Getting on the first page of Google
Having a good-looking and functional website is no guarantee that you will be on the first page of Google or any of the other search engines.
Search engine optimization is not difficult but it has to be done right. If you do the right things then you still might not succeed. The reason for that is that you have to do the right things in the right order.
1. Keywords
The keywords that you choose for your search engine optimization activities greatly influence your online success. If you target the wrong keywords, all of your efforts will be in vain.
Choose your keywords wisely. It's not a good idea to optimize your web pages for general one-word keywords. Optimize your pages for highly targeted keywords that attract the right kind of people. You want buyers, not website visitors. The more targeted your keywords, the better.
2. On-page optimization
Once you know the keywords for which you want to be ranked, you have to optimize your web pages for these keywords. Optimize as many different pages for as many different keywords as possible.
Make sure that the keywords appear in the right elements on your pages and that search engines can parse your pages without problems.
Your website architecture is also an element of on-page optimization. Your website navigation should contain your keywords and all pages of your website should be linked in a meaningful way so that search engines can categorize your web pages.
3. Usability and conversion optimization
Even if your website gets hundreds of visitors per day, it still might not deliver sales because the web pages are not user friendly.
Your web pages should have an appealing design, they should be easy to use, they should create trust and they should make it easy to buy.
4. Link building
When all other elements are in place, you can start to get backlinks for your website. In general, more than one web page has been optimized for a given search term so the web page with the best backlinks will be listed in the top results on Google.
The backlinks should target the same keywords as your on-page optimization. If you want to get high rankings for "car dealer knoxville" then your web pages should be optimized for that keyword and the links that point to your site should also contain that keyword.
All elements must be in place and they must be in the right order
If you just have links then you won't get sales if your web pages don't convert. If you have optimized web pages, they won't help you if they are optimized for the wrong keywords.
If you have the right keywords and well optimized web pages that convert then you still need good backlinks to get on Google's first result page.
|
