clicks drop quickly to near zero.
Let’s think about this; when was the last time you went beyond the first page of the Google SERPs when you search for a query?
Depending on the keywords query, there is tough competition for a spot on the first page of Google SERPs.
Yet becoming visible on Google's First page can be achieved if you put in the right SEO strategy and effort.
I want to write about the best, proven techniques that can help your business website get to the first page of Google SERPs.
How Your Website Can Get to The Top of Google Search.
1. Internal Linking Improvement
Internet linking is one of the easiest SEO tactics that can be implemented which will have a significant positive effect on your website ranking.
You need to pay attention to it because Google bot assesses what your website is all about through the internal linking structure of your website.
And the more Google is able to understand your website, the more keywords query your website content will rank for.
Furthermore, strategically applied links between your website pages will result in your website becoming an authority for your key topics, which will increase your website's chance of ranking higher for these keywords.
What is Strategic Internal Linking?
Strategic internal linking is the linking of your website pages together, to give your website visitors more educational content that will support their query.
Strategic internal linking is not just about you linking your website's pages anyhow you like.
Instead, you should link some pages to other specific pages which will add to or enhance the information on the page that a visitor has decided to visit.
Apart from the fact that your website visitors will benefit and love the information each web page provide.
The search engine also appreciates those type of strategic internal linking. (Google loves it too because it benefits your website visitors)
Strategic internal linking like this also shows Google that you have a deep understanding of the topic.
This gives the Google search engine the confidence that any users that they send to your website will be satisfied with the content they see and be happy.
2. Observe And Pay Attention To Your Threshold Pages
Unlike the 10 blue links (First 10 pages) of Google SERPs, threshold pages are the pages that currently rank below the First 10 pages of Google SERPs. (Ranks mainly range from 11 through to 20)
These pages likely give your website little to no traffic, but you can move your website from the Google threshold pages to page one by doing a little tweaking.
You should pay attention to these pages and make them a priority because getting these pages to page one of the SERPs is easier than trying to rank for new content.
You can start tracking the ranks of your threshold pages by using the rank tracking tool of your choice to segment your website pages with keywords that rank in the 11th position through 20.
Then you can sort by the search volume to bring the highest potential return website pages to the top.
After that, you should apply the other tips I have listed above in this article to those pages and get them to page one!
3. Research Competitive Content
If your website is filled with many important pages and yet you find it difficult to make it to the first page then there is something that your competitors have and you don’t
While you don’t know the reasons Google uses to decide why your competitor’s pages should rank above yours, you might find few reasons upon thorough cross-examination of your website pages.
This means that you should try to spend more time observing the landing pages of all the results ranking above your website.
SEMrush is an SEO tool that will help you with competitor analyses. You should take your time to use this tool to compare your competitors pages to your web pages.
Few questions to ask yourself about each competitive page:
- 1Is it properly written?
- 2Does the content have better quality than yours? (Includes more relevant information)
- 3Does the page contain keywords that your page doesn’t?
- 4Does it link to other relevant information pages?
- 5Does it have quality backlinks?
- 6Is the page supported with other visual content (Images, videos, Infographics, Charts, Tables E.tc.) that are helpful?
While you shouldn’t copy the pages of your competitors that are outranking you.
You should learn from what they are doing that you aren’t yet doing so you can improve your website pages to stay ahead of them or compete with their rank position.
4. Important Pages Should Come Higher in Site Navigation.
This is a technique that cannot be used for every page you have on your website, yet it will be beneficial to the most important pages.
One important way used by Google to assess the relative importance of a website page is its distance from the website homepage via internal navigation.
Your website homepage usually gets the most external links and consequently the highest page with authority on your website.
The homepage link equity moves steadily to other pages of your website that were linked from the home page.
Moving the important pages of your website closer to your homepage will increase their authority which will make them rank higher in the SERPs.
5. Your Website should be Mobile-Friendly.
Having a mobile-friendly website is not an option these days, it is a necessity.
If you haven’t made your website to be mobile-friendly then this is the right time to do it, it is not too late.
The majority of searches and online transactions are now done with online users' mobile devices.
People spend more time on their phones than they do with their desktop computers.
Mobile-friendliness is a part of the Google page experience update.
Google give high preference to mobile-friendly websites for online users that are searching for query on their mobile devices.
You should try to do all you can to make your website mobile-friendly since it is one of the factors used by Google to rank a website which will improve your search ranking on the mobile SERPs.
With the help of WordPress, having a mobile-friendly website shouldn’t be an issue.
6. Earn/Build More Links
Google has given us clues about few things that we need to consider If we want to rank on the Search engine result pages.
Clues like the content quality of our website pages and its relevance and more.
Yet gaining backlinks from other websites remain another factor to be considered when trying to rank for the first page of the Google search engine.
For you to earn links from other websites, you must create content that is good, educational, value-driven, and authoritative that will make other trustworthy websites want to link to it as a reference for their website content.
7. Pursue Featured Snippets
It is really hard to move up to the first page of Google yet it is necessary in order to become visible to your customers
Featured Snippets are selected search results that are featured in a box on the top of the SERPs.
Rich snippet on SERPs satisfy a lot of searcher's query, and research also shows that featured snippets frequently drives lots of traffic to a website because users want to know more information than what is shown in the snippet box.
Google doesn’t guarantee any website visibility on the featured snippet, but below are a few things you can do to increase your chance of showing up on the google featured snippets.
If you want to show up for featured snippets, endeavor to remember that Google wants content that clearly, concisely, and accurately answers the question of its keyword query.
8. Refresh Past Performing Content.
Almost all the successful content of any website has a lifecycle it takes before it fades away.
Sometimes after website content has been published, it will begin to grow in ranking and traffic.
But Overtime, the traffic that it generates will start to decrease and with time it will not bring any more traffic.
Did you wish to know why things like this happen?
There are a few reasons this happens which are:
Whatever the reason might be that caused your content to drop its traffic, there are ways you can bring it back onboard the SERPs and let it generate traffic again.