How I got on the First Page of Google

Optimising your website for the search engines is a key point on the agenda for today’s businesses. I doubt there’s a company or an entrepreneur who does not want to see their website on Google’s first page. You don’t have to be an expert to know that it is a no easy task and people pay crazy money for SEO services with the sole purpose to appear and stay on that prime spot. Why so? Simply because the competition is severe.

There are tens of thousands agencies and individuals who offer copywriting and content marketing services in London. MBC (Mariella Blago Consultancy) is one of them and as of yesterday it appears on the first page of Google when you search the underlined phrase above. So here’s how I did that.

1. Consistent Blogging

Since the beginning of June 2017 I have been posting a new article on MBC’s blog every single week. The content in each of the articles has always been:

• 100% original (I dare you to run any of my articles through CopyScape or whatever other originality checking software you use).
• relevant
• value-rich
• inclusive of good quality pictures with alt descriptions

Most of my articles contain keywords, tags, H1 headings, call to action, bullet points, outbound and inbound links. I promoted each post on social media — Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. I took advantage of business support groups on Facebook to increase my traffic. It took around 6 months to notice considerable increase in organic searches because during that time I had built up enough relevant, valuable and original content, who people engaged with for Google to believe my site was good and trustworthy.

No matter where I was, no matter what I did and how busy I was, there was no excuse for not publishing a new blog post every Monday and then continuously promoting it during the week. Consistency here is key!

2. Content SEO

I the basics of content SEO for my website. It starts with keyword research and implementation in the copy. The next steps include:

• Meta description that includes your search phrase
• Meta title that includes your search phrase or keyword
• Social media buttons on the home page with working links
• Contact details on the home page

3. Backlinks

I built my backlinks in several ways:

• Re-purposed my content and posted articles on Medium and LinkedIn with links to the original source, i.e. my website.
• Commented on other bloggers’ posts with my name and website.
• Collaborated with other businesses who featured my website’s link on their website. For example, I was interviewed by a Ruth Kudzi, a business coach, back in August 2017.

4. A Few Technical Bits

You have to understand that great SEO results consist of good work on both your technical and content SEO. One without the other won’t really give you what you want or keep you where you want to be for long. Technical SEO gives quick results, but they also fade away quickly, unless you maintain them with content SEO. What I did was to connect my website to Google Console and walk through it to make sure my site will be recognised by Google as relevant to the particular search and trustworthy. Just a few of the things I did:

• indexed all of my pages
• fixed any broken links
• submitted a sitemap

When I first started updating MBC’s blog regularly (June 2017), I was nowhere to be found on Google (or I just got tired of searching after the 35th page with results). In September 2017 (3 months later) I was on page 13. In November — page 8, December — page 5.

It took me a total of 7 months to get to page 1 and I intend to stay there. If I can do it, you can do it too. I just told you how. However, if you feel it’s too big of a task for you, I’m happy to help. In the meantime, you might want to subscribe to MBC’s blog and read fresh content marketing and business related articles every Monday.

I’m off to write tomorrow’s post. Happy Sunday!