How can I get my website listed high on Google?

We get asked this a lot, and the answer isn’t always what the questioner wants to hear.
A brand new website will not get listed on any search engine within a few days, or weeks. Or possibly even months. And if your business or service is in a crowded market it’s going to be even more difficult.
So what’s involved here?

There are several factors that will influence the results of a search on Google for example.

How old is your website?

You can submit a brand new site to Google but you will have to wait a long time for it to be ranked anywhere near the top 10 pages never mind the top 10 results on page 1. Older websites, published before the web was so crowded, have a head start, have probably garnered a good few incoming links and have earned the trust of Google.

Is your website optimised?

If your old website is blocking search engine robots because of a bad robots.txt file or poor navigation links, it can be relatively easy to fix. But indexing and ranking will only be achieved satisfactorily if the site is making good use of keywords and incoming links.
An old website with few quality incoming links will take longer to get a high ranking. But optimising the pages can make a big difference.

Proper use of keywords is crucial.

But it’s no good just targeting the same keywords as your major competitors who hog all the top spots on Google. Yes you can use them, but look at some of the alternative keyword phrases related to your business that are not so popular, but will result in clicks from people searching for your service. Longer keyword phrases work better than single words. A few good clicks on less popular keywords is better than none on the most popular words.

Look at your competitors websites, see what keywords they use and explore the alternative less popular keywords and phrases. They will still get clicks and you’re not directly competing with the high flyers for the top 10 places for the most used keywords.

How long will it take?

If your website is constructed properly, with good tidy code, good use of keywords and tags, page titles and most of all good relevant copy, you can get a reasonably high ranking on Google within a few months.
If you target popular keywords or phrases, usually consisting of one or two words, a new site will take 6 months or more. Very competitive one word keywords and a new site will typically require several years. An old established poorly performing site can take more than a year after optimistion.