Harp Interactive

25 Tips to Get Your Website to the Top – How to be #1 on Google!

Why is it so important to be # 1 (beside the fact that no one remembers #2)? According to information leaked on AOL (AOL results are fed by Google):

#1 position on Google search results page is worth 8.5 times more than #5 position. This, in terms of clicks, time spent on page leading to proportionate increase in leads,   conversions and so on.

The first five results attract a whopping three quarters of the total clicks!

Another important statistic is that over 90% of searchers will not go beyond the 1st page (myself included). So page 1 or bust is the right strategy if your business depends on online leads or sales. The statistics confirm that search supremacy is critical if you want to compete in the crowded online market. Focus on getting in the first 5 results should be a priority and the resources devoted to this end will provide proportionately higher ROI than most other online marketing tools!

So, now that you have decided you want to be #1 on Google (or at least on the first page), here is how you can achieve that. This blog post assumes you understand basic SEO techniques or will hire professional search marketers to implement (who have done this for themselves).

25 SEO  Techniques for  Topping the Google Search Results:

  1. Conduct keyword research on relevant search terms (key phrases) and find the ones with high search volume
  2. Geo target these terms with a region-based qualifier (if possible). Ex: Chicago Organic Search Strategist instead of organic search strategist
  3. Check each one of these in Google search  to see how many returns (hits) show up to determine competition
  4. Pick the ones with the best combination of high search volume and low competition
  5. Now submit the selected search term in Google to find who is currently #1 for that term
  6. Use a free backlink checker tool to find backlinks for the website that is currently #1 for your selected term
  7. Approach all the websites that are pointing to this website for a backlink (granted it is easier said than done, but you can always create custom content catering to the audience of that website and improve the chances of acquiring the backlink)
  8. Create a blog if you don’t already have one and add at least one new post a week
  9. Create  Twitter and Facebook  accounts/pages with keyword rich profiles
  10. Optimize your LinkedIn page by customizing the website links to read “keyword based description of link” instead of “My Website” and “My Twitter”
  11. Optimize your website’s meta code, anchor text and Alt tags with variations of the selected key phrases
  12. Edit copy to include variations of key phrase, repeat at least 6-8 times in a 500 word copy
  13. Include internal links within each webpage and use keyword rich anchor text
  14. Submit website to several (50+) paid and free directories (start with Yahoo Local, Google Places, Yelp Business Pages etc)
  15. Submit articles to article publishing sites like Ezine, Hubpages, etc.   Include key phrase in article title if possible
  16. Create review area on your website to crowd-source fresh content
  17. Conduct polls on Facebook and your website to generate buzz
  18. Add Like and Share buttons to your website
  19. Create an infographic explaining benefits or usage of your service/product
  20. Submit links of interesting pages like the one above to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumble Upon and other bookmarking sites
  21. Regularly add fresh keyword rich content to your website
  22. Create an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines
  23. Visit popular industry forums, blogs etc and comment (create a Gravatar linked to your company email first)
  24. Create accounts on location based websites like Foursquare, Yelp and Metromix
  25. Update and add regular, original content to all your sites: Facebook, Blog, Twitter, Article site etc
  26. Here’s a bonus tip: Use Google PPC results to optimize SEO keywords and Google Analytics intelligence to measure success

Before you know it,   your website will start rising up in searches for selected keywords,  traffic will increase as will leads and conversions because the traffic you are bringing in is more qualified, more willing to convert.

Harp has employed the same techniques to recently reach the coveted no. 1 spot in Google search results (with millions of  websites vying for it.) But don’t take our word for it,   check it out yourself: who’s the #1 Chicago Social Media Company. Harp beats over 15 million websites to claim that top spot!