Search engine rankings in the top 10 - Why is this so important?
Some websites are successful. Other sites, on the other hand, struggle to become visible at all. But why is that? A good search engine ranking is the be-all and end-all if you want your website to be successful. Start with your own search behavior. Are you looking for something specific, where do you look for relevant content? Surely on the first page. Or do you click further?
Most users only look at the first page on Google. Top positions are therefore very interesting and relevant for website operators. The further down your site appears, the less interesting it becomes for internet users. You can remember this:
The most important success factor for your website is a good search engine ranking.
You've probably heard or read about someone saying: "I want to reach the top 10 on Google by the end of the year", or simply "I want to be on the first page of Google".
The reasons for striving for the top positions are quite obvious. After all, everyone wants to be successful with their own website. But how important are search engine rankings on Google & Co. really?
The quick answer: very.
In our opinion, ranking in the top 10 is not enough to achieve success with your website. You should aim to be in the top 5. It is even better to have your website in the top 3. The higher up you rank, the better it is for visibility. A good search engine ranking achieves precisely this visibility. If your website is in one of the top positions, you will benefit from an increase in organic traffic and the click rate.
Here are some figures:
- 93 % of all visitors come directly from search engines.
- The top 5 results of a search engine receive more than 80 % of the clicks.
- The first 10 results (page 1) receive almost 90 % of the clicks.
- The first position receives more than 40 % of clicks.
- Only 20 % of searchers click on more than one link.
If your content is relevant and interesting for the user, you can expect a sale or a desired interaction. Now you certainly understand why good ranking is one of the most important success factors.
Surely you can imagine that competitors are pursuing the same goals. That's why it's important to always keep an eye on the competition. If they are better positioned than your website, you should definitely take action.
But how do you do that? Before we explain this to you, we need to have a common understanding of Google ranking. That's why we ask first:
How does Google ranking work?
The answer:
Only very few people know exactly how it works and they all work at google. Search engine rankings are calculated using a complicated and top-secret algorithm. However, there are some factors for a good ranking that are generally known. For example, what is Read/analyze/crawl all about?
What does Read/Analyze/Crawl mean?
Google is busy day in, day out scouring the World Wide Web for information of all kinds. Fully automated programs are used for this purpose. Such programs are known as web crawlers and spiders and go from page to page on your website to read the content. Content is analyzed and it is then calculated which users might be interested in your content. Google stores the content collected by the crawlers with enormous accuracy. After analyzing the data, Google determines which search queries the website content best matches and is most likely to meet the users' needs.
Which factors does Google consider relevant on your site?
There are a myriad of factors that are considered important for Google's ranking. The important factors include:
- Link Building
- Contents
- Keywords
- Title and meta tag
- Attractive design
- Crawlable Urls
This article will show you what these factors are all about. If you pay attention to these points during implementation, you will come a lot closer to your goal.
Link Building
Link building is the practice of presenting your website to other website owners in order to get a link on your own website or blog article.
If you want to get to the top with your website, link building is still an essential factor. The topic of link relevance has its origins in universities. It was often the case that academic papers were assessed according to the number of citations. The more citations there were, the better the rating. Citations are better known and therefore more relevant to the topic in question.
Contents
Content is one of the most important factors for a good search engine ranking. We even think that content is the most important point. A good website is based on proper and informative content. If you have provided your website with good content that is relevant to the reader, you will benefit from increased traffic. Good content also influences your conversion rates.
What does conversion rate mean?
Conversion rate is the ratio of visitors to purchases.
Good content will make the user want to stay on your site longer and find out more. The more information the customer receives and reads, the more likely you are to sell your service or product.
Many website operators underestimate the importance of content creation. For you, it does not mean that you create content once and then the site is a self-runner. Content management is an ongoing process
- Update the content regularly.
- Regularly add relevant and informative passages to your texts.
If you want to create high-quality and relevant content, the texts must have a specific goal. With an advice article, for example, your aim is to provide the reader with lots of tips on a specific topic that they can use to solve a problem.
A small example:
If you specialize in the sale of laminate flooring, you could provide a guide article on your blog on the topic: "How do I lay laminate flooring correctly?". Interested people who want to buy and lay laminate flooring will certainly be happy to receive instructions and will be happy to visit your site and get the relevant information.
If you want to create high-quality, high-value and relevant content, you will have to invest a lot of work. In the end, it's worth the effort. You will see that if you have created interesting posts, it will have a positive effect on your search engine rankings in every respect.
Keywords
You've probably already heard the term keywords. Keywords are relevant words that users enter in the search engine to find your website. These keywords in the text show Google what problem or issue your website offers a solution for. If you choose keywords wisely, you can usually improve your search engine ranking significantly.
Before you start creating the text, you should think carefully about which keywords your customers are searching for. Insert these words organically into the text. However, the number of keywords must be kept within certain limits. If you add too many keywords and the meaning of the text is lost, Google will recognize this aspect and penalize the page.
Title and meta tag
When crawlers start working on your site, the first step is to read the title and meta tags. Specific keywords absolutely belong in these two areas. These two elements are ultimately relevant for appearing in search engine queries.
Attractive design
If you want to be in at least the top 5, you need an appealing design. The site must automatically adapt to the end device. Simple and intuitive operation is also relevant. Without these factors, you will hardly manage to rank well.
Crawlable Urls
The urls must be crawlable. This means that the urls should preferably consist of a variation of titles and specific keywords. Google robots must be able to index the urls easily. If the robots already have problems in this area, this will also have a negative effect later on.
The work of the Google robots begins with indexing, which is why everything has to be done right from the start in order to achieve a good search engine ranking.
Optimize your website: Step by step guide
If you want to optimize your website to rank higher on Google, here are the individual steps you can take to achieve your goal:
Step 1: Website analysis
The first step is to analyze the website and check whether there are any errors. If there are errors such as invalid links, spelling mistakes or speed, fix them. There are "onsite optimization articles" on the web to help you with this.
Step 2: Links
It is also important that only authoritative and relevant pages link to your own website. The procedure is not easy, but it is important. That's why you should always keep an eye on who is linking to your site.
Step 3: Research
Research is an important point if you want to do well. You need to find out which keywords are relevant for potential customers. This also includes looking at competitors to see which keywords their pages rank well for.
In this step, you should check whether your content, meta description and Clearly structured website and are geared towards the relevant keywords.
Step 4: Contents
Be sure to create new, interesting and well-researched content for your customers at regular intervals. Always keep the content up to date. If there are important changes to a topic, you should quickly adapt the text accordingly. You should also not forget to tailor the title and meta description accordingly. (Integrate keywords)
Step 5: Share and promote content
You can share created content not only on your website and blog. You can easily distribute content via social media, for example with hashtags or Facebook ads. There is also paid advertising via Google Adwords. The distribution options are wide-ranging and offer potential. Preferably pull out all the stops to do well.
Step 6: Regular analysis
Errors can quickly creep in. If you analyze your website regularly, you will notice errors quickly and can correct them immediately. You will always learn from the results of the analysis. Good tools for regular analysis are
- Sistrix
- Seoprofiler
- Xovi
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
Would you like to finally be successful with your website and land in the top positions? Start now and work your way through the individual steps. We will be happy to support you. Simply contact us if you are unsure and would like to rely on a specialist.
At Digital-Now, we have a lot of experience in getting websites to the top of Google results pages. We provide professional SEO, content writing, web design and complete digital marketing services. We can help you achieve better search engine rankings and stay one step ahead of your competition.
