5 Ways To Improve Your Website Ranking On Google
Google has approximately 200 ranking factors in its algorithm. A Search Engine Optimization Specialist (SEO) should at least know what they are and how they can affect your website.
You may already know that some ranking factors are more important than others. I’ve included 5 I think should be carefully considered.
“Keep in mind that Google can add or subtract from these at any time!
Google changes its algorithms to stop people from “gaming” the system to get ahead. One thing you should always keep in mind:: having fresh, relevant content will always impress the search engines.
So, without further ado,
Top 5 SEO Ranking Elements
The following are at the top of the factors to be considered;
1. Website Security – having HTTP vs. HTTPS in your URL
2. Backlinks: Get Valuable backlinks to increase your wenbaite's domain authority
3. Mobile-Friendliness- How does your site look on mobile?
4. Page Load Speed- How fast will people see it after they click?
5. User Engagement- usually judged by the amount of time spent on your website
1. Site Security/Safety
It seems as though Google places a huge weight on the trustworthiness of a website. Part of this is based on how secure your website is. HTTPS in your URL (web address) means your website has an SSL certificate- secure socket layer. In English, if you don’t have an “s” at the end of the HTTP- google will warn people not to visit your website.
“People will either consider you a Scoundrel or a Beginner, neither a good choice for your business!
2. Website Crawlability
Crawlability, in simple terms, means the quality of the way your website is built. If it is well structured, then the Google “bots” can “crawl” it and read what’s in it. Making sure it’s done correctly can improve your ranking results.
Things You Should Consider to Improve Indexability;
Submit a sitemap to Google
Check your website for errors in your Google Search Console
Make sure your robots.txt is telling google to “index” your website- if not, it won’t show up.
3. Having A Mobile Friendly Website is a top priority!
Mobile friendly just means your website looks good on a cell phone and it loads fast.
More than half the people searching the web are using their phones. If you missed that memo, well, you got it now!
To be your website is up to Google’s standards, check it on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. At least you’ll know if your web designer did the right thing.
4. Page Loading Time
Page speed is another factor Google takes into account. Why? Simple: If your website takes a long time to load- people will get bored and move on to the next search result. Google knows this by measuring the time people spend on your website. A fantastic example of a fast loading website is one we are working on the SEO for. It belongs to a shoulder surgeon in Bellevue, Wa.. This site loads in less than 1 second!
Fast Loading Time = Happy Visitor.
Happy Visitor = Happy Google
You can use some simple software tools like Gtmetrix and Pingdom to check your website’s loading speed and performance. If you have a WordPress site, you can try using optimization plugins to speed it up. W3Total Cache is one of the better ones to use for speed optimization.
5. User Involvement/ Engagement
User behavior is watched carefully by google, so they can decide where to index your website. One of the things the algorithm tracks is how people engage with your website. How long do they stay on it? Hypothetically, Google knows everything that goes on with your website. Some factors that may influence user engagement include;
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on a search result when it is presented to them.
- TOS- Time spent on your website.
- Bounce Rate: How quickly people leave your website tells google how relevant it was to their search query.
These metrics tell google whether or not a search result is valuable to users, so optimize your site content accordingly.
Summing It Up
Make use of high-quality web design and seo optimized images /graphics.
Make sure your website is easy to read and navigate on a phone
Keep generating traffic by creating compelling titles and descriptions for your search snippets
Read More...
