Essential SEO Ranking Factors to Consider
It can be quite challenging for a beginner who wants to achieve high ranking on Google as a majority do not know where to begin. The fact that Google considers more than 200 factors when ranking a site does not help at all!
However, it is paramount to understand that all these factors are not equally important as there are some that you must employ while others will not make a significant impact in your niche. You’re lucky if you have just launched your website and you want to uncover the most important aspects of SEO. Here is a comprehensive list of the areas you should focus more energy on:
On- Page Factors
Page optimization has a great impact on rankings. Some of the factors that affect visibility include:
- Keyword placement in title tag-title meta tags has huge impact on the search engines signals. The tags are supposed to give a precise narrative of the content on the page. Search engines use the information to display the main title of search results. When there is a keyword in the Meta tag, it will show the search engine what to rank the page for. It is best to place keywords at the beginning of the title tag.
- Meta description tags with keywords– Meta tag descriptions are something that you should never ignore. They are still important signals because they help in adding user clicks from the search result pages. When they feature keywords, they also make it more applicable to searches and the search engines as well.
- H1 tags with keywords– H1 tags also describe the content of the pages. Despite what SEO sources may still, they are till pertinent and keywords should always be included in the H1 tags.
- Sprinkling keywords in the page copy– in the past, stuffing keywords was one of the best ways to get ranked highly. Times have changed, however, because even though keywords on the page copy can help with high rankings, the way to place them has evolved.
- Content length– skimming through information does not work nowadays as searchers have a thirst for education. To be ranked first by Google, pages have to provide useful and authoritative content. Chances are, the longer your content, the more depth it has. Do not be afraid about crafting long, but most importantly informative copies.
- Carbon copy content– your rankings will be affected negatively if it duplicates existing content online. Aim to showcase original content to avoid penalization.
- Canonical tag– there are times when you can’t help but have two URLS with the same content. Use the canonical tag on your website so that it is not an issue of copied content. The tag lets Google know that one URL is the same as another.
- Optimizing images– in addition to optimizing text, it is also advisable to optimize other media like photographs. It can help send relevancy signals to search engines via captions, alt texts, and descriptions.
- Updating content– Google Algorithms have a preference for new content. It does not imply that you have to change content on a daily basis. Commercial pages like the ones which have product descriptions cannot be compared to blogs that cover current topics. Always update content at least once a year.
- Outbound links-only reason to send traffic to another page is if you want them to get more information on a certain topic. Search engines receive trust signals when a page links to top-notch sites. Do not overdo it, however, if you want to maintain high rankings.
- Internal links– interlinking pages on your website can help to strengthen them more.
- A URL that has keywords– placing the keyword in the URL slug i.e. the part that appears right after the “.com” can send relevancy signals to search engines as they crawl the web.
Site Factors
The visibility of your site can also be affected by:
- Sitemaps- the sitemaps help search engines to index the pages on your website. It is an effective way to let Google know the pages that your site has.
- Domain trust– sites that Google trusts will rank higher. Putting efforts towards building trust factors will give you amazing results.
- Server location- they can help to boost rankings for a particular region or country.
Optimizing Your Site
Mobile Friendliness
Mobile friendliness is a core factor when it comes to Google ranking in terms of SEO. When compared to desktops, most people use mobile phones to access the internet. Because of this, changes in Google ranking has been made to search results. Google now draws its search results from mobile optimized sites using the mobile first index before considering sites geared to desktops. It is therefore imperative to make your site mobile optimized to get a high SEO raking.
SEO ranking factor help lay a foundation for god Search engine ranking but also user experience is an important aspect when people visit your website. One should be able to consider the following things:
- Make sure interstitial adverts do not overweigh the essential web content.
- Ensure there is accessibility and navigability
- You should have a responsive site that automatically resizes to fit the device being used to browse.
- Ensure you use the right font as per screen options, like using large fonts to enhance readability on small screens.
To know more about mobile friendliness and how to use it to improve Google ranking, visit our guide on how to…….
Google Search Console Integration
The index of your site can also be enhanced by Google Webmasters Tools. Additionally, it can also offer crucial data that can help you optimize the site better.
Content Optimization
Content is among the top three Google search ranking factors besides links and RankBrain. Google’s search algorithm depends on use of keywords, used by searchers to look for topic relevant information. Key words and phrases describe topics covered in a site and the more they match with user searches, the more Google ranking increases.
Content Duplicating
Content duplicating is a negative SEO ranking factor, having fresh and original content o your site is the best option if you must use similar content to another site, it is recommended to use canonical URLs to notify Google on which content is the most authoritative.
SEO Ranking and LSI Keywords
Although the main keyword is the most important, including other terms related to the main keyword will make it easy for people to find what they are looking for on your site. These related terms are referred to as Latent Semantic Indexing keywords. They make it easy for Google to determine which results to show first.
Your content should also be optimized for questions and natural language searches because these days searching by voice option has been added to enhance website usability. A user can speak into their device microphone the search term they want to find on the web. Try to avoid stuffing keywords in your web content because it will reduce the quality of your web page and negatively affect your Google SEO ranking.
Search Intent for Content Optimization
Understanding what people are looking for when they enter their search keywords it is evidently an important factor to consider in content optimization. That is what Search intent is. At times, it is easy to know what someone is looking for. For instance when someone uses the word “example” it is clear that they are looking for further clarification. When they use “compare” or “buy”, you will know that they are looking to buy something and trying to decide which choice is the best for their needs
Keywords used by users usually change depending on if they want to
- Buy a product
- Get certain information for clarification
- Find an answer to a question
- Find a certain website with specific featured content
Off Page Factors
Some of the factors that Google considers outside your website include:
- The number of linking domains and linking pages– the number of domains that link to your site have a huge impact on your indexing. Note that it is better to have links from individual domains instead of single ones.
- Linking pages Domain Authority– high domain authority will give you better results than the weak authority ones. It also helps to get links from relevant search engines.
- Links from homepages and diversity – some SEO experts believe that home page links are better than the ones from the other pages. Never accept links of spam indicators as they can impact tour ratings negatively. Some sources also state that links should be relevant to the content of your page.
- Link anchor– note that anchor text of a link is no longer a high-ranking factor as today Google can use it as a web spam indicator that will not do any good to your rankings.
Domain Factors
Some of the domain factors to think deeply about include:
- The length of domain registration– Google may consider domains that have been around for more than a year more trustworthy.
- History of the domain– avoid domains that have been penalized in the past as they may affect current rankings in a bad way.
- Country TLD extension– having a country specific TLD like .co.sg can help earn better ratings in the region.
