At first glance SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) may seem very complicated. But believe me, ranking well on Google’s search results list and getting ahead is not that tricky. Google, at least that’s what they’re saying, takes into account about 200+ factors when deciding how websites will be ranked in the search results. We have picked 10 of them that – based on our experience to date – seem to be the most important and that have provided us with the most help so far. Here we go:
CONTENT
Google’s mission is to help you find the best and most accurate answer to your search. It means that if you’re writing a blog for instance, always make sure your post answers a specific question. Nowadays, we can’t write blogs like ‘Tips for Skiing’, waiting for Google to push our website as fast as possible. You need to write posts that genuinely answer particular questions, such as ‘How to care for your skin while skiing’. More importantly, longer, better structured articles are preferred by Google a lot more than thin and short ones. What’s more, it may also occur that you spend hours writing a longer post and Google just will judge it as a few word piece. How can this happen? As often as not authors answer the given question in a couple of paragraphs at the beginning of the topic and the further they go on with the blog post, the more they turn away from the original topic. What does Google see then? Only one third of a given post deals with a particular subject, and the rest of the text is completely different from the original point. Keep this in mind because Google is smarter than you think.
LINKBUILDING
This means increasing the number of inbound links to our website from reliable and high quality pages. Links from high-quality pages are one of the most important signals to Google that your site is trustworthy and credible. As a result our website will become more and more authoritative. However, some have exaggerated these actions in recent years. Many have turned to less ethical methods, creating separate websites just to build links from there to their own pages hoping for a better ranking in the list of results. This is the so-called Link Farming, which in turn gave a rather dubious impression to Google’s algorithm. So Link Farming is now considered Black Hat SEO that is an illegal SEO tool. Link building is a good thing and very useful, but let’s handle our time well. When it comes to choosing whether to spend hours with it or rather use the time to write a very good post, based on personal experience, I would rather choose the latter. If you write really good content, those links will come anyway.
DOMAIN AUTHORITY
Practically, the domain name is the name of our website. There are some domains that aren’t very authentic to Google. These include those that may have been penalized by Google in the past, but when it comes to a relatively NEW domain name, it’s not the most optimal one either as Google doesn’t know what to do with the domain name and doesn’t associate it with an authentic website. The latter is a patience game, all we can do is to constantly improve our site. Let’s make sure that we get inbound links from authoritative websites and Google will appreciate our work and effort over time.
PAGE LOAD TIME
The speed of web pages has become critical due to the fact that readers and users are more likely to use their smartphones when browsing online. It’s a good idea to open Google Page Speed Insights in various search engines and see how some some of our pages perform. Ideally, our site should load in 2-5 seconds but in the case the page load time is more than 2 seconds, the bounce rate is already considerably higher.
RESPONSIVE DESIGN
In the previous paragraph we have introduced this a little bit. The ranking of websites in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is already influenced by the fact that our site is mobile friendly, helping the user experience. You always have to make sure that your site is already switched to the responsive design. In practice, having a responsive design may result in the size of our content being automatically resized depending on the device we use. In addition, significant differences may be noticed in the form of simplified content or even mobile-friendly navigation.
PICTURES AND VIDEOS
Google’s algorithm mostly appreciates truly useful images and useful videos on a web page. Go and make sure that the size of the uploaded images is not too large as this will allow the page to load faster but at the same time do not cause any damage to the quality of the image. Naming your images in a way that it will be consistent with the content will also help Google connect your uploaded images to your content which again contributes to a more successful ranking.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Normally there are a lot of questions about social media (in most cases Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Social signals can influence search results in a number of ways: it can result in a higher online presence and help you get more traffic to your site. If you are trying to sell a particular product on your site, you can also get a lot of help with brand awareness. Likes, shares are like traffic to your website. The more you get of these, the more you indicate to Google that your website provides valuable information, and anyway, people in general share useful things. When you think about it, we rely more on the recommendations of our family or friends than on advertisements when it comes to purchasing an item. And these recommendations are articulated in social media. Consumers are virtually connected on these platforms, sharing their experiences, which can help raise awareness of our brand and also assist with our SEO.
INTERNAL LINKS
These are links on our site that point from one page to another. Internal links allow users to stay on your site by clicking from one post to another. This is a good sign to Google that your page is trustworthy and authoritative, and that your content will be considered useful and relevant by the algorithm. Internal links are used by almost all websites. But it’s not a good sign if no one clicks on them. Users do not always know if the hyperlink is an internal link or not – they many times assume that clicking on the link will direct them to another website which they would not appreciate because they are not interested in other stuff at all. So they don’t even click on them, they don’t have time to experiment with it. Let’s make this a bit clearer, for example, by typing “you can find another article related to this topic on the website” so the reader will navigate further.
USER EXPERIENCE
The website is the first link between you and your target audience, it is like an online identity card that tells right away whether or not your site is authoritative. Let’s tell a personal story on our site to get closer to our users and show that they are not only dealing with a soulless website but the human factor is there with a lot of work behind it. Let’s share a few photos of the staff, do not forget to personalize the whole experience. Give your customers chance to share their opinions and recommendations. Use everything consistently, from the first font through the colors to the visual content.
INFORMATION ABOUT US
Though this would not be the first thing that comes to mind when talking about search engine optimization, it is very important to give some information about ourselves. Briefly describe what the site is about and never forget introducing yourself or your business.
Google takes into account the above factors to see how authoritative your page is and how helpful it is to your users. Of course, Google has an algorithm that considers almost 200 factors to decide where to rank it in the search results page. But if you look at the above, you can get in the right place over time. We wish you good luck with your website!
By Edina S