I want to appear at the top of google - Part 1

by Andy Carroll, 13 Aug 2011

Search engine performance is often measured by the "SERP" which stands for Search Engine Results Page. A well ranked website will appear on page one among the top three or four links for a keyword (disregarding sponsored advert links).

Assuming the search words are popular, a link to your website in this prime position of the search results page is important since it will likely result in a visit and possibly a sale or conversion.

How can I achieve a listing on page one?

To answer this question it will help to try and understand how search engines, and specifically Google, chooses the "Relevancy" of a page and how this affects position on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

What is "Search Relevancy"?

Search engines process a copy of each web page into an "index" which can be though of as an optimised text based copy of the page with all the unimportant information removed. The page will become a positive relevant search result depending on when and where the phrase might be found. If a search term is found in the body text of the page likely it will be a relevant page, if found in the title or headline even more chance it will be relevant. Collectively these positive matches arrive at a score which measures how relevant the page might be to a search phrase.

This however is just a simple overview of the process and in reality much more information is taken into account. Apart from the "Relevance" of the page to a specific search term the "Authority" of a domain to that term is also a factor.

What is "Search Authority"?

From a search engine point of view, a domain grows its “Authority” for a topic over time. The saying "Your character can be judged by the company you keep" is a good way to think of the “Authority” process. Links from related websites to a page create more “Authority” for the domain. If these links are from high "Authority" sources this is further enriched. Like an academic paper which is written by an expert author having lots of other expert authors referencing his work ... because the author is so widely referenced he becomes the “Authority” on the topics he writes about.

If the author has "Authority" for a topic related to a search phrase and his work contains words which are "relevant" to the search phrase there is a very good chance that the researcher will be interested in seeing the authors page among the search engine results.

Conclusion

The purpose of a search engine is to provide the most relevant results to its visitors so the best strategy for good rankings involves becoming the most relevant. Having keyword rich content relevant to the phrases you are targeting is the first step then building your domains reputation for expertise in that topic. If your content is unique, important and interesting - links should start to grow and build your "Authority" over time, perhaps with a little help and promotion along the way. However, if your content is not attractive enough to encourage links you have a serious problem not uncommon with the millions of other sites below page one in the SERP. Some of the websites competing for that page one result are likely to be doing everything right and you need to be as good or better. Maybe it is time to be honest and focus on the hard work and creativity needed to build a more solid foundation for your ranking ambitions... donating the expertise you have on a regular blog. Publishing unique free tools for download, providing statistics or valuable expert commentary in your industry sector.

Failing that you will just have to accept that your attractive five page "About Us" website does not really deserve to be on page one.

I want to appear at the top of google - Part 1

How can I achieve a listing on page one?

What is "Search Relevancy"?

What is "Search Authority"?

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