I Want To Be Number One On Google

If wishes were fishes

“I want to be number 1 on Google” is something many people just starting out in online business say. The task seems almost impossible of course, but imagine – if you could be, what phrase would you wish to be Number 1 for?

It’s no good if thousands of people visit your website, if none of them are interested in what you sell. If you don’t have the products or services your visitors are interested in, or if they’re just there to browse, you are no use to them, and they are of no use to you either.

What do you want, and what do your customers want?

What service do you provide for your customers? What problems do they have that you solve? Are they looking for information, or are they looking to buy something? If they are looking for information, can your website persuade them to buy what you are selling? What is their search intent.

(Click here to learn more about Search Intent)

What do you specialise in, and what unique selling points can you add to your sales pitch? If you are an artist, what form of art do you create? Paintings, sculptures, drawings? If you paint, do you use oils or acrylics? What kind of subject matter do you paint? There are more searches for specific items online than general queries, so this is a market is just waiting for you to tap into.

Long-tail keywords

Using long tail keywords gives you a much better chance of being ranked highly for those terms. You can create a long-tail keyword by combining different aspects of your trade and speciality, into a phrase that can catch two or more different searches. This can give you the best of both worlds. You can be found as an ‘oil portrait painter in Caterham’, and you can also be found as a ‘painter’.

The only difference is that you have a much better chance of rating highly in search engines for the first term than the second.

A long-tail keyword gives both people looking for an ‘oil portrait painter’ and people who are looking for a ‘painter in Caterham’ a chance of finding you: as good a chance as if you had chosen a keyword that was just the one phrase.

More likely to buy

The best part of long-tail keywords is that you can match with a searcher who is looking for exactly what you do, and when that match does happen, they are much more likely to make a purchase than someone just browsing for a ‘painter’, for example. If you create a very unique and specialised key phrase, you really can be number one in Google for something. It’s just a matter of being precise.

A guide to getting found in the online world – by the people that want to find you

Trying to be number one for a general search term is no good
Be more specific – what do you sell, and what kind of those things do you sell?
Include where you are if it is possible or relevant – search engines love geo-locations
Try a left-field approach – Have your website ask and answer a question many of your customers come up with

So for both cats and websites, long tails are good. Remember this when writing content online, and you really can be number one in Google.