How to Push Okay-Ranking Content Over The Edge Onto The First Page

We all have that problem as SEOs where we have been working for months trying to get first page rankings for certain keywords. Back in the “black-hat” days, we would just order thousands of links with a certain anchor-text, and boom! A first-class ticket to the first page of the SERPs.

Now…welcome to 2017 where Google has a strangle on all things search, and if you try any of that garbage, it will do way more harm than good. Doing the above-mentioned items will get you thrown into the Google Penalty

[Box] and instead of just a few minutes, it will be months of trying to gain your results back.

So how does one get their content onto the first page? There has to be a better way.

Guess what? There is and I’m going to tell you about it.

Start With the Second Page of SERPs

Google Search Console is a great tool. It can tell you exactly where each page is being seen at by Google and is telling you which queries are pushing the rankings in that direction. Some of your pages might be on the front page already, so let’s focus on the second-page results in the 11-20 position range.

These positions 11-14 are the death to most people because when they hit that position and never vary from it, it makes thing difficult. In my eyes, I see these positioned pages as having the most opportunity.

I’d like to introduce the Top & Quasi audit. This audit will help you identify your almost first page pieces of content and help push them over the edge.

Identify a page on the verge of the 1st page (usually ranking 11-14)
Identify queries that have high impressions, high clicks, and set them aside.
Check your page and make sure this page has all of the above keywords in there and multiple times.
Fix your title tag to have the main keyword above, as the very first in the string of the title tag.
Adjust your meta description to include the keyword or keywords.
Check your internal linking for your site and see if there are any links going to that page. If there aren’t any, set aside some time to find 10-15 opportunities on your site that would make sense to link back to the audited page.
Do link-building and link back to the page in question. We’ve found that by getting 1-2 more links could push it over the edge.
Once all changes are made, resubmit your page to Google Fetch & Render tool to get it indexed immediately.

Through our research and experience, you should be able to get your content to the first page using these tactics.

Earn Links & Engagement

Are you having trouble getting links to your content? Have you shared it on your social media channels? Do you have any friends that could share your content?

Always leverage your closest contacts first. They are usually down to post things if you ask nice enough.

If you’re in need of getting your content ranking or pushing it over the edge, you can always update your content. Adding images, videos, infographics, quizzes, etc. This will make users more inclined to share your content. Making it fun and interactive will make stale content more engaging and more consumable.

Always remember there is always more to do on your site. Always make the best out of your ideas and do the research to make sure that content was worth creating in the first place.

Ryan Skidmore