{"id":2953,"date":"2023-09-05T11:42:08","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T11:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rankmovers.com\/?p=2953"},"modified":"2024-02-23T09:44:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T09:44:33","slug":"ranking-factors-that-actually-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rankmovers.com\/ranking-factors-that-actually-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking Factors That Actually Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
Search Engines like Google rank webpages according to ever-increasing criteria within algorithms. These are called Ranking Factors, and they weigh aspects of your site and pages according to the requirements of each piece of the algorithm.<\/p>\n
So, with so many blogs on the topic, we\u2019re going to boil it down from over 200 to around 20 you can focus on with a snowball effect on other factors.<\/p>\n
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High-quality content is a major ranking factor for organic search engine optimization. So, you need to hone in on helpful content according to a few factors:<\/p>\n
The acronym E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google evaluates the quality of content according to personal experience, subject expertise, and your reviews to show authority and maintain trustworthiness through credible sources and accurate information.<\/p>\n
Part of E-E-A-T includes determining how helpful your content is when a user searches for a term and how long they spend reading your page (i.e., engaging with it).<\/p>\n
Identifying the most relevant and popular search terms related to your website\u2019s niche helps you to get closer to number one. Google looks for broad and exact matches to rank content, so you don\u2019t have to use those long tails exactly. Keeping queries within context is another ranking factor that will improve your standings.<\/p>\n
Most businesses find SEO \u201ccold\u201d to read and want a more personal touch, so the balance of keywords must fit into an approachable format without sacrificing relevance. However, you should aim all over the search volumes, not just the highest.<\/p>\n
Once you have enough keywords, consider how to use them and where. You can leverage average search volumes through competitor research and data mining but get a higher click-through rate for your audience.<\/p>\n
Research is a roadmap for content creation and improves the quality of what you put out. Be sure to check the lengths of competitor content so you don\u2019t underserve information. Then, look at placing keywords similarly to match users\u2019 current needs.<\/p>\n
Content freshness is an old ranking factor, but it means more nowadays. Evergreen content should be updated with more than a date change. Dive into the whole page and adjust images, lists, or other information that matter for the topic.<\/p>\n
Many SEO experts recommend quarterly content audits to ensure that pieces always offer helpful content and that nothing is too similar to rank independently. However, always back up your changes with data and research.<\/p>\n
No one will tote a laptop around forever, but they cart around a super-fast computer in their pocket. So, optimizing a website for mobile is vital to getting to the top of the leaderboard. Your website needs to scale to any screen size and be easy to navigate quickly. So, check that every smartphone aspect works regularly and fix it before the following index.<\/p>\n
Google now ranks websites according to mobile-first, which means your future rankings depend on how useable the site is across all devices. Use the Mobile-Friendly test to check that images, videos, and other assets load quickly.<\/p>\n
Google recommends a responsive website over other options for mobile-first indexing. It helps the algorithms \u201caccurately assign indexing properties\u201d instead of signaling corresponding desktop\/mobile versions.<\/p>\n
Thus, a mobile-first site is vital to your SERPs, so follow Google\u2019s guidelines to ensure your users get a good page experience.<\/p>\n
A major recent ranking factor is page experience, measured by how long users spend on a page and where they go afterward. Some things that affect it are User Experience, Site Architecture, Security, and Ad Experience. These are easy to maintain but take time to set up.<\/p>\n
If your user experience isn\u2019t up to par, your website will end up in the bottom rungs of SERPs. Studies show that 38% of people stop engaging if the layout and content are unattractive. We don\u2019t notice good design, but we see lousy design.<\/p>\n
Getting your UX right has significant impacts, such as when Main Street Host saw a 66% increase in views when they improved attorney profile pages by fixing the content and optimizing call-to-action buttons. Meanwhile, Ezoic benchmarked a 186% increase per 1000 visitors after updating UX.<\/p>\n
Pairing a good design with SEO is vital to getting organic traffic and user satisfaction.<\/p>\n
The proverbial library of your site needs an easy way to navigate and find what\u2019s needed. So, your most significant impact is sensibly organizing your pages.<\/p>\n
Better website navigation can also improve bot indexing. Thus, websites must be dead easy to use in only three to four clicks. Moreover, adding a search function can cut that in half for deeper pages.<\/p>\n
Remember: unlike you, your ideal user is probably lazy and wants quick answers.<\/p>\n
As a ranking factor, secure websites are near the top. Keeping your site safe makes you trustworthy and stops outside elements from using you as a gateway to your users.<\/p>\n
Not making the transition has led to increased bounce rates. Another step is to add Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to prevent information scraping. So, switch your site over (if you haven\u2019t already) to benefit from better trust and indexing.<\/p>\n
Ad Experience was rolled out in 2017 and has affected many sites. If you violate Better Ads Standards, Chrome can remove all ad spaces from your website. Plus, aggressive ads could tank your site.<\/p>\n
Ad experience affects Core Web Vitals, too, which makes improving your page ad experience a vital factor.<\/p>\n