Seeing your website among the top ten positions is not only gratifying – it’s a guarantee for success! Here are 5 tips on how to get on Google’s page 1.

“How to rank higher on Google in 2018?” is one of the key questions any company, start-up enterprise or blogger should be asking themselves. And what better way to get some answers than to type this question into your search engine, and start reading. What you will most probably read are the first three to five articles you’ll find on page one from your Google search results. Because that is how far 95% of all internet users look for answers – only 5% put in that extra effort and scroll a bit further down or even go onto page two of their Google search results. So how does SEO look like in 2018, and what can you do to boost your ranking on Google and Co.?

1. Safety first! Make your website secure with HTTPS

The “http” (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) basically allows web servers and web users to communicate with each other. In other words: http allows linking and browsing, thus,making it one of the bedrock fundaments of the WWW. The “S” behind the “HTTP” shows that your website is viewed via a safe connection making your internet appearance much more attractive for your users. Especially, if you offer services or sell goods on your website! Google on the other hand loves everything that enhances user experience. Thus, HTTPS is quite a big deal for the world’s biggest search engine! Around 65% of all sites found on the Goggle’s first page are secure. Google Chrome even issues a warning for all those websites that don’t offer HTTPS! If you want to upgrade your website to HTTPS, you will need to get a SSL-certificate (Secure Sockets Layer).

2. Go mobile or go to Google page 3+

If you have done some research on SEO in the last couple of years, you’ve most probably heard about the “mobile first-approach” when it comes to web design. Nowadays almost everybody is accessing the WWW over their smartphone or tablet; websites without responsive web design (RWD) are doomed. RWD allows your website to adapt to any given end device in terms of appearance and usability. Take one of Europe’s most successful escort agencies as an example: Without RWD,these beautiful ladies would not be asked out on dates, if their special service could not be booked via mobile devices. If your website does not have RWD and was only created to function on the big screen of a PC or laptop, the user will feel like looking at a billboard poster through a postcard frame. And again: If your website is unpractical for the user, Google will let you know by punishing your site with an awful ranking.

3. Voice search – a trend on the rise!

According to “comScore” 50% of all internet searches will be done via voice searches by 2020. Already today, around 40% of all adults and 55% of all teens use voice search at least once a day. Compared to the year 2008, 35 times as many voice searches were done in 2016! And let’s face it: Asking Google for the next Sushi delivery service near to your location while working on boosting your Google ranking for 2018 at the same time is pretty cool. When it comes to being found via voice search, the same SEO standard rules apply: Offer good, well-structured, and understandable content which gives value to your users and at the same time is valued by Google.

4. Link building – still a key to a good Google ranking

Get your name out there! In creating quality links to your website, you’ll automatically signal Google that your website is of importance. A good way of doing so is for instance posting articles on other websites which contain a link to your site. In addition, put some backlinks on web directories and look for some link exchanges with relevant websites.

5. Finally: valuable content

The time in which you could write (or even copy!) a boring, uninformative, and irrelevant text, stuff it with key words and see your website rise through the Google ranks, are long gone. Today, good, valuable, and unique content is of huge importance to Google. But content not only describes the texts on your page – it also stands for pictures, videos, how-to-guides, chats, etc. The more high-class content your website displays, the longer a user will stay on your page, recommend it to others, and thus generate traffic … and Google will reward your effort with a higher ranking in 2018.