One of the biggest desires for businesses worldwide is being at the top of the search results. It doesn’t matter if you’re a solopreneur or you’re the CMO of a global corporation. You want that precious first position!

The first position is essential for businesses. SEO is an extremely competitive industry with all levels and types of providers that are always testing different ways to rank their websites higher. One of the main complexities is that there’s a lot of science and information, but not a single source of truth.

Multiple organizations offer certificates, but not a single one can guarantee that their alumni will get sites in the first position. This is a guarantee that no one can offer.

If your SEO vendor guarantees to rank in the first position, please run as far as you can, you and your website will get hurt.

It’s not a secret that the first position could drive a significant amount of business opportunities. Research shows that the average click-through rate (CTR) for the first position in Google is 28.5%. In contrast, position 10 only receives a 2.5% CTR for users clicking on the result.

Sistrix analysis on CTR on search results pages
Sistrix analysis on CTR on search results pages

The secret to high rankings in search engines

Most marketers and website owners forget that Google and the other search engines are also websites, and they also need to optimize their conversion rates. This means making sure that they offer the best solution for their user’s needs. As mentioned I mentioned before, think about the user and don’t chase the algorithm.

In my experience, 4 major factors are essential to reach good rankings:

1. Content Strategy

It’s important to differentiate between content and content strategy for a website. The popular belief is that you need to create a multitude of content pieces for every keyword you want to rank.
Creating just a vast volume of content is expensive and counterproductive. Most likely, 80% to 90% of that content won’t drive value to your website and may actually hurt more than help. Instead, try thinking about an educational session with your audience. Who’s your audience, and why do they need to talk to you? How can you help them? And why should they hire or buy from you?

2. User Experience

User Experience – Now that you know how you want to interact with your audience, think about the best way to present your message and the next steps you want them to take. Remember when your parents hold your hand while crossing the street? Well, this is the digital version of that experience.
Remember the ultimate goal of your website and remove as many speedbumps as you can. For example, don’t ask a first-time visitor that just arrived at your site to join your mailing list. They don’t know you, they may not even like you yet, that could be annoying and get people to bounce out of your website. Can you imagine being greeted by a group of noisy clowns at a high-end store?

3. Technical Excellence

This is probably the most common assimilation of SEO; it’s incredibly technical and challenging. Truthfully, it can be, but having the right team and building a solid foundation, will reduce costs and complexity along the way.
Many times we trade efficiency and reliability for a few dollars a year. For example, using the cheapest hosting, you can find. Or selecting a platform because it’s free without considering all the requirements for your business needs. Remember, just because you can see a website load means that it is technically competent.

4. Consistency

This is probably the most difficult one to accomplish. It’s normal to forget to continue investing time, effort, and resources to grow a website. In many cases, websites are updated after many years of neglect. Then the expectation is that by redesigning the site, it will show up in first positions by an act of magic. Instead, create workflows where you involve your teams to keep evolving the website and the content. After all, users and competitors evolve daily.

We all know that getting good results in life requires time, effort, teamwork, education, and strategy; SEO is not different. The right SEO strategy can make a big difference in how you get the results you envision and how long they last.