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How Do I Get On Top of Google?
You're probably not going to 'get on top of Google' as in beat Google, it's just the biggest, baddest thing out there. The best you're going to manage is to get to the top of the Google search engine results pages (SERPS).
So my advice is don't even think about taking Google on, think more about giving Google what it wants. Treat Google nicely and it will in return help you build your site traffic to amazing levels.
What does Google want?
Google wants to make money from its advertising business and it wants visitors to its SERPS to have a useful and fruitful experience so that they keep coming back and keep clicking on their ads.
SO what doesn't Google want?
Google doesn't want spammy pages that frustrate and disappoint its visitors. If you click on a search result and end up looking at a page of adverts and links to unrelated products how are you going to feel?
You came expecting information on your search term and left pretty hacked off.
However, if your page offers clear, well-presented relevant information on the subject searched for, then you have given Google and your site visitor exactly what they wanted.
And Google will reward you by moving your page up the search engine results, and you in turn will get more traffic the further up the results you move.
Why worry about being top of the SERPS?
Page one position on Google will give you the following share of the traffic:
Rank:
| Traffic:
| |
|---|---|---|
1
| 36.4%
| |
2
| 12.5%
| |
3
| 9.5%
| |
4
| 7.9%
| |
5
| 6.1%
| |
6
| 4.1%
| |
7
| 3.8%
| |
8
| 3.5%
| |
9
| 3.0%
| |
10
| 2.2%
|
So with a search term that returns 10,000 searches per month, top position will get you, on average, 36.4% of that figure: 3,640 visitors just from that one search engine result page!
Add a few more search terms that you rank well for and you have just guaranteed yourself a ton of traffic!
Anyone interested in getting a ton of traffic to their web site?
You could just buy your way to the top of page one on Google SERPS, by using Google's Adwords. These are the ads you see on the top and the bottom of the SERPS.
Here you need to outbid the other advertisers to get on the first page. Google run a closed bid system so you never know how much the others are bidding. You keep upping your bid until you get where you want (or can afford) to be.
So what's it going to be, buy your way to the top or work your way to the top?
I know I've made it look pretty simple and I also know its not that easy in the real world to dominate the Google SERPS.
To work your way to the top you need to know what to do. That's known as search engine optimization (SEO) and it's a difficult skill that takes many years to learn. And then when you think you've got it all under control Google go and change it all again.
But you can start to get to grips with SEO by watching here for our new SEO tips series. We will be explaining the ins and outs of both on-page and off-page SEO and trying to simplify a complex topic. Get this right and you guarantee success for your site and a steady flow of traffic.
If you do have the budget to buy your way to the top, then you will want to look out for our new Adwords Advice course that will be starting here soon. We will take you through the basics of setting up a new Adwords campaign and help you get the most out of your advertising budget.
Coming soon!
Any Questions?
If you have any questions on SEO, online marketing, Google ads or anything at all to help get your website ranking well in the SERPS, let me know in the comments below please.
Comments
- Author
Larry start off by clarifying what you are looking to achieve. If you want people to find you by searching for your name in Google then you need to make a plan for this to happen and then put that plan into action.
Part of that plan should be to establish your own domain. With some simple on page optimization and some low key off page optimization you will be able to get your domain ranking very highly for your name search in Google.
Turning your domain into a blog would be a great way of keeping your domain well placed in Google. The big G loves fresh, relevant content.
A blog would also allow you to establish your own authorship authority which again would establish your credibility in the eyes of Google which would also translate into higher Google ranking. (A topic for a future hub).
Add some interlinking between your hubs and your site and you will have a very strong online presence that helps you rank even better in Google SERPS.
Thank you for your reply and I forgot to mention that your Hub was very informative. So, if I may impose again, let me add a few more details. I have a registered domain name, www.larrywall.net and an address tied to it, larry@larrywall.net. At present, I do not have a web page. I did at one time when I unsuccessfully tried to get a PR operation off the ground.
I was building web sites back when the internet started and we used metafiles. Everything has changed and I am behind the times.
Do I need to build a web page that would serve as a source of links for my Hubs or would I need different material on that page to make it of any value.
I do not think the other Larry Wall is out seeking publicity. His work is such that it garners attention in the computer world.
I have read a lot of things by people such as posting on a blog. I do not see how a blog would do me a whole lot of good.
Any advice you can provide for using the tools I have at my disposal would be appreciated and I will then quit imposing..
Thank you for your assistance.
- Author
Larry Hi, thanks for the comment.
Establishing yourself is the same challenge as establishing a new brand. First step would be to do competitor analysis. Who are you up against, how big is their online presence, what gets them their current SERPS ranking?
Look at the SERPS results (114,000,000 results for Larry Wall - so that's not going to be a walk in the park to rank for).
Look at the authority of the sites you are up against (wikipedia, perl.com).
Look at their on page SEO (keyword density, h1 tags, do page url, title & description meta tags contain keyword, etc) - first bit of good news here none of them are going out of their way to rank for 'larry wall'. So with highly targeted SEO work this would be an achievable ranking.
Look at their off page SEO (backlinks etc). This will tell you how much link building we will need to do.
Armed with this information you can start to plan your strategy.
Do you have a domain for your name? Best choice for establishing your own presence and larrywall.org is still available as I write.
Do you have a hub in your own name? Second best choice.
Successful SEO is not easy, but it can be very effective. You have to understand the basic principles and then put them into practice.
The good news is if you can do that you will be ahead of 99.9% of your competitors.
I have an interesting situation. My name is Larry Wall and I have written more than 100 hubs in less than two years. However, if you search my name you will get links to Larry Wall, but it is another person, a very intelligent person who wrote the Perl computer language. So, unless a person knows to add one of my frequent topics or the word HubPages then how to searches looking for me, actually find me. I have more than 20,000 views and more than half came from Google. I assume those are coming from the links I post on my Facebook page. I need to reach an expanded market.
- Author
Thanks for all the great comments, much appreciated.
Paid advertising has its place. In highly competitive markets it's a way of buying yourself into the page one traffic flow. Unfortunately the days of penny clicks in valuable niches are long gone so you need to know your conversions stats to ensure that you don't end up just filling Google's already very large coffers.
Good hub. It can be very hard to be on page 1 of Google search results. And SEO can be such a complicated and confusing topic especially for beginners to this because there's just so much to learn and so many things to take into consideration like backlinks and getting traffic and other things like that. Buying a place at the top of Google search results might be good for those with money but that isn't really a guarantee that you'll get traffic, is it?
My experience tells me that paid marketing does not work. If no one likes the content, product, or service you are marketing, then all those marketing efforts are pointless. I can agree SEO is an art all by itself though, and producing quality content and knowing how to optimize that content for users can really pan out in the end.
Hmmm....Intresting .Never thought anyone would be crazy enough to fight google for the first place!Great hub though!
Good Hub ... being a expert of paid advertising i have notice that sometime being on the top just get you extra cost however, being on 2nd and 3rd position get you reasonable traffic with reasonable cost. rate up and sharing :)
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