The eternal question of beginners is how to get to the first position on Google. The answer is not at all simple, and the solution is far from a few steps.
In most texts, you will get the answer: not at all. Which is quite accurate. For the first position, you need technical knowledge first and foremost, and secondly, experience. If you don’t have at least one of these two, you’ve significantly reduced your chances of getting to the first position.
Of course, not all is lost. As before, we will focus on WordPress, which can, of course, be used for other CMS or regular HTML websites.
The basic rule for Google is:
Links must be friendly URLs (you can Google this to read more), for example, hostgistic.com/how-to-get-first-position-on-google instead of hostgistic.com/?postid=332
The title must also contain keywords. For example, “How to be first on Google.rs” rather than “Become first.”
One of the mistakes with titles is that besides the title, a lot is added, for example, “Title | keyword | Site name.” This is the wrong approach and can only harm rather than contribute. The title must be short and contain two or three keywords, and that’s it.
The description must contain the same as the link and the same as the title in the first sentence to enable better ranking. Be careful that the sentences make sense and are not just randomly thrown keywords.
This is the basic thing you need to do and pay attention to at the beginning. Without this, you definitely won’t be anywhere near the first page, let alone the first position.
As for all of this in WordPress, it is quite simplified. Friendly URLs are set up right below the title, so you can easily change and create them as you wish. As for the title, it also stays as you put it, and as for the description, a plugin is needed. We definitely recommend the Yoast SEO plugin, which is currently the leading one in this regard.
When you install it, in each post at the bottom, you will see an example of how it looks on Google, and you can set everything there; it’s extremely simple and has no complicated settings.
Now that we have gained a proper understanding of what is needed, we must say that it is not enough. It could be that way, but the progress would be excruciatingly slow without Google’s help, which it provides through its webmasters tools site (open Google and type it in, the first link)
In this Google tool, you will find literally everything you need to get to the first page and the first position, literally everything, and you need nothing else.
First of all, you need to add the site and verify it, i.e., that you are the owner. After that, you need to add a sitemap.xml created by the Yoast plugin or another one of your choice. Be careful, the sitemap is extremely important to Google, and it searches your site that way.
When you have finished that, there is nothing left but to wait.
On the webmasters’ tools, you also have search statistics and positions for specific keywords, so you can change the description, title, or text on the home page to rank better. Explore a little; every minute you spend searching is a minute closer to the first position on Google.
All of this can be bypassed if you pay someone who deals with it, and they do all of this instead of you. But since you came to this text, you decided to do it yourself. So spend a lot of time studying Google webmasters tools.
What exactly affects the ranking of the site itself?
The most accurate answer is: EVERYTHING!
Without any exaggeration, that is the correct answer. In addition to what we mentioned above, i.e., SEO optimization, the quality of the texts, the quality of the images, the site’s clarity (without too many ads or images covering the content), mobile optimization, having HTTPS (SSL), being connected to social networks (Facebook, Google+, Twitter), and having other websites linking to yours… Literally, all of these factors affect better ranking and optimization. Some things have a greater impact, while others have less, but without all of these, significant results in ranking are hard to achieve.
We hope we’ve helped and covered the very basics when it comes to SEO optimization and ranking on Google.
And finally, let’s repeat that you can’t be first on Google for everything, but only for specific keywords. There is no website that is first for any search and any topic. Focus on your field and target the keywords from your area.
