Our Secret to Ranking No.1 On Google

We rank No.1 on Google for the highly competitive keyword SEO Auckland. Check for yourself – open Google in a new tab and do a search for “SEO Auckland”. Kiwi Website Design will be in the top position.

It’s always good to rank in position one on Google, but there is an additional measure of satisfaction when the businesses you are competing with all describe themselves as SEO experts.

So, how do we do it? What is our secret to ranking No.1 on Google?

We could write books on the intricacies of our SEO strategy that helped us get to No.1 on Google, but that level of detail is not important to your business. You don’t have the time or resources.

Instead, you need the key ingredients to help you get to position one on Google for the search phrases that are important to your business. Here’s our secret.

Our SEO Secret

As mentioned above, there are multiple elements to our SEO strategy. That said, there are five essential components that, put together, make up our secret to SEO success. They are:

• Improve Your Website’s SEO Structure
• Identify the Right Keywords to Target
• Make Your Content Better than the Rest
• Build Links to Your Content
• Monitor Performance

Let’s delve into the above in more detail.

Step 1: Improve Your Website’s SEO Structure

If your website looks crap on mobile devices, your Google rankings will look like crap too.

If the pages on your website load slowly, you will annoy users plus Google will swipe left on your site (if you’re not up to speed with online dating references, this means Google is likely to choose another site for the top positions on its search results pages instead of yours).

If you don’t have optimised page titles, you are shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to SEO.

If you don’t have unique, optimised meta descriptions, you will find SEO an uphill battle.

We’re running out of (and are getting bored with) the metaphors and clichés, but you get the idea: if your website doesn’t have an optimised SEO structure, you will find it difficult – very difficult – to get to position one on Google for the keywords that are most important to your business.

Step 2: Identifying the Right Keywords to Target

Speaking of keywords, this brings us to our next step – identifying the right ones to target.

You may have an idea of the keywords that you want to rank at position one on Google, but this is worth reviewing for a range of reasons:

• What is the search traffic for a keyword you are considering? If it doesn’t get much traffic, is there a better alternative?
• What is the competition like for the keyword? For example, does Amazon followed by eBay followed by a large NZ chain hold the top positions on Google? Will you have the resources to dislodge them, or should you find an alternative keyword to target?
• Where do you currently rank for the keyword? After all, it is much easier to move from position three to position one than from position 33 to position one.
• What is the user intent for the keyword you are considering targeting? Understanding user intent when targeting keywords is as important as the other factors listed above put together.

Always remember the ultimate goal of SEO. In most businesses, this means generating new leads and sales. There is no point in getting to No.1 on Google if you don’t get any new leads or sales as a result.

Step 3: Make Your Content Better than the Rest

Let’s use the Kiwi Website Design website as an example again for this point. Have a look at our SEO page – the one we rank at position one on Google for the keyword SEO Auckland.

If you compare this page to the pages of our competitors, you will see how we have worked hard to make our page better than the rest. Not only do we have more content, but we have content that is more informative, that is backed up by tangible results, and that provides useful advice.

You should strive for something similar – the perfectly optimized page.

Of course, nothing is perfect, and we regularly make tweaks and improvements to every page on our website.

However, you should strive for perfection as much as possible.

Step 4: Build Links to Your Content

Links have always been important to SEO in Auckland, and that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon. So, to reach No.1 on Google, you need to get as many links as possible, particularly from high-quality websites.

If you’ve got a fantastic, close to perfectly optimized page with brilliant, informative content, you will win links naturally.

You will also need a link building strategy to back this up and add even more links.

Step 5: Monitor Performance

The final step is to monitor the performance of your SEO strategy. This involves checking your ranking by running a Google search for the keywords you are targeting.

You should also check Google Analytics to monitor traffic levels to your website overall as well as traffic to specific, commercially important pages, i.e. the pages at the top of the priority list for your SEO strategy.

Google Search Console SEO tools will also help. Google Search Console provides additional information to add another level of depth to your analysis.

Don’t just research the stats, though, as you need to take action where you identify problems. If you see slippage from position one, for example, you’ll need to investigate why and then put in place actions to regain the top spot again.

The Secret Is Not Really a Secret

Here is the final bit of our secret to a No.1 Google ranking – it isn’t really a secret. You will find all the above tips and information on countless websites, including on the blog pages of our own site.

The key point is to bring it all together into a coherent strategy while also being consistent. This is where you will see your SEO efforts really start to deliver results.