In search engine optimization (SEO), is there anything better than ranking #1 in Google for your target keywords? That’s the absolute best scenario you or your SEO firm could possible achieve right?
WRONG!
What if you ranked #1, #2, AND #3? Clearly, three webpages ranked in Google is better than just one.
To prove this point even further let’s look at some numbers. According to a recent study by SlingShotSEO, the #1 ranked website in Google gets clicked only 18% of the time. So even if you’re #1, you’re actually missing out on about 82% of the potential traffic for that particular keyword.
However, if you can get ranked in all 3 of the top positions, then you’ll just about double your traffic. That’s because the #2 ranked webpage gets clicked about 10% of the time and the #3 webpage gets clicked about 7% of the time. So combined, the top 3 positions account for 35% of the potential clicks for any given keyword. That’s much better than only 18% with the #1 spot.
So if you’re investing in SEO, then your goal is NOT to just rank #1. Don’t get me wrong, that’s certainly great, but it’s not the best you can do. Your goal should be to rank in ALL of the top spots for your target keywords. If you could own every one of the 10 spots on the first page of Google, then roughly 52% of the searches will click on YOUR webpage.
Why not 100%? Well keep in mind there are also AdWords search advertisers, some people will click to page 2 or beyond in Google, and some people will simply search another phrase in Google instead of clicking on any of the results. So it’s impossible to get 100% of the searches to click on your webpage.
Now the question I’m sure you’re asking is “How do you get multiple listings in Google?” Especially since Google will only display one webpage (or at most two) per domain.
Glad you asked… :)
How to Get Multiple Listings in Google
To get multiple listings in Google, you have two options:
- Create multiple websites for your business and launch multiple SEO campaigns
- Create webpages on other websites you do not own
Option #1 is not a great strategy for most businesses because the costs to set up and maintain multiple websites typically outweigh the benefits.
However, option #2 can be extremely effective because you can leverage another website’s preexisting SEO authority. In other words, if Google already likes and trusts the website, then the webpage you create on that website will rank more quickly. We call this strategy “Piggyback SEO” and my partner Pete Kennedy explained it in SEO Growth Hack: Piggy-Back For Fast Rankings.
Let’s take a look at an example.
Piggyback SEO Example
As you can see in the image above, the #2 ranked webpage for the search phrase “google adwords checklist” is a blog post on our website. And the #1 ranked webpage is a video we created and posted on YouTube. So roughly 18% of searchers will click on the YouTube video, which gives information and ends by telling people to go to one of our webpages to learn more. Plus another 10% of searchers will click directly to our blog. That means we’re capturing about 28% of everyone who searches “google adwords checklist” every month.
The main reason why Google ranks the YouTube video higher than our blog post is because Google trusts YouTube.com more than they trust MainStreetROI.com. By leveraging YouTube’s SEO authority, we are able to get multiple listings in Google with pretty minimal effort.
Again, if you want to learn more about this strategy, then check out SEO Growth Hack: Piggy-Back For Fast Rankings.
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