Do you know 67k searches happen on Google every single second? In fact, 93% of all sorts of online shopping experiences start with Google and other search engines. SEO can make or break a website. No matter how trusted and popular your website gets, you can never know the exact Google ranking algorithm. There are a number of factors that affect the search engine ranking of a website. There can be hundreds of ranking factors that work together to determine the final ranking of a website. However, the reality is every webmaster does guesswork.
Lack of effective SEO strategy is the most common reason why businesses fail to attract their target audience and grow their business in the search engine. Most webmasters spend a few bucks on search engine marketing and have their brand ads displayed on the search results. However, the surprising fact is “80% of people ignore these ads”.
Optimizing your website for search engines is not optional. If you want to secure a position on the search results, you are going to need to understand the top ranking factors. You can create content and SEO strategies based on these insights. If you search for the best SEO ranking factors, you will find a wealth of information. However, we are going to focus on the top 5 SEO pillars that can improve your site’s ranking. Let’s start with the most crucial component of your SEO strategy.
1. Quality of Content
Content and SEO share a great bond. These two factors can take any website to the top of the search engine. However, that only happens when you publish high-quality and unique content. If you rely on the cheap content plagiarizing or keyword stuffing tricks, your website will end up getting penalized. Believe it or not, but recovering from Google penalties is almost impossible.
More than 3.5 searches are performed on search engines every day. Google has improved its ranking algorithm. It has become a customer-centric platform, where each search offers a relevant and the best possible answer to the user. Your website is nothing but a way to tell your audience what you do and what you specialize in. It is the content that helps your users find your website on the search engine and get familiar with your brand. While it might seem difficult to understand the ranking algorithm, one thing that definitely affects your website ranking on Google is the content quality. Content can be divided into three categories:
· Service Content: when your business launched, what type of products and services you offer, what is your unique selling point, where is your business based, and what are your long-term objectives.
· Credibility Content: Content that specifies why people should shop from your store or engage with your brand. It also suggests how your website stands out from the competitors. The examples are customer reviews, caste studies, and testimonials. Anything that proves the credibility and reliability of your brand to your prospects will be categorized as the credibility content.
· Marketing Content: the most important component of your SEO is marketing content. This enables you to get your brand in front of your target audience. Basically, marketing content helps you appear as an authority figure in your niche. It gives your prospects the impression that you are a thought leader. Marketing content includes blog posts, press releases, guides, articles, eBooks, infographics, videos, and other forms of generic content that aims to answer your customers’ basic queries. Remember that it is your marketing content that brings your audience to your website.
Usually, webmasters focus mainly on service content. If you think a high-quality content is only about the About Us and service section, then you couldn’t be more wrong.
Let’s say you have a home renovation project. You need a local contractor who could manage the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and exterior renovation seamlessly. Now, you turn to the search engine to find the best local contractor in your area. What are the main factors you will consider to determine the experience and proficiency of a home renovation contractor? Well, most homeowners go over the case studies and customer reviews to get a glimpse of the company’s past performances and experience in this industry. You can’t just hire a random contractor that claims to offer “best renovation at a low price.”
If you get your content marketing right, almost 60% of your SEO is covered. However, content is not the only factor that impacts the website’s search ranking. It is rather the combination of SEO pillars that decide your website SERP ranking on Google. On that note, let’s take a look at the next important pillar of SEO.
The most important skill for a product leader is active listening. Be a good listener and you will naturally build trust across individuals, teams, and disciplines.
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2. Technical SEO
The great quality content will be of no use if you do not optimize your website for technical SEO. As much as daunting it sounds, technical SEO is one of the most important pillars of an effective search engine optimization strategy. Not only do you need to ensure that your readers are able to find your website on Google, but it is equally important to provide your prospects with a seamless experience.
If you run an established website with millions of visitors every month, then technical SEO will be a little challenging. In simple terms, technical SEO is nothing but your website design and structure. Technical SEO helps improve your website ranking in the search engine. Let’s take a look at the top aspects of technical SEO.
· Fast-loading Pages: More than 53% of internet users abandon a website if it does not load in three seconds. People look for a quick-loading website. There is a good chance you will lose a considerable amount of your organic traffic to the competitors if you don’t work on your slow-loading website. If you don’t want your website to end up at the bottom of the search engine, then you must improve your website’s loading speed.
· Crawl: Google sends search bots for website crawling. Now, these bots use internal links to figure out the content quality and connection. The website owner is supposed to guide these search bots so that they find all the relevant pages on your website and get them on the search results.
· Remove Dead Links: Do you really think you can earn users’ trust by landing them on a page that displays error? You need to remove all the external or internal links that direct people to a blank page with an error message. Even the search engine does not appreciate too many non-existing pages on a website. You could use SEMRush to identify all the links that lead your audience to a non-existing page.
· No Duplicate Content: Posting the same content on all pages will confuse the search bots. They don’t know which page to rank higher when each page features the same content. Not only does it look confusing, but duplicate content can penalize your website.
· SSL Certificate: All types of websites need an SSL certificate for security purposes. An important element of technical SEO is your customers’ safety. There are many ways you can achieve website security. One easy way to implement HTTPS is by investing in a valid SSL certificate.
· Mobile Compatible: Google has started to prioritize mobile-compatible websites. 58% of Google searches are initiated from mobiles. That being said, it’s important for webmasters to optimize their websites for mobile users.
These were only a few important components of technical SEO. Many factors, such as XML sitemap and internal website structure, can affect your ranking. To know how your website is performing in terms of technical SEO, you can use SEMRush. It helps you run a full technical SEO audit.
3. On-page SEO Optimization
You cannot get your website ranked in the search engine without optimizing it for SEO. On-page SEO optimization refers to the practice of optimizing individual pages for keyword ranking. First of all, you need to build a strong content structure for your website. Your audience, as well as the search bots, take your content hierarchy into account. In fact, it is your content structure that determines the connection between different web pages. Not only does it help you secure a good rank on the search results, but a straightforward content structure makes it easier for your audience to navigate around your website. It guides them through the sales funnel. The other important aspects of the on-site SEO optimization are:
· Keyword Research: Your website will rank for your industry-specific keywords. You need to search for keywords that are less competitive but have a high search volume. For example, if you are running a bakery business, then long-tail and local keywords such as “online cake shop Los Angeles” will be the best local keyword you can target. The keyword you use in your content will have a great impact on your SERP ranking. Remember that you can’t rank for random and irrelevant keywords. If you are not sure where to start, then SEMRush can be your ultimate keyword research tool. For effective and in-depth keyword research, you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What keywords would you use if you were to search for the bakery shops in your vicinity?
· Titles and Subheads: The standard length of a good title is around 8-10 words. You need to keep the title short and eye-catching. Do you know 80% of the readers never go past the headline of the content? These readers do not find the headline interesting enough to read further. In addition to titles, H1 and H2 matter to search engines. Make sure you try to add the primary keyword to the title and subtitles.
· Meta Descriptions: Meta descriptions are like your ad copies. Just like how marketers rely on their ad copies to drive the maximum number of clicks to their website, you need to focus on meta-data to bring organic traffic to your page. Meta description might not have a direct impact on your SERP ranking. However, it encourages your readers to click on your website URL and read the entire post. Keep your meta-description around 20-30 words.
· Keyword Optimization: Finding the perfect keyword for your business will not suffice. If you want to boost your SERP ranking, then it’s important to spread keywords throughout your content strategically. Do not go overboard with the keywords. Experts believe that the best keyword density for website content is 1-2 percent, which means a keyword will appear 5-10 times in a 500 words post.
· Call-to-Action: CTA guides your customers to the next step of the buying process. Call-to-action impacts your leads and conversions. So, make sure you add call-to-action to guide your customers through the sales funnel.
4. Link Building
Last but not least, link building is an important element of off-site SEO. When nothing works, webmasters try their last resort, which is authority links. If you want to make your brand appear as an authority figure in the competitive market, then you are going to need backlinks from high-authority websites. As much as important it is, link building is the most challenging part of SEO.
However, you need to focus on collecting links from high-authority websites only. This means all the external links that point to your website must be from a website with high domain authority. Google has prohibited link trading. It penalizes the websites that purchase and sell low-quality links just for the sake of high SERP ranking. That being said, you need to follow a white-hat link building approach.
Take Wikipedia, for example. It has received millions of backlinks from many websites. Wikipedia does not pitch or ask for backlinks. However, it receives these links because of the high-quality and informative content it publishes on the internet. Unless you post extraordinarily rare and unique content, there is only a slim chance you will get a backlink automatically. For effective link building, keep two things in mind, i.e. craft content that deserves to be linked. Second, choose only high-authority websites for backlinks.
