first page of google

So you’ve invested in a new website, branding, design and digital marketing strategy – you’ve even started blogging! Congratulations! But, why aren’t you on the first page of Google?

After a few weeks of feeling really good about where your digital marketing is going you decide to “Google yourself” to see how your hard work has paid off.

You type your URL into the search bar, hit return, and wait to see your site sitting on the first page of Google like a newly coronated queen!

But alas, she’s not there! She’s not even on the second page of Google!

What’s going on?

You even hired a jester for this celebration!

Maybe you missed something – so you do it again.

Nada.

The queen has stood you up!

What gives? You’ve spent time and money on your website and the ROI stinks majorly right now.

You may think that all is lost but in actuality – things are just heating up…

…behind the scenes…

Ranking high on Google searches is really great for your business, so it’s understandable that you’d want to get there as fast as possible. The problem is ranking on the first page of Google takes time. You need to change your thinking on this one, friend.

Ranking on the first page of Google needs to be thought of as a long-term strategy not a short-term goal.

Don’t freak out about the phrase “long-term”. Years ago long-term might have meant waiting for something for 10 or 20 years. But we live in the digital age for crying out loud!

Long-term, when it comes to the internet, is something in the ball park of six to nine months.

But still.

When you have a new business that needs to generate income, six months can seem like a long time.

You’ve got bills to pay!

Although no one really knows what it takes to rank number one on Google there are a few things that you can do that will keep you from being banned from Google altogether.

Avoid keyword stuffing to get to the first page of Google.

Before Google’s fancy algorithms, marketers would try to find sneaky ways to get websites to rank on the first page. One of these tactics was to “stuff” sites with keywords, so when that keyword was typed into the search bar, the site would be near the top of the results.

Now, this tactic is considered black hat SEO and Google will penalize a site for doing it.

Keyword stuffing creates an unnatural flow in writing and reduces the quality of your content.

We appreciate a good hustle, but this  hustle will get you in trouble.

Poor content will not get you to the first page of Google.

Have you ever been asked by a friend to recommend them to your boss for a job and it caused you to cringe inside?

Even though you may love that friend to death, you know that by recommending them it could hurt your reputation. (Your boss doesn’t need to know about you and your friend’s famous beer stand of 1998.) The same goes for Google.

They have a reputation to uphold and if they recommend a website with poor content and poor design during your search, it’s going to hurt their reputation. If this happened all the time, searchers would start using other search engines.

Poor content includes:

  • Articles with misspellings and grammatical mistakes.
  • Articles and phrases that don’t make sense.
  • Articles that provide no value for the reader.
  • Articles that sound like a robot could’ve written them.

Be a site that you would feel comfortable recommending to anyone.

Slow load time.

A great site provides a quality experience for its users. That includes being able to find information easily, navigate the site well, and not having to wait forever for the site to load.

No longer is the motto “Good things come to those who wait” but rather “Good things come NOW!”

Studies repeatedly show that users will leave a site only after waiting two seconds for the page to load.

Make sure that your site loads quickly for the best chances for engaged visitors and no penalties from Google.

Moving up in the results.

Moving up in the ranks of Google takes time. Just like in any relationship, if you want to get further along you need to exemplify a few characteristics such as quality, consistency and value.

Just like in any relationship, if you want to get things moving , it takes time, patience, and the right moves.

By incorporating good SEO practices, using keywords properly, and having an effective digital marketing strategy will get things moving on Google search results.

Want to learn more about digital marketing and how it can help your brand and business? That’s great! We have something you might like.

Want to talk about it? We thought you’d never ask.

 

 

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