“How to be first on Google” is my SEO guide for positioning on search engines . Here you will find all the SEO tricks and techniques to improve your ranking on Google!
What are we talking about
- 1 Being first on Google: why is it important?
- 2 What is SEO and why you can’t do without it
- 3 Enter the site in search engines
- 4 The SEO Guide: SEO tips and techniques on site
- 4.1 Optimization of the structure: the silo
- 4.2 The choice of keywords
- 4.3 URL Optimization
- 4.4 Title Optimization
- 4.5 Meta description optimization
- 4.6 Text optimization
- 4.7 Link Optimization
- 4.8 Image Optimization
- 4.9 Optimization of multimedia contents
- 4.10 HTTPS: Safe Browsing
- 4.11 Structured data
- 5 The SEO Guide: off-site techniques
- 6 SEO Tool
Being first on Google: why is it important?
Being on the first page of Google is essential for the success of a site: as revealed by a study by the highly influential Moz portal, 71.33% of clicks are made on the results of the first page . The second and third pages collect only 5.59% of clicks.
On the first page of Google, in particular, the first 5 results collect 67.60% of clicks and the results from sixth to tenth position collect only 3.73%.
Obviously, if we always talk about Google and not the other search engines, there is a reason: Big G, alone, drives over 90% of world web traffic! Nice numbers, nothing to say… 🙂
What is SEO and why you can’t do without it
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization , or search engine optimization . It includes all those techniques to make your content more appealing to Google and “members” and improve the visibility of your site.
SEO techniques are divided into two broad categories: on site SEO techniques and off site SEO techniques. The former include: optimization of the HTML code , URLs, title, description, texts, images, multimedia content, links, creation of the sitemap.
Off-site SEO , on the other hand, aims at promoting the site and its contents through link earning and link building activities .
Enter the site in search engines
The indexing of websites is an automatic procedure . As soon as your site is created, search engines automatically detect it. The process isn’t instant – it can take hours or days. To shorten the time, there are procedures for submitting a site to search engines .
How to make your site appear on Google? You can use the page for adding and removing URLs . Reporting the site is simple: just enter the full URL (including, that is, the http: // or https: // prefix). You can also add comments or keywords to “explain” the page content.
How to submit a site to Bing? The procedure is just as simple: just go to the Submit your site to Bing page , enter the url and you’re done!
In general, to favor indexing on search engines it is advisable to create a sitemap , a site map . It is a document that describes the structure of a website . If you are an expert, you can create it by hand, use an online service such as Xml Sitemap Generator or, if your site was created with WordPress , use a plugin .
The SEO Guide: on site SEO tricks and techniques
Optimization of the structure: the silo
How to rank on Google? The starting point can only be the organization of the site’s contents in a coherent , clear structure that is easy for the user to navigate. The ideal structure, in this sense, is the so-called “silo structure” . It is a division of contents similar to that of a book: the information is divided into main semantic areas (the “silo pages” ) similar to the chapters of a book and further divided into smaller containers (to continue the metaphor of the book, paragraphs and subsections).
The silo structure was first spotted by Bruce Clay, who talks about it extensively on his website . Here is a visual example:
How is the silo structure built with WordPress? Simple. The “silo pages” are created as “parent” pages ; the next level can be represented by “child” pages . I did this for my site; for example: https://wpradar.com/website-creation/ is a “parent” page and https://wpradar.com/website-creation/aziendali/ its “child” page . The alternative is to implement the classic category-post mechanism : in this way, the silo page is the archive page of a category (generated, therefore, dynamically) and the content placed at the level immediately below an article .
The choice of keywords
Do you know what the first SEO commandment is?
Treat every single piece of content as the answer to a specific need.
What does it mean? It means specializing, identifying your niche and occupying it . Search engines are seething with content: soaring is a matter of competence and specificity. Each content on your site must answer a query, or a “question” from users.
This is where keywords come into play. Keywords are those expressions that identify activities, sectors, objects, etc. for which you want to place a site on search engines. It is important to create the contents of a web page starting from a main keyword , exploring all the possible branches that make up a coherent semantic area. For example, for this article I worked on “how to be first on Google” (a keyphrase , rather than a keyword), developing all the concepts associated with the ranking theme.
Therefore, once the main topic of a page has been established, here are the criteria you must take into consideration when choosing keywords:
- The volume of traffic , or the average of monthly searches for that keyword
- Competition or competition , i.e. how many websites have already been indexed for that word. It is an important parameter, because it can affect the ease / difficulty of positioning (therefore on times and costs);
- Research intentions. The more specific the keyword is, the more likely it is that the purpose of that search is an action that is relevant to us, that is, a conversion (purchase, registration, etc.). For example, if I am looking for a “wedding photographer in Milan”, it is very likely that I am looking for a professional who can take the photos for my wedding. If I’m looking for “wedding photos”, maybe I just want to admire some beautiful shots!
The first two data are objectively measurable through Google AdWords Keyword Planner (edit: no more, unfortunately!), SeoZoom or Semrush , very powerful tools (for a fee) that analyze traffic flows and allow you to find new keywords . In fact, if it is appropriate to think starting from a main keyword, it is also advisable to create a long queue of keywords , very useful for intercepting the right target and stimulating clicks and conversions (purchases, subscriptions, etc.). To learn more, take a look at my guide on long tail keywords!
URL optimization
The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a sequence of characters that locates a resource (page, document, image, etc.) on the internet. The address of a page (and the domain of the site) are essential elements to get first on Google.
The ideal is to create talking addresses , that is, discursive URLs that summarize the content of the page through keywords.
In general, the correct structure of an SEO friendly url is your sitename / keyword . Normally, conjunctions and prepositions, i.e. stop words , should not appear in urls. I advise you, however, to evaluate case by case : sometimes deleting a stop word can make the url less legible and alter its meaning; others, the presence or absence of stop words may lead to variations in search volumes (eg. “first on google” is more sought after than “first google”, which means nothing) and therefore a url with stop might be appropriate words. (To learn more about stop word, read the section below!)
Title optimization
By title we mean the
“SEO is 50% in the title,” goes the old adage. The ideal scheme is:
“Keyword – Keyword # 2… | Site Name “
For example, this page has the title “How to be first on Google: SEO tricks and techniques | WP Radar ”.
It is very important that the title starts with the keyword / keyphrase for which you want to appear first on Google.
How long should the title be? The minimum recommended title length is 35 characters; the maximum recommended length is 65 characters. Google recommends 55-60 characters (plus or minus 8/10 words or 512 pixels). Keep this in mind because if you exceed the maximum length, Google will cut the excess characters in the SERP, showing the truncated result.
A consideration on keywords and titles. If you focus on a keyword without stop words (eg “search engine positioning”), consistency would like this to appear also in the title. This choice may not be the best of style: after all, we are human beings and not robots, we use conjunctions! Considering that the titles are the first thing that the user reads in the SERP, it is better to find a compromise between the need for a precise correspondence between keyword and title and the need for captivating and readable texts.
Remember that Google is not “stupid”, it does not think mechanically: if you have done a good SEO job, by setting the title with the stop words you will also appear in the SERP for the keyphrase that does not contain them (and vice versa). In this regard, we talk about LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) : positioning is linked not only to a direct correspondence of terms between query and main keyword but to the use of synonyms that allow Google to better understand what the page is about. For this, therefore, it is possible to position oneself also for keywords related to the main keyword.
Meta description optimization
The meta description is that portion of text ( snippet ) that appears in the SERP under the title and the url. It provides the user with a description of the content of a page and therefore should be thought of as a sort of quick and concise advertisement, such as to capture the reader’s attention.
Here’s what the source code looks like:
To write the meta description think of a short sentence (150-160 characters) but effective. Don’t focus exclusively on keywords: Yoast , one of the most famous SEO experts, on his blog points out how many search engines (including Google) do not use the meta description in the ranking algorithm. The benefit is there, but it is mostly indirect: Google uses the Click Through Rate (CTR) as an indicator that your site is performing well. In other words: the more people click on your page, driven by the title and meta description, the more it manages to increase its ranking on Google.
However, it is important to optimize the meta description with keywords . Pay attention: when you search for a certain keyword, if it also appears in the meta description, it is highlighted in bold . Although it is no longer a ranking factor, matching with search keywords is important, because it accurately identifies the topic of the page, makes it clearer and therefore prompts users to click on the result.
A very useful tool for (among other things) optimizing meta descriptions is the Google Webmaster Tool . Sign up now and explore its features!
Text optimization
Text optimization is a very important practice to improve the positioning of a page on Google.
But what does it mean to optimize a text? What is SEO writing (or even SEO copywriting )? A decisive role is played – as always – by keywords. Here are some basic rules:
- Enter the keywords for which you intend to position yourself immediately. In this way, both the reader and the search engines are given the clearest evidence of which topic the article is about.
- Use bold. Using the tag to put the keyword in bold means making Google understand that it is a relevant expression. But be careful not to overdo it: use bold to highlight not only the keyword, but also the concepts connected to it, which can be interesting for the reader or extend the semantics (the meaning area) of the post.
- Use the heading tags. They are the tags ranging from
to , i.e. the titles. From an SEO point of view, those fromto
are relevant: I recommend that you use them to highlight the topics that the page talks about, by entering the keywords. A clarification regarding
: HTML5 (the new version of the website creation language) allows you to use multiple h1 tags within a page. However, for the sake of clarity in the organization of contents, it is preferable to use only one h1.
- Don’t give too much weight to the keyword frequency , that is the frequency with which a keyword repeats itself in a text. There is no precise numerical value to respect: it is good that a keyword has a certain recurrence on the page, but one must not overdo it and run into keyword stuffing (an over-presence of keywords that can be penalizing).
Link optimization
Well yes: if you want to be first on Google, you must also manage the links correctly.
The links are divided into two categories:
- Internal links : those that refer to internal site content
- External links : links to resources present off your site or links to your site by others
The presence of internal links ( inbound links ) in a page / article generates cross-linking : an example is represented by the Wikipedia pages, usually full of references to other contents of the portal.
Internal links are very important: they increase the navigability of the site, establish a hierarchy of contents and contribute to spreading the “link juice ”. By “link juice” we mean the strength a page has to convey authority to another page.
An example of an optimized internal link:
The text enclosed by the tag is called anchor text and must contain a keyword relevant to the link in question. Warning: it is not necessary that the url of the landing page and the anchor text have the same, identical keyword. As always, relevance is important. To give an example: the link to a page on home remedies for caries cannot have as anchor text “how to cure tartar”.
The HTML structure of external links (or outbound links ) is the same. Inserting an external link in your article is important to complete the user’s reading experience and, if relevant to the content you have created, it will also reward you in the indexing phase.
Image optimization
What SEO guide would it be without talking about images ? In addition to enriching the text and making reading more enjoyable, images are useful for improving the visibility of your site. Here are some tips for optimizing images for SEO!
- Don’t upload files that are too large , as this may slow down your site. The loading time of the pages is a ranking factor and, at the same time, a useful element to ensure a good browsing experience for the user. (Want to check your site’s loading time? Check out Pingdom Website Speed Test !)
- Give the files a “talking” name. For the name of the image file to be optimized, the same rule applies as for the url: choose a “talking” file name, which describes the content of the image, perhaps also inserting one of the keywords you want to rank for. For example, the featured image in this article is named first-on-google.jpg.
- Enter a title. When inserting an image into a page or post, it can be useful to optimize the title attribute of the image . The title of an image is the phrase that appears when you hover over it ( tooltip ), and is useful information for search engines.
- Enter a caption. This is additional, and very important, information that you are giving to Google about the content of your page and the nature of that image.
- Enter the Alternate Text. The alternative text or alt attribute is what “tells” the image to Google (and other search engines), and is one of the parameters on the basis of which images are classified on Google Images . It is also the text that appears on the page when, for some reason, the image cannot be loaded. Finally, it is very useful for facilitating the understanding of the image for people with vision problems, who use talking browsers that “read” the alt attribute.
The images on your site, as well as enriching pleasant reading content and contributing to the ranking of your pages, will be indexed on Google Images precisely by virtue of the attributes of the img tag. If you want to know more, read what a Google engineer says about it!
One more word of warning: avoid overloading an image’s titles, captions, and alt text withthe keywords you want to be visible for. It doesn’t help you – in fact, it can penalize you. Try to be as descriptive of the photo as possible and, if necessary, enter a keyword!
In summary, here’s what the optimized tag looks like:
Optimization of multimedia contents
In addition to images, it is a good idea to also optimize multimedia content . Take care of the names of the individual files and the title as described above and do not forget the anchor text, the anchor text, used to create the link to the multimedia resource: make sure that, inside it, there is the keyword / keyphrase, but that it is also discursive and relevant to the rest of the content.
Not everyone knows this, but for the last three years , https has also been an increasingly important ranking factor. What is https? It is the abbreviation of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure , which is a system of rules ( protocol ) for secure communication between two computers on the network. Basically, it’s that green lock you see at the top, in the address bar of your browser, when you browse my site!
How to get it? Just buy an SSL certificate (you can contact your hosting provider) or activate a free one (e.g. with OpenSSL ) and then migrate your site from http to https. Since 2014, having enabled safe browsing is a positioning factor. If you haven’t done so yet, I advise you to hurry!
Ps: do you need the help of an expert? Contact me!
Structured data
What are structured data: schema.org, data sets and formats
Structured data is, in a sense, SEO’s egg of Columbus . It is a way of writing html information, in order to facilitate the understanding of Google.
Specifically, a dictionary is used to encode this essential information, created by Google , Microsoft , Yahoo and Yandex in 2011, schema.org . Schema.org provides different “schemas” (types of data) and, above all, various “languages” ( formats ) to translate them: Microdata , RDFa , JSON-LD (recommended by Google).
Here is a summary, from the Google page , of the characteristics of each format:
And this is a code snippet (in JSON-LD format):
Why use structured data
As John Muller explains in the video below, structured data is not a direct ranking factor . That is, it means that their presence (or absence) does not directly influence the positioning on search engines.
Their usefulness, however, is unquestionable, since they allow you to accurately communicate all the information a search engine needs to position your site, and to enrich search results ( “rich snippets” ). This last function is linked to the so-called search features , which include visual “enhancements” or enhance specific types of content ( “content types” ):
- Rich search results : results snippet with visual enrichments (text, images, etc.);
- Rich cards : a variation of rich search results, similar to rich snippets and made specifically for mobile;
- Enriched search results : with immersive or interactive features;
- Knowledge graph : panel with information relating to an organization, company, brand, etc .;
- Breadcrumbs : the visibility of breadcrumbs in search results;
- Carousels : a collection of rich search results presented in the form of a carousel;
- Rich results for AMP : to make the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) appear in carousel format, it is necessary to insert the structured data;
Let’s analyze the search features in detail, starting with the “enhancements” (“improvements”):
- Breadcrumb : navigation system that indicates the position of the page in the site hierarchy;
- Corporate contact : your corporate contact information shown in the Google Knowledge panel (the side block that, in some serp, summarizes the information of an organization);
- Carousel : shows the results in list or gallery form;
- Logo : your organization’s logo in search results and in the Google Knowledge Graph;
- Sitelinks searchbox : a search box that is shown when your site appears in the search results;
- Social profile : your social information shown in the Google Knowledge panel;
Here is the related gallery:
The main content types :
- Article : news or blog articles shown in the carousel of the top stories, with titles and images in evidence;
- Book : search feature dedicated to books and authors that allows you to search for texts and purchase volumes;
- Course : list of courses activated by an organization, with titles, indications of the supplier and a brief description;
- Events : events such as concerts and festivals, for example, with indication of date and place;
- Local business : details relating to a commercial or professional activity shown in the Knowledge Graph card;
- Product : information about a product, including price, availability and rating (ratings);
- Recipe : recipe posts, shown as individual results or within a carousel;
- Review : The review of an organization or business, such as restaurants, shops, etc.
- Video : information on a video, with the possibility of activating the play;
The related gallery:
-
Articles -
Courses -
Reviews -
Books -
Events -
Local business -
Products -
Recipes -
Video
The complete list of search features, with in-depth explanations on a case-by-case basis, can be found here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/search-gallery .
It goes without saying that rich snippets are a very effective way to improve the performance , in terms of CTR , of your results. This can mean more accesses and, in general, a positive impact on the ranking .
How to implement structured data
You can enter structured data in three ways :
- Manually : which means writing the code from scratch (starting from the indications of schema.org and the Google guidelines: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/sd-policies ) or getting help from an online tool (for example this one from Google: https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/ , or this other https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/schema-markup -generator / ). The code in question will then be copied and pasted into the relative pages;
- Through a plugin : if you have a WordPress site like mine, you can use the excellent WP SEO Structured Data Schema , downloadable for free at this link;
- Using Google Tag Manager : and here I refer you to the Yoast guide ;
Once the structured data is implemented, you can validate it through the official Google tool: https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool .
The SEO Guide: off-site techniques
Off-site SEO techniques include all those activities aimed at increasing the positioning of a website through link popularity .
Link popularity (link popularity in English) is a measure of the reliability of a website’s content, which greatly affects online visibility. Today, search engines reward the reliability of a site by raising it to the top of the response pages. ( Wikipedia )
In other words: “relevance, trustworthiness, and authority that effective off-site SEO affords a website still play a major role in a page’s ability to rank.” ( Moz.com )
Off-site SEO techniques are divided into two categories:
- Link earning: the set of practices that allow you to obtain links to your site spontaneously;
- Link building: tactics to get links from other sites in a non-spontaneous way.
Before analyzing them in detail, let’s make a small introduction …
The quality of the links
For positioning on Google, direct links to your site (backlinks) are therefore very important. The reason is the “link juice” I mentioned earlier: the popularity of a page is transferred to the others thanks to the links. For backlinks to improve their ranking on Google it is important that they come from quality sites.
But when is a backlink of quality? At one time, the tool with which to evaluate the importance of a site was the Google Page Rank , a sort of estimate of the importance of a site that was calculated with a mathematical formula . This data was publicly obtainable by installing the Google Toolbar in the navigation browser. Since December 2013 this is no longer possible, even if the Page Rank is still active. To measure the value of a link, a series of indices are used, which vary according to the backlink audits tool used:
- Domain Authority and Page Authority > Moz
- Trust Flow and Citation Flow > Majestic
- Domain and Url Rating > Ahrefs
The fact remains: the popularity of the site linking to yours are very important factors. Otherwise, the link building strategy could prove counterproductive!
Relevance also has its value. If you have a blog that deals with SEO, it is important that the link to your article comes from a site or portal that deals with related issues. The anchor text must then be optimized as I described above, that is with a keyword relevant to the linked content.
Note: if the webmaster of the site that contains a link to yours decides to insert the “nofollow” attribute in the link tag, the link juice is “blocked”. Never mind: even “nofollow” links have their value: they increase brand awareness (knowledge of your brand) and access to the site. In a certain sense, therefore, they still have a weight in terms of SEO!
Link earning
Link earning (or linkbait ) is, come to think of it, the first real SEO practice: it “simply” consists of producing interesting content in order to attract natural links (“bait” in English means “bait”). Writing interesting things, with high informative content and a brilliant form, will lead users to naturally link to your site as a resource relevant to a given topic.
Google also says it:
The best way to encourage the inclusion of quality links relevant to yours on other sites is to create unique and distinctive content that will naturally gain popularity in the Internet community. Creating good content pays off: links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the more useful your content is, the more likely another user will deem it good for their readers and link to them.
So: focus on producing quality content and you will see that your site ranking will benefit!
Link building: basic and advanced techniques
Link building includes a set of tactics for getting links to your site unnaturally (or at least less naturally than link earning) . Although widespread, these techniques must be used with care: in excessive forms, they can be considered spam and therefore penalized by Google.
In particular, it is necessary to avoid practices (once very widespread) such as the exchange of links, spam links on blogs and forums, subscription to directories of dubious quality. Always keep in mind that Google is constantly updating its algorithm to reward the best links obtained in the most natural way possible.
The main link building techniques are:
- Article marketing: contact the owners of a site and have them publish an article written by you containing a link to your site. But be careful: in its paid form (probably the most widespread), article marketing is expressly prohibited by Google.
- Guest blogging: look for blogs or online magazines in your industry willing to publish your article (“guest” in English means “guest”). In this way, everyone gets something useful out of it: the site that hosts you gets new content for free, you an important link to your site;
- Digital PR: The digital version of public relations, i.e. all communication activities aimed at establishing relationships with institutions, companies, press, consumers, bloggers and influencers to promote a brand, a service or a product;
- Comments on blogs and industry forums: comment on the article of a blog in the same sector as you or leave a post in a forum ensuring you insert a link to your site;
Other advanced techniques include:
- Broken link building: is a technique that consists in scanning the web in search of “broken” links (ie deleted) and contacting the webmaster of the sites identified asking to be able to replace the “broken” link with one to one’s own site.
- Infographics:did you know that infographics ensure about 12% more traffic? Take advantage of this advantage: create a nice infographic (perhaps with these tools ), provide a code for sharing and contact the bloggers in your sector to ask to share them;
- The “skyscraper technique”: scan the web for old articles on topics you usually deal with and write a better and more updated one. Then ask the owners of the blogs and sites that host those old articles asking them to replace them with yours;
Anchor text and landing pages
The image above shows us a very important element in the construction of links: the anchor text , that is the portion of text on which the link “rests”. In the case of link earning, we will hardly be able to check the anchor text of the link pointing to our site. When we do link building, however, since we propose the contents, it is necessary to identify the even more correct one, which, of course, may also depend on the page you choose to link. In short, a precise strategy must be established!
For more in-depth aspects on the anchor text strategy, I refer you to this very interesting guide by Semrush. In principle, however, it is important to give the maximum semblance of “naturalness” to the link building process; and so:
- Vary the linked pages as much as possible: do not direct all the links to the home, but also point to the internal pages;
- Vary anchors as much as possible: don’t always use search keywords as anchor text. On the contrary: it mainly uses branded anchors (the name of your business) or even naked.
If the link building strategy is set up correctly, the benefits will be substantial!
Note: if the webmaster of the site that contains a link to yours decides to insert the “nofollow” attribute in the link tag, the link juice is “blocked”. Never mind: even “nofollow” links have their value: they increase brand awareness (knowledge of your brand) and access to the site. In a certain sense, therefore, they still have a weight in terms of SEO!
SEO Tool
The tools useful to the SEO professional are many and cover a series of activities: keyword analysis, study of competitors, site audit, backlink checking etc. I had to list them in detail, therefore, I would risk going too far. So I’ll just give you a short list, promising to dedicate an entire article to the topic on my blog very soon.
Site audit, SEO monitoring, keyword analysis, backlinks and competitors:
– Semrush: https://it.semrush.com/
– SeoZoom: https://www.seozoom.it/
Backlink analysis:
– Moz: https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/
– Majestic: https://it.majestic.com/
– Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/it/
Analytics:
– Google Search Console: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=it
– Google Analytics: read my guide 🙂
Keywords:
– Google Trends: https://trends.google.it/trends/
– Keywordtool: https://keywordtool.io/
– Google (the suggest function or related searches , at the end of the serp, are very useful!)
We are greetings! I hope this SEO guide has helped you to better understand the techniques to use to improve the visibility of your site.
Do you need help? Request an SEO Consultation !