Ranking first in Google will allow you to get a great amount of organic traffic and can be the difference between a successful site and an unsuccessful one. Whether you are running a blog or a business site you should strive for that first Google spot.

With the many algorithm updates that the search engine has been rolling out over the years, it has become very difficult to reach this first place. So how do you achieve that in 2018? Here are 4 tips that will allow you to rank first in Google.

1. Quality Content

Quality content is a must. The search engine has become increasingly good at detecting poor quality content and will reward only those that are authoritative and well-written. The search engines love the quality and fresh content

Make sure that the content is useful and add value to your audience. Very often authors just write articles and include all kind of filler contents in order to reach a certain number of words. This is not really useful for the audience and might be penalized by Google.

So, if you want to reach the first spot in Google pay attention to your content and make sure that they are of the highest quality and add value to your audience.

2. On-site optimization

It is important that you use good SEO practice when it comes to on-site optimization. For instance, you need to have your primary keywords and secondary keywords scattered around your site. Do not overdo it though as Google will penalize you for too many keywords.

Always make sure that your articles are written for a human audience, not for search engines and only place the keywords naturally in there.

3. Backlinks

Links are a fundamental part of any ranking strategy. It is important that you have a number of links pointing to your site if you want to rank first in Google. At the same time, you need to make sure that these links are coming from authority sites.

Getting links from link farms should be avoided at all cost. Make sure that the links come from sites that have real traffic and that they are not selling links.

Google knows how to discover Private Blog Networks nowadays and getting links from this kind of network can be quite risky.

4. Keywords

It is important that you choose your keywords well before starting to write your articles. There are various tools that will allow you to choose the best keyword. Make sure that you go for something that you can rank easily and that is not too competitive. Make an analysis of your competitor’s keywords to ensure that you can compete against them.

Ranking first in Google has become quite tough. You will need to work a lot and also be patient if you want your site to rank first in Google.