Getting on the first page of Google can bring you a steady flow of website visitors. If you target the best keywords in your niche, you’ll also enjoy a high conversion rate, as many of these people will become your clients. However, getting on top of Google is a long-term endeavor. This article shares a few tips to help you improve your rankings.

First of all, you need to be very careful when you choose your keywords. If you go for extremely competitive terms, you may never manage to get on the first page of Google. Since you can’t speed up the link building process without risking a penalty, you’ll always be a few steps behind your stronger competitors. This is why you need proper keyword research before starting to optimize your website for any keywords. Ideally, you should pick moderately competitive terms, with high monthly search volumes and with good commercial value. If your keywords aren’t too competitive, you’ll have an easier time to get on top of Google, because you’ll need fewer links to make them rank.

If you want to obtain fast results, you have to pay close attention to the on-page SEO optimization. All other things being equal, the website with better on-page optimization will rank higher than all its competitors. This doesn’t mean that you have to stuff your body copy with keywords but rather to observe the LSI terms and to ensure you use as many of them as possible. Your copy has to flow in a natural manner, and to be appealing to human readers rather than to search engine spiders.

Spying on your competition is another thing than can help you climb your way to the first page of Google. Take a closer look at the backlinks profile of the top ranking pages. Identify their best links and try to see if you can acquire some inbound links from the same websites. Sometimes, such tactics can bring you excellent results, so they are well worth the effort. To put it in simple words, if you want to rank higher than another web page, you need to have the same on-page optimization level and a higher amount of inbound links. Beware, though, all inbound links are not created equal. You’ll have to observe their quality, not only the number of links. High-quality links are the ones that come from high authority websites that are in the same industry or niche as your website. It’s also best that these linking websites are written in the same language as yours.

Keep in mind that Google doesn’t agree with various practices such as buying links or using PBNs. However, there are many SEO professionals who make use of such tactics to improve their backlinks profile. If you decide to go this route, you have to proceed with extreme caution. If you buy links from low quality networks, you risk a severe penalty from Google. Building your own networks doesn’t work, either, because it is very hard to make it look legit. The best tip for getting the high rankings you want is to stay on the safe side. Work your way to the top slowly but surely.