Google has always changed its algorithm after a period. With the change in Google algorithms, SERP volatility increased drastically.
This means that changes in SERP results impact visual searches and strongly push/pull your site towards down or up the organic position, as the case may be.
Google will continue adjusting to best meet the needs of searchers. That's why SEOs focus on Search engine results. As the competition increases, various SEOs come up with different tactics and focus on the Google ranking factors.
Now, Google’s On-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) factors are important, but high-quality content is paramount. In this guide, we will be sharing the complete checklist on SEO ranking and how to boost your web page on SERPs.
What is SEO Ranking?
In SEO, ranking refers to your web page’s position on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). A #1 ranking means it is ranked first when someone searches for a particular term.
SEO ranking is the process of improving your website's visibility in search engines. The more visible your website is, the more people are likely to visit it.
This is what SEO ranking is all about. It is an essential part of every web page's existence. Search engines are constantly trying to find ways to improve their rankings. They are constantly looking for new techniques that will help them understand the data they have on their websites.
Google’s PageRank (PR) algorithm enhances its evaluation of search results by using on-page factors like keywords, keyword density, relevant tags, and content quality.
What Does Google Look for in SEO?
Google says the web pages are organized to help people find things they need over the internet that are relevant to their query.
This means Google is looking for websites in the real world that are useful, relevant, and user-friendly. Keywords relevant to the products and services you are targeting have a higher chance of ranking.
This is why search engine optimization becomes imperative in every web page's existence.
Here is how Google uses and sorts the pages for ranking:
First, Google crawls the web. It looks for links to websites or pages that are being linked to by other sites on the web. It uses the spiders to do that.
Second, they extend the index by crawling more popular websites so you can get better search results for your website's pages.
When people search Google, it shows what is relevant to the search terms they enter. It uses information from trillions of pages in its index and decides which ones are most important for the user when they want to find something.
How do Google Search Rankings Work?
Google search engine uses various factors to rank a page when someone searches for a specific term. It checks for the factors like:
- Page intent
- Content quality
- User interaction
- Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
- Website reputation and content creator reputation
- Page authority
Google shows you relevant results to what you're looking for, based on how many other people searched for it recently.
Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use an algorithm to rank websites for keywords searched by online users worldwide when they are looking for something specific on the internet. SEO is essentially about optimizing these six factors.
Top Ranking Factors Explained
The search engine giant, Google, is the most important tool for any internet user to find information on the web. The company constantly looks at various factors to determine how it ranks a website in its search results.
We looked at all of these factors and compiled a list of the top ranking factors that contribute to the quality of websites in Google's search results.
Publish High-Quality Content
Google always wants to rank websites with the most authoritative and trustworthy content.
A website owner or an internet marketer needs to write high-quality, original content that can also contain relevant keyword phrases.
Always give your readers something valuable that cannot be found online. It means writing unique articles without copying others' work as duplicating will bring low search engine results under penalty from Google because it considers this as spamming its database.
Google also considers the following into account to consider the high-quality content:
RankBrain
The RankBrain algorithm helps Google's core ranking algorithm understand what people are interested in and which pages they want more of.
They focus on improving user experience by suggesting search queries to complete through voice commands or text commands. For example, when someone asks Google to find a restaurant, they are likely searching for food but not necessarily looking at reviews of restaurants anymore.
Keyword Usage
Google looks at the word usage on a website to help determine which of your content is most relevant and valuable for users. Google suggests you "be as relevant as possible" to improve overall ranking..
The popularity of keyword research shows the importance of creating high-quality content to rank well on Google. It also supports SEO because it helps you better understand how search engines work and what people are searching for online.
Freshness
Content freshness is nothing new to Google. They've said that for a long time now, but there was still debate about what "fresh" meant in the context of their algorithm changes.
When users come to your website, they will expect that you have updated content and be relevant.
Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
When you make a site mobile-friendly by making it responsive, Google is more likely to rank this page because clients are more used to searching for things on mobile devices first.
In 2021, mobile phones generated 54.25% of the traffic, and desktops - 42.9%. So, it’s obvious to understand why you need a mobile-indexing.
Mobile-first indexing means Google indexes everything on your site, but if you have a separate mobile website, it will be indexed first instead of the desktop version.
Google indexes your site using a mobile-first approach. In case, the mobile website is different, the URL of your mobile site will be used instead of the desktop version for ranking in search results.
Improve Your User Experience
User experience (UX) impacts your SEO directly. Success with SEO will depend on the quality of UX, which includes responsive design.
When designing for mobile devices, in particular, be sure to test your pages across different platforms and sizes (phones/tablets versus large-screen computers). Prospective users are most likely accessing online content via their phones or tablets.
Sites with a poor experience can have a lower SERP rank, negatively affecting conversion rates for sales and marketing campaigns.
Optimize Your Page Speed
Another factor to consider is how fast your page loads. Google considers speed as one of five ranking elements that determine where a website appears in results.
Web pages are directly affected by page speed. If a page loads quickly, readers are more likely to stick to it. This signals Google that the page provides good user experience.
That makes it easy to rank well in search engine rankings and get traffic from users who use these engines like Google or Bing.
Several speed testing tools can help improve page speed and give various metrics that could be possible reasons for slow page speed.
Google Page speed Insights is a tool that measures the performance of your website and its speed. It helps you to improve the page load time of your website.
GTMetrix is another free website speed testing tool. It provides an accurate measurement of page load time, performance, and the number of requests made by the browser. The result of this test will help you to improve your website's loading speed and user experience.
Master On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is the best way to get traffic to your website. On-page optimization helps you create a better user experience for your visitors. You can also optimize your website content so that it attracts more traffic.
On-page optimization helps you to create better content and content marketing strategies. It is the best keyword research method as it will provide information about how relevant your pages are, what links can be added to improve ranking on SERPs etc.
Here are a few on-page optimization techniques to check out:
Metadata
Metadata includes the Title and Meta Description. While the Title lets the reader know the core topic of your content, the meta description is what you see on Google SERPs below every hyperlink. It helps give a gist of what to expect.
Schema
Schema markup is a process that helps you to improve your website's search engine optimization. It is a simple and easy way to improve your website's ranking. It helps maintain the authenticity of your content and is an effective way to find out if your website is accessible on various search engines.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are a snippet of content extracted from the page's copy and served directly in search results. They are commonly referred to as the position '0'.
The snippets appear right before the organic search result and usually get more traffic than just normal displayed page content because it tends to appeal directly to visitors.
Earn Relevant & Authoritative Links
The best way to increase your search engine rankings is through a mix of quality and quantity of backlinks.
Creating many relevant outgoing links will improve your site's relevance score over time because it shows your readers that the content is resourceful.
The more relevant links you get from trustworthy sites, the more trust visitors will have in your site.
Key Takeaway: E-A-T Impacts All Ranking Factors
E-A-T (Expertise-Authority-Trust) at the most basic level is the combination of relevance and authority.
E-A-T scores are important because they can help you understand where Google is focused on improving the quality of search results.
E-A-T indexing determines if you can be sure that your content or site is truthful, accurate, and exhaustive in nature.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q. Which ranking factor is most important under SEO?
Ans: The most important ranking factor is the Keyword. It determines how well your content is shown in search results.
Q. Is it better to rank well in Google or Yahoo Search Engine Ranking?
Ans: Both are good for different reasons. As long as the website is relevant to the search being conducted, it will be ranked well in both search engines. Google receives over 10 billion searches per day while Yahoo receives about 550 million searches per day. So it's all based on the popularity of the keyword with which you are ranking.
Q. What are the three main components of SEO?
Ans: The three main SEO components are Technical SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO.
Q. What is an SEO strategy?
Ans: An SEO strategy is an act of categorizing a website's content to increase its chances of showing in search results.
Q. Does paid traffic help SEO?
Ans: PPC doesn't directly affect SEO, but it does help you improve your SEO campaigns in other ways.
Conclusion
With all of the new SEO techniques and tools in the market, it can be hard to find which one is going to work. The good news is that there are tons of ways to get your website ranked for search engine results without wasting hours on each new tactic.
Ranking signals are the bread and butter of SEO.
If you’re not ranking well, there’s a good chance that you aren’t doing enough to make your site awesome.
As with anything else in SEO, rankings can be affected by many factors, but they all boil down to one simple truth: People will visit your site if it is properly SEO-optimized and attracts the audience, both visually and quality-wise.
Try Scalenut for free to optimize your site for on-page factors like meta description, title, and other factors. Scalenut also lets you create content that is optimized for featured snippets.
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