The above question is quite common and we hear it more and more often. How will I appear on Google’s first page?
Facebook Ads are good, Adwords are even better, the reviews from Google My Business are great but what matters most and most importantly is the powerful Organic SEO Search.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important puzzle pieces of Google’s first page.
Written by Professor of Digital & Social Media Marketing Michalis Botas.
The Title (Title tag) is one of the most important parameters to manage your position in the organic results, so just find a title with a body of keywords that in one line resumes your page.
The title must not exceed the limit of 65 characters (there is no negative limit even if it is just one phrase such as “air tickets”). Warning: Do not leave the same title on many pages as it counts negatively. Another very important advice is to not leave the title “Untitled” on pages, categories or article, or not include a title at all.
Meta description is just as important because it complements the title in terms of page rank. It is quite necessary to be created from keywords with unique content up to 150 characters maximum.
And now we have to mention perhaps the most important part, Content. Content is the real deal, says Bill Gates and many others, but it would be more accurate to say that content is very important because it is what attracts the attention of visitors and challenges Google to search for it. Now, if you have appealing, unique content even with a bad quality blog you will appear in a satisfactory position. Do not compromise with the usage of content from other websites that you may find relevant, if you do this you create a wrong image and Google will impose sanctions. Take your website seriously, update and supplement the content very often and do not neglect it after you created it.
You definitely need a Blog category or a new one, which you will update as often as you can. All you need is time and a good choice of topics. If you can’t create unique content yourself, then do not copy paste, but instead focus on rewriting but again mention the source.
Sitemap, or the map of your website, is an extremely necessary file that ensures that search engine robots can record everything they need from a site. In my opinion, the sitemap should be in the end of our home page.
Each page should use different Headings H1, H2, H3 that must contain the most important keywords. It is widely known that Google loves neat sites that help the visitor’s eye in understanding its essence. Do not forget that H1 should only be used once repeating our basic description.
Do not consider the description below the images insignificant, it is in fact very helpful. The description should represent the image, the page and not once again the general description of the site.
In previous years, Meta keywords were the alpha and omega of SEO but today they have almost no power. Google has very much stopped taking them into account. Of course, we need to follow the standard process, knowing, however, that we do it just to be flawless in everything.
The base of Server plays a role, the better the server, the more reliable Google considers our website to be.
The more backlinks you use the better, but do not make the mistake and buy them, as Google will find out about it and impose sanctions. Instead, seek the help of friends and acquaintances in order to get them to repost your content. However, even this action should not be done carelessly. Per example, the use of a page about fishing gear as a backlink in a website with shoes is a wrong choice! It’s an important factor to use in order to upgrade, but it is dangerous! For this part I suggest you to find someone who knows how to manage backlinks.
The age of your site is an issue that, no matter how important it is, you can’t do anything but wait. Be careful though, if you neglect your site, even if it is trending, as the time goes by, it can proceed to reverse results.
A lot is heard and so much is written about which website creation platform is the best. In my opinion if you do not want to spend a lot of money and you want to see quick results, WordPress platform is unbeatable. Besides the fact that it contains very nice ready-made themes that you can customize however you want, it is the most Google-friendly search option, as confirmed by Google software engineer Matt Cutts.
Michalis Botas. Digital Marketing Professor at the Professional Journalism Lab.
