SEO requirements often change. Keeping pace with these changes is difficult. If you want your Google rankings to go from bottom to top, you need to look for new SEO factors. Having said that over 200 ranking factors are used by Google in its algorithm. But what the heck are they?
We don’t have to work on all two hundred factors as most have very little value in SEO. They are not effective in ranking signals. But there are a few that are really important as they help in SEO services, leading to more leads and sales.
Of over two hundred Google ranking factors, here is a definitive list of important ones that are backed by Google. Each of these factors will make your search optimization strategy great.
Backlinks
Despite the fact that Google may back away backlinks in the future, they’re still the most important search engine ranking factor for your web pages. However, your links must come from various high authority websites that are similar to yours. Further, many SEO professionals working in digital marketing agencies in Toronto say that traffic and freshness may also be crucial backlink metrics.
Strategy – The simplest way to grow your backlink profile is to generate ideas from your competitors. All you have to do is to use a free online tool to search for your top competitors (you will find free tools online easily). Such tools will help you analyze your competitors’ backlinks and find websites in your niche that link to your competitors. These websites should be on top of your ‘outreach target’ list. Since they have linked to other websites in your niche, they will be more likely to host your links as well.
An Accessible Website
Having the right kind of URL is another SEO ranking factor backed by Google. That’s the URL of your website that Google’s bots reach and crawl your web pages. In general, search engines visit URLs and look at the page content to understand what the page is all about. Here is what you should do to help bots easily access your pages and understand what they are about.
Strategy – To help search engine bots, you need to create websites with a well-coded website builder, a robots.txt file that tells Google where it can and where it cannot look for your site information. Moreover, you’ll need a sitemap that lists all your pages. If your website is on WordPress, then you can set up a sitemap via ‘Yoast SEO’ or you will need to use an online sitemap generator. It is also necessary to enable SSL security on your website as HTTPs is also a ranking factor.
Mobile Optimization
Since mobile-first indexing is now a reality, mobile optimization is another major SEO factor. It means that google draws results from the mobile-optimized sites first, rather than sites designed for a desktop version. Until recently, Google announced that all websites without exemption would be monitored on their mobile version starting from September 2020. Google would not judge websites on the desktop version. This is because more people are using mobiles than desktops to access websites. Therefore, designing a mobile-friendly website is essential. If you want your pages to rank in SERPs, ensure that it has been designed for mobile users.
Strategy – For checking whether your website is mobile-friendly or not, visit Google’s mobile-friendly test and submit a URL. If your page is mobile-optimized, then you will get a green light. Otherwise, you will get some suggestions about how to improve. It is good to design a responsive site that automatically resizes to fit any screen size, uses large fonts for easy readability on a small screen, and makes sure important content isn’t hidden by ads. Also, include accessible menus, so visitors easily navigate your site.
On the other hand, while checking every page on your website is practically difficult, it is advisable to use Google Search Console to check your page at once. Sing-in to the Google Search Console, go to Enhancements, then Mobile Usability, and view a report. You will also view a list of suggested improvements.
Domain Age, URL, and Authority
According to a study conducted by Ahrefs, around 60% of sites with top ten Google search rankings are three years old or more. In many cases, the domain name and domain authority also matter. Exact-match domains that are relevant, valuable, and high-quality witness a ranking boost. Remember that a targeted keyword in your domain name does not give an SEO boost. But, it is still relevant for SEO ranking signals. Don’t go for an exact-match domain or add keywords in the URL if you already have an established website.
Strategy – If you’re purchasing a new domain, it is good to include keywords in the domain to have an edge over sites that do not have that keyword in their domain. It is also crucial to learn if the search engine identifies a particular individual as a spammer, then it would most probably check out other websites owned by that individual. While choosing your domain name, also focus on the country Top Level Domain (TLD) extension. Country TLD (.ca, .us, .au, .in) will help your website rank for that particular country. However, it will limit the website’s ability to rank globally. For global SEO performance, choose .Com.
User Behavior
Many SEO professionals still wonder whether Google actually uses behavioural metrics to rank web pages.
According to Google ‘No.’
However, there is some pretty convincing evidence that proves Google does. These metrics include CTR (click-through rate), session depth, bounce rate, and session duration. For checking your performance on user behaviour metrics, it is advisable to use your Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts.
Strategy – To prove user behaviour metrics, create engaging content. User behaviour improvement has a lot to do with engaging content. For instance, CTR relies on an attractive snippet in search results. Session duration, bounce rate, and session depth rely on whether there is anything fun to do on your page. In order to engage users and keep them engaged, it is prudent to produce a high-quality copy with a bounty of internal links and visuals. The catch is to attract visitors and send them down your sales funnel.
HTML Tags
HTML tags are code elements. They provide Google with key information about your page for SERP display. They tell the search engine which part of the content is relevant. Write title and meta description tags like keyword-rich promo as they are what users see in search results. Split your web copy into sections (H1-H6). Include keywords and write in an informative style. Last but important, use ‘Alt Text’ to describe images to search engines.
Strategy – If you were not observant of HTML tags, it might be possible that hundreds of pages on your site are not properly optimized as per SEO requirements. Use a ‘Website Auditing Tool’ online to review your pages in bulk. There are online tools that will help you audit your pages. If any pages have a low score, then the tool will provide you with a detailed report. You will get to know which HTML tags need to be optimized and what is wrong with them.
Final Opinion
Keeping tabs on the ever-evolving Google algorithm is important. Some factors such as backlinks and keywords are gradually losing their importance. Other factors, including user experience, are taking their place. For now, the factors above are a pretty solid selection of digital marketing service tactics to add to your SEO strategy.
Are you a new SEO learning or an SEO professional? Anyway, we would like to know your opinion. Let’s know which of the above factors you are going to implement today to crack SEO.
