How To Get Your Business on Top of Google Search

Ranking on top of Google search engine results pages (SERPs) is no small feat. It takes strategy, commitment, and a lot of hard work to achieve the top ranking for competitive keywords. However, the reason that they’re so competitive is that they’re worth it – over 25% of searchers click on the top result. 

Even getting on the first page of Google can make a big difference. Think about it: when was the last time you clicked through to the second or third page of search results on Google?

To achieve that kind of visibility when customers are searching for you, there are two important strategies to consider: paid ads and SEO. Before we get into those strategies, though, it’s important to understand why you might not be at the top yet and how to get your business on top of Google search.

Why Is My Business Not at the Top of Google Search

The goal of Google rankings – to provide helpful, accurate information to searchers – is simple, but the way the algorithm works is a bit more complex. While there’s no guarantee that a specific update will make your rankings skyrocket, these are some common issues that have a negative impact on Google rankings.

• Black hat SEO practices: These techniques go against search engine guidelines, but many people try to use them to artificially improve their page’s rankings. If the algorithm catches on to any black hat SEO practices on your website, it can negatively impact other pages, too. Auditing your existing content and any areas where previous marketers may have taken these shortcuts could help your content do better in the future.
• Technical issues: Depending on how your website is structured, you might run into indexability issues. These errors can prevent search engine crawlers from reviewing your content either by preventing them from seeing the page or effectively confusing them as to which version of a page is the correct one. Taking advantage of a site audit can help you identify any of these technical issues.
• High competition: If you have competitors that have been investing in paid search ads and SEO for far longer than you have, there’s a good chance that their strategies will overshadow your efforts – at least at first. Use competitor analysis tools to see what your competitors are doing and evaluate how you can do better.

Using Paid Ads To Get to the Top of Google Search

Lots of digital marketing has pay-to-play elements, and Google search results are no exception. With Google Ads, you can set up a campaign targeting specific keywords with text and landing pages that you design. However, just because you’re paying for an ad does not mean you get the top spot every time. 

Google’s algorithm chooses which ads to show searchers based on your ad’s Ad Rank, which is based on a combination of your bid, auction-time ad quality, thresholds, context of the search, and other search results. Your Ad Rank is compared to other potential ads at the time of the search, and the algorithm chooses options that they think will be most helpful to the searcher.

To create a successful ad and get to the top of Google search, you need to focus on these factors.

Relevancy

Make sure your copy and landing page are relevant to the search terms you are targeting. If they aren’t relevant, they may show on SERPs, but they will get fewer clicks and have worse performance over time.

Bid

Make sure your bid is high enough that you can compete with other advertisers who have ads for the same terms. Use top of page bid estimates to help you estimate what you’ll need to spend to rank and decide if that keyword is worth the investment for you. This is a big part of how to get your business on top of Google search.

Updates

Make sure that your ads are consistent with the latest information on the topic, and consider making changes to the ad to improve its quality or relevance to searchers. Even the tiniest changes can make a difference with ads.

If your ad is relevant, your bid is competitive, and your content is up-to-date, all that’s left to do is let it run and continue making tweaks every so often to see if it will improve performance.

Using SEO To Get to the Top of Google Search

Search engine optimization is an organic strategy to get your results at the top of Google. While it takes more time to see results with SEO than paid ads, the results are longer-lasting and often cheaper over time. 

To get to the top of Google’s organic search results, you’ll need to develop a targeted long-term SEO strategy. Here are some important steps to get those SEO results!

Technical SEO Check-Up

For the rest of your SEO strategy to be effective, you’ll need to have a solid foundation of technical SEO on your website. This can include key elements like:

• Site speed: If your pages take 3 or more seconds to load, that’s going to have a negative impact on your SEO. 
• Mobile optimization: Over half of internet searches are made using mobile devices, so if your website isn’t responsive, it will struggle to rank well.
• Secure connections: If your website doesn’t have HTTPS set up, that should be your next step. This ensures user safety and is a significant factor in how Google ranks results.
• Site architecture: How your website is set up can have a significant impact on user experience, as well as influencing how challenging it is for search engine crawlers to access your content. Make sure your menus are logical and your pages have internal links to each other.

Check each of these categories to make sure your website’s technical SEO foundation is all set, then we can start building on it.

Keyword Research

Before you start coming up with topics and writing content for your website, it’s time for keyword research. You can start by using keyword generator tools to find new search terms related to ones you’re already ranking for or by using competitor analysis to see what’s driving traffic to your competitors’ websites. 

Once you’ve found keywords that are relevant to your business, it’s time to decide what to target next. To get the best results, consider these factors when you’re comparing keywords:

• Search volume: How many people are searching for this on a monthly basis? Is that enough searchers to deliver meaningful results even if you were to get on the top of Google?

• Keyword difficulty: How many other businesses are competing for this same keyword? Based on your website’s current performance, can you compete? On the flip side, if there’s a relevant keyword with low difficulty and high search volume, that could be a great opportunity for your content to shine.

• Content that is ranking: Take a look at the current top Google search results for that keyword. Are you able to generate content of a similar length and quality? If not, you may want to start with another keyword.

• Backlinks: Using a tool like SEMrush, you can see how many backlinks the top ranking content has for the keywords you’re trying to win. High quality backlinks are an important factor Google uses to determine authority and rank. If the pages you’re trying to compete with have lots of backlinks, it may take a lot more time (and money) to try and get to the top of Google Search for that keyword.

SEO Content Strategy

Now, it’s time to take those keywords and jazz them up with some engaging content. Try to come up with 3-5 topics for each keyword – sometimes, the first idea will be a winner, but it’s always good to have options to choose from. Remember that your subject needs to be relevant to your audience and interesting enough for them to click on. The topic and headline matter!

Additionally, when you are doing keyword research, you should be factoring in the search intent of that query. For example, someone typing in the keyword phrase “SEO Content Services” is intending to find a branded company page that offers those services – not necessarily a blog post talking about what SEO content services are. Blogs are typically meant to go after longer-tail, more informational-intent keywords, where web pages and landing pages are a better place to go after commercial, or transactional-intent keywords.

Once you have topics in mind, it’s time to schedule them using a content calendar. Stay mindful of any holidays, promotions, or seasonal events that could warrant their own blog post and plan accordingly. Ideally, you should be posting a few times a week, but consistency is more important than just posting as many articles as you can. Plan for the frequency that you know you can commit to.

SEO Content Creation

As you create your SEO blog content plan, it’s important to keep SEO best practices in mind. It doesn’t matter how good your content is if search engines don’t show it to anyone! Here are some ways you can keep your content SEO-friendly and ready to rank on the top of Google:

• Use subheadings: Heading tags help search engine crawlers understand what your content is about and what searchers can expect to learn from it. They also make content easier to read. This is also a fantastic place to insert one of your main keywords as an optimization tactic.

• Integrate keywords naturally: Including keywords is important, but keyword stuffing is another thing entirely. As you weave keywords into your content, make sure the phrasing is natural and you don’t include any keyword more than once every 100 words or so. Check out this great blog on how to use keywords in your content.

• Keep your keyword in the title: Your primary keyword should always be in your title in some form. Even if you can’t include it verbatim, try to include similar wording.

While these practices are important to use, remember that the real audience for your content is the people who will click – not just the search engine algorithms. You need to write for both humans and algorithms to get in front of, attract, and maintain your target audience.

Set Up a Google My Business Profile

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all of these steps for a top-result-level SEO strategy, it’s time for a quick win! Setting up or updating your Google My Business profile is a great way to boost your local SEO efforts with something small you can do today.

To set up a new Google My Business profile, sign into Google Maps with your email address. You can then add your business by clicking on the menu and selecting “add your business.” From there, you’ll get on-screen instructions to finish signing up for your Business Profile and setting up the basics.

If your business already has a Google My Business profile on Google Maps, you can claim it by searching for the business name, clicking the business name, and then clicking “claim this business > manage now.” From there, you can verify that it is your business and follow the on-screen instructions from there.

If you already have a Google My Business profile, but it’s not delivering the results you want, you can optimize your existing profile. Here are some quick ways to do so to help improve your chances of getting to the top of local Google results:

• Make sure your name, address, and phone number are consistent in your profile, on your website, and anywhere else your business is online.
• Write or update your business description. Does it have an outdated description of what you offer? Are there some keywords you could add to help it rank when people are searching? Set aside some time to write a short, optimized, and up-to-date description.
• Add images to your listing, including your logo as a profile photo, a cover photo that represents your business, and additional business photos of your place of business, team, or other relevant information.

Link Building

While we touched on this slightly above, high-quality link building is a specialized organic SEO technicque all on its own. Once you have some relevant and helpful content on your website, it’s time to start building links to it. This can help new potential customers find your website and increase your website’s authority and ability to get to the top of Google search. You can get links in a variety of ways, including:

• Writing guest posts on other business’s websites linking back to your own site. This can be done on sites that accept guest posting, or can be done in a link-swap type of format where the person you’re swapping with gets a link from you as well.
• Reaching out to websites with a similar audience and asking them to include a link to your business in a resource page they have. This works best when you already have a fantastic, high-value post that can be linked back to.
• Hiring a link building service to take care of the legwork for you.

A lot like other SEO strategies, link building is a long-term growth strategy to help you get to the top of Google. You’ll get quick wins here and there, but over time is how you’ll see the most impressive results.

How Do I Get My Business Noticed on Google Search?

Paid ads and organic SEO each have their own strengths and weaknesses, which is why they work best in tandem. Your paid ads benefit SEO by increasing visibility and traffic, while your SEO efforts increase the relevance and authority of your website over the long haul. They’re not competing for the top of the same SERP – they’re working together to help your business come out on top, as often as possible.

As you continue to build your SEO strategies and refine your paid ads , you’ll see these strategies work together and improve your overall growth strategy results to get you to the top spot. 

Get Your Business to the Top of Google Search With BKA Content

Whether you’re an SEO pro or just starting to learn about Google search rankings, we’re here to help you get the top spot when your customers are searching. We’ve been in this industry for years and have enough practice to know how to write content that ranks. For keyword research, link building, and content writing that drive business results, get started with us today!