Every year Google updates its ranking factors to improve user experience.
Google uses over 200 ranking factors in their Algorithm. But reading each of them and then applying it isn't an easy task.
So, here I have made it easy for you, I have grouped and filtered all these factors into certain topics in an easy and understandable language which would really help you to read and apply all these factors to improve your blog or website's search presence.
After grouping and filtering all these there remains 11 major ranking factors. These are-
1-Content Quality
2-On-Page SEO
3-Mobile friendliness
4-Page speed
5-Backlinks
6-User experience
7-Security-HTTPS
8-Domain Factor
9-Internal linking
10-New and Fresh material
11-Leading Brands and Social Signals
These are all direct and indirect ranking factors, all of these are important to gain favorable results, each one has its own value. So, Let's see them each one-by-one:
1-Content Quality
Google takes 'Content Quality' Always into consideration while Ranking any WebPage.
An easy-to-read and in-depth content always ranks high. To rank high Content should engage users. Also, it should be valuable, unique, and accurate for the readers.
Remember"Quality is more important than Quantity always". "Unique and Quality content is always SEO-Friendly.
Remain stick to the good quality of content first rather than content length(word count), keyword density, etc. Do not even try to give click-bait to users as google always preaches only real, informative, accurate, and valuable content.
Hence, your content should be Unique, real, accurate, and problem-solving. It should solve the real query of the user (for which he searched on Google).
2-On-Page SEO
A properly Optimized page is still a ranking factor. A properly Optimized page means Page with quality content containing only certain relevant keywords, proper and unique title, headings, short and to-the-point search description.
A properly optimized page increases the Average CTR of your website and webpage, which is really beneficial.
Things to remember for proper On-Page SEO:
1-No keywords stuffing
2-Brief and simple search description
3-Update it from time-to-time
4-Properly sized images which load fast
6-Proper content length-A real and informative content could easily contain 1000-2000 words
7-Full topic coverage
3-Mobile-Friendliness
Nowadays 65-70% of web search is from Mobile users. Hence, it is very necessary to make your web page mobile-friendly, It is necessarily an important page ranking factor. A website's compatibility with mobile now directly affects its Search rankings.
Your website's template, images, ads, and text should be mobile-friendly. Also, Your content should be easily readable by mobile users.
Make sure every webpage of your site is mobile-friendly. You can see your "MOBILE USABILITY" report in Search console.
4-Page speed
As the Internet speed is increasing User(Especially Mobile users) no longer waits for loading of a page, and in that case, if your webpage failed to load within 5s then 80% becomes the chance that the user will move on to next website.
Having Good Page Loading speed is also an important Ranking Factor because to improve user experience Google must keep only Fast loading webpages at the top of the search results page.
Good Page Loading Speed
According to various research conducted Good page loading speed for any web page is 3.5s. Also, the Web page size should be only 500kb maximum.
How to Improve Page Loading Speed?
To improve Page loading Speed ensure the following-
1-IMAGES
Images used on the webpage should be properly sized.2-LESS WIDGETS
There should not be a large number of widgets on your website/blog.3-SPEED CHECK
Use "SPEED EXPERIMENTAL" in search console to know your webpage speed(page speed insights) and to fix issues related to it.
Remember, Good Page loading speed improves User experience, which in turn improves the website's search presence.
5-Backlinks
Backlinks are also one of the major ranking factors. More Backlinks you have, more are the chances for your webpage to rank at the top in search results.
But, low-quality backlinks rather decreases your webpage's search presence.
Rather Backlinks from known websites are really helpful. So, try to make high-quality backlinks for your website and webpage.
6-User experience
Google always tries to improve User experience because the main asset of google is only its users. So, It is necessary for google to provide positive results to its users. Hence, Webpages that interact more users rank high in search results.
How to improve User experience for your webpages?
1-Content should be easily readable.
2-Good and responsive design of webpages.
3-Highly Engaging content.
4-Target keywords.
5-Low bounce rate.
6-Good internal linking.
So, Focus on creating an overall good content and experience for users, organize content and improve the readability of your webpage.
7-Security-HTTPS
HTTPS stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure". It ensures data security between users and websites by protecting the integrity and confidentiality of data. It is used as a lightweight ranking factor.
According to Google, its topmost priority is User security. So, it is highly recommended that you should move your website to HTTPS encryption. Also, if you own a blogger blog then do enable HTTPS redirect for your blog for better results.
8-Domain Factor
Having relevant keywords in the domain name helps to get high search results. Exact-match of words in the domain is still a key ranking factor. For this, you must have a single and proper niche of your website.Example-When we search for "bikes" on GOOGLE then the popular domain brands containing exact-match words rank high in top search results.
Country extensions(.in, .au, .ca, .io) could help the website to rank for a particular country.
9-Internal linking
A good amount of Internal linking between several webpages of any website now also remains a ranking factor, it helps the user to find relevant material at one website only.Internal linking not only helps to get into the top search results but it also helps to create a good reputation for our website. It helps to engage the audience on a website for a long time hence, decreasing BOUNCE RATE. The user could get most of the information from your website.
It is highly recommended to have proper internal linking to rank a website. A proper example of this can be WIKIPEDIA which contains a large number of internal links and references.
10-New and Fresh material
As we all know updates are necessary to improve user experience. So, webpages with the timely updates or new material rank high.Google seems to give more Priority to the new, fresh, and updated material. You can easily understand it by this example-I searched for "Best smartphones" on google, the webpage with new material(6 days ago) ranks high than material with old content(24 April 2020).
But, We should keep it in mind that it is mostly a query dependent factor, which means it is more important for queries that need frequent latest updates such as-technology related query, health, and lifestyle-related query, news, etc.
So, articles that do not need frequent updates are affected minimally by this factor. Example- Story blogs, informative blogs, travel blogs, etc.
But it is still a ranking factor in the Google algorithm.
11-Leading Brands and Social Signals
Websites getting traffic from leading brand domains, Public Forums and social media sites such as FACEBOOK, QUORA, TWITTER, REDDIT, PINTEREST, etc shows a good presence in top search results.Also, websites with popular brand names such as QUORA, WIKIPEDIA, WIKIHOW, etc always remain in top search results for various queries, so getting BACKLINKS from these brands is really helpful.
CONCLUSION
So, the following points can be concluded from the above factors:
1-Provide in-depth and accurate content to searchers, all their doubts should be cleared.
2-Your website should be optimized properly to get favorable outcomes.
3-Make sure users could easily go through your website on all devices. Hence, it should be mobile-friendly.
4-Check your page speed insights frequently to ensure about good loading speed of your Website.
5-Follow one single niche for your website, do not become (KIRANA DUKANDARS).
6-Regularly update your pages and keep the content fresh.
7-Ensure proper internal and external linking of your pages to provide the best User experience.
REMEMBER: Content always remains the KING!
Top ranking in Google search results always depends upon Good and User-friendly Content, Proper On-Page optimization, Mobile-friendliness, and linking.
Have I missed something? Then let me know by leaving your comment.
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