How to Rank on Google’s First Page

There are a total of 200 ranking signals that Google utilises to determine organic search page rankings. They are subdivided into different categories, such as – domain-related factors, on-page factors, off-page factors, and numerous other technical SEO factors that contribute to where your website falls on Google’s SERP’s.

If you want to find out how you can aim for that first page spot, check out Contevo’s top 7 tips on how to rank on the first page of Google for 2019!

High Quality Content

According to Yellow Head Inc., ‘high ranking content refers to in-depth content that covers a broad spectrum of its respective subject. Content must provide real value to the user and should incorporate engaging visual content to complement the written content.’

As people are visual, combining rich and fruitful content with images that make it easier for readers to understand concepts is one way of making sure that they stay on your website.

Remember to use headings and subheadings while keeping everything simple, naturally engaging, and direct to the point. People browse the internet to find the right answers to all of their questions. This also helps your website avoid a high bounce rate and increase overall “session duration.”

A study by Neil Patel also reveals a correlation between content length and first page Google search positions – in which ‘the average content length for a web page that ranks in the top 10 results for any keyword on Google has at least 2,000 words.’ Meaning, the higher up you go on the search listings page, the more content each web page usually has.

User Experience

We believe this fundamental should be followed for any industry, USERS ALWAYS COMES FIRST. Their primary impression holds the most valuable importance for your business and website. According to Adobe’s State of Content, 38% of users stop engaging with a website if the layout and content is hard to navigate and unattractive.

Your websites navigation should always be easily accessible for all. Make it simple, clean, and well-organised. You can also avoid adding too many unnecessary links and pop-up ads – it’s an absolute eye sore and readers hate them.

One substantial source that we can recommend is Ezoic’s User Experience Case Study, in which they were able to see a 186% increase in earnings per 1,000 visitors after the creation of a better UX or User Experience.

Page Speed

With a mobile-first indexing approach from Google, page speed has become an integral part of Google’s primary ranking factors. Today, pages with heavy and more complex types of media can single-handedly contribute to a website never hitting the first page of google results.

For big companies like Amazon,  just one second could cost it a whopping $1.6 billion in sales each year. According to Fast Company, 4 out of 10 Americans will give up on accessing a mobile shopping site that won’t load in just three seconds – yes, you read that correctly – tres segundos.

Google’s goal with these updates is to provide users with search results that include sites who provide the best (UX) User Experience.

HTTPS

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. As per HubSpot, this is a virtual process that transfers information from a website to the visitor’s browser. HTTPS is the secure version of this protocol, and it ensures Google that the information it’s indexing is safe to the searcher. This website security feature has been an official Google ranking factor since August 2014.

In 2017, Google stated that its Chrome browser would start flagging sites as ‘not secure’ in the URL bar when they aren’t HTTPS.

Website Architecture

Search Engine Journal defines website architecture as ‘a related component of user experience that has a significant impact on SEO.’ This first page Google ranking factor conveniently helps visitors find what they are searching for. Remember, it should only take a user a total of three to four clicks to locate a certain page on a website.

Image Source: Silo Architecture

On the other hand, fixing large websites can prove to be a bigger and more comprehensive challenge. The natural site navigation within categorised menus generally links to all pages of the site, and an XML sitemap can also help index the pages.

Mobile-optimised

Last November 4, 2016, Google announced its Mobile-first Indexing. This means that a website’s compatibility with mobile will now be directly affecting its search rankings.

This Google approach has already changed up search results and made it much harder to rank on the first page of Google. Local or ‘nearby’ searches are becoming more common and creating a large amount of direct sales for businesses who have their locations and websites optimised for mobile.

According to Google’s Mobile SEO Overview, a responsive design also helps their ‘algorithms accurately assign indexing properties to the page rather than needing to signal the existence of corresponding desktop/mobile pages.’ Not everyone can afford creating and serving two versions of their website so for most of us, a responsive website is the best strategy.

Backlinks

Backlinks remain as one of the strongest ranking signals in Google’s search algorithm. This means the more links you have from multiple high-authority domains, the better your chances of ranking well for top keywords on the first page of Google.

Image Source: Backlinko

Backlinko analysed over one million Google search results, in which they concluded the following – ‘Our data shows that a site’s overall link authority (as measured by Ahrefs Domain Rating) strongly correlates with higher rankings’ and that ‘it’s better to get 10 links from 10 different sites than 10 links from the same domain.’

Their #1 key takeaway? Getting links from a diverse group of domains is extremely important for SEO.

How Contevo Can You Get On the First Page of Google

Here at Contevo, we are driven by one thing – ‘Continuous Evolution’. We aim not only to cater to our clients’ businesses with advanced SEO strategies. We strive to showcase all of their full growth and ROI potential. We help our clients design and execute their sales blueprint so that they can grow and scale their businesses using our advanced market-leading technology.