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With Google constantly changing its ranking factors, SEO requirements also keep changing and every year brings different SEO trends. This creates a need for staying updated on the ranking factors that influence SEO.
Because without SEO, it is impossible to create traffic on your website, generate leads, and enhance your conversion rate. Thus, it is important for every online business to ensure constant virtual visibility and reach.
To help you keep a well-optimized website for your business and maintain organic reach, we have created a list of-
Top 10 current ranking factors which influence SEO
1. Mobile-friendly websites
Google takes special care to convenience mobile phone users and if yours is a slow-loading, heavy resource website, Google will definitely penalize you by demoting your position in Google SERPs. Thus, in order to ensure that your website is mobile user-friendly, make sure to use mobile-accessible themes or special mobile view themes, tools like lazy loading, etc to maintain a higher Google ranking. We can say for sure that this factor is going to put a major influence on Google rankings for a long time in the future.
2. Page speed
Page speed (both on desktops and mobiles) has always been an important factor in determining the Google ranking of a website and this continues to be so. You can test the page speed of your website with the help of various page speed testing tools available like GMetrix, Site24x7, Google PageSpeed Insight, Pingdom, and so on. These tools can also help you optimize your website by helping you improve your page speed.
3. Domain factors
There are certain domain factors that influence the Google ranking of your website. For example, most of the top-ranking websites on Google have a domain age of more than 3 years. In some cases, the domain name also plays a role– make sure that your domain name is unique and original, or else Google may think yours is a spam site and this will lead to demotion in Google rankings. Also, optimizing your domain name with keywords relevant to your business can be a great idea. Checking domain authority is crucial as well because when it comes to Google rankings, authority matters.
4. Content optimization
Okay, this must sound obvious and it is basic but it stays. Content optimization bears the utmost importance in search engine optimization (SEO). Now, content optimization is not limited to adding relevant keywords in your written content but it means that you should optimize every type of content on your website as well. Now image optimization also plays a big role. Make sure to use high-quality images, and name image files accurately along with relevant keywords. An optimized image can also help your website appear in the top results of Google Images.
5. Get the code right
A well-structured markup language and the backend of your web pages are crucial to rank higher as it helps Google index you better. You may find it a little intimidating if you’re not a techie but there are a few things even non-coders can do like-
- Add keywords in page titles
- Add keywords in image alt tags
- Employ schema markup
- Add alt tags to help the visually impaired use screen-readers
But it is always better to take help of the professionals.
Read Also: What is SEO?
6. Check the bounce rate
The bounce rate tells how many users come to your website and go back or ‘bounce’ back from your website without clicking on anything. Both too much and too little bounce rate is bad for your website. Optimize your site with the objective to have a bounce rate ranging between 40% to 55% which is ideal.
7. Check dwell time
Dwell time signifies how long a user spends on your website after having clicked on the link on Google SERP and before going back. The more the dwell time, the more the chances of getting a higher Google ranking as a higher dwell time tells Google that users find your site useful. Plan with your digital marketing team how you can optimize your website to increase dwell time.
8. Increase social visibility
Smart companies understand the impact social visibility has on Google ranking and thus make it a point to optimize their social media accounts as well. Make sure to have your social media accounts linked to your website. Make it more active, instigate discussions, and improve engagements. By doing so, you will be able to greatly improve your site’s Google rankings.
9. Focus on local reach
For small businesses and those which are largely dependent on their location, it is important to pay specific attention to improving their local reach. If you are a small local business owner, you should optimize your site in a way that when someone runs a local search for your business types, your organization appears in the top search. This is possible by concentrating on improving local reach instead of a general one.
10. Encourage user reviews
User reviews can be really beneficial as they help earn your site credibility. Encourage your happy customers to give you 5-star ratings and reviews so that Google will trust you and give you a higher ranking. What’s more? A high rating and positive reviews on Google will also help your business attract customers.
Conclusion
Search engine optimization (SEO) requires constantly keeping up with the changing environment and trends. In a nutshell, Google’s ranking depends mostly upon having an accessible, mobile user-friendly website, decent social visibility, proper location-based SEO goals, and taking care of basic technical factors. With this guide, you can catch up on important current ranking factors that influence SEO.
