Noob going for Google ranking page 1

I haven't done SEO in the past much, i tend to pay for backlinks but had a desire to learn a bit more about backlinks and google ranking so i thought i'd give it a shot.

I am employed by someone who works within a niche area (software within finance) and for some keywords already ranked Page 1 on google (but like 5-8 / bottom). However, the competition has 2 entries on page 1 (like 1 and 4) so i am looking to try out rank them as the domain authority rating is fairly low on both sides (ahrefs 11-15). I looked at their website and the only backlinks i see them have extra compared to ours is like on crunchbase and other sites disclosing the company size etc (the competition company was taken over by a publicly listed company).

Since we are in a niche market (tech consultancy), the traffic is not overly huge on google where we might be lucky to get 10-50 visits per week (which i am fine with) - we just want the quality of traffic to come to us first and for us to be rank 1 or above the competition.

I tried to find some relevant backlinks through magazines within this niche industry but none have replied so i am going to try go down the free route because i suspect the specific backlinks will cost $500 + more in Australia.

My plan:

I have written a 1600 word article (this explains the software, support of the software, customizing the software and who we are - trying to use each keywords 3 times within the article [which is short tail as not many long tail key words for this software]) with links to a couple external sites (software company, support forum and our site) and added 2 pictures + 1 pic of a logo (not sure if this is enough). I intend to shave a bit off this main article and post it on the main business site (since backlinks are linked to the site and we refer to the company as third person) and try get it indexed on google.
Secondly, i intend to use wikipedia to make citations to my article and link the URL to wikipedia (i am currently making edits and trying to get my points up) - so that i can get the URL within wiki's citation section. With this, hoping to get Google to index and increase domain authority rating.
Thirdly, i will use the full article, publish on Medium (where i am currently browsing and clapping articles) then try to get the article indexed (does any one know a free premium indexer or have suggestions)? I think i will also create a second article (covering off on a masterclass within the software) within the niche and link it to the main article.
Lastly, i will look to add more links to pages such as crunchbase or other alternatives like yellow pages that are free (with high domain authority). I havent researched this step yet and what website options i have, i kind of want it to be relevant to my country (Australia) and niche (Finance).

Does anyone have suggestions on what else i can do? Potentially website alternatives to wikipedia with high domain ranking? Thanks in advance let me know if i am missing other crucial steps (which i assume i have somewhere).

If I was a complete noob and I was gunning for number one, this is what I would do.

I would look for my competitors.

This is the best news that I would want because if somebody has been there before me, it means that they have done my homework for me.

Find the top-ranking competitors that you have in your niche.

Run their domains through Semrush or Ahrefs.

Find their organic keyword list.

Filter their organic keywords in terms of keyword difficulty and monthly search volume.

Enter your target keywords one by one into Google, and pay close attention to the results.

By following these steps, you will be able to zero in on keywords that you can easily dominate.

And then once you start ranking for those, aim for more competitive or more commercial keywords.

This is how you build your blog empire on a foundation of steel and stone instead of sand, hype, and shortcuts.

While this is still a shortcut, it is a shortcut that uses the firm foundation of the hard lessons your competitors learned.

They did your homework for you.

Now it's your turn to level it up.

katsuhiko1990 said:

does any one know a free premium indexer or have suggestions

Click to expand...

You don't need an indexer for Medium. Plus, backlinks on Medium do not offer much ranking benefits. Add to that link weightage has been reduced by Google.