Everyone wants to get their website to the first page of the Google search results, but few people consider what they’re actually going to do once they get there. If you’re thinking that you’re just going to sit back and watch the conversions roll in, you’re not seeing the entire picture. Getting the first page of Google is a lot like getting accepted into an Ivory League college.
In other words, your website is going to be tested by the search engines and your visitors, and if it fails the test, it might lose its position on page one. In this article, we’ll be talking about how to get from the bottom of page one, into the top three, and even top position.
How Does the Game Change When You Get to Page One?
In many other articles on this site, we’ve discussed the growing importance of user behaviors when it comes to Google’s criteria for evaluating websites. While good keyword research, on-page SEO, content creation, quality backlink building and a little patience can get your site to page one, the game starts to change when you get closer to the top.
There are a few reasons for this:
1. More Traffic Means More Data Regarding User Behaviors
When you get to the first page of Google, especially when your site rises into the top three or four positions above the fold, you start attracting more traffic. This can be a bad thing or a good thing. If the flood of new traffic increases and the majority of that traffic is leaving your site right away or not clicking on your links, that’s a flood of data that tells the search engines that your site isn’t giving users what they want.
The good side of this is that the more traffic you have, the faster you can analyze user behaviors and make the appropriate changes to your site which will provide your users with a better experience. We’ll talk more about how to do this in a second.
2. The Competition is More High Caliber
The top pages on Google page one have usually been around for a while and many of them have held the top positions within the search results. Google isn’t likely to change their mind and put your site in those positions while knocking the other sites down a few notches to make room for yours. This means you have to work harder to create a site that is engaging and which will show the search engines that your site deserves to be in position three, two, or even one.
Let’s talk about how to do this.
Plan for the Future, Starting Right Now
There’s an old saying that goes: “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” This is certainly true when it comes to your journey to the top position of the Google search results. The time to analyze user behaviors and fix the “holes” in your website is when you’re on pages four, three, or two and you only have a trickle of traffic. This way, you’ll be well prepared for ascending from the bottom of page one to the top and for the flood of traffic which will surely come.
So in addition to your backlink building strategy, start analyzing your traffic using Google Analytics and optimizing your site to increase your number of positive user behaviors.
Three Ways to Optimize Your Site for Positive User Behaviors
There are three primary things you can look for when analyzing user behaviors:
1. How your visitors are finding your pages
Look for the traffic sources which are bringing the highest volume of qualified traffic to your pages, and start directing the majority of your attention towards those sources. For example, if you’re using three or four sites for article marketing and one of them is bringing the majority of your traffic, start directing all of your attention towards that site. Also, look for the article topics which are bringing the highest volume of qualified traffic to your pages and start focusing your attention only on those topics.
2. How relevant your pages are to the traffic source
Relevancy is very important when it comes to SEO, and this is why you want to make your site content and offers as consistent as possible with the traffic sources which are feeding that page. For example, if you’re selling dog training products and find that the article topic or keyword “how to get rid of dog aggression” is bringing a lot of traffic, customize that page and the offer on that page to make it more relevant with dog aggression training.
3. The path your visitors are following
Analyzing the path that your visitors are following will give you a good idea of what they’re searching for when they arrive on your site. For example, using the Google Analytics "navigation summary”, you can find out what page most of your visitors clicked on after landing on the home page, and every page they clicked on from there until they left your site.
If you find that the majority of your visitors are landing on your home page, then going directly to your “products and services” page, that might be a sign that you need more information about your products and services right on your home page.
Conclusion: How to Use the Data You’ve Gathered
Once you know what keywords and content topics are bringing you the highest volume of qualified traffic and once you’ve examined how relevant your pages are to those traffic sources AND once you have a clear idea of what path your visitors are following when they arrive on your site, you can tweak your traffic generation and the content/offers on your site to match your visitor’s behaviors. This data will also help you improve your marketing funnel so that you’re giving your visitors exactly what they want.
The more you do this, the more positive user behaviors your site will generate, and when the traffic starts to increase, the numbers will speak for themselves. In time, the search engines will find that your site deserves a top position on page one, and with a little patience, you’ll reach your goal. Of course, there are more things you’ll need to learn and apply to ensure your SEO success.
That’s why we’re offering you a specifically targeted email course that teaches you the pure unfiltered truth about how to achieve high rankings and good conversions. To get instant access to this email course and weekly up to date SEO tips, fill in the form below. Thanks for visiting SEOsitecheckup.com.
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