How to Get to the Top of Google

Are you still chasing that elusive top spot on Google?

If yes, don’t give up just yet.

While it can feel like an uphill struggle to climb SERPs, there are a few tried and tested techniques that can get you there faster.

Plus, not only will these top tips get you to the summit of Google where you belong, but they will also make sure you don’t slip down any time soon.

All sounding a bit too good to be true?

Here at Click Intelligence, we have made it our mission to uncover all the latest tools and techniques that can help our clients rise in the ranks of Google and outshine their competitors, and in this article, we will be kind enough to share them with you.

Within the below SEO guide, you will discover everything you need to do in 2022 and beyond to get that top spot on Google and gain the organic website traffic your business deserves.

Why is Getting on the First Page of Google so Important?

Before you delve into how you can drive your website to the top of SERPs, it can be a good idea to determine why you need to be aiming for the first page of Google.

Let’s start with some hard-hitting stats.

It’s a very well-known fact that the first page of Google captures the vast majority of traffic but do you know how this affects click-through rates?

36.4% of people click through the first result given to them by Google.

12.5% of people click through the second result.

9.5% of people click through the third result.

By the time you get down to the 10^th Google result for a search, this has declined to only 2.22%.

So, what does this mean for your business and its ranking on SERPs?

In a nutshell, if you want to enjoy a high CTR, you need to be appearing as high on Google as possible.

Check out some further benefits of getting on the first page of Google below:

• More online exposure
• Better search presence
• Enhanced brand authority & trust
• More leads
• Increased engagement
• Opportunity to appear as a Featured SnippetA featured snippet is a search result that is specially formatted to include a summary of the answer, extracted from a web page.
• Speed up your sales cycle

How to Get to the Top Spot of Google Search

Content Optimization

It’s been said before and it’ll be said again, when it comes to how to improve SEO, great content is crucial, and in 2022 this will become even more important to your site’s overall performance.

Although creating a content strategy can seem like a lot of work, we promise the results will be more than worth the effort.

However, it is not enough to simply create amazing content that your target audience will love. You also need to make sure that your content is attracting the attention of search engines, and in particular, you need to ensure that it is attracting Google.

The best way to do this is with content optimization. This process effectively enables you to convey your business and its content so that search engines can index and rank you accordingly.

There are many benefits to content optimization, including:

• Outrank your competitors
• Earn more backlinks
• Drive higher clicks
• Generate higher quality leads
• Enjoy more sales

You need to make sure that you optimize all relevant text, including your title tags, meta descriptions, meta keywordsMeta keywordsare is an HTML tag that helps search engines categorize what your page is about., URLs, and even any images and videos you use.

For more information on content optimization, check out our Knowledge Hub.

Our Top Tips for Content Optimization in 2022:

1. Conduct competitor research

Don’t think of competitor research as cheating. Think of it as an insight into what you could be doing better. Your competitors’ sites are filled with information on how to optimize content within your niche, which can prove invaluable in improving your SEO efforts.

2. Focus on internal linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages.

Internal links are vital if you want your content to be found and understood by Google, so you need to make sure the ones you include are up to date and relevant.

Internal links also enable you to pass valuable SEO to other important pages on your site, knowns as page authority.

3. Optimize for featured snippets

Known as position zero, featured snippets rank even higher than the top spot on Google and drive the maximum traffic to your site. There are many ways that you can optimize your content for featured snippets, including optimizing for Google’s “People Also Ask” box and by including questions in your subheadings.

Link BuildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs.

Again, most people know that link building is vital to SEO, but this is one aspect of optimization that even experienced marketers can get wrong.

As you would expect, you want to aim to build high-quality links instead of low-quality ones, but how do you go about doing this?

You can obtain quality inbound links from a wide variety of sources, including vendor sites, supplier sites, and industry sites, all of which can help to boost your relevancy and help position your brand as a trusted and authoritative source.

There are many different ways that you can build high-quality backlinks, such as:

1. Guest blogging

If you want to get your brand noticed online, guest blogging is one of the best ways to do it. Enabling you to tap into already established audiences, guest blogging can help you to build quality backlinks, increase your number of social media followers and increase your website traffic.

2. Creating infographics

Infographics are one of the most popular link-building techniques for many digital marketers, and it’s not hard to see why. Not only has the demand for infographics soared in the last few years, but they are also incredibly shareable, which allows you to build multiple links with ease.

3. Blogger outreach

We love blogger outreach as it helps to get your content seen by as many people as possible. There are several influencer research tools that you can find online to connect your brand with influencers within your niche, and then all you need to do is convince them to share your content.

4. Give interviews

Do you consider yourself an expert in your industry? If yes, then giving interviews is a great link-building strategy. Don’t worry if you are not well-known enough to be approached for an interview. This just means you will have to reach out and pitch yourself.

When providing your answers, make sure that they always link out to your website.

Keyword ResearchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here.

Although not everyone’s favorite SEO-related task, keyword research remains a key (excuse the pun) part of search engine optimization and getting to the top spot of Google.

We won’t go into too much detail about carrying out keyword research as we’re sure you already know the drill. However, we will tell you how you can improve your current keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. research efforts to improve your position on SERPs.

1. Focus on long-tail keywords

If you are not sure what is the difference between a long-tail keywordLong-tail keywords are phrases with more than two words. They're also more specific, often using modifiers to narrow down a search. and a head keyword, let us explain:

A head keyword is short and sweet, like “SEO guide” or “SEO cheat sheet.”

On the other hand, a long-tail keyword is typically a longer phrase such as “SEO guide for small businesses” or “SEO cheat sheet for beginners”.

While one long-tail keyword on its own won’t boost your organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page. that much, when you use several together, you can expect to see gradual and long-lasting results.

If you struggle with keyword research, managed SEO can help you to make the most out of your content and send you soaring up SERPs.

2. Write more blog content

What is the point of spending hours conducting keyword research and analysis if you don’t have anywhere to place your chosen keywords? Unless you want to be accused of keyword stuffingKeyword stuffing is a technique that attempts to give pages higher rankings in search engine result pages by inserting the same keywords over and over again., a big no-no both for searchers and search engines, you need to have sufficient content to use your keywords effectively.

Plus, the more content you have, the more likely you are to rank higher on Google. It’s a win-win situation.

If you don’t have the time or expertise to create great content yourself, why not enlist the help of a professional content writing team?

3. Focus on search intent

If you are guilty of focusing primarily on average monthly searches when carrying out keyword research, you could be missing a serious trick.

Search intent helps you to understand what a searcher is really looking for when they enter a keyword into Google. It can help you understand your audience better, but it can also help you create content that best services their needs.

Voice Search

If you only implement one strategy to get to the top of Google search in 2022, let it be voice search. Arguably one of the biggest SEO trends of the year, voice search is fast becoming users’ preferred method of searching online.

In fact, let’s take a closer look at some voice search statistics:

41% of adults use voice search at least once a day

More than half of smartphone users engage with voice technology on their device

55% of households are expected to own a smart speaker by 2022

By 2024, global smart speaker sales will surpass $30 billion

So, what exactly does this mean for your business and its position on SERPs?

To put it bluntly, if you are not optimizing your website for voice search, then you are in serious danger of being left behind.

Not sure where to start with voice search optimization?

Check out our top tips below:

1. Improve your site’s speed

As with most elements of life nowadays, people do not want to have to wait long to get the answers they need from Google. This means if you want your site to appear high in Google and get picked when a user asks their device a question, you need to ensure your site speed is fast.

Page loading times are one of Google’s main ranking factors, both for traditional search and voice search. Most users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, with a 1-second delay resulting in up to 7% loss in conversions.

As well as speeding up your site, you also need to make sure it is mobile-friendly as a large number of voice searches are carried out on mobile devices.

2. Update your Google My Business profile

Hopefully, you already have a Google My Business profile up and running, and if not, you need to make this a number 1 priority for 2022.

Providing a highly effective way to optimize your site for voice search, your Google My Business listing can be used to showcase what makes your business special, to provide vital information, and to display all your latest customer reviews.

3. Write conversational blogs

Voice searches are typically more conversational than traditional searches. For example, someone might say, “how can I improve my SEO efforts?” rather than “get SEO tips”.

This means that if you want to optimize your content for voice, you also need to make your blog content more conversational.

You may want to start a blog with “Are you asking yourself, how can I improve my SEO efforts?” This type of conversational phrase will increase your chances of ranking high in voice search results.

Always remember, you are trying to help searchers with their problems, not just push your products and services.

Online Reviews

Never underestimate the importance of online reviews when it comes to how to improve SEO and how to get to the top of Google search.

In 2016, Google announced that they were introducing Reviews from the web to the Local Knowledge PanelGoogle's Knowledge Panel displays snippets of information about a topic that you search for in a Google search.. This meant that customer reviews became much more prominent on Google searches.

Furthermore, customer reviews are one way that Google determines how trustworthy and authoritative a site is, so you need to make sure you are encouraging as many as possible.

Not to mention the fact that customers rely on them heavily to influence their purchasing decisions.

If you do not have many reviews or you are worried about a few negative reviews that you have, the below techniques should help:

1. Assess your current reviews

Before you start trying to encourage more reviews of your business, you first need to assess the ones you already have. If you are not sure where to start, Google, Yelp, and Facebook are three of the world’s largest review platforms.

Identify how many positive and negative reviews you have and determine which areas of your business need to be improved upon.

Don’t forget to also look on other review sites such as TripAdvisor, Yahoo Local, and Yell.com, as well as any industry-specific reviews sites.

2. Respond to reviews

The next step is to try to respond to as many reviews as possible. Whilst you may feel more inclined to reply to the positive reviews, the negative ones require your attention the most.

If one of your customers feels let down by their experience with your business, then it is your job to appease them. Aim to be helpful and considerate so that your business can be seen in a more positive light.

All businesses get bad reviews, but it is how you deal with them that sets you apart.

3. Focus on your star ratings

Stars are one of the most popular rating systems, favored by both searchers and search engines such as Google.

Seller extensions are Google’s star rating system and are reserved for the most highly-rated businesses. These ratings are displayed on your Google My Business profile when users search for you when you appear in organic search resultsOrganic search results are the natural, un-paid search results for a keyword on Google. and even your paid search results.

4. Encourage positive reviews

There are several ways that you can encourage your customers to leave more positive reviews, some of which are a little bolder than others.

One highly effective technique is to push higher-priced items for reviews, as these are harder to sell and will therefore carry more weight in influencing purchasing decisions.

Another tactic is to offer samples of new products and services. Everyone loves a freebie, and most people won’t mind writing a review in return for a free sample.

Don’t forget to request reviews as part of your email marketing and post requests on social media.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts when it comes to how to get to the top of Google search.

It takes time, effort, and dedication to improve SEO and, as we head into 2022 and the online marketplace becomes even more competitive, you will need to work even harder to gain that top spot on SERPs.

Whether you have a generous ad budget or you are planning to achieve results purely through organic search, the above top tips offer you the chance to get ahead of your competitors and dominate SERPs.

Still feel like you need a little more help?

Here at Click Intelligence, we live and breathe SEO and are ready and waiting to help your business rise in the ranks of Google. As a results-driven SEO agency, we offer bespoke SEO strategies for businesses of all sizes across multiple industries.

Get in touch here for more information.