How To Get Your Business on Top of Google Search

Understanding how to get your business on top of Google search engine results pages (SERPs) is no small feat. It takes a combination of paid ads and organic SEO strategy, commitment, and a lot of hard work. 

The reason these top spots are so competitive is that they’re worth it – over 25% of searchers click on the top result. Think about it: When was the last time you clicked through to the second or third page of search results on Google?

You can get your business to achieve that kind of visibility by understanding why your site is ranking where it is now and implementing the right SEO strategy to improve your Google search performance.

How Do I Get My Website on Top of Google Search?

You can help get your site to the top spots on Google by using strategies such as paid ads and SEO. 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. Instead, they’re working together to help your business come out on top as often as possible.

Why Isn’t My Business at the Top of Google Search Results Now?

Your business might not be at the top of search results for a few common reasons:

• Black Hat SEO Practices: If the algorithm catches on to any black hat SEO practices that go against search engine guidelines, it can negatively impact the rest of your site. 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: Indexability 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 competitors have been investing in paid search ads and SEO for far longer than you have, there’s a good chance 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.

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 get your business to the top of search engines, the common issues listed above can negatively impact Google rankings.

How To Get Your Business to the Top of Google Search With Paid Ads

Using Google Ads, you can set up a paid ads campaign to help raise your rankings and target specific keywords with text and landing pages that you design. However, just because you’re paying for an ad does not mean your business will get to the top of Google search 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 it thinks will be most helpful to the searcher.

To create a successful ad and get to the first page of Google search, you need to do the following:

• 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 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 using paid ads.
• Ensure 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, you just need to continue making tweaks every so often to see if doing so will improve performance. You’ll also want to closely manage your budget and understand how much your Google Ads are costing you.

How To Get Your Website to the Top of Google Search Using SEO

To get to the top of Google’s organic search results, you’ll need to develop a targeted long-term SEO content strategy. While it takes more time to see ranking results with organic search engine optimization than paid ads, the results are longer-lasting and often cheaper over time. 

Here are some important steps to get those SEO results!

1. Perform a 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 on-page SEO elements such as:

• Site Speed: If your pages take three 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, and then you can focus on raising your Google search engine rankings.

2. Do 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 like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush or Ahrefs to find new search terms related to ones you’re already ranking for. Or, you can use competitor keyword analysis to see what’s driving traffic to your competitors’ websites.

To help your business get to the top of Google search, consider these factors when you’re comparing keywords:

• Search Volume: Are enough people searching for the keyword on a monthly basis?

• Keyword Difficulty: Does the keyword have low difficulty with high search volume? How many other businesses are competing for this same keyword?

• Other Content That Is Ranking: Are you able to generate content of a similar length and quality as the ones already ranking on Google?

Once you’ve found keywords that are relevant to your business, it’s time to develop some content.

3. Create an SEO Content Strategy

Now, you can 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 it. 

Additionally, factor in the search intent of your keywords. For example, the intent of the keyword phrase “legal SEO services” is to find a company page that offers those services – not necessarily a blog post talking about what legal SEO services are. 

Blogs are typically meant to go after longer-tail, informational-intent keywords, whereas 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 post a few times a week, but consistency is more important. Plan for the frequency that you know you can commit to.

4. Write Your SEO Content

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. 
• 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. 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 the keyword 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.

5. Set Up a Google My Business Profile

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’s 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 improve your chances of getting to the top of local search 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. Are there some keywords you could add to help it rank when people are searching? 
• Add images to your listing, including your logo as a profile photo, a cover photo that represents your business, and additional business photos.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all of these steps to get your business on top of Google search, 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.

6. Consider Link Building

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 business 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:

• Write Guest Posts: Write guest posts on other businesses’ websites and link back to your own site. This can be done on sites that accept guest posting or in a link-swap format where the person you’re swapping with gets a link from you as well.
• Contact Businesses: Reach out to websites with a similar audience and ask 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.
• Hire Help: Hire a link-building service to take care of the legwork for you.

Link building is a long-term growth SEO strategy to help you get to the top of Google. You’ll get quick wins here and there, but you’ll likely see the most impressive results over time.

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

Whether you’re a seasoned SEO pro or just starting out, BKA Content is here to help you understand how to get your business to the top of Google search the right way. We’ve been in this industry for years and have enough practice to know how to create content that ranks. 

For SEO keyword research, link building, content writing and paid ads management that drive business results, get started with BKA Content today!