Every blogger and online business owner wants to be on Google’s front page. Grabbing one of these coveted positions will bring you traffic, leads and sales. Follow my 11 proven tactics and learn how to get on the first page of Google (without spending a cent on paid ads).
Why is page one of Google SO vital?
I’ve been running successful blogs for over 10 years, both for myself and for various clients. I’ve used these proven tactics in this article to rank my content on the first page of Google for thousands of business-relevant keywords that drive traffic, leads and sales. Here’s a few of the posts currently ranking on page 1.
Getting on the first page of Google results is essential for driving organic search traffic to your blog. According to a 2023 study by Ahrefs, 96.55% of content gets no traffic from Google.
So if your content doesn’t rank on that coveted first page, the vast majority of people will never see it or ever have the chance to click through to your blog.
Ranking high in search engines leads to more visibility, traffic, and ultimately drives more conversions and revenue for your business. What’s more, users place a lot of trust in top ranking websites, so earning those top spots lends your blog added credibility.
In competitive industries like law and finance, if you don’t rank on page one, you’ll likely get left behind by competitors who do rank there. Even moving up just a few spots in the rankings can result in exponential increases in clicks and traffic.
In other words, Google’s first page is prime real estate for profitability. If you want your ideal clients to find and frequent your site, then page one rankings are enormously important. With that said, let’s find out how to get you there.
How to get on the first page of Google for FREE (my 11 proven tactics)
#1. Target the right keywords
When doing keyword research, remember that not every keyword opportunity is created equal. Some queries will be just too competitive for a blog like yours to rank for, at least for now.
Instead, I recommend aiming for long tail keywords that perfectly match your expertise and ideal reader’s interests.
Long tail keywords are specific multi-word keyword phrases like “content writing tips for beginners” rather than super competitive ‘head’ keywords like “writing” (these single word searches are often more vague, making it more difficult to know what the searcher actually wants).
Long tail keywords may have lower search volume but they also have less competition, making them more attainable targets for you. Just be sure they’re relevant phrases that your target audience would actually search for.
Target keywords that make sense for your current traffic levels, domain authority, and existing content portfolio. You want keywords where you can create content that adds more value than what already ranks.
If you couldn’t credibly write a comprehensive, high-quality article on the topic that would beat the competition, then it’s not the right keyword match for you.
#2. Write for humans first
Here’s a recommendation based on my experience – always write for actual humans first rather than just trying to appease the Google bots! Your ideal reader’s wants and needs should be your top priority.
Sometimes this means veering slightly off-keyword to make sure you solve your audience’s problems and answer their actual questions comprehensively. And you know what? I recommend embracing that reader-focused approach.
Rather than awkwardly forcing keywords everywhere, I suggest focusing on crafting posts that feel natural for humans to read and enjoy.
The goal is to provide true value for the searcher intent behind each query you want to target. I recommend giving the most detailed, thoughtful response you can to the informational needs and questions that phrase represents.
When your content gives your readers an amazing experience, both search engines and human visitors will love it. So your target audience and their challenges should be top of mind whenever you sit down to write.
Structure sections around addressing their pain points, and make sure you’re using keywords in a natural way. This balance of optimization and value is what I recommend for winning long-term loyal audiences.
#3. Match search intent
Search intent is often overlooked but it’s an absolute must for getting onto page one of Google. I highly recommend making sure your content matches the search intent for each keyword phrase you target.
There are four main types of intent behind searches: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. Whenever I begin keyword research for a new blog post, I always start by Googling my main keyword to analyze what kind of content already ranks for it.
I look closely at the top 10 results to understand what searchers want. Are they seeking quick info? Trying to purchase something? Navigating to a certain site? My goal is to match the dominant search intent with content that’s structured similarly (but never copying directly, of course).
Here’s a top tip: Don’t make readers hunt around searching for the information they want. It’s better to answer their intent quickly, then provide expanded detail further down in the blog post.
For example, if you target the keyword “what is a blog”, explain that clearly up front in the introduction before exploring the topic in more detail. That way, your readers will get the search intent fast, but can still read on to get more information.
#4. Find competitor gaps
Before you start writing, make sure you check out your top competitor’s content around your target keyword. I recommend Googling your main phrase then analyzing the posts that currently rank on page one.
Those top 10 results set the bar for you to outrank, so you need to understand where gaps and opportunities exist. Look carefully at each article for any holes, outdated info, or areas where you can expand based on your personal expertise.
Ask yourself: What’s missing from these posts that I can add based on my own knowledge? Are there recent trends/tech they haven’t covered? How can I take this topic to the next level?
Finding gaps left open by competitors gives you a clearer content roadmap. It shows where you can provide unique value vs. retreading the same ground. This differentiation is key for both search engines and users.
#5. Write click-worthy titles
Your blog post titles are the first thing readers see in the search results before deciding whether or not to click and read your content. That’s why crafting highly clickable titles is an often-overlooked way to improve your Google rankings.
The click-through rate (CTR) for a blog post title refers to the percentage of people who click on the post after seeing the title. A high CTR tells Google that your content is appealing and valuable to readers. This in turn can improve your search rankings and traffic over time.
Many bloggers make the mistake of writing vague, boring titles that fail to capture attention.Titles like “My Thoughts” or “A Guide to X” don’t tell readers why they should care enough to click.
Instead, try this simple title formula: Keyword + Value + Unique Take. For example, if you’re creating a listicle post for the keyword “blog title formulas”, here are a few titles that would have great CTRs:
- 15 Proven Blog Title Formulas That Skyrocket Click-Through Rates
- 7 Irresistible Blog Title Formulas to Boost Your Traffic Instantly
- 12 Blog Title Formulas That Convert: Secrets from Top Bloggers
Crafting compelling, click-worthy titles is super important for driving more qualified traffic to your blog. The best blog post titles create curiosity, highlight concrete benefits, and speak directly to your target audience.
#6. Strengthen your EEAT
EEAT stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.” It’s Google’s way of evaluating the extent to which its search rankings are providing users with helpful, relevant information.
Google added the extra E (for ‘Experience”) in December 2022. Experience is defined as “the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic.”
The goal here is to assess whether the writer has real-life experience of what they’re writing about. Basically, if you’re writing about something, have you done it personally, or learned about it in some other way? And does your content make that clear?
I like to showcase EEAT in my blog posts by providing an ‘expertise statement’ early on in each post, where I briefly explain why the reader should trust me on this topic.
I then provide several examples of my relevant achievements and/or social proof (such as links to media articles). Here’s an example from one of my recent blog posts. I highly recommend that you try this on your own blog.
Other ways to strengthen EEAT include having a well written About page, adding an author bio to your blog posts, and making sure your blog is connected to your relevant social media channels. Being interviewed in the media and guest posting for other blogs also helps (assuming they’re high quality and relevant platforms).
#7. Provide genuinely helpful content
Google wants us to write “helpful content”, but what makes content truly helpful and valuable for readers?
First, comprehensiveness is key. You should aim to provide your reader with exhaustive information on a topic including thorough explanations, multiple examples, data, images, etc, to demonstrate your command of the subject matter. Of course, only do this if the article topic calls for it. Some queries can be answered more briefly.
Rather than just reporting surface facts, you should also to share insightful connections, opinions, explanations, and principles behind how and why things work. This goes a long way towards establishing your expertise on the topic.
I’d also suggest adding actionable advice to your content, so that readers can clearly apply the knowledge and recommendations to their own work and lives. Offering tangible items like frameworks, templates or calculators really helps with this (and they also make excellent free giveaways to get people to join your email list).
Finally, consider including quotes from originally researched first-hand interviews, experiments, and studies that offer new information versus only relying on others’ data. It’s not essential to do this, but it really helps if you can.
There’s no single formula for genuinely helpful content. But the more of the above elements you bring in, the more helpful and share-worthy your content becomes.
#8. Build topical clusters
I recommend building out your blog content in topical clusters around themes relevant to your niche.
This is an advanced content strategy that provides clear organization while also showcasing your blog’s depth when it comes to tackling broader topics.
Here are some benefits of structuring your content like this:
• Demonstrates strong authority by covering every aspect of a topic
• Gives you lots of internal linking opportunities so you can pass authority between posts
• Creates a logical content architecture – great both for your readers and for SEO
The idea is to start by creating a longform, comprehensive “pillar” guide on a broad subject that provides broad (but not necessarily super in-depth) coverage of the full topic. For example, “The Complete Guide to X”.
Then, create multiple supporting “cluster” articles that go deeper into each specific sub-section of the larger pillar topic. You should make this blog posts rich in detail and focusing on narrower themes.
Finally, extensively interlink the pillar guide to every niche cluster post it connects to, basically creating a web of internal links between each piece of your cluster content. That’s a topical cluster. You should aim to do this for every important topic that your blog covers.
#9. Leverage social media
Creating amazing blog content goes a long way, but promoting your posts strategically on social media is a great way to amplify your reach, access new audiences, and drive extra traffic to your blog.
What’s more, in these times of frequent (and often damaging) Google updates, it’s important to build your online presence beyond just SEO. Social media has an important role to play in this.
To start off, I recommend setting up social sharing buttons prominently on all of your blog posts. These should link out to your social profiles, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest. Make sure you’re active on whichever. social media channels your target audience uses most often.
When posting your content on social, be sure to structure it correctly to take advantage of that platform’s specific algorithm. And tailor your messaging to each platform’s culture and expectations.
You can reuse the same core ideas from your blog posts, but you’ll need to adjust the content format to suit the platform in question.
You could also consider developing content upgrades exclusively for your social followers, driving them to opt-in to your email list in exchange for lead magnets.
Social media is also a great place to build your audience. For example, I grew my LinkedIn audience to over 21,000, just by posting regularly and interacting with others on the platform. Be sure to comment and share others’ content frequently to multiply your own organic reach.
Another big benefit of social media lies in seeking partnerships for guest posting and link swaps by networking with brands and the freelance writers who write for them. I’ve been featured in several top quality publications, such as Moz and Hubspot, simply by reaching out to freelance writers in my LinkedIn network.
The wider your social reach becomes, the more referral traffic you drive back to your blog posts. This is a great signal to Google. Eventually, this effect compounds with search visibility to give you double impact – boosting the bottom line for your business.
#10. Attract quality backlinks
Your own content creation and promotion efforts will go far in getting you on the first page of Google.
But another thing you need is highly credible external sites linking back to your content. This is key, because earning authoritative and relevant backlinks remains one of the strongest SEO signals.
Before you run to Fiverr and purchase 1,000 backlinks for $10, remember that low-quality links from spammy or irrelevant sites can actually damage your site’s reputation. That’s why you should ONLY seek links from reputable websites that are relevant to your blog’s overall topics.
To get there, start by creating truly epic resources that sites in your space will want to reference and recommend to their audiences.
These are known as ‘link bait posts’ and they target keywords such as “your niche + statistics”, or your niche + benchmarks, and similar. Done right, link bait posts are a great way to attract links on autopilot as other bloggers and journalists typically need this kind of info, so they will readily link out to your post.
You can also actively build relationships with bloggers, freelance writers and other business owners in your niche. Offer to create guest posts for their sites with contextual links back to your content. Similarly, consider interviewing experts in your field and link out to their sites.
Digital PR is probably the number one most powerful way to land high-quality backlinks. One campaign can get your blog featured in multiple mainstream media publications. The downside is: it takes a lot of effort to plan and launch a successful campaign.
#11. Build your ‘brand universe’ beyond SEO
Creating SEO-friendly blog content is essential, but it also pays to think bigger. Ultimately, you want to build a diverse online presence that amplifies your brand, boosts your authority, and supports your long-term business goals.
My advice? Put all your content efforts under the umbrella of building your ‘brand universe’. This means taking your core ideas and expanding them onto social media, email, and other marketing channels – beyond just your main blog and reliance on Google search visibility.
For example, you could consider launching:
- A podcast or YouTube channel to share video and audio content
- A newsletter sent to subscribers by email regularly
- Social media presences on every major platform
- Courses, workshops or digital products capturing premium value
Your ‘brand universe’ as an expert in your niche goes far beyond any one channel or site. It’s the collective reach, awareness and loyalty you cultivate across the web, as you provide helpful solutions to your target audience’s biggest pain points.
Building this out requires a level of consistency and persistence over time. But it’s not as much work as you think. Using AI tools strategically allows you to take one core idea/customer pain point, write a long-form, well-optimized blog post around it, then repurpose that blog to multiple different channels.
When all elements work together – SEO blog content leading to high-converting sales funnels, lead magnets capturing emails, newsletter promoting blog posts and back again – your influence compounds and grows quickly.
And your reliance on any one platform diminishes (which protects your business in this era of frequent algorithm updates).
Yes, you should concentrate first on creating amazing SEO content for your blog. But keep the mindset of eventually expanding your authority, audience and income by building out your multi-channel brand universe over the long-term.
Start building your blog’s brand universe today
By now, you should feel suitably equipped with these proven tactics to start ranking your blog content higher in Google.
Now is the time to put the tactics into action. Start creating comprehensive, intent-matching posts around high-potential, long-tail keywords in your niche. Find those gaps that your competitors overlooked and make irresistible titles that draw in the clicks.
The journey to page one of Google is completely achievable through dedication and smart SEO moves. So why stay struggling in anonymity for a moment longer?
I’m currently building the Content Authority Club – a membership community to help experts, coaches, and consultants get visible online and build an expert brand universe for their business with the help of SEO and AI.
We’ll have monthly VIP masterclasses, hot seats, live Q&As, challenges, and custom AI prompts/trainings – plus a supportive and lively community. Click here to join the waiting list (and get the lowest ever pricing on launch).
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