Ranking highly on Google is now essential to business success. After all, securing one of Google’s top spots is going to make you easier to find, add legitimacy to your offerings, and generally set you in the best stead for turning leads into sales.

While most businesses understand this, there are still a surprising amount of companies that fail to grasp the effort required to get Google onside for good. In reality, though, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and 92.96% of global web traffic begins on Google in some form. Yet, surprisingly few web pages make Google’s top ten in the first year after publication.

That doesn’t mean that getting to Google’s top spot quickly is an impossible goal. But it does highlight the fact that high Google rankings don’t happen by accident. Instead, companies should develop solid plans regarding Google from the very start.

In this article, we’ll consider what those plans should include, and how you can implement a Google strategy that can see you securing a top search spot in no time. 

# 1 – Perfect your web presence

Google isn’t about to promote a poorly planned or executed website. Hence, the simplest way to get into Google’s good books is to perfect your website itself. Whether you do this in-house, or with the help of something like AVINTIV’s award-winning web design, you should focus on details like the use of images, keywords, meta tags/descriptions, external links, and quality copy. 

Ultimately, your aim here is to prove what you do, and how well you do it. That way, Google can make sure that you’re both legitimate enough to recommend and that you’re a trusted leader in your field. Take particular care to prove the human element in your business. While many things feel like they’re going towards AI, Google’s algorithms are carefully designed to recognize and block websites written using AI generators or other impersonal measures. So, keep it punchy, personable, and efficiently designed to stand your best chance at a top spot.

# 2 – Enhance your online offerings

A well-designed website is an essential offering that any worthy business understands. What fewer companies realize is that a website alone doesn’t offer as many SEO opportunities as are required to get Google onside.

To do that, companies should aim to enhance their online offerings using SEO-specific focuses, including blog posts, video content, and more. Blogs, in particular, are useful for their ability to utilize SEO focuses including keywords and external links. Equally, video content can add a lot of meta tags to impress the Google Gods. Ensure the quality of these offerings using either in-house or freelance experts, and make sure that your brand voice remains consistent with your website itself. This will keep you within Google’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) parameters of ‘quality content’, which is crucial to securing your Google standing. 

# 3 – Manage and respond to reviews

As well as being the best way to uncover customer insights, reviews can legitimize your business enough to get Google onside if you handle them effectively. Reviews are especially crucial for proving your authority as they’re the main external resource regarding the quality and worth of your services. From an SEO standing, reviews have the benefit of – 

• Generating long-tail keyword traffic

• Increasing social sharing

• Increasing traffic

• Ultimately improving Google ranking

Businesses should therefore make a specific plan to ask for reviews, either via follow-up emails, verbal requests, or in-app notifications. Overseeing those reviews, regularly replying to consumers, and implementing improvements based on negative comments, can all help to secure the higher ratings that Google looks out for. Over time, that’s sure to see your website creeping higher up those all-important rankings. 

# 4 – Devise a local strategy

While reaching a global audience is the main appeal of an online presence, building a local web presence can have a major impact on business success, and search engine rankings. That’s because, when you’re appealing to local audiences, you’re more likely to provide relevant services to potentially loyal customers. By recommending you, Google’s therefore way more likely to create positive outcomes. Incorporating local SEO into your online presence can also help you to appear in searches on Google Maps, meaning that you’re continually in the top spots of Google offerings. 

Local SEO can be achieved in a few different ways, including – 

• Use of local keywords

• Location-specific landing pages

• Including address on Google My Business

• Encouraging local customer reviews

• Building local citations/links

• And so on

You want Google to know where you are, and whether or not you’re a trusted and loved company in your local area. If so, they’ll be far happier to promote you to loyal local audiences, and will even rank you more highly than other similar local businesses who haven’t taken these same steps to success. 

# 5 – Use your social media

A strong social media presence is crucial for any modern business. It’s also a surprising factor in whether or not Google ranks you. This is true even though social media has no specific impact on SEO, and happens because of various benefits of well-thought social media campaigns, including – 

• Content distribution

• Increased reviews

• External links

• Increased brand recognition

• Local reputations

• Etc.

By posting shareable, relevant content across a range of social platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, brands can prove themselves worthy of Google recommendations. Long-term usage of social media to promote loyalty, a positive reputation, and a catalog of backlinks, can especially provide you with the edge you need to do well in searches and beyond. 

Get Google onside to take your business further

The first organic search listing on Google gets a significant amount of click-throughs. Hence it’s a highly coveted position that most businesses will have to fight hard to secure. With these tips, you’ll be in the best possible position to get Google onside so that you secure the top spot, or at least a place in Google’s top ten!

Originally Published on https://www.breakfastleadership.com/

Michael Levitt Chief Burnout Officer

Michael D. Levitt is the founder & Chief Burnout Officer of The Breakfast Leadership Network, a San Diego and Toronto-based burnout consulting firm. He is a Keynote speaker on The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and Burnout. He is the host of the Breakfast Leadership show, a Certified NLP and CBT Therapist, a Fortune 500 consultant, and author of his latest book BURNOUT PROOF.