How to Get on the First Page of Google for FREE

Businesses these days pay crazy amounts of money for SEO with the sole aim to appear on first page of Google. What if I told you you can achieve that for free by simply doing one thing — connecting your website to Google Search Console? Those of you who don’t have much SEO knowledge probably feel more confused than before, but that’s why I’m here. So let’s walk you through the whole process and get your pages right where they belong — on Google’s first page!

What is Google Search Console?

Ok, so what’s this Console thing? It’s part of Google Webmasters Tools, fully accessible to everyone who has a website and completely free. No monthly subscription fees, no license charges, sin dinero extra at all! The best way to find it is to… go on Google and type Google Search Console (or follow the link). You will then be redirected to a page that doesn’t look fancy at all but, oh boy, the value it will bring to your website!

How to Connect your Website to the Search Console?

To connect your website to the Search Console, you will have to verify that you own it. This is the part where many entrepreneurs, especially those who are not very techy, experience the most difficulties. But, before you get too scared to try, let me tell you, there are several options you can take. More importantly, they aren’t really that complex if you go through the process step by step. Let’s look at what methods can you use.

• Use your domain provider — this is the Console’s recommended option. You will need to sign into your domain provider’s (GoDaddy, 123reg, Bluehost, etc.) account and follow the instructions from there.
• Upload an HTML file to your server — this option is suitable for people with advanced tech knowledge and skills. Alternatively, if you have a web developer and want to use this method, just ask them to do it for you.
• Upload an HTML tag — essentially, this means adding a meta tag to your Home page’s code. Again, this wouldn’t be the best option for those who have minimal tech knowledge and don’t have a developer on their side.
• Use your Google Tag Manager — not everyone has a Google Tag Manager account, but if you do, this could be one of the easiest approaches to connecting your website to the Search Console. You will just have to insert a small bit of code into the code of your website, but generally, this isn’t as complicated as it sounds.
• Use your Google Analytics account — well, that’s my preferred method of verifying any website. If you are operating online, reaching customers using the web, selling products and services virtually and you don’t have a Google Analytics account, you seriously need to go back to school. Here’s a really good video to get started with.

After you’ve had your Google Analytics sorted, things get super easy. Just select that verifying option (which you will find in the Alternate Methods tab) and click on the Verify button. Within seconds your website will be connected to the Google Search Console.

So What’s Next?

Glad you asked! Your work surely isn’t done here. When you go to the Search Traffic tab, you can get a pretty good picture of how well optimised your pages and content are. You can see the search queries people used to find your website or specific page, the amount of backlinks and who linked your website in their content, as well as many other valuable insights. Just spend some time studying the data revealed to you.

If you want to target a specific country, go to International Targeting (under Search Traffic) and select that country. For those who have a .co.uk domain, this step would be irrelevant, because by default Google prioritises your website for searches happening in the UK.

Something to never miss doing — submit your Sitemap! It will have a great positive impact on your SEO and search rankings, because it gives structure to the crawl bots and makes it easier for them to identify your pages and content.

The really important part comes now… [Read more]