How to Rank First on Google: The 2026 SEO Guide

To rank first on Google in 2026, you need to satisfy 12 key ranking factors: quality content that matches search intent, sound on-page SEO, technical SEO (Core Web Vitals, mobile-first), backlinks from authoritative sources, EEAT signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) and now also citations from AI engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity (Generative Engine Optimization). Today, the first Google result alone gets 27.6% of all clicks (Backlinko, 2024), and over 60% of searches are zero-click — meaning they end with an AI summary and no click on any page.

The average website needs 3–12 months to reach page 1 of Google for competitive keywords, and only 5.7% of new pages reach the top 10 in less than a year (Ahrefs research). That’s all the more reason to start properly from day one.

In this detailed guide you will learn the 12 ranking factors Google uses today, what EEAT is and how to build it, how to optimise for AI Overviews, which technical SEO checklist items you need to work through, how to build backlinks, and the 7 mistakes that keep your website on page 2. In other articles we have looked at how to check your website’s ranking on Google and also at hosting as a critical factor, as well as at GEO: the new SEO

Or, if you’d rather not deal with it yourself and simply want to hand the job to people who have done it before with great success, just click the link below.

How to check your site’s or e-shop’s position on Google

Below is a video showing, step by step, how to check your website’s position on Google for a search term, free of charge, using Search Console.

First place on the Google search engine

So how does this ranking work, and why are some websites higher than others? Having a fast, good-looking site doesn’t mean you will be at the top of the search engines; it simply means users get a pleasant experience when they arrive on your website. Also, promotion in the search engines is a separate job from building the website, and it often costs several times more (although, to be precise, a properly structured website is a prerequisite for successful search engine promotion).

At web-mate we often hear this when we talk to clients: “someone I know said something about keywords, put in the right title and got to first place on Google, come on, there’s nothing to it”. One of three things may be going on with the client’s acquaintance:

1. The acquaintance has no idea about search engine promotion and read half the story somewhere, or simply overheard bits of a conversation.
2. The acquaintance is 10 years behind: back then, very little effort was needed to get first place in the search engines, and there weren’t nearly as many websites (in other words, as much competition as today).
3. The acquaintance was told that this is what was done, but either they used  black hat SEO, a method that, once the search engines discover it (and sooner or later they do), sends the site to the bottom of the results and then takes ten times the effort to recover from; or the acquaintance doesn’t understand technical terms, and rather than explain in depth what they had done, the company gave them two impressive-sounding words. Of course, if a successful, proper search engine promotion really was carried out, they will have paid several hundred, if not several thousand, euros.

Today,  Google, the search engine, assesses websites by taking into account a large number of factors that affect SEO. So you need a complete SEO strategy and specific actions to attract significant traffic every day and win as much visibility as possible in the battle for first place.

Google’s 12 most important ranking factors in 2026

Google uses more than 200 ranking factors, but the 12 below have the biggest influence on whether you rank first:

Keywords: choosing them to rank first on Google

First of all, you need to choose your so-called “keywords”. By keywords we don’t mean pressing a button or adding 2 words to the website and getting instant results. We need to choose the right words to get the best possible result. For example, if a hotel in Kavala simply chooses the word “hotel”, it won’t get much of a result, whereas if it chooses the words “hotel Kavala”, it will attract customers who are interested in a hotel in Kavala, with better results (and, in the case of Google Ads,  at a lower cost). An even more relevant example is the word seo in Greece. We could target it, put in a lot of effort and, after a great deal of effort and money, win one of the top positions. That would probably bring plenty of visitors to our website. The question is how many of those visitors are the audience we want. As website developers, we don’t want people who want to learn SEO themselves; we want people who want to pay us for SEO. So perhaps the best keyword would be SEO company !

So we can assume that google looks at websites to see how many times and where the keywords we have chosen appear (note: we are not saying you should repeat the same word 20 times in a sentence or a paragraph, but that the keywords should be spread sensibly and set in bold), and uses this as one of the factors for ranking our website.

Tools that help you choose the right keywords, some paid and some free:

1. Google Keyword Planner
2. Moz Keyword Tool
3. Cognitive SEO
4. Long Tail Pro

Links, ah, those links

An important factor that always gives strength to our website  in the battle for first place in the search engines is links, i.e. how many links from other sites point to our website, and what words they use to refer to it. For example, the link transport in Kavala has great value for the website of NEA EGNATIA KAVALAS O.E., because we refer to it with the words “transport Kavala”.  Of course, another factor that plays a role is whether the website giving the link has related content, which is not the case here, since neither this article nor this website has anything to do with transport. In general, our website is more likely to rank high the more “IMPORTANT” the sites linking to it are.

At this point we have to admit that getting a lot of high-quality links for a website is very hard. Sometimes a link exchange is a good tactic: you write an article mentioning a website with similar content and get a link back the other way.

A common tactic is buying links from trusted pages, i.e. high-quality websites that can write an article about your business, or an article about the products or services you offer. For example, Auto Triti (a Greek car magazine) could write an article about a website that sells car parts.

Articles: write plenty of relevant articles, in other words rich, high-quality content

An important role in Google ranking is played by a website’s content: if a website doesn’t have rich content and doesn’t update its blog often, it is almost impossible for it to get a high position in the search engines. First of all,  Google “looks at” how often your website’s content is updated, and if this happens often, it considers your website active.  In theory, since this takes great writing skills, articles can also earn you links, as a really good article can become a source for other articles or be republished with a link on other sites. Be careful: the articles and texts on your website must not be copied and pasted.  The more interesting the text, the more likely you are to rank higher. Don’t use AI (artificial intelligence) blindly; let AI help you write great articles.

The length of an article also plays an important role. We often tell our clients that it is very important to write articles of more than 1,000 words, following some rules we give them about headings and internal linking. Their first reaction is: fine, it’s not that hard, and if writing the articles brings me success, I’ll do it. Then comes the second stage, when they find they can’t write such long articles (not even 500-word articles), and they understand how hard it is and why not everyone ranks first on Google.

Did they really build you a good website?

Your website is good-looking and fast (speed is another factor Google looks at), you are doing all of the above, and yet the results may still not be good for difficult search terms. What could be wrong? The website needs a proper structure: it should start with an <h1> tag, all images should have alt  tags, followed by  h2 tags and so on. The right structure for a website matters a great deal to Google and to the reader. Also, for websites targeting their inner pages, it is important that the URL is no longer than 3 words.
Finally, the description and title of the website are very important factors for ranking in the search engines: they need to read well, so they attract potential customers/readers, and they should contain the keyword at the start. The title and description, together with the URL, are what appear in the results on google.

Social media Interaction

Of course, search engine optimisation, or SEO, also involves the social media we all know. It’s very important for your website to be mentioned on social media often, and for its page to have plenty of followers who interact with each of your posts. As a minimum, we recommend being active on  social media  such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).

I’ve done all this, so why am I not first in the search engines?

What we have written above are the most important factors, though not the only ones. To give you an idea of what we mean, Google (no one knows for sure) is said to have 500 factors that affect its algorithm. Also, don’t expect instant results in a month or two: results take around 5 months for simple cases and up to 1 or 2 years for very difficult keywords (with a correspondingly hefty budget).

Let’s look at the truth about the first place on Google that people ask us for every day.

An example of an article that ranks first on Google

What better way to show you how to rank first on Google than an example? And what better example than the article you have just been reading? Look at how long the article is. Look at the internal and external links it has. Notice the titles of the article’s headings and which keywords they use. Take a look at which keywords are used  in the headings, in the meta description  and in the article’s title.

Watch the video on Google’s ranking factors

Here is a very good video on the factors that decide a website’s ranking in Google search.

This article is a very good example of how you can get your website to rank first in the search engines. And if you’d rather not go through the whole process yourself, web-mate is here for you.

AI Overviews & Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): the SEO of 2026

Since 2024, Google has been showing AI Overviews in 18% of searches (Search Engine Land, 2025). At the same time, tools such as ChatGPT (~80% market share of AI search engines), Perplexity and Gemini are replacing traditional searches. This means that in 2026, to show up “first”, Google alone isn’t enough: AI engines need to mention you too.

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the optimisation of content so that AI engines cite it. In GEO, 60–80% of the URLs ChatGPT cites are not on page 1 of Google (Ahrefs): a different game with different rules.

5 GEO Best Practices

1. Answer-first content: A direct answer in 1–2 sentences at the start of every page.
2. Tables & structured data: AI engines extract tabular content easily.
3. Statistics & sources: Specific figures with sources increase citations 3x.
4. Presence on Reddit: Reddit is the #2 source of ChatGPT citations after Wikipedia.
5. Complete schema markup: FAQ, HowTo and Article schema help AI understand your content.

WebMate specialises in GEO and can help your business appear on Google and also in the answers of ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. See our SEO & GEO services.

Technical SEO Checklist 2026: the 15 points you need to check

Backlinks: how to build quality links to rank first

According to a Backlinko study of 11.8 million Google results, the first result has on average 3.8x more backlinks than results 2–10. Backlinks remain one of the top 3 ranking factors.

7 backlink building strategies

1. Guest Posting: Articles on relevant Greek industry blogs (avoid spammy directories).
2. Broken Link Building: Find broken links on competitor sites and suggest your own page instead.
3. Skyscraper Technique: Find top-ranking content, create something better, and ask the sites linking to the original to link to yours.
4. Digital PR: Original research, surveys and infographics worth media coverage.
5. Local Citations: NAP listings in Greek directories (Vrisko, Pou, Xrysos Odigos).
6. HARO / Help a Reporter Out: Answer journalists’ queries to earn mentions.
7. Reddit & Forum Mentions: Genuine participation in relevant communities (the #2 source of ChatGPT citations).

Note: Avoid link farms, paid links on low-quality sites, and exact-match anchor texts everywhere. Google’s Penguin penalty still kicks in.

Local SEO: how to rank first in local searches

46% of all Google searches have local intent (Google internal data). If you are a local business (shop, restaurant, service), your Google Business Profile may matter even more than traditional SEO.

10 steps for local SEO optimisation

1. Create and verify your Google Business Profile
2. Fill in every field (categories, opening hours, phone, website)
3. Upload 10+ high-quality photos (interior, exterior, products, team)
4. Ask for reviews systematically (target: 4.5+ rating, 50+ reviews)
5. Reply to ALL reviews (positive and negative) within 24 hours
6. NAP consistency (Name, Address, Phone) across the web
7. Local citations in Greek directories (Vrisko, Pou, ChrisosOdigos)
8. Local content on the website (local pages, blog posts about local events)
9. LocalBusiness schema on the website
10. Weekly posts on your Google Business Profile (offers, news, events)

Frequently asked questions about SEO