12 Ranking Factors From Semalt Expert


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. What are ranking factors?
  3. Types of ranking factors
  4. Examples of ranking factors
  5. Conclusion

Introduction


Every business wants to be seen. What other way can they get customers anyway? A business that is invisible or hidden from the world cannot increase sales because no one is seeing the business, its products, or its services. It's why a lot of business owners spend money on adverts and other marketing strategies all so that their products and services can reach more people. Online, the marketplace is Google - well search engines. But since Google is the main and the most popular search engine, take it like that. So, where were we? Yeah, Google. 

Google is where most people come to look for the best product or the most affordable service, or even the nearest product provider to them. And unless you get some things right, even if you offer the best product and you are located next door, your website won't be visible on Google's result page. And even if it is on the result page, it could be on page 10 or 20 or last. And only 0.5% of searchers scroll to page 3, not to talk of page last. 

The things that can get you on page 1 or first on the list are adverts and ranking factors. While adverts work for as long as your subscription lasts - and expires right after, working with ranking factors takes you to page 1 and keeps you there. When you know the factors to rank high, and you use them appropriately (don't spam them), your customers will see you on page 1 and you can finally begin to record an increase in sales and revenue. 

What are ranking factors?

Ranking factors are the factors that affect ranking. Use them well, and you rank high. Use them wrongly or not at all, and you'll be at the bottom of the list. But there's more to the gist than this. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), ever heard of it? It is the background gist for ranking factors. SEO is the process of making a website reading rank high. Without SEO, you cannot use these factors appropriately for ranking high. That's why many businesses that know the importance of SEO outsource this department to professionals so that they can gain a competitive edge and remain on top of their niche.

Google has some factors for ranking high (as well as other search engines - but we know why we're mentioning Google a lot more right?) and though we can't mention all of them, these guidelines help guide every business on how to stay relevant on Google's result page. 

Types of ranking factors

Before we begin to mention all the ranking factors that can help you stay relevant, visible, and on top, here are the different types of factors we have. 
  1. On-page factors: These are the ranking factors that have to do with the content within the website (that is, on-the-page). 
  2. Off-page factors: These ranking factors (yeah you guessed right) are the ones that involve the content outside of the page. In other words, it measures the relationship of your page with other pages (or websites).
  3. Technical ranking factors: These factors have more to do with the performance of your website as a whole when compared with other websites within your market. 
When these factors are measured individually, they are then aggregated to make up the position of your site (compared with others) on Google's result page. Big work right? That's why - again - many big companies hire an SEO and website expert to ensure that things are done rightly. 

Examples of ranking factors



1. Backlinks:

This is number 1 because it is almost the most important factor, if not the most important anyway. It is an example of off-page ranking factors and you'll see why. Backlinks are links that lead back to your webpage. And they are sacred because they infer trust and value. For someone to refer to your website using a link - gosh, it must mean that your website has great content or at least provides value. 

To achieve a good backlink structure, add links to your website in other high-quality websites, social media, and question sites. Be active online and include yourself in other people's websites by writing guest blogs, joining a podcast, or commenting on other people's posts. 

2. Website Freshness

This can also be referred to as staying current or updated. To keep your website on top of others, you need to stay updated. This could mean different things for different websites. For some, it could mean keeping up with the trend, for others it could mean posting new articles regularly. Whatever it means for you, just keep your website fresh. 

3. Content Quality

Google only pays attention to the content high quality. So you don't have to pump your website with too much or lengthy content, focus on the value it gives your readers and customers. A common adage says quality is better preferred over quantity. 

4. Loading Speed

This is a technical ranking factor because it has to do with the performance of the site. And loading speed simply refers to the time it takes your website to load. Many people hate a page that takes forever to load text, pictures, and videos. Google hates it too. So optimize your website so that it loads in less than 5 seconds. 

5. Mobile Friendliness

This is another technical ranking factor and it has to do with how compatible your website is on mobile devices. Since many google searches come from phones and tablets, the compatibility or friendliness of your website with mobile devices is a major ranking factor.

6. User Experience (UX)

This has to do with how your readers or customers relate or communicate with your site. And as you must have guessed, it is an on-page ranking factor. To ensure that your page has a good UX, Google has some tips for you to follow. Some of them are:

7. Accuracy of Page



This has to do with your content and if what you provide is correct and accurate. For example, a website that states that apple is a citrus fruit just to sell its apple punch cannot rank high because apple is not a citrus fruit. Get the logic?

8. Keyword 

This is another important Google ranking factor. Keywords define the topic of a page and help it to rank better. However, many people try to add too many keywords and this can make the content look spammy and thereby rank it low. Treat keywords like hashtags for social media - too many, wrong spelling, and irrelevant keywords do the opposite of good. 

9. Relevance and Authority

A website that has built a good reputation over the years is another factor in ranking high. But a good reputation isn't the only criteria under this subject. Other key metrics that are being measured include quality content, consistency, mentions, and quotations from authoritative external sources, and so on.  

10. User Interaction

Similar to user experience, Google also measures the satisfaction of your users with your page. It uses metrics like dwell time (how long users spend on your page before exiting), bounce rates (the percentage of users who visit landing pages and leave after), direct search, and pogo-sticking. 

11. Title and Header Tag

Since title and header tags are what represent your website on search engine result pages, then they are of great importance. The attention and priority you place on your content, do the same for your header and title. Use correct sentences, don't make them too long, they should be easy to read, and should be relevant to the article. 

12. Meta Description

Similar to the header and title tag, the meta description should also be relevant to the rest of the content since it is a short description of the whole article. Keep it short, concise, and add a summary or a thriller of the content.


Conclusion

Ranking factors are as important to a business as the product or the revenue. This is because ranking high or staying relevant is the golden key to guaranteeing a stable inflow of traffic (customers). And though you might believe that is cheaper, faster, and easier to just invest in ads, this is not exactly true. Yes, ads birth faster results, they do not build the trust of your site nor make you relevant and authoritative in your niche. Immediately the ads disappear, your website and every knowledge of you also do. But for a business owner that has invested time growing and building up his / her website, his / her customers too would grow with him / her, and most of all, Google would reward him / her with a sweet spot-on page 1 of the result page (if things are done rightly). 

If you need to learn more about the subject of SEO and website promotion, we invite you to visit our Semalt blog.