Websites need to be highly ranked for a potential customer to easily find them. Customers aren’t likely to click past one of the top three websites listed and rarely click through to the second page of results. However, there are actually around 200 factors that Google uses to rank websites to determine who’s at the top. Website owners should be aware of the top factors that are used so they can focus on them first to ensure their website is going to rank highly. Below are some of these Ranking Factors.
Create High-Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are important, but they cannot link to just any website. The links need to be high quality and need to be trustworthy. This is called the Trust Flow and is an essential ranking factor as Google with rank websites that have high-quality backlinks higher than those who have low-quality backlinks, regardless of the number of links involved. One way to create high-quality backlinks may be to become a part of a private blog network that works together to create links to each others pages, but this shouldn’t be the only way a website owner finds high-quality links to use as backlinks and they should make sure the links actually are high-quality.
Create High-Quality Content for the Site
Google wants to offer information to those who do a search on their website. They don’t want to just link to products and services a person wants to buy, but they want them to be able to find content that’s going to be interesting and useful as well. One of the top factors in how they rank a website is going to be the quality of information and content on the website. A website should include various articles, videos, infographics, and other content types that help teach the customer something and explain why they should want a product or service, not just talk about the product or service. The content should be varied, well written, and informative.
Use the Right Keywords the Right Amount of Times
For many website owners, selecting keywords and knowing when to use them can be difficult. Keywords need to be chosen based on the likelihood a potential customer will use them in a search. Once the keywords are chosen, they should be used frequently enough to be noticed, but not too frequently that they overwhelm the content on the website. Many specialists prefer the keywords to make up about 3% of the total words on the website so they’re as effective as possible without being too much.
The Age of the Website Matters
Newer websites are not going to have as much information on them and may not be as useful to a potential customer. Although this isn’t something a person can really change, it is important to understand that this does have an effect on the ranking of a website. Once a website is at least a year old, it has a higher chance of ranking higher than it would have when it was newly created.
The Age of the Content Matters
The age of the content matters as well, but in this case, newer is better. Since Google wants websites to be informative, and information can change with time, it’s better to have fresh content posted on the website periodically. Google will rank a website higher if there’s new content posted in the last two days than they will if the website hasn’t added any new content in over a week. The content does need to be high-quality, but relevant and newly created as well. This doesn’t mean that older content can’t be reused, it just needs to be reworked to make it fresh and relevant again.
Make Sure the Website is Optimized for Mobile Devices
With the changes in technology, more and more people are starting to use mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to access the internet. Since the screen on these devices is smaller than a computer screen, it can be difficult to view a full website on a mobile device. Google has added mobile device optimizations to their ranking factors to encourage website owners to create a responsive website with a mobile component so people can get the information they need no matter where they are or what device they’re using.
Social Media Accounts
While this doesn’t affect the website itself, it is an important factor for ranking a website. It’s not only important to create the social media account and to have people following the website. It’s important to get them to talk about the website. The more the website is mentioned and tagged, the more relevant the website is and the higher it’s going to rank. Post frequently on social media sites and engage with customers to encourage talking about and sharing the website to make sure it is seen as relevant and important so it will rank higher.
This is nowhere near the complete list of factors Google might use when ranking a website, but they are some of the most common or most important ones. They are important to understand even if you’re having a specialist optimize your website, so you can understand what effects the ranking and how the specialist is going to work on your website to help you bring in more customers. Take the time to learn more about the various factors Google will use to optimize your website and work with a professional now to be sure your website is easily found by as many potential customers as possible.