Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a way of upgrading the content and design of a website so that it ranks on top in the search engine result pages like Google, Bing, Yahoo. The benefits are like better user experience, increased traffic, engagement, and improved social media efforts. In this article, we will first understand how SEO works and what are the latest Google ranking factors.
How SEO works?
Have you ever questioned how a search engine magically replies to all your queries with extensive links to web pages whenever you type in a question or a simple phrase or a keyword in the search box?
The answer to it is that most of the sites that we see ranking on the first page didn’t get there magically or simply by accident. They applied SEO to help the search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing) to understand its content. A search engine sends out a team of robots known as crawlers or spiders to find new and updated results. These results are stores and organized into a database called an index. The results are then ranked or put to order by most relevant to least relevant content accordingly.
In simple terms, SEO works by indicating to search engines that your content is the best result for the topic searched for since all search engines have the common goal, i.e., to appear as the most relevant results to their users.
Google Ranking Factors for SEO
Posting Engaging content consistently
Google tests new content to see if it responds well to the audience’s intent to the keyword that is put in. It promotes content that answers questions of the searches. Thus, a top factor in Google’s search algorithm is consistently publishing engaging content at least twice per week.
Include Keyword in Meta Title Tags
Title tags are the hyperlinks for a given result displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs). Having a strong, relevant, clickable title can significantly impact rankings and overall traffic numbers.
Internal Links
An internal link is linking a page to another page on your website. Good internal links are a crucial and valuable weapon to your SEO. Internal linking helps Google find, index, and understand all of the pages on your website. If you use them tactfully, internal links can send page authority (PageRank) to important pages.
Mobile-Friendly Websites
Did you know that people spend 70% of their internet time on mobile? If you desire to rank higher in search engine result pages and keep mobile leads on your page, you must consider investing in mobile search engine optimization. Since more and more people use their phones to search the web, Google has shifted to a “mobile-first index.” This means that Google Crawlers will read your mobile site.
Test your page speed
Page speed affects SEO and Google rankings. At Google, users come first. Google doesn’t like ranking sites that provide a lousy user experience. It gives preferential treatment to websites that load quickly. If your site is fast, you have a better chance of ranking on Google over slow sites that drive high bounce rates. Focusing on page speed is crucial to having a website that converts.
Keywords in URL
Your URL should contain a keyword that you want your page to rank for. When you include a keyword in the URL, that keyword indicates Google: “This page is about that keyword. “The URLs must be short and simple as long URLs confuse Google. Note that you don’t use underscores (_) as a separator in the URL. Instead, you can use Hyphen (–) as a separator in the URL.
Backlinks
Google sees backlinks as votes of confidence. The more options your web pages have, the more likely they are to rank for relevant search queries. Google places more value on relevant backlinks because people are more likely to click on them. For instance, if a digital marketing website has backlinks from two pages, one about self-care products and one about books on digital marketing, chances are the latter is most valuable. Readers of digitalmarketingbooks.com are more likely to click on a link to a digital marketing website than readers of self-care products.
SSL Certificate
SSL certificate boost SEO rankings. Google has confirmed that websites with SSL certificate would get an added advantage in the search engine result pages. Moreover, Google also advises web developers to switch their HTTP websites to HTTPS.
Use Schema Markup
Schema markup is a code that you put on your website to help the search engines return more explanatory results for users. It allows Google to understand your content and represent it in the search results in a better way. When Google doesn’t know if your content is about an artist or food, you can make things clear using a structured data markup or schema markup.
Keywords in Header Tags
Putting keywords in a page’s H1, H2, and H3 tags is the best practice that makes a difference in a page’s ranking ability.
Redirections
Redirects are used to tell visitors where to go if the page that is looked for doesn’t appear for one reason. If you need to redirect a page on your website, think carefully about which type of redirections (301, 302, 307redirects, 404, 410, errors), make sure you don’t damage the SEO ranking of your website.
Image Optimization
Images are crucial to ensure that your content is more accessible, attractive and engaging to users, but they are equally important in SEO. Optimize the image file names with relevant keywords in the alt tags section; give an appropriate title and description to every image on a page. Also, use high-quality and compressed images with the right dimension to keep them fit in the layout without disturbing the website’s look.
Niche Expertise
In 2017, Google started favoring sites that act as niche experts. It means having 10+ authoritative pages which revolve around a particular keyword.
Conclusion
Now that you are aware of all the top Google ranking factors, it’s time to optimize your website accordingly. Or you can contact us today to keep your website optimized for your audience and help customers find you and your business.