Get Your Website On The First Page Of Google

Without question, the rules for effective search engine optimization have evolved into a more complex marketing effort. As marketing professionals, we need to refine our process multiple times a year.

Staying up on the industry standard best practices is crucial.

Each year, Google changes its' search algorithm around 300–400 times. While most of these changes are minor, Google occasionally rolls out a “major” algorithmic update (such as Google Fred and Google Penguin) that affects search results in significant ways.

Implementing new search engine algorithm updates will assure your business stays relevant on Google in 2018.

Why should your business care about SEO?

When potential customers look for your business services, 81 percent start their search on search engines according to Ad Week.

Eighty-one percent of shoppers conduct online research before they make a purchase. Sixty percent begin by using a search engine to find the products they want, and 61 percent will read product reviews before making any purchase. On average, a consumer will visit three stores before making their purchase.

If you want to reach that audience, optimizing your website's presence is important. SEO is essential in converting online traffic into customers for your business.

We both know that there’s a lot more to SEO than the first few keyword searches that come to your mind.

6 Ways to Get on The First Page of Google

• Get Discovered with Local Keywords
• Clean Up You Location Data
• Focus on User Signals
• Website Structure
• Optimize Your Site for Mobile
• Use Original Images With Proper Alt Text

1. Get Discovered with Local Keywords

How do you find the best keywords for your business? This is a question potential clients always ask us.

They want to understand exactly how keywords work, and how they will make an ROI from local SEO and pay per click (PPC) campaigns.

One of the most fundamental steps when starting your search engine optimization campaign in 2018, is finding targeted keywords that prospects will use to find a business online.

If you're just starting out it's important to have realistic expectations of SEO. You are not going to rank #1 for your local business in your city overnight.

• Detroit lawyer
• Detroit attorney
• law firm in Detroit

Targeting competitive areas should be done after basic on-page SEO goals have been planned and executed. Go into the head of your potential customer and think of how they could/should find your business.

2. Clean Up You Location Data

Moz conducted a survey in 2015 that listed off-site location signals as a major influence of a search engine ranking.

Search engines, like Google, become more advanced every day and they will rely on more offsite signals to determine the legitimacy of a business and local ranking of that businesses' website.

What to do

Make sure your Name, Address, and Phone number are correct in relevant directories. Nothing kills your chances of success faster than bad contact information.

Make sure your website lists that same NAP information (name, address, and phone number).

Verify your business on Google Maps

Unlike other aspects of Google, Google Maps provide your company name, address, and a clickable phone number, so the 65%+ of Google local searches done via a smartphone can call you on the way to your business or get directions there.

If you give a false address or phone number, it cripples your chances of a ranking well.

Get Reviews for your Google Maps listing.

Next, ask your current customers or clients for reviews of your business.

According to a recent survey by Moz.Com, Google’s algorithm gives 9.8% of the weight of your listing to the number of quality reviews of your business location.

3. Structure Your Website Intentionally

Website structure for SEO purposes should help users find the information they want in the quickest way possible. What serves end users well will naturally serve the search engines too.

Essential pages on trustworthy websites

About Us – A well-designed page improves the credibility and trustworthiness of your website.

Contact Page – Should serve your visitors with contact information like email, phone and business address.

Sitemap – Help visitors easily find and access all of your website content from one page.

Privacy Policy – Search engines, like Google, like it when websites have a privacy policy in place.

URL Structure:

The format of your urls should describe the content of each page. Google is trending towards giving the most power to sites that do this correctly.

4. Focus on User Experience

Your site's user experience has a big impact on your structure and site-wide SEO. Remember the goal is to give people what they want as quickly as possible.

Delays or confusion due to a poor interface can increase your bounce rate and decrease conversions.

Original Content:

In 2018, original content is more important than ever. The more original content that you can produce, the more users with buyer intent will be attracted to your website. People like things that they can navigate quickly. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are also important for your mobile pages.

Navigation: 

The navigation of your website should help first-time visitors find information as easily as possible. You should group related pages like products and services together so it makes sense to users and search engines.

Breadcrumbs:

Try using breadcrumbs to inform visitors where they are and how they can get back to where they were. Its a visual back button that also helps search engines group our related content together effectively.

Search box:

If you have a large site with deep content, try having a predominant search box for visitors to use. Sometimes search boxes are not practical if your site has just a few pages.

5. Optimize for Mobile

With mobile search becoming such a dramatic part of the online search, it’s absolutely crucial that you optimize your site in 2018 so that it is seen by searchers and engines.

According to Google’s book, the top three positions on a search page matter even more in mobile world since the digital shelf gets really small on mobile devices.

6. Have Original Images

So how and why should you use images in your business communications, marketing, and social networks?

60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business when an image shows up in local search results according to this study.

Not surprising, the better the photo the more traffic it can drive to your website.

Naturally, this scares a lot of business owners. But image creation doesn’t have to be scary. This article will guide you through everything you need to know to create amazing custom images without breaking your budget or taking up all your time.

Conclusion

A good SEO strategy will not only benefit your website's ranking in search engines but also the usability of your site. It’s one thing to get people to your site, it's another thing to have them stay and become a new customer or client.

If you are committed to developing good SEO practices, you will get to the top of search results in 2018. Which of these SEO tips will your website today?

 As a thank you for reading, we are offering a free on-screen video analysis of your website that breaks down your site to find out the main issues holding it back from outranking your main competition on Google.