Most people who decide to start their own website will be aware of Google’s requirements when it comes to ranking sites in its searches. However, not many are aware of what they need to do to start ranking higher and getting their site seen as a trusted source. What are factors related to Search Engine Optimization that Google looks for? Here are a few of the most important ranking factors you need to have on your website.
Backlinks
Backlinks are still considered one of the most important parts of a good ranking in search. However, there’s a difference between backlinks to websites that are dead or not relevant, and linking to an authoritative site that can boost your credibility. Always use relevant sites to create your backlinks — the more those sites are visited by people, the better it will be for your site.
Freshness
When you’re looking at how fresh a query might be, it all depends on what the person is searching for. If they want to know about something in the news that happened this week, then sites with the latest updates will be shown. This is especially true for big news stories or topics that have created a lot of interest.
Freshness isn’t so important when someone searches for something that doesn’t change. For example, if someone searched for “how to tie a shoelace”, then results from any time will still be relevant.
Authority and Topical Authority
Authority relates to the strength of the websites that you are backlinking to — the stronger the site, the more the algorithm will like it. However, there is something called topical authority that can rank sites higher, even with fewer backlinks.
If you’re a cooking site and you publish a blog called “top 5 recipes for vegans”, then this may well rank higher than the same blog posted on a lifestyle website. This is because Google will recognize that your cooking site does nothing but cooking-related content, so it will see it as having more topical authority than a general lifestyle site.
Page Speed
Although for many sites page speed isn’t as much of an issue as it used to be, there are still factors you need to consider. In 2018, Google extended its page speed factor to include mobile searches. This is because a vast number of searches are now conducted on mobile devices and this area is important to Google search.
Mobile Site
Google has been increasing its requirements on mobile-friendliness in recent years, and that’s mainly due to people’s searching habits. With more searches taking place on mobile devices, Google wants them to have the best experience. Most new sites will now be mobile-friendly, but if you’re not sure, then you can get a report from the Google Search Console that will tell you how friendly your site is.
Keywords
Most people who know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will tell you that keywords are important if you want to rank on Google search results. It’s important to note that keyword stuffing that used to happen years ago is now actively downgraded by the algorithm.
Keywords need to occur naturally within the text, and only a few (4-5) need to be added depending on the length of the post. It’s a good idea to do some research and find the keywords that will fit your piece before you publish it.
Title Tags and Header Tags
Now that you know what keywords to include, you need to put them where it works the best. Title and header tags tell search engines what the page is about so placing keywords here is important. Google will typically display the first 50 – 60 characters of a title tag, so get all the information within that length.
Meta Description
Meta descriptions are what you see written below in search results and tells people a little more about the page. It’s important to place keywords in here as well as part of your SEO checklist. Although meta descriptions can be any length, Google will usually shorten them to 155 – 160 characters so bear that in mind.
These are just a few of the many factors that Google uses in relation to SEO. While you might not be able to meet them all, it’s important to focus on the ones that matter the most.
