How to Appear on the Top of Google

What would help improve your rankings is understanding the ever-evolving nature of algorithms and crafting a strategy that aligns perfectly with search engine policies. That entails creating content that satisfies algorithms and users’ search intent. But you may want to know why invest so much into getting to the top of Google. So let’s begin with that. 

Why the First Page of Google is Important?

 

Google’s first page offers searchers a wholesome search experience with a combination of search results, local results, Knowledge Panels, expandable related questions, answer boxes, and more. That means as a content creator you have more than one way to stand out on the first page of Google. This effectively means you’ll be able to attract more traffic to your website and boost significantly your click-through rate.

 

Now, the first page of Google is important because search results that appear on the first page of Google get the majority of traffic and the highest click-through rates. For example, on average first result has a whopping 36.4% clickthrough rate, while the second and third results manage to have 12.5% and 9.5% clickthrough rates respectively. 

 

Therefore it’s important to aim for the first page of Google, for which the right planning and strategies are imperative if you want to improve your rankings in Google higher or want to feature on the very first page. To help you, we have curated the best tips and tactics that’d give your content the edge it needs to get to the top of Google.

 

Also read: Competitor Keyword Analysis: How to Identify Competitor Keywords

10 Tips to Appear on the Top of Google

1: Create Content that Users Find Valuable

 

Content creation is the crucial first step to ranking in Google. Don’t create content just for the sake of creating content. Instead, make it add value to the people who’d read it. In other words, the content should serve users’ search intent by providing relevant and valuable information on the topic. That is important because Google values it when your content satisfies its users.

2: Create Long-Form Content that Covers the Topic Fully

 

Instead of creating content around a single keyword, try to cluster relevant together under a single topic. And cover everything there’s to know about that topic. Long-form content ranks higher in Google because Google sees it as a more authoritative, complete, and resourceful piece of information. 

 

Quite astonishingly, long-form content gets more visibility on Google, search traffic, user engagement, social shares and dwell time. All these metrics help it rank higher in Google search results. you rank your site higher. So aim to write articles that are over 1500 words long.

3: Optimize your Content for Google Answer Box

 

With the help of question phrases such as “how,” “why” and “what,” you can attract more traffic, clicks, and visibility on Google by directly answering the questions searchers ask in their queries. Who knows your content when thoroughly optimized for such phrases may trigger featured snippets, which is akin to getting to the top of Google.

 

In this, you can leverage tools such as Answer the Public and Google’s very own “People also ask” section to identify conversational questions people are asking relevant to your keyword or topic. And the next thing to do is to use those questions in your H2 tags or subheadings so that Google bots pick and understand them.

4: Take Advantage of Internal Linking to Improve your Rankings

 

Internal links also play their part in securing higher rankings for your website URLs in Google. Not just in crawling, the internal linking structure can boost your organic positions as well, and may even push you to the first page of Google. So ensure that your content is fully interlinked, whether it is blogs or pages.

5: Do a Proper Anchor Text Optimization

 

Optimizing the anchor text properly is one of the tips to get your content to the top of Google search results. The anchor text allows Google to understand what the page you’re linking to is all about. One of the ways to get your anchor texts right is by using any of the following:

 

Exact Match Anchor Text – As the name suggests, it’s about using the exact keyword as your anchor text. For example, “digital marketing” would be an exact match anchor text if you’re linking to a page about digital marketing.

Partial Match Anchor Text – This employs using a variation of your target keyword on the linking page. For example, linking to a page about content optimization and using “content optimization strategies” as anchor text.

Branded Anchor Text – This entails using the brand name as anchor text. For example, use “Statista” if linking to an article from Statista. 

 

Besides these, you can also use the URL directly without any anchor text; this is called Naked Link. There’s another option which is Generic Anchor Text and includes phrases like “Learn more” or “click here.”

6: Leverage Guest Posting Strategy

 

Get as many websites to link to your pages and blogs as possible to boost your site’s domain authority as well as the authority of individual URLs. this will help you get to the top of Google quicker. 

 

In other words, guest posts not just increase your visibility on the internet, but also bring more traffic to your website. But remember articles you write for backlinking are relevant to your target audience, detailed, and high-quality if you want to earn more credibility.

7: Optimize for Featured Snippets

 

What can help you “win” featured snippets in Google is optimizing your content properly.  Snippets can get you in the top 10 search results and help boost your click-through rate.

Including data like price, stock availability, rating, reviews for product pages and listicles can help win featured Snippets.

 

Also read: How to Create Social Media Marketing Strategy for your Business

8: Optimize your Meta Tags

 

It’s good to optimize meta tags yourself and not leave them for Google to pick automatically if you want a higher page ranking. That’s to say, write your own title tags and meta descriptions if you want search engines to better understand your content and boost your click-through rate. Remember, the higher the CTR, the higher your page content will rank in Google. You can optimize both by including the relevant keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions.

9: Optimize your Google My Business Listing to Improve Local Rankings

 

Local SEO is important. Especially for location-specific keywords, you’d want to rank higher on local search results. Which will eventually improve your overall rankings in Google’s organic search results. It begins with the optimization of your Google My Business listing.

 

That means you will have to fill out essential details like business name, website URL, contact information, address, category, business hours, and description of your business fully and correctly. Besides publishing relevant images, information about upcoming events, or products, reviews by customers, and more.

10: Improve Rankings with PPC Strategy

 

I know it takes time to rank organically in Google. But if you want to get to the top of Google in a shorter time, your best bet is PPC or a pay-per-click strategy. Invest in paid advertising to increase your brand awareness and search visibility with the final aim to boost your website ranking.

Final Thoughts: How to Appear on the First Page of Google

 

Want to appear on the first page of Google? Well, if you do. Then write for humans! Ensure your SEO strategy caters to the needs of humans as well as those of search algorithms. Take into account these tips on ranking higher on Google when crafting your own strategy 

 

Do your research properly to come up with relevant keywords and create valuable, long-form content that captures the essence of your topic fully. With a proper interlinking strategy, you can boost the authority of other pages on your website and help algorithms index them properly. 

 

What else you can do is optimize your website for mobile and improve page speed and user experience and list your business on local as well as international directories. Google views these as vital signals for ranking web pages. And also ensure that your website is properly indexed. Also, make sure to obtain as many customer reviews as possible to rank higher on Google.

Need help with getting to the top of Google? Vistoplex Media can help get you to the first page of Google. Want to learn how? Ask for a quick consultation call at hello@vistoplexmedia.co.uk. Get in touch today or fill out our contact us form.