Tom Welbourne
Helping Small and Medium Businesses Achieve Their Full Marketing Potential | Digital Marketing Expert
How To Get To The Top Of Google
Google is the most widely used search engine in the world right now and probably ever will be with over 5.6 billion searches a day according to SEO Tribunal!
We’re always searching for things online and search engine optimisation (SEO) is a great long-term strategy to get your small business known in your area and hopefully globally if that’s what you’re looking for.
It’s a long way to the top and you should sit yourself down and let yourself know that reaching the top of Google doesn’t happen overnight, within a month or within a year…typically.
However, if you’re starting a business, we take it you’re in it for the long-run and are prepared to put in some ground-work and climb the mountain before you reach the summit right?
Perfect.
In this article, we’re going to be talking about how you can get to the top of Google with your business and give you a few FREE tips to give you the best possible chance.
High-Quality Content
In an era of information overload, we often find more than we need when we search on Google and despite this being great for the searcher, for businesses, it can be a nightmare.
The level of competition on Google is so high now that if you’re putting out low-quality content then you’re not even going to make the first few pages on Google, let alone the top spot.
We’re assuming that you know a bit about the industry your business is in and therefore will know more than the people who are searching for you.
Give these people who are searching for answers the best possible answer to their question you can. In his book, “They Ask You Answer”, Marcus Sheridan talks about answering the questions your customers are asking.
And don’t be put off by the many articles that have already answered a particular question in your niche because that doesn’t mean you can’t weigh in on an answer to the question too!
Fast & Easy-To-Use Website
Speed is king on the internet and you need to be making sure your website is silky smooth.
Did you know that Amazon could lose $1.6 billion in sales if their website slows down by 1-second?
Make sure you test your website and all the pages on your website to make sure your site is loading at a reasonable speed.
What is a reasonable speed to aim for?
2-seconds flat.
You might think that is unreasonable, but think back to a time you were looking for an item online and the website took too long, you probably clicked off and went elsewhere to make your purchase!
You can get your website tested for speed for FREE on various tools online so go get it tested and find out how you can improve the speed of your site. You may need to make a simple improvement such as optimising your images.
Get Local
This point is perfect for local businesses and brick & mortar businesses because this can drive visitors to your store just by inputting some basic info that helps Google find you and most importantly, helps your customers find you.
Optimise your Google My Business page by firstly setting one up, filling out the relevant info and make sure that the info you do fill out includes information such as:
Description of your business
Choosing the right category for your business
Opening time information
Phone number
Address
Another benefit of having a Google My Business page is so that people can leave reviews about your business. Hopefully, you’re providing a product/service that people are happy with and even happier to write a review about!
Get Ready For Voice Search
Many people are predicting that voice search is going to make up the bulk of people’s searches online which is understandable with the rise of Amazon Echo and alike.
Start writing articles in the language you speak out loud and you should be setting yourself up for success by getting ahead of the curve whilst the rise of voice search starts to increase…
What is the best way to optimise for voice search?
Very simple and similar to the point above, but just make your answer to their question as natural as possible and indirect format.
Quick List of Actions You Can Take To Get To The Top of Google
Upload a sitemap for Google – lets Google know what’s on your page
Optimise for mobile – just like social channels, more and more people are using their phones, not their desktops
Use descriptive URL’s – make sure your URL’s include what your page is about
Go .com if you can afford it – most websites at the top of Google are .com
Link to other relevant websites or pages – if you think your reader will benefit from going to a different website or page then link it on your page/article
Make use of keywords – find out the best keywords for your site and use them throughout your pages
Summary
We hope this article has given you a brief insight into how you can reach the top of Google and some of the best + simplest ways to do this.
SEO can be very technical and often involves a lot of research and knowledge to make sense of it all, let alone implement it.
We’ve been experimenting with SEO ourselves, working out the best and worst things to do in order to reach the top of Google so we can help our clients and pass on the information to you.
If you’re still unsure what all this Google stuff means, then get in touch with one of our SEO specialists today by clicking HERE.
