Not long ago, Moz reported that the first result on a Google search generates 31% of the total clicks. The second result gets about 14%. And a full 71% of the clicks are generated by first-page results.

How many clicks land on page two or three? They’re competing for just 5.59% of the pie. That means that you have to be on page one and even then, if your competitors are higher on the list than you, you’re in trouble as they’re getting the lion’s share of traffic.

You’ve got to push yourself up above them. But how do you do that?

Let’s explore a few key strategies that can help push you up above your competitors

The Content Kingdom

Content matters. We all know that, but that doesn’t mean we can’t say it. Obviously, your content has to be of high quality. It isn’t just that, however. It also needs to fit the keywords that people are using to find it. If it doesn’t do that you’ll have a high bounce rate and that does nobody (except for your competitors) any good.

Your success all starts with your headline. It has to be close to the keywords you’re using (though it doesn’t necessarily need to include all of them). From there the actual content on your page has to fit. Make certain that your keywords are peppered through the text.

That does not mean that the search engine gets priority over the user, however. Though a page that is well built for SEO might initially get a boost as a result, if users are not interested then that boost will be short lived.

Also note that Google generally prefers longer content over shorter content. This makes sense, as the shorter content is on average going to contain less information. This is especially true since so many writers insert fluff in the first few paragraphs as well as the last two, while the meat of the article comes in between.

Keep it fresh

Also, make certain that your content gets updated regularly. This does not mean that you have to update every day. You’re not a news site. However, if your information does start to get stale, the search algorithms will downgrade you and you’ll slip in the rankings.

So make certain that you’ve got new content on a regular basis. What is new content? Well, search engines assume new content is anything that isn’t an exact replica of something else.

In other words, if your content is similar to what has appeared elsewhere before but has been written in your own words, then according to these sites its new content. Do note that readers will know when content is one and the same. They’re a lot harder to fool.

So how often should you update? If you can manage three updates a week you’re doing very well indeed. You might even be able to get by with two. You probably shouldn’t aim for less than that.

There are many battles

Do remember that there are many roads that lead to Rome, so don’t fight your competitors in those areas where they’re strongest. Instead aim to move into keyword areas where they might not have such good content and aren’t attracting quite as much attention.

In other words, don’t just look at which keywords generate the most traffic, but also look at how your competitors rank there. Sometimes it can be a far more effective strategy to aim at a group of lower traffic keywords where they rank more poorly, as getting a high ranking can get you so much more of the pie. And besides, it’s not as if pages are all that expensive, which means that moving into different territory isn’t going to cost you an arm and a leg. So spread out your attack and then leverage those areas where you’re getting serious traction.

The URL should be instructive

Try to put some of the keywords that link to your article into the URL. This is advantageous for both the user, who will see the URL on Google when they’re looking for content and therefore can decide if it’s what they’re looking for, as well as search bots.

Try to make sure your URL stays under 60 characters and that it is readable. That doesn’t mean it needs to be perfectly grammatical, but it does mean that in between the keywords there isn’t a whole bunch of code that users can’t understand. Keep that for the end of the URL if you really feel you need it.

Images sell

Another important area to consider is visual content. Though it might not be as huge a pie as word searchers, there are plenty of people who search based on images. For that reason it’s vital that your images are named correctly with the right keywords. That means staying away from those kooky abbreviations that only you understand! Also, you need to use alt tags for all your images and videos, so that search engines and those people who prefer surfing without pictures can all find you. In that way you won’t end up neglecting this potential stream of traffic and people interested in your product.

In fact, good quality images can make a huge difference to how well your pages are received. For that reasons make certain that you actually spend some time selecting the best images that you can. In fact, sometimes it might be better to start with the images and then create the content around it rather than to just add images as an afterthought.

Social Media Matters

It’s becoming ever clearer that Google cares about how you’re doing on social media, with those websites that do well in social media also ranking much better in the search engine’s algorithm. So if you’ve for some reason been holding off on pushing yourself on social media, then stop and start pushing the hell out of it. There really no longer is any reason not to.

Here some careful thought is also in order. As the social media sphere has fractured and spaces have opened up for different platforms to exist, so to the people that use the different platforms has changed.

For example you’re far more likely to find women on Pinterest and millennials on Instagram. For this reason, if you want to be successful, be certain to actually push on those platforms where your audience is likely to be. In that way a much higher percentage of the people there will be interested, which will mean you get far more traction when you do push your product.

Don’t have duplicate pages

When you do, Google will split your ranking between them and might even index the wrong one. This can be disastrous. So canonicalize your duplicate pages. For this you need to 301 redirect to the correct page. This is a tag you can place within your HTML code (“rel=”canonical”).

Also, make certain that the pages on your website are suitably different from each other so that Google doesn’t just think they’re different versions of the same page. The easiest way to do this is to write new and different content for them. This way they’ll end up being indexed separately and Google will like your overall page design better.

Experiment and try out

Whatever you do, don’t sit back. The SEO battlefield is a constantly evolving one and the company that stays on the ball the longest and knows what’s going on better than anybody else does is going to come out across the finishing line as number one. For that reason, stay up to date with the literature and as new developments come out from Google, be certain to scrutinize both them and the reports from the experts that surround them.

If you do so, you might just be able to take advantage of a new tweak that’s discovered to push yourself up in the ranking and – as we discussed right at the beginning of this article – that can boost your traffic many times over. That has to be worth paying a bit of attention, doesn’t it?

About the Author: Kerry Creaswood is a young and ambitious writer from Savannah, GA. She is interested in self-development, design and marketing. To find more about Kerry – visit her on Twitter