Does Your Website Rank on the First Page for Its Relevant Key Phrases?
Search Engine Optimization is one of the most sought after forms of online marketing. Attainment of high natural rankings in the search engines is the Holy Grail for website owners and online businesses.
The main reasons why high natural placement in the search engines’ results pages continues to be so desired are:
- Over 85% of real estate transactions start online, primarily with a Google search
- Google maintains a 70% market share over all other search engines
- People are 64% more likely to click on the natural results versus the Sponsored Links
- The first 5 organic results make up 90% of the total clicks in the natural results
These reasons, among many others, continue to fuel search engine marketers and website owners to really focus their time and/or money on establishing these high natural placements as soon as possible. One major caveat to these results though is that all marketers / website owners are at the mercy of the search engines in regards to when, and if, their site(s) will ever rank on the coveted first page for their relevant keywords and phrases.
For the search engines to even consider your website to be ranked on the coveted first page for its relevant keywords and phrases, your website must meet the following criteria:
Properly Coded / Developed Website
The easier it is for the search engines to go through the coding of your site the better your chances become of getting your site ranked.
Website Age / Longevity
The longer your site has been online the more likely it is to gain credibility and legitimacy with the search engines. In addition to this, older sites are also more likely to have accrued more backlinks than most new sites. Backlinks are extremely important as discussed below.
Unique / Relevant / Quality Content
If your site is not the best resource, in terms of informational text, than the other sites out there, then the chances of the search engines thinking your site should be ranked higher is highly unlikely. You need content that is interesting, unique, authentic, viral and relevant to what you are trying to rank for.
Link Popularity / Authority
Link popularity or authority is extremely important as the search engines use this to determine how popular and authoritative your site is in the eyes of other websites online. The more links you have pointing to your site from other websites, preferably without you having to reciprocate links, the higher your chances become of getting a first page placement in the natural results.
Website Usability
One of the newest ranking factors that the search engines will continue to rely on and refine moving forward is how usable your website is. If your website loads slow, has inconvenient errors or annoying pop-ups, then you very well may be hindering your website from being considered as a top organically ranking website.
These main factors have been, and will continue to be, the pillars for a site that ranks high in the natural results on search engine results pages. Get started on what you can, whether it be content or getting people to link to you, and you will be that much closer to those coveted first page organic listings. Keep in mind though that if you’re not constantly doing something to achieve high natural placement then you can guarantee that someone else is so don’t get lazy or try to cut corners or online marketing budgets.
Just think about the how cost effective your old, traditional marketing actually is and work to allocate some of that budget towards the more effective and far reaching attributes of search engine optimization.