Why You’re Websites Not # 1 on Google.

Being # 1 on Google is what it’s all about.

If your business relies on SEO and being really high on Google, then knowing why you are not #1 is a first step in rectifying any issues you may have.

Knowing why you just can’t seem to crack position number 1 is invaluable if you are ever going to achieve this high status. Believe me, when I tell you this, being on page 1 is not just not good enough, you really need to be in the top 3 positions and this is the real reality of Google. Search Engine Journal in their article Over 25% of People Click the First Google Search Result tells us that a study of billions of search results finds over a quarter of Google searchers click on the first organic result. So if you want to get the bulk of traffic your digital marketing goal needs to be position 1.

Most companies I know are content to site on page 1 or even 2 of Google. I for one, do not accept this and feel that you are either in the top 3 positions or you are nowhere. This is the way we operate at SEO Sydney Experts. If you are not right up there, then we are not happy. So why is it that your website seems to never be able to get to that coveted # 1 position?

I bet you didn’t know that average CTR falls dramatically after position one, with the second and third positions having a 15% and 11% click-through rate respectively. These results go to show you just how vital position 1 is. The tenth position in Google has a  sorry 3.5% click-through rate. So if you are super-excited that you are on page 1 of Google hold the champagne for now as the challenge is still ahead of you.

The biggest reason that I know of is that you have decided to use an SEO company that doesn’t know what they are doing. Whilst this may be a bitter pill to swallow because you were probably told in the initial discussions or meetings with them that they could perform miracles and they probably showed you other sites that they got to page 1 etc etc.

It’s a real letdown to be told that your SEO, that you have trusted for months or even years has dropped the ball and does not know what works and what doesn’t work with Google. After all, you have been paying them a respectable fee each month and you expect results.

The real reality is that many SEO companies are just sales fronts for collecting your money and all your work is outsourced overseas. This is a real worry and the main reason, why your rankings have not progressed up the queue. Shoddy, shonky, sloppy SEO work is the catalyst for poor rankings and in some severe cases a manual action or site penalty.

I strongly suggest that if you have given your current SEO company enough time to work on your campaign and they just can’t quite seem to get you the results you were looking for, then it’s time to make a switch. There is absolutely no point in hanging around with these guys in the hope that some miracle will happen and your rankings will turn around. If they can’t get you to # 1 or very close by now, the chances are they never will.

If you are in a contract with them and you want to leave then all I can suggest is that you pay out the contract in full, learn from your mistake and move on to bigger and better things. Yes, you will take a loss, but it’s much better to start resuscitating those ranking slumps now, than waiting another 6 months or even a year. Think of all that lost business and the opportunity cost of not making the decision to move on.

Far too many businesses who search for SEO companies on Google come across unfortunately SEO agencies that offer PAGE 1 GUARANTEES. This is another very real reason why your website is not # 1 on Google. The answer for this is so simple that I cannot believe that people still fall for this scam.

Related post: Pay Peanuts for SEO, your going to pay for it later!

So how does it work? These shonksters will offer you a page 1 guarantee for your keywords and once they are ranking they get you to sign up with them. Well, they may rank some keywords BUT which ones are they and are these the ones you want to rank. I can bet anything that these are the easiest ones to rank and in many cases, they probably already are (without you knowing it). Once ranking, you get the phone call and BOOM, you are in a contract. From this point onwards they have you and boy oh boy are you stuffed. These tossers will not do anything with your SEO and if you try to wriggle out of the contract you are going to get a letter from their legal team. This is the way it works with a huge number of SEO companies around Australia and it leaves people very distrustful of the few good guys who operate ethically.

Google comes out with some really big algorithmic updates and one of the latest was designed to look at sites that were thin on content. These sites will not rank as high as they could because of the lack of good, quality content. Getting by with a few paragraphs and thinking you will hit # 1 is not an option anymore.

A real-life example happened just this morning when a landscape designer in Sydney phoned me up and was concerned that he was always sitting at the bottom of page 1 and could never get into the top 3. A quick look at his website diagnosed 1 of the issues and that was his lack of content. His main service offering page, ‘ landscape architects Sydney’ had only 2 or 3 paragraphs. His current SEO team should have picked this up and this should have been addressed months ago. If he decides to use us, this will be the first thing that I take a look at. Saying this, our strategy is much more involved than a quick content fix. This again is only 1 of the problems that we would mitigate early on in his campaign to ensure better page 1 rankings.

Page title descriptions are the first thing that needs to be looked at with all websites. Incorrect titles are a contributing factor to poor SEO results. Titles may seem like a quick fix but there is an art to these so it’s best to leave it to people that have experience in this field. Doing it yourself and thinking you’ve got it right, is a common mistake. Leaving just 1 word out or having them in the wrong order could hinder rankings.

The last reason why you are not # 1 on Google is your actual website. If it hasn’t been looked at in years or it has been poorly designed with little or no SEO in mind, then you are going to have some serious ‘on page’ issues. I have seen websites that are just so bad that even a page 10 ranking is out of the question.

There are so many ‘on page’ web components that need to tick boxes that again, like everything to do with SEO, its better to leave it to a team of experts like us here at SEO SYDNEY EXPERTS.

If you find that you are struggling to see an upward momentum in your rankings, why not contact us here on 02 9360 8514– I can take a quick look over the phone and probably tell you what the ranking issues are and ways to go about fixing them