“I have designed a website, but it is not getting ranked. Neither am I noticing any increase in my clients”. This is the common thought arising in every business-owner’s mind when their online presence is not able to get strong. But, what is the way to boost your online presence?
The importance of online presence in this digital era is not a point to explain. And, ranking it such that every google search regarding your keyword invites a visitor to land on your website is the most complex yet the most important task. But, Pat’s Marketing can help you to make this complex task easy.
There are 200 ranking factors Google uses to rank your website. Here we discuss the top 15 factors that can help you rank your website higher on Google.
What are top SEO Ranking Factors?
The top SEO ranking factors playing an important role in ranking your website and inviting a visitor to convert into lead are as follows. Read them out and decide where your website lacks and what exactly it requires to create a buzz!
1. Content Quality: This is the most common reason for a poor website ranking and user experience. Chances are there your content lacks the attraction required to invite a visitor to read it and get convert to a lead. You might have always heard the saying “Content is the king”. And, it is. You can’t compromise with the content quality of your website by any means.
If you are a business owner, first thing you will do is check whether your content provides every piece of information regarding the customer’s interest. Every piece of content you write on your website must be true, original, fresh, and valuable. Only then, you can expect your website to yield desired results in terms of SERP rankings.
Keeping the content updated is another important task and most of the website owners fail to perform it. Okay, let’s assume you wrote an article about Google algorithm in 2018. Now, Google algorithm changes at the regular intervals. You can’t expect the content of 2018 to be a talk of the town in 2021. You must modify it according to the latest updates. Only then, your website will attract the traffic. Readers will visit your website with a hope of learning new things.
Now let us talk about content length. Research indicates that 2000 word posts did much better than the shorter posts with insufficient content. Your content should cover every aspect in detail, along with a mountain of clarity. Structuring it and representing it in a highly readable form will invite the interest of readers.
2. Keyword Usage: As much as your content is important, the way you use the keywords in your content is extremely important. Firstly, you need to know what a keyword is? Keyword is an anchor text on which you wish to rank your website.
So, how do you use this keyword? Will you stuff the same in the entire article? The answer is big No. As a content writer, the worst thing you can do is stuff your keyword anywhere and everywhere on the website. It not only degrades readability, but also forces Google to think of you being a spammer. And if it happens, a penalty in terms of Google Ranking awaits you.
A thumb rule says, “The keyword density in your website has to be 1.5-2% of the total word count length on your website”. Thus, you can keep these figures in your mind while optimizing keyword density on your website.
Ensure the introduction paragraph of your article includes your keyword to set the context right for search engine algorithms. Also, the title & meta description of your article must include the same. Try including the keyword in headings of your article. Also, the inclusion of keywords in the URL of your article will boost the rankings of your article.
3. Mobile Friendliness: According to the latest survey, there are 3.7 billion mobile users in the world. So, without any doubt, most users will visit your website from a mobile phone. But, it is necessary for you to keep your site optimized for PC, mobile, and for tablet.
Even Google went mobile-friendly in 2019. So, why not your website? Thus, to boost your website’s ranking, ensure your site is mobile-friendly, and the view of your website remains unhindered on every class of device. Take the mobile friendly test today.
4. Website Speed: Now, let us think from a user’s perspective. You are eager to gain some information and you open a website. But, the website takes forever to load. So, what follows now? As numerous options are available on the internet, you will turn off the website and visit another website which is fast. That’s how it works!
In this busy world, you can’t expect someone to wait forever to let your website load. The more early your visitor turns off from your website, the more it increases the bounce rate. Increase in bounce rate gives Google a negative signal which eventually leads your website in the scanner.Here are few tools to check your website speed:
Read our blog which explains top 10 ways to make your website load faster.
5. Domain Authority: Domain Authority is a score defining your authority on the niche of your website. The more your website’s DA is, the more people will trust your website. Some ways to increase the DA of your website are creating high-quality backlinks, writing juicy content, providing a Contact Us page, and keeping your website well-optimized.
Then, Google will think you are an expert of your niche, and will start ranking your website in top 10. Even, people will start trusting your website to a great extent.
Also, you can place the customer reviews to make Google and users trust your website.
You can go through our blog which explains top 10 ways to boost the DA of your website
6. Recognizing Search Intent: Another important point is recognizing what people are searching and choosing your website’s focus accordingly. You can use AnswerThePublic tool to know what exactly users are searching.
It will give you a fair number of ideas on where you need to focus. Recognizing search intent will allow you to be more specific with your content, be more detailed as it will be your expertise, and of course will be more inviting.
7. Backlink Factor: The URL of your website on other’s website is termed as Backlink. The number of backlinks your website gets indicates the level of trust your website has earned.
If you get success in getting backlinks from websites with high DA, chances of Google getting the positive signals regarding the trust factor on your site increases.Also, you can use techniques like Guest Posting to get some high quality Backlinks.
8. Sitemap Creation: Sitemap encapsulates all the pages you want to make Google know about. Sitemap of your website helps the Google Crawler to identify your page, follow the content and index the pages.
Alternatively, you can also go with robots.txt file. These files inform Google Bots about crawling and indexing your website. The robots.txt file prevents unnecessary crawling and thus the pages not necessary are not indexed.
9. The Security Factor (HTTPS): Ever noticed a not-secured label just beside the URL of the website you visit? What is it for? If you check the URL of the website, you will see a http tag. Well, it must be https.
Again, as a user, would you like to visit the website coming with a not-secure tag? Most probably, not. Also, Google takes the ‘s’ factor seriously when it comes to website ranking. Thus, you must ensure your website has SSL installed. If it is not, reach out to your hosting service provider and make it secure.
10. URL Length: Your URL defines your niche and target audience to a great extent. Try incorporating your primary keyword in your URL. Also, ensure your URL is short. Google Algorithm prefers short length of URL as compared to lengthy URL.
11. Multimedia Use: Proper optimization and an efficient use of images, and videos play a particularly important role to interest the reader and hang on your website. Don’t hesitate to use the screenshots to justify your statement.
Also, don’t forget to give ALT Text to the image before inserting it. ALT Text defines the image in case the image fails to load. Try using your keyword in the ALT Text to enhance your SEO Score and thus enhance the chances of your website ranking.
12. RankBrain: RankBrain works as Google’s AI algorithm. RankBrain plays an important role in ranking the websites. The primary purpose of RankBrain is to analyze the interaction of users with the search results and rank the sites accordingly.
Gone are the days when anything and everything ranked. Now, Google is way more concerned about the content they provide to the readers. And, RankBrain makes it easy for them. RankBrain is the reason for most of the illegal things like keyword stuffing not working anymore.
Also, RankBrain does a job of turning a complex search into fruitful results. Thus, if your website is good enough and if someone searches for a keyword resembling to yours even a bit, your website may appear in search engines. Reach out to Pat’s Marketing in Toronto to know more.
13. Dwell Time: Google pays special attention to Dwell time. Dwell Time tells Google the time a user spends on your website. The more the Dwell Time is, the better is it for your website.
So, how do you increase the Dwell Time of your website? Answer is simple. Amazing content, attractive website design, on-point information, proper multimedia use, are some of the best ways to increase Dwell Time for your websites.
14. Bounce Rate: You read in point no 4 about the bounce rate. Now, understand what the Bounce Rate is? In simple words, the percentage of people leaving your website just after viewing one page of your site or while the website is loading, is known as bounce rate.
The lower the bounce rate, the better are the results. Website loading speed plays an important role when it comes to Bounce Rate.
15. Click-thru rate: Click-thru rate is another important aspect of website ranking. The percentage of people clicking your website link in the search results is termed as Click-thru rate. Improvement in the organic CTR plays an important role for the organic ranking of a website. If your website is not yielding the desired results, you can check the above factors and try to improvise the factors where it lacks.
Also, you can consult the Pat’s Marketing, Toronto SEO Consultant to ensure the smooth SEO of your website. We are happy to help you out.
If you want us to work on your website and rank the same, contact Pat’s Marketing, one of the best SEO Company in Toronto at 888-488-7287 (toll-free).