Ooooh, I love it when a plan comes together! I’m now number one on Google for the keyword “social media management” in Google.ie. To get this ranking in less than two months with a brand new WordPress site is kinda sweet and I figured I might as well tell you exactly what I’ve done to get number one on Google.
As always, first things first. How did I spot that I was number one on Google? Well, I have an SEO routine and on a daily basis I monitor the progress of my keywords to try ascertain if what I’m doing is paying off. So, the first thing you’ve got to do to get to number one is form a routine. “But Rob, what routine?”, I hear you ask – read on.
Number One on Google – How I Did It
As part of my daily routine I do the following things. Some of them are more time consuming than others, some more boring than others but as I’ve mentioned time and time again, you’ve got to push yourself.
- Do keyword research to find some juicy keywords (juicy being high volume, low competition) and then iterate with the best keywords you find. Continually build your keyword list – you’ll find that it itself will become a source of content creation and give you ideas for blog posts.
- Write blog posts – lots of them, and with every post you write have it focused on one particular keyword. When you’re writing blog posts you are, to a degree, writing for two audiences. The first audience is your fellow man – who like to be entertained and enlightened in equal amounts. The second audience is Google, and if you want to get to number one in Google, you can’t forget to optimise your posts. On-site optimisation is the bedrock of any SEO success. At times Google can seem to be heartless but you still have to cater to it, one of the most demanding audiences going.
- Expand your social footprint and embrace the social media grind. As SEO and social continue to merge you’ve got to get yourself in the game. Just go for it. Don’t hum, don’t haw, just go for it….with this little caveat. Don’t go for it in the mindset that you’d imagine you should approach business in. You’ve got to give before you get. Turn your intuition upside-freaking-down and dip your toes well and truly into social media, or new media, or whatever they’re calling it these days. (Feel free to track me down – links are on the right hand side.)
- Leave blog comments on other peoples blogs that relate to your niche. When leaving comments, like I said before, don’t go on a spamathon-blog-comment-binge-fest but instead leave comments that you’d like to receive. And, when leaving comments, use the same e-mail address that is associated with your Google + property. I’m not entirely sure how or why but I think Google Plus is going to become more and more important to SEO going forward and the things you do across the social web using your Google + account the better.
- Go to forums, read blog posts about your niche, leave comments and interact. On some boards you can create a signature and have a link back to your site (you can even use anchor text for some of them, schwing). Don’t go to spammy forums though – go to reputable ones. With nearly everything you do online bear in mind that Google is watching. With the Penguin and Panda updates if you want to get to number one on Google the links coming back to your site have to be reputable, junk links begets junk rankings.
- Keep your SERPs neat and tidy. No one likes a messy house – especially Google. Pay attention to all alerts you get in Google Web Master Tools and redirect 404’s or fix whatever errors you have as and when they appear. And errors will occur, they always do, just don’t freak out and fix them – simples.
- Iterate and improve! Always be on the look out for new ways to improve your SEO efforts. Spend a part of your day studying, researching and understanding so that you can continue to iterate and improve.
Expand your social media footprint – track me down online
Number One on Google – How I Did It
Woah boy, this post is getting long – if you’ve read down all this way then fair dues – push on! It’ll be worth it when you can capture a screen shot or two of your keywords ranking number one on Google.
Number One on Google for Social Media Management
The above 7 things form the basis of what I do every day (or, try to do every day, we’re all only human and clients work comes first but aim for every day!) and as the screen shots show they have thankfully paid off and I’m number one on Google for social media management. Do I think the above 7 things are enough for every site to get to number one? Being honest, no.
“it’s gotten a whole lot more holistic”
The Google game has changed. It’s no longer just about the backlinks or on-site SEO, it’s gotten a whole lot more holistic. Site speed, host location, host type – these things have now come into play.
Also, the platform you choose is key. From my point of view, if you want to build a site that will get organic web traffic and get to number one on Google then use WordPress. It will make the aforementioned daily routine a lot more efficient. The way WordPress stores data is very Google friendly and hence Google rewards it with higher rankings. I’m not saying that simply using WordPress is like sprinkling angel dust on your SEO mission, you’ll still have to embrace the grind, but if you were ever going to get there, you’ll get there quicker with WordPress.
Anyway, there you have it – pretty much all the things I’ve done on near daily basis to get to number one on Google. Now that I’m here it’s time to iterate – always iterate!
Leave a comment below if you’ve any tips or tricks on how you got to number one on Google – sharing is caring and all that good stuff.