The essence of SEO for any webmaster is to see their website on the first page of Google (first) and then Yahoo! and BING. The number of times I have received emails with content that’s basically along the lines of “I want my site to appear on the first page of Google, how soon can it be done?” are numerous enough for me to wish I had half a dollar for each one so I can buy that mansion in Acapulco I have always wanted.
Put the search term on Google’s first page and what you get is millions of pages which are divided, almost equally, in two parts: those asking the question and those trying to answer it. For the record let’s make it clear here that when someone asks how they can get their website to the first page of Google they actually mean their website for the search terms relevant to their core subject. Getting a website (almost any website) on Google’s first page for a keyword that’s contested by relatively few pages or one that’s not very popular in search terms is as easy as it is useless.
It’s not much use to you for example if you run a website which sells ‘Mercedes Benz’ cars and you optimize the website for the keyword ‘Robust drinks holder tray’. The traffic you will get there, if you get any significant traffic at all, is likely to leave within seconds of arriving on the page (and you will be able to tell this if you have analytics installed as the bounce rate will be in the high 80s). By asking to have your website on the first page of a search engine, as a webmaster, you want what every webmaster wants: relevant traffic and relevant search terms bringing you visitors you can convert into paying customers.
The glib answer to the question of how to achieve this is get my book SEO Help: 20 steps to get your website to the #1 page of Google, it’s practical, guides you on everything you need to know and it will be the best $30 you’ve ever spent, but I realise that you’re here for something deeper so let’s get down to it.
SEO is a perfectly logical process whereby the desired outcome depends, precisely, upon your ability to perform certain actions in a specific order. So, in order to get your website performing the way you want it to you will need:
1. Content – make it site-specific. As unique as possible, full of keywords and thematically linked to the other pages on your website in a way which confers real, informational value to your visitors.
2. Thematic linking – keywords are important but not as much as the weight of your site in terms of theme-value. Sixty separate pages on ‘how to buy a house’ are far more important in the eyes of a search engine than the words ‘buy a house’ repeated a hundred times throughout the site.
3. Do your homework – SEO is fluid work. It changes from one day to the next. If you are not constantly monitoring your website and those of your competitors then you are really working in the dark in terms of what work you do.
4. Deliver value – all the SEO tricks in the book will give you little which is of lasting value in the search engine organic placement front unless you get into the habit of delivering the kind of content and information which your visitors really want to know about.
5. Think outside your page – creating an impact in the online world requires you to have and maintain a presence in areas outside your own web page. Then and only then will you begin to drive traffic to your site and put an upward pressure on its presence on the individual organic search engine pages (SERPs).
SEO is not magic, nor is it so difficult that it cannot be performed by an individual with the patience, willingness and focus needed to work hard at it and then apply it. So just get to it and get your site listed in the first page of Google, Yahoo! and BING.
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I’ve led the discussion on how social media and SEO are changing the processes we use to work and live, online, with the publication of my book ‘The Social Media Mind’. I combine experience in journalism and blue-chip corporate management with a penchant for explaining complex issues in simple terms. Contact me for media interviews, presentations and panel discussions
