If You Are Not on Page One, You Don’t Exist. The Brutal Truth About Google Page 1.
In today’s digital world, being buried on page 2 of Google is the same as being invisible. We all know from our own experience of using search engines, we typically find what we are looking for on page one.
It’s really rare that people go to page 2 to find a business that they need.
For a business trying to grow, getting your keywords on page one of the search engines is not just important; it is absolutely crucial.
Page one visibility means more clicks, more traffic, and more enquiries.
This brief blog will break down why page one rankings matter and how SEO keywords actually climb the search engines, and what you need to do right now to avoid being left behind your competitors.
Google is the most visited website in the world and the most popular search engine around. It’s a verb and we all use it, probably multiple times a day.
There are over 8 billion searches every day on Google, and 91% of all that search traffic goes to page one search results.
The number one ranking alone typically gets 27% of the clicks, so by the time you reach page 2, the average click-through rate has likely dropped well below 1%.
Everyone wants to be on page one, and that means you’re not just competing with businesses like you, you are competing with industry Giants with huge marketing budgets, blogs, news sites, and in some cases, the big boys like Amazon, eBay, and Gumtree, and household names, depending on what product or service you sell or offer.
Smart search engine optimisation strategies do still work and can help you level the playing field because, with the right keyword targeting and quality content, along with on-site optimisations, even small businesses can get found for the right keywords.
So how do you actually get there?
In order for Google to display you on page one, they need to trust your website, see good quality content, and believe that you are going to help the Google user find what they are looking for.
We typically address this with a few core pillars, which are the foundations of SEO.
The first would be optimised on page SEO, making sure that your targeted keywords are optimised in headings, meta descriptions, and titles.
We then review your content and, in conjunction with keyword research and competitor analysis, we build out a six-month content calendar as the next stage of the process, where each month we would produce a number of high-quality pieces of keyword-rich content written in a search engine-friendly manner in a way that Google is going to like to see.
If your Content doesn’t answer the search users’ question better than your competitors, the chances are that Google will just want to display your competitors above you in the search results.
Content should be in-depth, engaging, and regularly updated; search engines, especially Google, love fresh content that provides real value. We’ve written a few other blogs on content and the need to show your expertise in your business sector, again, something that Google rewards with better rankings.
We also look at optimising aspects of your website with the aim of improving the overall quality score of the site. We then begin link building.
Depending on your budget for search engine optimisation, you may need to limit this to just citations (links and profiles from directories, etc), and whilst these can still help, they are not as strong as digital PR and high-quality third-party blogger outreach.
More intensive SEO plans can include third-party blogs or outreach, all of which can generate better rankings, too.
We then look at technical SEO and overall user experience, ensuring you have a fast load time, a mobile-first design, and a clear site structure.
Reaching page one is tough, but staying there is even tougher as Google constantly rolls out new algorithms rewarding those websites that provide value and punishing those that try to game the system or continually spin out low-quality content.
This ultimately means that search engine optimisation is never a one-time job; it is an ongoing process of optimisation analysis and adaptation.
Competitors are chasing the same keywords, and if you sit still, you will be overtaken by them. Like it or not, that’s what happens in the world of SEO!
A single page with one keyword can generate thousands of targeted visitors every month, depending on your business sector and geographic location, and unlike paid ads (Google Ads, LinkedIn ads, et cetera), organic traffic doesn’t stop when your budget runs out.
Higher rankings can help build trust and authority, and people often assume that Google‘s top results in the organic search results are the most reliable websites around.
Investing in search engine optimisation is like buying a house, whereas running ads can often be likened to renting a house.
If you are not showing up on page one of Google, the chances are you will be more and more reliant on paying for costly ads, and our experience of paid ads is that whilst they work really well, they are becoming more competitive, and that is ultimately driving up the cost.
The team here at Altitude Internet has been advising and helping customers over the last decade to generate more traffic, leads, and enquiries. We have experience working with almost every business, actually, you can imagine, so whether you are a builder in Bromley or an electrician in Enfield, or an accountant in Dublin, the chances are we can help you get found online.
If you are interested in finding out more, you can click here to book a 30-minute Discovery call.
In this 30-minute call, we typically analyse your website, take a look at a few of your competitors, and give you some hints and tips on what is holding your website back from the search engine results pages, and then help to formulate a plan of action to get your site ranking.
We can make them recommend the most suitable plan to move you forward. We have a range of plans to suit most budgets and can recommend something suitable on the discovery call.
Fancy learning more? Check out some of our other recent blogs and articles just here
You can also download our free SEO e-book just here with some hints and tips on what can be done to boost your rankings.
Altitude Internet is an award-winning digital marketing agency that really works hard to offer our clients the best service, value, and results for their budget. Established in 2014, we’ve grown to become one of the highest recommended agencies on leading review sites. Check out some of our recent reviews just here.
