Getting your website on the first page of Google is one of the most important marketing aspects of a successful online business. Websites that are built but are not optimised for Google search results can find themselves struggling to convert customers and build revenue for the business, almost making a website useless as a marketing tool.
Websites are meant to be designed for creating an online doorway to your customers through Google. They are meant to be built as a marketing tool. Some businesses get websites built because they think they need to for their business to be “professional” or complete and then leave the website as is without any kind of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
This is all well and good, and I am not saying this is the wrong thing to do, but if you truly want your business to be successful online, then SEO is essential. A percentage of businesses stay on social media pages and don’t ever evolve or expand onto Google through a website or online store. They never truly meet their business’s true potential.
Social media platforms such as Facebook give you a great way to start a business through their free business pages. These pages offer all kinds of benefits such as the ability to message, add posts, services, business information, and to gather a fan base through people liking or interacting with your page.
As previously mentioned, yes Facebook pages are a great way to “start” a business, but Facebook can only go so far, once you hit that point where your business needs more functionality, or you want to expand your business, what do you do next?
Well, it depends on what type of business you have, do you sell products or do you offer services? You either have three choices, creating a business informational website, creating an online store or a blog. An informational website generally consists of a Home page, an About page, a Services page(s) and a Contact or Get a Quote page, plus extra pages for other information if deemed necessary such as a blog or latest news section.
An online store can consist of the same pages as an informational website plus all the categories, product and tags pages.
A blog is usually an article or the latest news based website. It contains articles about industry news, your products and services, niche related content, and other topics relevant to your business concept.
If these websites are built properly they can have the potential to build your business outside of Social Media. Facebook and social media platforms only have about 15% of the total market share on the internet.
Google search statistics on internetlivestats.com says:
Google dominates the market share for products and services by a mile. 93% of users start their searches on Google. (Source: Search Engine Journal).
When comparing product and services searches online between Facebook and Google you can see the difference between the two platforms.
When creating a website, integrating your social media pages into the website is a great idea, as this adds an extra boost to the website, as online viewers like social proof.
When they can access your social media pages within your website this gives them the impression that your business is not fake and is regularly maintained by real people and has ongoing posts and reviews. Social proof is the name given to adding social media links and reviews to a website and is an important design aspect of any website or online store.
So using the base of your business that has started on social media that you have created over time and used in conjunction with your website can be some of the winning ingredients to a successful business online and to successful website Search Engine Optimisation.
Tips on How to Get Your Website On the First Page of Google
What is Search Engine Optimisation?
Search Engine Optimisation is the ongoing technical maintenance of an online store through keyword research, backlinking, meta tags, and local SEO or citations.
It is the evolution of your website ranking positions for targeted keywords in major search engines over a period of time through onsite and offsite optimisations.
Regional or National SEO or highly competitive keywords is NOT an overnight process. If you think you can get your website on the first page of Google for competitive keywords, then you will be disappointed.
Whereas local SEO, targeted local SEO keywords or low competitive keywords are much easier in some situations to rank highly, and can almost be ranking on the first page within a few days if the SEO is done correctly and the websites business meets the right conditions.
What is a competitive keyword?
A competitive keyword is a keyword or phrase that describes your business, product or service that is broad or one of the most used search terms for your particular niche. This means that the keyword is used more in search queries than other keywords. For example, if you own a jewelry store and one of your products is a pendant, “pendants” would be the most competitive or one of the most used search terms that people use to search for pendants.
If you are trying to get your website on the first page of Google for the search term “pendants” then it will be the hardest and will take the longest to rank for as you are competing with every other business trying to sell pendants in your region, state, or country. As there are only ten positions where you can rank on the first page of Google, you would have to be competitive enough to rank over thousands of other online stores. This is a daunting task in itself.
It will take at least 6 to 8 months to rank for a keyword like this and can take over a year in some situations depending on the keyword you are trying to rank on the first page of Google for, and this is only if the SEO process is completed properly or conducted by a specialist SEO technician.
What is a low competitive keyword?
A low competitive keyword or local keyword is a keyword or phrase that people use to find your products or services locally or a keyword or search phrase that isn’t used as much as the high competitive keywords. For eg, if you are a carpenter in Caboolture ( a suburb in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), a great search term or keyword phrase that you can use is “carpenter in Caboolture”.
Many people add their location onto the beginning or end of search terms if they are searching for carpenters locally. This means that your trying to get your website onto the first page of Google for people searching for a carpenter in Caboolture and you are only competing with similar services in that suburb or location.
If you type in your business name into a search engine for eg. if your domain is www.customwebcreations.com.au and you type in Custom Web Creations into a search engine, it will most likely come up on the first page of Google. But this isn’t a keyword you are after as how many people will use this search term for your business? Most likely none, unless they know the exact name of your business. What you want is your website showing up on the first page of Google for “web designer” or “web design company”.
So, in conclusion, the broader or more generalised a search term or keyword is, the harder it is to rank for. The more localised a keyword is, the easier it is to rank for. Many other factors come into play that helps to rank a website on the first page of Google, and these will be discussed later on.
How do I find Keywords?
There are numerous online keyword research tools available. This LSI keyword generator is handy. Make sure that you add keywords into your content so it makes sense. You can also get keyword phrases from your own mind. Simply think about a search term that you would use to find your services or products.
Keyword research is the key to understanding how Google uses keywords in its search algorithm. By completing keyword research you can find almost any combination of keyword phrases that are used more than others, thereby increasing the chances of your website, online store or blog being found by a potential customer, client or reader. Here is a great article on keyword research tools published by https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/keywords/free-keyword-research-tools/
Another way to find keywords is to check out the bottom of a completed search on Google. After you have entered a search term into Google, click “search” the scroll to the bottom of the page and under the heading “Searches related to [search-term]”, you’ll see a list of related searches that people use.
Where do I add keywords?
Adding keywords and search phrases into the content of a website is a good idea. Just write naturally, don’t overuse these search terms, once in the title of the page and once or twice in any headings, and once or twice in the content. Using numerous search terms in the content can also help. I generally don’t use the same search term more than 3 or 4 times.
The more content you write for a webpage the better. Google prefers original, long-form content that is relevant and answeres a person’s question or provides them with the information they are after. It is important that the content you do add to your posts, pages, products, and articles is original and displays as much information as possible.
Long-form content means exactly that. Webpages tend to rank higher if they have over a thousand words. Writing great content will also allow your website to gain backlinks.
What is backlinking
Backlinking is the process of other websites linking to your website’s internal pages. If you have a popular product, people will naturally share your product with other websites, social media platforms, and blogs. This is where social media share buttons come in handy on all web pages and product pages.
Make it as easy to share your website as possible. If you have a service or regularly write articles on your blog on your website (which I highly recommend doing), write great content, and people will share. The more they share your website the better, the more people share your website the more popular it becomes, and this sends signals to Google saying that your website is relevant, and it increases your website’s rankings.
Gaining quality backlinks from another website also increases your domain authority which also leads to stronger Google rankings, especially if the website that has linked to you has high domain authority and has shared your article on their website through the use of social media sharing buttons that are on your website or simply by adding your website domain to their website.
As soon as you write up a new page or add a new product or add a new article, share it as much as possible on as many different social media platforms as you can. Ask your friends and family to share them as well.
Conclusion
The topics I have talked about are by no means a comprehensive guide on SEO and getting a website to the first page of Google. I could write a book on the topic that would be one hundred pages long, but these handy tips on getting your website to the first page will help. SEO is a long ongoing process that you have to be committed to, otherwise, it simply won’t work.
It will take months of writing, backlinking and keyword research to get to the position you want your website to be in, but as with all hard work, the more you put in, the more you get out. Sometimes SEO can cost nothing more than your time, and once it starts to work, it can generate tens of thousands of dollars worth of revenue for your business.
Sometimes SEO can cost money if you hire a professional SEO specialist, but sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Hiring a professional might be a better choice as they have spent hundreds of hours of research and training to hone their skills, and know all the tricks of the trade, not just a few out of a hundred that I have mentioned here.
Further reading:
- SEO – Content Marketing & Content Writing – Part 1
- https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
- Free Google Courses
- The Complete Guide to Domain Names
Timothy Allsworth is an experienced specialist web designer, content marketer, and search engine optimization ( SEO, SEM ) expert here at Custom Web Creations Web Design Brisbane. He has over 7 years of real-world experience in the field and loves helping people and their businesses to succeed in an online world through his tried and proven techniques. He has numerous university-level qualifications in Australia. Advanced web programming, database engineering, SEO and SEM specialisations, Google marketing, business marketing are some of his qualifications. He envisions a web design business that prefers quality over quantity and gives the client the best end digital product their money can buy at affordable prices.
