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Whether a page can make Google’s Top10 or not depends on a number of factors. The first distinction that is made is whether your SEO is for an existing domain or whether the SEO is for a new website that you’re hoping to get into Google’s top rankings. Whatever the case, there are a number of key points that may affect how successful your SEO is:

Technical basis: There can’t be any crawlability and index ability issues; the sitemaps and robots.txt have to work properly. A good technical basis with good page load times and a stable server is crucial to get good rankings. Just as important are internal links — the relevant pages of a domain should be easy for the crawler to reach, ideally directly from the homepage. It’s also important to add the top keywords you want the landing page to rank for into the meta tags (title and description) on all the indexed pages. When it comes to the page topic, having clear and precise title tags and meta descriptions — ideally ones that encourage click-through — is also important.

Content: For a website to get a good SEO ranking, content is everything. The internet is swamped with websites. With a good USP and excellent content it should be easier to get good Google rankings. This is why, before you start with SEO, you should ask yourself why the website you are optimizing for SEO deserves a Top 10 ranking: What sets your site apart from the competition, what topics does your site focus on, how can content be made unique and as user friendly as possible? Google has a tendency to prioritize domains with a specific focus over general product websites.

E-A-T: Only those who are well positioned as experts in their field stand a good chance of getting to the top of the rankings. Google refers to this quality standard as E-A-T or Expertise–Authority–Trust. This applies, in particular, to websites that provide sensitive information on finances or health but can essentially apply to any domain. A website can build trust by having a clear topic focus, by paying attention to content quality and relevance, and by providing author transparency; other important factors are a confidence-inspiring web design with HTTPS, a site legal notice or a quality seal from a recognized organization or Trusted Shops guarantee. Inextricably connected with E-A-T is brand building, be it through mentions, backlinks, or direct traffic. To find out more about this, see E-A-T as a Ranking Factor.

Backlinks: A much debated question is how important backlinks are for SEO success. The more competition there is in a particular topic area, the more important it is to build high-quality backlinks. A good starting point for backlinks is blogs and forums related to your topic focus.

Domain age: Within the first year any new website will struggle to make page one of the search results. Older sites definitely have an advantage. According to studies, most domains that rank in the Top 10 are at least three years old, while 95 percent of new websites do not manage to make the Top 10 search results in the first year. The older a domain is, the more trust it can earn in the eyes of the Google algorithm.

Competition: The more competitive the topic is, the higher the search volume; and the more general the keyword you choose, the longer it will take for an SEO strategy to be successful. This is why it makes sense to focus on subject-specific content silos in a specific niche where there is not so much competition, as doing so will help build authority and improve rankings in a specific area — and concentrate on topics where there is more competition later. Often the rule of thumb is: The more competition, the more turnover can be generated.