With the continuous evolution of SEO requirements, it can take time to synchronize with the most recent development. However, if your goal is to boost the Google rankings of your website, then you must be aware of all the changes happening in the SEO field. Not only that, but you should also adopt certain practices to get the best out of your SEO efforts.
You need to pay attention to SEO so that searchers can discover your website. Efficiently optimizing your website will help you attract more traffic over time. And eventually, you would get more leads and sales, which is fantastic.
We have designed this comprehensive blog post for you, where we will let you know the top SEO ranking factors that you should have a clear idea about. You can improve your website rank whenever you know these factors, which helps boost your revenue.
By the end of this guide, you will know how to optimize your website to bring a lot of traffic and conversion. So, without any further ado, let’s begin with our today’s discussion:
What Are Google Ranking Factors?
These typically refer to the elements of your site that the Google search algorithm considers while determining which web pages to reflect in the search results for a particular search query.
Whenever anyone searches for a phrase related to your service, you want your business to reflect at the top of search results so that they click on it and finally land on your website.
However, you will only be able to achieve this objective if you are careful about the SEO ranking factors. Knowing about these critical factors is crucial if you want to get your site ranked in Google search results.
There are many ranking factors, out of which some tend to have a considerable impact, whereas others matter less.
Here, we will discuss the most crucial ones so that you know precisely which SEO strategies to spend your money and time on. But, before that, let’s have a look at why it is so important to know about these factors in the following section:
Importance Of Getting Well Conversant With The Google Ranking SEO Factors
A study conducted by Intergrowth has made it clear that the first five organic results receive 67.60 percent of all clicks. This percentage of getting clicks went down to 3.73 after that.
For instance, you are ranking in the number one position for a keyword with 1,000 searches/month at a CTR of 30 percent. It would drive 300 new visitors to your website every month.
Now, if you manage to convert only one percent of those visitors, then it means that you will be getting three new customers each month for a year. Thus, by ranking in the number one position on Google for a single keyword, you can bring 36 new customers to your business every year.
Now, let’s move further in our today’s discussion by talking about the most important Google ranking SEO factors:
Top 7 SEO Ranking Factors To Focus On
Optimized Content
When optimized efficiently, content is one of the most critical search ranking factors. If you need help with optimizing content for SEO, then keep reading this section to get a better idea.
Google’s search algorithm depends on keywords, including phrases and words searchers use whenever they look for any information.
If you wish to make your website pages get discovered, then you will need to use relevant keywords or key phrases. So, using keywords in all the content you publish on your site is extremely important.
Your main goal should be to stick to crafting fresh and original content to make the most of it. However, never publish duplicate or plagiarized content on your website, as it could negatively impact your SEO ranking.
Another vital SEO strategy involves using LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing keywords along with the primary one. These will help Google to understand which specific results to reflect.
Along with that, you should also optimize your content for voice search. The more attempts you make to make your content well comprehensible by Google, the higher your chances are to rank in your niche.
But, refrain from doing keyword stuffing as it will lead to poor-quality web pages and negatively impact your SEO ranking. Maintain a keyword density of 1 to 2 percent.
A research study has clarified that quality content (i.e., without any fluff) over 2000 words is most likely to acquire the top ten positions in Google search engine rankings.
So, focus on creating longer content. You can even use videos, as these also help in boosting your ranking.
Mobile Friendliness
The SEO ranking factor that now we are going to talk about is mobile friendliness. Your website mandatorily should be responsive or mobile-friendly. It’s because most people currently use mobile devices rather than desktops to access the web.
So, if you have yet to make your website suitable for mobile devices, you will lose significant traffic. Not only that, but it also considerably impacts your ranking.
Google’s mobile-first index has become necessary as it prioritizes mobile-optimized websites and shows results from these rather than unresponsive ones. In this aspect, you need to focus on certain things, which are as follows:
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Have a responsive website that automatically resizes to fit the device
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Make sure that ads do not obscure the essential content
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Incorporate accessible menus so that your website is straightforward to navigate
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Always make use of large fonts to ensure easy readability, even on a small screen
Page Speed
Page Speed is another crucial SEO ranking factor that hugely affects your website ranking. Google always focuses on enhancing the users’ experience of the web. And the fast-loading web pages help in delivering the best user experience.
Back in the year 2018, Google announced an algorithm update that focused on mobile page speed.
So, you will increase the chance of your website getting penalized if it fails to load fast on mobile devices.
You can use the mobile testing tool of Google to check for your page speed. In case of slow page speed, you will even get to see suggestions that you can work on to see an improvement.
A Secure And Accessible Site
Your website should necessarily have the correct type of URL that Google bots can easily access and crawl. In other words, Google should be able to visit the URL and see the page content to get a transparent view of what that page is about. So, to help the bots, you will require the following:
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A sitemap that lists all of your website pages
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A robots.txt file that tells Google where and where not to look for your website information
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A site that is built with the help of a well-coded site builder
You can use an online sitemap generator, or if you are running a WordPress website, you can use a plugin for setting up a sitemap. Also, ensure SSL security on your site, as it keeps the user’s data safe and secure.
User Experience
Google is involved in utilizing AI for better ranking web pages, which they call signal RankBrain. It includes other signals that impact your search engine ranking, such as:
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Dwell Time: How long will the visitors stay on your website after landing?
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Bounce Rate (Particularly Pogo-Sticking): The number of individuals who tap on your website page and immediately return to the search results.
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Click-Through Rate: The percentage of individuals who click to visit your website whenever an entry appears in search results.
If your website visitors bounce away, then Google will think it is not pertinent to their requirements. And if many people do this, your website will face a tough time acquiring a higher rank in search results.
From this, you can determine that your content fails to match the searcher’s intent. In such a case, you will need to solidify your SEO strategy and focus on targeting a more robust keyword.
Similarly, if individuals click through to your website page and hang around for a while, it informs Google that the content you have published on your site is relevant to their search. It is something that promotes your higher ranking.
So, continuously optimize your content, descriptions, and titles to get the most clicks and deliver value. By ensuring this, you can effectively enhance your search engine ranking.
Technical SEO
To optimize your website content for better search engine rankings, you should always ensure that your code is appropriate. If you are not technically versed, it may be challenging.
However, to help you get a good idea of this, below, we have enlisted some of the critical aspects to consider:
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Incorporate keyword phrases in page titles as it is where Google looks first to determine which content is pertinent to which search.
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Craft a catchy meta description and also incorporate your keyword phrase in it.
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Use header tags to show the content hierarchy, and use H1 for the title and H2 or H3 for subheadings.
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Ensure that the meta descriptions you craft are short and catchy, i.e., within 160 characters.
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Use keyword phrases in image alt tags to show how those specific images relate to the core content.
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Employ schema markup to help Google understand the type of content you want to create.
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Include alt tags to allow visually impaired people to read the content of your website, especially with the help of screen readers.
Seems complex? In such a case, the best thing you can do is to opt for the assistance of a professional SEO company like ZealousWeb, which covers these aspects in its SEO package. At ZealousWeb, we will adopt the best practices to improve the technical SEO score of your site.
Domain Authority, Age, And URL
About 60 percent of the three-year-old or more websites have acquired a top ten Google search ranking.
Ahrefs have also conducted a study that has made it clear that only a few websites less than a year old have managed to achieve that position.
So, if your website is new, then you are going to have a tough time for sure. However, if you have optimized your site well by working on all the factors discussed in this guide, you can acquire the top positions.
In some cases, the domain name also matters a lot. Although Google imposes a penalty on exact-match domains, i.e., where the targeted keyword is in the URL, that penalty is typically for spammy websites with thin content.
It is evident from a research study conducted by Moz that the exact-match domains considered high-quality, valuable, and relevant can see a considerable boost in their ranking. However, if your website is already well established, then in that case, you do not require searching for an exact-match domain.
When selecting your domain, you must focus on a URL that reflects your business.
Wrapping Up
As you have reached the end of this blog post, we are sure you now have a good understanding of all the vital SEO ranking factors. It is high time to improve these if you want to boost your website’s ranking.
ZealousWeb’s SEO packages have covered you if you need any related assistance. Our SEO package is not only highly effective but cost-effective as well. For more details, schedule a talk with our expert team today.
What Makes ZealousWeb’s SEO Packages The Best Option To Choose?
ZealousWeb is a leading SEO service provider that continuously delivers best-in-class solutions to help your site rank higher in search results.
We have designed our SEO packages so that by relying on this, you would gain visibility, acquire a more significant number of customers, and ultimately increase your revenue.
Our professional team of SEO experts always stays updated on the latest developments and updates. So, you can rest assured by assigning your SEO responsibilities to us.
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