How to rank top of Google for the keyword ‘cloud computing providers’.
When targeting a keyword in SEO, it’s essential to analyse the SEO strategies of the top ranking websites. This way we can determine exactly what is needed to take the number one position.
The keyword “cloud computing providers” has a relatively low search volume in the UK at 390 searches per month, but it has thousands of searches globally each month. It’s a highly valuable keyword because it directly targets businesses actively searching for cloud solutions.
Cloud computing services, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS), are essential for companies of all sizes looking to modernise operations, improve scalability, and reduce IT costs. The average cost of these services can range from £5,000 to £50,000 annually for small to medium-sized businesses and £100,000 to £1 million+ annually for larger enterprises, depending on the level of service and complexity required.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) in this sector is particularly high due to long contracts, typically lasting 3–5 years, and frequent upselling opportunities, such as added storage, advanced security, or analytics tools. This means a single client could bring lifetime revenues ranging from £15,000 to £5 million or more, making leads generated from this keyword exceptionally lucrative.
Table of Contents
- 1. Page One Results
- 2. Competitor Comparison
- 2. The Brand
- 2. Current SEO Performance
- 3. First Impressions
- 4. Landing Page Assessment
- 5. Content Strategy
- 6. E-E-A-T
- 7. Technical SEO
- 8. Off-Page SEO and Link Building
- 9. Social Media
- 9. Final Assessment
- 10. Why Are They Ranking Top?
- 11. Areas of Improvement
- 12. Advice to Competitors
So, what do the ranking positions look like? As of December 2024, these are Google’s page one results:
Page one results
| Website | Position | Landing Page |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud | 1 | What is a Cloud Provider |
| Cloud Zero | 2 | Cloud Service Providers |
| Datamation | 3 | Cloud Service Providers |
| Allcode | 4 | Cloud Service Providers |
| Dgtl Infra | 5 | Cloud Service Providers |
| The CTO Club | 6 | Cloud Service Providers |
| Digital Ocean | 7 | How to Choose a Cloud Provider |
| Wikipedia | 8 | Cloud Computing Providers |
| Tech Target | 9 | Cloud Service Providers |
| Microsoft Azure | 10 | What is a Cloud Provider |
The first thing that stands out is the majority of these results are affiliates, or blogs providing lists of providers. Google is a cloud provider, as is Digital Ocean and Microsoft, however the others are ranking with list style pages recommending other providers.
This shows it’s a largely untapped SEO market for actual cloud service providers. There are multiple global leaders in this industry, such as Google, Amazon, Salesforce, Oracle and IBM, but there are also UK providers such as UKFast, Pulsant, iomart, and Claranet.
None of the UK contingent are on page one, so we will breakdown exactly what it takes to rank highly for the keyword ‘cloud service providers’.
The players
There are certain websites on page one that are too big to even look at. These are Google Cloud, Wikipedia, Tech Target, Datamation, Digital Ocean and Microsoft Azure. The other four however, are worth investigating.
CloudZero
CloudZero is not an actual cloud service provider. They offer a cloud cost intelligence platform that helps organisations manage and optimise their cloud spending. They provide tools for cost allocation, budget management, and visibility into cloud costs, but they don’t provide cloud infrastructure services themselves.
AllCode
AllCode is a cloud service provider specialising in software development services and cloud computing. They offer solutions and support for platforms like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Dgtl Infra
Dgtl Infra is not a cloud service provider. They are a digital infrastructure intelligence platform that provides information and insights on towers, data centres, fibre optics, and small cells. They focus on analysing and reporting on the digital infrastructure industry, rather than offering cloud services themselves.
The CTO Club
Again, not a cloud service provider, but a professional development platform aimed at providing SaaS CTOs and tech leaders with guidance, resources, and community support. The platform offers insights on business strategy, innovation, leadership, and technical challenges associated with rapid growth.
| Website | Pages Indexed | Referring Domains | Authority Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| cloudzero.com | 1338 | 6675 | 45 |
| allcode.com | 919 | 2069 | 30 |
| dgtlinfra.com | 1899 | 7433 | 39 |
| thectoclub.com | 1344 | 2737 | 48 |
Even though the four websites above are the smallest on page one, they are sill quite substantial, especially in terms of links. It’s evident we’re up against some big, established websites. As an SEO, we need to look for weak spots and opportunities and in this case, the weakest website looks to be AllCode.
AllCode, ranking in fourth position must be doing something right to be beating the likes of DigitalOcean and Microsoft Azure. However, they have the least pages, the least links and the lowest Authority Score. So, let’s look closer at AllCode and see how they’ve managed to gain that 4th position.
The brand
Name: AllCode
About: AllCode is a software development company and cloud service provider based in San Francisco, California. They specialise in delivering solutions, including custom software development, cloud computing, DevOps, mobile app development, and blockchain services. They are an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and work with cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
Domain: allcode.com
First seen: April 27, 1999
Current SEO performance
AllCode is ranked for 3,680 keywords in the US and 418 in the UK. Their UK keywords are mostly related to AWS and cloud services, so this hints at a lack of UK competition.
AllCode is clearly benefiting from their partnership with Amazon’s AWS and are displayed in multiple featured snippets related to AWS services.
They’re in second position organically for ‘cloud services’ with 1000 monthly searches, but mainly their visibility is related to AWS, for example, they’re 4th for ‘AWS services’ with 5,400 searches.
In the UK, they’re first for ‘cloud providers’, second for ‘AWS services’ and fourth for ‘cloud computing service providers’. Outside of this they have little visibility, so Google has placed them as an authority on cloud computing providers, globally. For example, they are ranking in similar positions in Australia, India, Germany and more.
The good news is that there’s strong indication that the keyword cloud computing providers is a global search term, so websites ranking for this keyword will have global visibility.
Google classes keywords based on user intent. For example, many service keywords have local intent, such as family solicitors. Google considers that people searching these keywords are looking for a local company, so the results will be tailored to your IP address. Other keywords could be considered national, and so everyone in the UK will see the same results. Then similarly, some keywords Google will consider as global. This means most countries in the world will see the same results. It seems cloud computing providers is one of these keywords.
Website assessment
The AllCode homepage is well-structured, professional, and designed to highlight the company’s expertise in cloud services and software development.
The headline, “Accelerate your cloud journey with our expert team,” immediately conveys the brand’s value and expertise.
They present strong credibility with certifications like “AWS Advanced Consulting Partner” and stats like “90% client satisfaction rate.”
The services section is comprehensive and neatly categorised, providing easy access to key solutions such as software development, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. The icons and brief descriptions make it scannable and engaging.
The layout uses bold headlines, large icons, and clear calls-to-action (CTAs) to guide users toward important sections, such as booking a consultation or exploring case studies. The use of red as an accent colour draws attention to key elements like CTAs.
Testimonials and case studies reinforce trust and highlight real-world impact, and the inclusion of well-known brands as partners enhances credibility and authority.
The footer has links to social media, as well as services and sectors. They have the required E-E-A-T elements, such as office address, telephone number, privacy policy and terms.
Landing Page
The page that’s ranking for the keyword ‘cloud computing providers’, is a ‘Top 10 Cloud Providers in 2024’ listicle.
It has 2026 words, with ‘cloud’ being mentioned 81 times (4%), ‘computing’ 14 times (0.69%), and ‘provider’ 21 times (1.04%).
The top cloud providers listed are:
- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
- Alibaba Cloud
- Salesforce
- IBM
- Digital Ocean
- Dell
- Adobe
- Dropbox
- CloudContactAI
Each provider has a summary and a Learn More button which links through to a dedicated page about that provider.
They also offer advice on learning about cloud computing and how to choose a provider. It would definitely be considered a helpful page, and provides users with pretty much everything they need to know about choosing a cloud computing provider.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is an important ranking factor because it ensures a website is optimised for search engines to crawl, index, and rank effectively. Factors like site speed, mobile-friendliness, structured data, and URL structure, can enhance user experience and help search engines understand the content.
Page Experience
Google introduced Page Experience as a ranking factor in June 2021 as part of a broader algorithm update. Initially applied to mobile search, it incorporated signals like Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, and safe browsing. By February 2022, Google expanded Page Experience to include desktop search as well. While not the most significant ranking factor, it plays a crucial role in improving user experience and can give optimised websites a competitive edge.
Although the AllCode website has failed the Core Web Vitals Assessment, it isn’t performing bad for Page Experience.
It has a Largest Contentful Paint of 1.8 second, which is below the 2.5 seconds recommended by Google. It’s Interaction to Next Paint and Time to First Byte are also on or below the recommended thresholds.
The only elements it failed on is the First Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift.
Site Issues
The technicality of their website overall is also not bad. They have a score of 78% on SEMRush and have four errors and twelve warnings. These include some broken links and other minor issues, but nothing that would majorly effect ranking positions.
On-Page SEO
The on page SEO for their landing page is good. It contains the keyword ‘cloud providers’ in the metadata and the headings. It has good internal linking throughout the content and images contain relevant ALT text.
Relevance
Relevance is probably the biggest metric Google looks for when ranking a website, because it wants to provide users with the most relevant search results.
Indexed Pages
AllCode has approximately 919 pages indexed on Google.* This is the least number of pages of all the websites on page one. It has 363,437 words overall, which is an average of 395 per page. Again, this is the least of all their competitors and could highlight issues with thin content.
Keyword Usage in Titles
- Only three pages contain “cloud computing” in the meta-title (0.33% of pages), however, this is beaten only by Dgtl Infra with 8 pages (0.42%).
- Only one page contains variations of ‘provider’ in the title (0.11% ), which is the second lowest of the four competitors. The highest count is Dgtl Infra with eleven (0.58%).
Keyword Usage Across Headings and Text
Four pages contain ‘cloud computing’ in the H1 (0.44%), and just one contains variations of ‘provider’ (0.11%). This is the lowest of them all, and again we have Dgtl Infra in first with eleven (0.58%).
There are 101 mentions of cloud computing in H2s (7.51% of pages), and 743 variations or provider (55.28%). This is the most of the four competitors.
There are 291 mentions of cloud computing throughout the content, which is 0.2% of the total word count. This is the highest count of all four competitors. There are 1799 variations of provider (0.14%), which is the second lowest.
So, AllCode has the the highest percentage of ‘cloud computing’ throughout content and H2s, but for all other metrics, they are near the lowest. This tells us that Google will not see them as being more relevant than the other three websites, but still it has decided to rank them higher. There must be other metrics in play as to why they are ranking so highly.
Content strategy
AllCode has around 919 pages. Their URL structure isn’t the cleanest and they haven’t segmented content such as blog posts in a data friendly manner. They have a good amount of educational/informational content, offering advice on topics such as productivity and privacy.
A large part of their content is related to Amazon’s AWS, with 240 URLS (26.11%) containing AWS.
Many of their pages are categories, so the actual helpful content isn’t as much as it first appears. I would estimate around half of the website (approx 450 pages) are actual pages of content, with the rest being categories, tags and other paginated pages.
They have around 34 case studies on the website and the rest are either service pages or informational blog content.
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness)
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness, a concept Google uses to assess the quality of content, particularly for topics that can significantly impact users’ lives (like health or finance).
- Experience evaluates whether the content creator has firsthand knowledge or practical experience on the topic.
- Expertise measures the depth of knowledge demonstrated in the content.
- Authority assesses the creator’s credibility within their field, including recognition by others.
- Trustworthiness reflects how reliable and transparent the content and website are, including clear sourcing and secure practices.
Websites with strong E-E-A-T signals are more likely to rank well because they provide reliable, user-focused content that aligns with Google’s quality standards.
Content Quality Signals
Identifying terms like research, study, data, and evidence within paragraphs can help assess how well content is supported by factual information. Signals that indicate content is based on solid research rather than mere opinion, demonstrates a commitment to providing well-researched, authoritative information to users.
AllCode has a score of 0.73% for content quality signals, which is the second lowest of the four competitors.
Academic and Professional Credentials
Mentions of formal academic and professional qualifications within paragraphs can help establish the educational background and professional qualifications of the content creators or team members. This directly supports expertise claims and helps users trust the source of information.
AllCode has a score of 1.48%, which again is the second lowest.
Academic and Research Links
Outbound links to educational institutions and research organisations help demonstrate commitment to scholarly research and connections to authoritative sources.
AllCode only has 12 external links to academic or research institutions. This is the lowest score of all competitors.
Professional Association Signals
Connections to professional bodies and industry organisations demonstrate active participation in professional communities and adherence to industry standards, helping establish authority within specific fields.
AllCode has a score of 0.15%, which again is the lowest score.
Authority & Trust Signals
Phrases like “featured in,” “award-winning,” and various forms of recognition or accreditation helps build trust with users and demonstrates industry standing.
AllCode has 1780 of these mentions, which is 0.4%. This is much higher than anyone else and is probably largely related to their affiliation with AWS.
Schema Markup
Person Schema: AllCode has Person schema on 113.38% of the website. This is much higher than anyone else and will be providing an excellent advantage for E-E-A-T.
Review Schema Types: None of the websites have review schema. This makes sense with such a high ticket product. However, whoever implements this may gain an advantage.
Organisation Schema: AllCode has Organisation Schema coverage on 46.35% pages, which again is much more than the other three websites
Off-Page SEO and link Building
Backlinks are a huge part of the Google algorithm and act as endorsements from other websites. High-quality backlinks, especially from relevant and authoritative sources, can significantly boost a website’s visibility in search results.
AllCode has the least number of links and lowest Authority Score, so are trailing their competitors in terms of link volume.
Current Backlink Profile
- Authority Score: 30
- Backlinks: 9.6k
- Referring Domains: 2069
AllCode has some good DoFollow authority links, from websites like amazon,com, apple.com, harvard.edu and kinsta.com.
They have 1510 links with the keyword ‘cloud’ in the anchor text, and 1146 links with ‘cloud providers’ in the anchor text. 1959 links are on pages related to cloud computing, and 45 links are on pages related to ‘cloud providers’ specifically.
Dgtl Infra on the other hand has just 383 links with ‘cloud’ in the anchor text and only 7 with ‘cloud providers’. They have 316 links from cloud computing related pages and just 8 links on pages related to ‘cloud providers’.
CTO has 74 links with with ‘cloud’ in the anchor text and only 4 with ‘cloud providers’. They have 330 links from cloud computing related pages and no links on pages related to ‘cloud providers’.
CloudZero has 8699 links with ‘cloud’ in the anchor text, which is obviously helped by their brand name. However, they only have three with ‘cloud providers’ in the anchor text. They have 994 links on pages related to cloud computing, but only 6 related to ‘cloud providers’.
This means that AllCode has by far the most relevant backlink profile to the keyword ‘cloud providers’.
Keywords in Anchor Text
Anchor text is probably the biggest ranking signal in Google’s algorithm. In fact, it was the key idea that led to the invention of Google. In the original paper written in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page ‘The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine‘, they outlined how hypertext can be used to create a search engine far superior to search engines that relied on metadata.
Google owns the patent for ‘Using anchor text with hyperlink structures for web searches‘, and it forms the basis of their search algorithm.
This has been known since Google first launched, and the abuse of anchor text by SEOs escalated until 2012, when Google introduced the Penguin update. This update detected anchor text manipulation and penalised websites for unnatural link profiles. Penguin has been part of the core algorithm since 2016, and so anchor text manipulation in the form of link farms is a highly dangerous practise that will likely lead to a penalty.
Regardless, the anchor text of links is still a huge part of the algorithm. This means that a website with the most links containing the keyword in the anchor text, will likely rank highest on Google for that keyword.
The links AllCode have that contain cloud providers in the anchor text are low quality, and look to be the result of Web scrapers or black hat SEO. Many are on Russian domains that have all the hallmarks of link spam.
Other links look to be on PBNs (Private Blog Networks), or low value websites with no reason to match the anchor text other than for SEO purposes.
Although AllCode has the lowest quantity of links, and their link quality isn’t the highest, they have the most relevant links to the keyword ‘cloud computing providers’ by far.
This is likely the reason why they are beating their competitors on page one for this keyword.
I’m not claiming that AllCode is conducting black hat SEO on purpose, but if they are the victim of scrapers, then it appears to be currently in their favour. However, a backlink profile like this would have me worried, and I would focus on building more authority links.
Social media
While Google doesn’t admit that social media activity is a direct ranking factor, it plays an essential role by amplifying brand visibility, increasing engagement, and driving traffic to a website.
AllCode
Facebook: AllCode has a Facebook link in the footer, but when clicking through, the page is inaccessible.
Instagram: AllCode has 117 followers on Instagram. They are posting regularly, multiple times per week.
LinkedIn: With 1k followers, they are posting regularly on LinkedIn, multiple times per week.
X: They have 344 followers. Again, they are posting frequently, approximately 8 times per month,
CloudZero
Instagram: CloudZero’s Instagram is pretty much abandoned. They have 1 post and 36 followers.
YouTube: They are more active on YouTube. They only have 67 subscribers, but have uploaded 38 videos.
Facebook: Not too active on Facebook. They have 317 followers, and haven’t posted since January 2024
X: Much more active on X, with 5578 followers. They are posting regularly, with multiple posts per week.
LinkedIn: 12k followers. They are active on LinkedIn and posting regularly, multiple times per week.
Digital Infra:
YouTube: Dgtl Infra has an impressive resume on YouTube. They have 10.2k followers and uploaded 44 videos. All videos are tech related and appear to be getting quite good engagement.
X: Although they have 3850 followers on X, it seems largely abandoned. Their last post was in June 2023.
Instagram: They have a decent following, with 3336 followers. However, they rarely post and the last post was in July 2024.
Facebook: A good following with 10k followers. However, they are not overly active, and their last post was in June 2024.
CTO Club
Facebook: Largely abandoned, or not even started. They have 8 followers and their last post was in May 2023.
LinkedIn: They have 3k followers. They don’t appear active, with just a handful of posts. Their last post was in November 2024.
YouTube: They don’t appear to have their own channel, but are featured on other accounts.
Final assessment
It’s been interesting analysing AllCode and its competitors on page one for ‘cloud computing providers’. While they have many elements that give them credibility, they also have elements bordering on low quality.
They are clearly punching above their weight to have such a high ranking position. However, apart from AWS services, cloud computing, and specifically cloud computing providers, they have relatively low visibility.
It would be interesting to see what traffic they are getting for these keywords and whether they are gaining genuine leads. Their E-E-A-T score is relatively good, and this may be saving them from a borderline spammy link profile.
Areas for improvement
There are many areas I would like to see improved for AllCode. They have good content, but it could be segmented better. Also, I would like to clean up their pages, because they have too many category, tag and paginated pages compared to their genuine content. Many of these pages are thin and contain duplicate content, so there is a risk being hit with a core update penalty.
I would be concerned about their backlink profile too. They have some good authority links and a strong affiliation with Amazon AWS, which will be helping the quality of their backlink profile. However, there is clearly web spam linking to their website, and although they are benefitting from this currently, they could be flagged by Google at any time and lose their ranking positions.
Advice for competitors
Cloud computing is a growing sector in the tech industry. The IDC compiled a report on May 2024 that stated:
“Spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments, increased 18.5% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2023 (4Q23) to $31.8 billion. This category continues to capture the largest share of spending compared to dedicated deployments and non-cloud spending.”
Cloud computing is a high ticket item and customer lifetime value can be in the tens, or hundreds of thousands. Ranking for the keyword ‘cloud computing providers’ will provide global visibility, so a company offering these services will gain excellent exposure worldwide.
To achieve it, you will need a solid landing page, filled with helpful information and optimised for SEO. Your website will need to be quite large, maybe 1000 pages or more. The good news is however, you will only need around 12 pages dedicated to cloud computing providers for search engines to see your website as the most relevant.
If you want a shortcut to the top, similar to AllCode, then you will need multiple links with exact or near exact match anchor text. Traditionally this has been achieved by building link farms, but this is highly dangerous and will most likely trigger a penalty.
Instead, you can focus on creating the ultimate page, or section on your website dedicated to cloud computing providers. Then using outreach, you may be able to attract natural links that contain the anchor text. Ideally, you want to gain sitewide links, because this is how AllCode has managed to gain 1510 links from only around 100 websites. Most of their links are extremely low value however, and with better quality you may outrank them with far less links.
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Did you like this SEO strategy break down? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments and let’s chat!