Every business wants to know how to rank at top of Google and its search engine.
And, they want to know how long it will take to do so.
The answer is different depending on who you ask.
You’ve probably seen sites peddling “Climb To The Top Of Google Search Engine” programs promising to get your business ranked #1 on the Google search rankings for just three easy payments of $99.95.
You know, the ones with the garish banners and a thousand pop-up windows that immediately freeze up your web browser.
They all promise to deliver “Top of Google Search Engine Rankings overnight!”
Sadly, all of these offers are a scam. They are the equivalent of 21st century snake oil salesmen trying to take your money.
Even worse than that – not only do they not work, but using shady SEO practices can hurt your business.
Using illegal SEO practices (or hiring someone to do so on your company’s behalf) can get your website penalized by Google’s search ranking system.
And this could prevent your website from showing up in any of Google’s search pages all together.
Scary, right?
If you want to rank at the top of Google search engine’s ranking the safe and smart way you need to hire an experienced, professional SEO expert.
Here’s why.
Rank At Top Of Google: Appeasing The Algorithm
Every business is different, even within the same industry.
And the Google search engine is getting better and better at being able to tell similar businesses apart from each other.
It does this by measuring how well business websites rank according to the criteria of their search engine and algorithms.
(Algorithms are a fancy way of saying “sets of rules used for calculations and problem-solving operations by computers.”)
Basically, the Google search engine uses these algorithms (that it updates almost constantly) to measure important data pertaining to websites.
It then analyzes this data to rank similar websites from highest to lowest in regards to which will show up first in the Google search engine and rankings pages.
Obviously, the goal is to get your website’s data to line up with Google’s algorithm to soar to the top of their ranking charts.
So, let’s talk about how to do this.
Rank At Top Of Google: How Google Finds Pages
First, it will be helpful to explain how Google finds websites to rank within its search engine pages.
Google makes and deploys special programs called “Googlebots” (also called “bots” and “spiders”) to crawl through millions of websites (and their pages and posts) each day.
These bots collect and catalog all of a website’s data and add it to a Google index of the entire worldwide web.
These are some pretty busy bots.
And, since they are so busy, you want to make sure the information on your website is as accurate and easy to index as possible.
And you want the content on your website to contain all of the pertinent keywords and phrases that are related to your business and the search terms you wish to dominate at the top of Google’s search results.
When people do a Google search what they’re really doing is searching the Google index of information for all of the sites that it has crawled on the web.
Rank At Top Of Google: How Google Ranks Pages
Great, now that you know how Google finds websites, let’s talk about how it ranks them in its search index.
The formula for Google’s ranking algorithm is constantly changing (and something the company does not openly share with public).
However, there are several key known criteria that websites need to satisfy to ensure a spot at the top of Google’s ranking charts.
Rank At Top Of Google: Search Engine Criteria
SEO
Search Engine Optimization, better know as SEO, makes certain that a website is not only visible to Google’s spiderbots but that the site contains the correct search keywords, titles, image text and headings as well.
It’s important that these input points occur just enough times (but not too often) throughout a website’s pages to achieve a high SEO score.
A good SEO expert constantly monitors your site’s SEO performance to make sure it is optimized for peak exposure and discovery by of Google’s search index and algorithm seeking bots.
Domain Age
Yep, Google is a bit of an ageist when it comes to ranking websites.
And it considers any website less than six months old to be a “new” site.
This means how long the website has actually be up and live on the web, not how long someone has owned the URL for it.
Own a URL for ten years but have only built and posted a live website on it last week? Then, according to Google’s search engine, your website is only one-week old.
Google considers older sites to be more reliable and less likely to post spurious or unverified information.
However, don’t fret.
Sites less than six months old can still climb the ranks within the Google search index.
And, these rankings usually improve significantly once a site is live past the six-month mark.
Keyword Competition
Keywords are words and phrases most often entered by users when using the Google search engine. The more often words are searched for the more “competitive” Google considers them to be.
Older websites hold a slight advantage here because Google tends to skew keyword rankings in favor of sites that have been around longer.
However, newer sites can offset this by focusing on building trust with Google’s search bots.
This is done by focusing SEO content on less competitive keywords before tackling more competitive search terms.
Less competitive keywords are ones that are searched for less frequently and can also become part of a website’s long term SEO strategy.
Rank At The Top Of Google: Content Quality
Google’s spiderbots work constantly to verify that a website’s content is as fresh and relevant to users as possible.
There are several factors that Google takes into account when measuring a website’s quality index:
- Length Of Posts
- Timeliness Of Content
- Original Content
Here is a more detailed breakdown of each.
Rank At Top Of Google: Length Of Posts
Google discourages online marketers from just throwing up as many random websites and posts as possible.
Although lots of unscrupulous folks have tried (and failed) to do so over the years.
One way Google combats these “junk” websites is by measuring the length of each post on a website.
Usually, the longer a website’s posts are, the more credible a website will be in regard to the Google search index.
SEO content posts should always be a minimum of 300 words to ensure a good Google ranking.
However, longer posts ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 words perform even better.
A longer post tells Google that your website is a true authority on the subject that it covers.
Rank At Top Of Google: Timeliness Of Content
The Google search engine values certain types of content over others when it comes to relevance.
Particularly, posts and content about current and breaking news events will rank higher in search than those about less time-sensitive topics.
Hence, it’s smart to have a mix of “evergreen” posts on your website (articles that topics that stay relevant for a very long time).
But you should also be sure to add some fresh, current event related content to your site on regular basis, too
Rank At Top Of Google: Original Content
This almost goes without saying, but let’s say (or type) it anyway just to drive the point home.
The Google search engine loves original content and ignores (and often penalizes) redundant, cut-and-paste and/or plagiarized content.
Google’s spiderbots can index an entire website in seconds while simultaneously cross-referencing all of its content with every other site in the entire Google search index.
Don’t try to pull a fast one and dump mountains of plagiarized or duplicate content onto your website.
You won’t be able to slip it past Google.
Rank At Top Of Google: Additional Search Engine Criteria
Domain Cleanliness
No, this isn’t a rating of how G-rated or not your website content is. Although Google’s not a big fan of adult content, so be sure to keep yours family-friendly and professional.
Having a “clean domain” means whether or not your website has even been flagged for trying to cheat Google’s search index system.
Penalized sites do this by overusing keywords (AKA “keyword stuffing”) or buying fraudulent “backlinks” (links to your websites from spammy, low-rated content sites).
Both of these practices can get your site penalized by Google and will detrimentally effect (i.e. completely torpedo) your site’s search index rating.
Suddenly your website will disappear entirely from Google search results all together.
So, as far as bad keyword and backlink practices go: Don’t use them!
Quality External Reference Links
On the other hand, links to your website from verified, high-quality, legitimate internet sources improve your ranking within the Google search index.
The best way to get these type of quality backlinks is to post really good, useful and relevant content. You know, the kind of content real people will actually want to use and share with others.
How Often New Content Is Added
One more thing Google takes into account when ranking search engine pages is how often you post new content to your website.
Google’s spiderbots have a big appetites and will grow bored and unsatisfied with stale old content that just sits dormant on your site for weeks, months and years at time.
It’s your job to keep these bots well-fed.
And you can do this by producing a steady stream of fresh content for them to feast on.
If you post new content at least two or three times a week your website’s content will be crawled, indexed and added to Google’s search index much more quickly.
In fact, almost immediately in many cases.
This yet another secondary benefit of having a solid rank at top of Google SEO plan for your business.
Rank At Top Of Google: How Long Does It Take?
Now that you’ve got the gist of how SEO rankings work, let’s talk about how long it takes to reach the top of the Google search engine rankings.
As stated above, it takes a while to earn Google’s trust and improve your website’s reputation with their search and website indexing system.
However, if you utilize a good SEO plan and build a quality website that features continually updated and optimized content, your site will be at the top of the ranking charts in no time.
Or, almost no time.
It actually takes about six months.
Rank At Top Of Google: OMFG, Six Months,?!?
Yes, six months might seem like a long time.
But in the world of SEO it isn’t.
Especially if you’ve ever been swindled and let down by internet hucksters who promised faster results and couldn’t deliver.
Or, who got your website penalized by Google.
Six months of quality SEO execution is a very short time to wait for a website that will show up on the front page of Google ahead of all of your competitors.
And, even better, after your site has passed the six-month mark your page rankings will improve faster and faster.
This is especially true if you are using and continue to use the SEO techniques outlined above.
Laying the initial groundwork can be difficult. But you’ll reap the rewards for years to come if you stick to your initial six-month SEO search ranking master plan.
Rank At Top Of Google: Trust Earned, Trust Rewarded
Once you earn the Google search engine’s trust it will reward you.
Google will consider your site the go-to page on the web for the type of content you publish and the industry your business serves.
Couple this with specific geographic targeting practices and you will dominate Google’s front page search results in your region in no time.
For example, let’s say you own a plumbing business in the Dallas-Fortworth area.
When a customer searches for a “DFW area plumber” your company’s name and contact info will be the first pop up on the top of their computer or phone screen.
And you’ll be able to do it for any keywords and phrases that you set your company’s sights on.
Proper SEO optimization can do this for any local business – bars, restaurants, automotive repair shops, dry cleaners, daycare providers, book stores, dog groomers… you name it.
Rank At The Top Of Google: Next Steps
Does all of this have you excited about optimizing, streamlining and supercharging your business website’s SEO program?
It should because this type of website improvement can increase your company’s sales by hundreds if not thousands of dollars every month.
Do you want thousands of dollars in additional sales every month?
If so, sit down and spend the next 20 minutes planning out your six-month SEO ranking plan and you’re website or business will be rocketing up the Google search rankings in no time.
Well, six months or so, but you get what I mean.
Good luck!
