The #1 position in searches gets 33% of the clicks. #2 gets about 17%. After that, your chances are slim to none.

You need to be at the top to earn those clicks. To do that, you need to know that SEO pros know.

Let's explore 10 key pieces of advice from SEO pros that will help you obtain and retain that #1 spot.

1.) It's More than Keywords

If you're just getting started with SEO, you've probably heard about keywords. When people search for a certain keyword that represents what your company does, you want to appear high in those searches.

Tip: If you're a roofing contractor you may want to hire a marketing agency that solely works on Roofing SEO and specializes in your specific industry.

Achieving those coveted top spots takes a lot more than matching the words on the page with what people are searching for. A lot more, in fact, as we'll discuss throughout this article.

2.) SEO Is About People Not Technology

Search engines want people who use their searches to find exactly what they're looking for in the least amount of time. They will, therefore, give higher rank to websites that "prove" that they can deliver these results.

You might use various strategies and technologies to demonstrate that your website is the one that delivers this kind of seamless experience. But ultimately, it's all about doing what's right for your customers.

3.) Quality Matters

Your website both on the screen and behind the scenes must demonstrate that it's all about the customer experience.

This means investing in...

A Quality Website

A quality website is:

• Fast
• Easy to Navigate
• Mobile-friendly
• Well-organized
• Useful to the target audience

Quality Content

Quality content is:

• Engaging
• Useful to your target
• Creative -- Not found everywhere else
• Well-formatted & written
• Well-researched

Connections

A website without connections is much like a person without connections. It has to do everything on its own. The problem is that it can't. It needs those connections to demonstrate that it's a relevant and quality website.

We obtain connections through social sharing, reviews and generating links back to our site from other websites. These are called backlinks. We'll discuss those next.

4.) Backlinks Are Great For SEO

A backlink occurs with another website links to a page on your website. They might be siting a statistic on your page. They might really like what you have to say. They might value your article and want to make it available to their audience as well.

As a general rule, the more backlinks you have the more important you appear to search engines. They deduce that if you're important, then you must provide what customers are looking for.

Great backlinks meet several of the following criteria.

First, they're relevant. The page linking to you makes sense because it talks about similar things.

Second, they're an authority. The site linking to yours is an authority website.

Third, the link seems natural. The website linking to yours seems to have a reason to link to your site. 

Fourth, the link is do-follow. People know that links from authority websites will benefit the site being linked to. Because of this, high-authority websites that link to other sites may be bombarded with requests for a link.

To resolve this, they may choose to make the link to your site "no follow" to prevent people from bombarding their websites with requests for links.

Many of these sites will only offer a do-follow link in certain circumstances.

When building links to your site, keep all of these in mind.

5.) Some Backlinks Will Hurt You

Bad backlinks seem unnatural and look spammy. They're irrelevant to the page that they're linking to.

Having too many links from one website or page could seem suspicious or spammy. Having lots of links from low-quality sites also seems suspicious. They look suspicious because it seems like they've been artificially created just to rank higher.

Search engines frown upon this and will penalize your site.

Fortunately, you can disavow these links in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. SEO pros regularly evaluate links and disavow ones that might hurt the website.

6.) If It Seems Questionable, It Probably Is

SEO pros will tell you that you need to know what your SEO company is doing. We're not saying you have to look over their shoulders.

But because their strategies can hurt your site instead of helping it, you always want to work with people who have strong track records and open communication.

If SEO pros are bragging about how many backlinks they've generated for you, ask about the quality of those links based on the criteria we discussed in 4 and 5.

7.) Be Where the Customers Are

SEO pros know that in order to rank you need to be where the customers are.

This means creating backlinks on websites that your customers might actually visit. It means choosing the right social media platforms on which you promote content.

8.) Ranking #1 Requires the Right Tools

SEO pros also use a lot of tools to help websites ranks. You could spend literally months trying to compile the data that some of these tools can compile and aggregate in minutes.

You could spend more months trying to act on this data. But tools today allow you to automate much of the process.

Without the right tools, your ROI quickly goes down the drain.

9.) Mistakes Can Really Hurt You

As we discussed with the backlinks, seemingly harmless mistakes can hurt your website.

SEO pros know the rules. They can spot mistakes, prevent them and correct them quickly before they do greater damage.

10.) The Rules Don't Stay the Same

Search engines continue to improve their ability to rank the websites that provide the best customer experience higher. SEO pros stay very current on changes and adapt their strategies.

They also think ahead, anticipating how search engines will hone their tools to weed out sites that don't deliver. 

They then create strategies that will help you long term.

SEO Pros Will Tell You This

SEO isn't easy. It takes a lot of ongoing work to obtain and maintain those coveted spots. But with the know-how and the right tools, an SEO professional can help you succeed.

To learn more about how we can help you create and implement a comprehensive strategy, start by checking your SEO score. Squawkia.com is a San Antonio SEO company that can help you get to the next level.