Despite all of the hard work and technical consideration that must be given when pursuing a broader SEO strategy, it’s important not to forget the primary goal: to be seen by search engine users. Ensuring that your pages rank prominently in the search engine results pages that you’re targeting is the name of the game, and pursuing tactics that promote this reality is paramount.

With that being said, many fail to understand what key components are required to make it onto the first page of Google SERPs in one or more instances. Likewise, knowing which SERPs to target is just as crucial.

To help would-be high-performers rank well in these instances, we’ll be talking today about what it takes to make the front page and be seen by your target audiences.

Mobile Responsive Design

Being able to rank properly – and to do so across a variety of devices and search types – involves your website possessing a mobile responsive design. By ensuring that your device renders as intended on desktop and mobile devices alike, you’re in control of how your brand looks to every single visitor. Additionally, search engines are strict about ranking websites poorly if they do not offer mobile-compatible versions of their website. As such, implementing this prior to any broader ranking effort is absolutely essential.

Quick Loading Speed

Page speed may not seem like a huge deal, but there’s a clear correlation between it and ranking on the first page. Given that such a huge share of search engine traffic now comes via mobile devices, page loading speeds matter more than you might think in a practical sense. Because of this, Google wants to find lightning-fast reflexes when pinging your website: if a particular page (or your website as a whole) takes too long to load, then your dreams of ranking on the first page of SERPs is likely diminished for the time being.

Site Optimization

Ensuring that each page of your website is properly optimized is crucial to ranking well in various SERPs. There are many individual optimizations that you’ll need to make to bring sites or pages into compliance, including meta elements, link structure, keywords and more. Other observations that can complement prior recommendations such as site speed include optimizing images for quick loading and caching your pages.

Secure Infrastructure

Search engines absolutely care about the security of their users. After all, a search engine that directs users to risky websites runs the risk of harming its own reputation. Over the past couple of years, security is now a clear ranking factor. The simplest aspect that websites must address involves the use of a secure certificate; by utilizing HTTPS, you send a message to search engines that are pinging your website that data being transmitted by visitors is secure.

By embracing these surface-level reforms for your website, you’ll create a solid framework that improves the chances of ranking on the first page of search results. While each search engine is a bit different in terms of what it prioritizes and how, following these basic tips is a sure-fire way to initiate a strong SEO campaign that delivers results.