Search engine optimization or SEO is a process you use to improve either your quality or volume of traffic from search engines to your website. The earlier your site appears in search engine results, typically the better and the more visitors you’re going to get.
SEO marketing services are a worthwhile investment for the vast majority of businesses as a result.
In the digitally driven world, if you’re not paying attention to search engine optimization, you’re not going to get the visibility you need to be competitive and profitable.
If you’re an SEO beginner, the following are some of the most important ranking factors, although this certainly isn’t an exhaustive list.
You might not think of your website’s security as being an SEO ranking factor, but it’s actually a big one.
Along with security, for your site to rank well in search engine results, it also needs to be accessible to Google.
Google has to be able to visit your URL, look at the content on the pages and “understand” what it’s about.
You need a website that’s well-designed and a robots.txt file that indicates to Google where it can and can’t find information about your site. You also need a sitemap listing out your pages.
HTTPS isn’t a factor that decides whether or not your page will be indexed, but people who work for Google do say that it becomes a ranking factor in the context of your overall user experience. If you don’t have SSL enabled, you need to make that change as soon as possible.
Page speed has been a long-time key ranking factor. Google’s primary goal is to improve the experience of its users, and that requires pages that load quickly, including on mobile devices. There was a big update in July 2018 that focused on mobile page speed.
If your site isn’t loading lightning fast across all devices, you’re likely going to be penalized.
If you aren’t sure where to start, look at Google Search Console, which has guides to improving site performance, including your speed.
Along with speed on mobile devices, overall mobile-friendliness is important to your rankings.
Google follows a mobile-first index. What does that mean?
Basically, the results that are going to be shown first are from sites well-optimized for mobile, instead of sites geared toward computers.
As you’re assessing how mobile-friendly your site is, you’ll want to look at whether it’s responsive, how readable your fonts are on a small screen, and navigation features like menus and how those work on mobile devices. You also need to make sure that if you monetize your site through display ads, they’re not blocking content on mobile devices.
The majority of sites that rank well in Google are at least three years old. Having an older site is already likely to give you an advantage in search engines.
Your domain name may also matter.
You want a domain that’s relevant and high-quality, although if you already have a site that’s well-established, you don’t need to shift to an exact-match domain.
Authority also matters. SEO uses signals like inbound links and social shares—we talk more about links below.
The role of what is a content creator and how they can add value is a crucial factor to achieve higher rankings.
Moz created a system for ranking page authority and domain authority, with rankings ranging from 0 to 100.
Domain authority or DA predicts how likely a site is to rank in search engine results pages. The higher the score of a site, the more likely it will rank. Domain Authority itself is not a Google ranking factor, but if you’re doing the things that are likely to raise your DA, then those are factors that also translate into better SEO rankings in many cases.
Basically, DA is a prediction rather than a factor in and of itself.
The things that improve DA include focusing on the quality and quantity of external links that point back to your site.
This leads us to the next critical SEO factor—backlinks.
Some feel backlinks are the most important ranking factor because they form the foundation of PageRank. PageRank is the basis of the Google ranking algorithm.
There’s quite a bit of independent research that also shows a link between backlinks and organic traffic.
Backlinks have two qualities to really have a positive impact on SEO—relevance, and authority.
Fresh content shows that you’re continually adding to and updating your site. When you’re adding fresh content, it means you’re actively making changes, and search engines tend to like to see that.
Fresh content means that you’re adding new pages, but you can also make substantial updates to existing and evergreen content.
The concept from the perspective of your actual visitors is that they want to see you adding new, relevant content that’s going to provide them with value.
User experience affects SEO in direct and indirect ways. If your layout isn’t appealing, people are going to stop engaging with your site, giving you a high bounce rate.
From a technical standpoint, one thing you can do that can mean major SEO benefits is to change your site architecture.
Site architecture helps users find what they’re looking for through quality site navigation, and it also helps the search engine crawlers find more pages on your site.
Your site needs to be as easy to use as possible.
Your visitors should be able to find what they need in a few clicks, no matter what.
Finally, a hidden element of your site that tells search engines more about the content you’re featuring is schema markup. There are hundreds of types of information you can include as part of schemas. Schemas, in simple terms, help search engines identify whatever the most essential information is that you’re presenting on your site.
Scheme markup is what helps Google identify rich snippets that it shows in search results, which are coveted in terms of SEO.
