This guide will discuss the most important Google ranking factors; these are items that can be put together in a spreadsheet or document and can be used to check against your own website or a client site. It will enable you to have a point-by-point framework on what factors to check and control in order to boost Google rankings.
While we will never know the true depth of Google’s ranking system, there are some ideas floating around that Google measures and tracks around 200 signals which make up an overall score for your website, and then Google unleashes an update and promotes your site or drops your rankings. Studying these factors can only begin after you have a checklist and an understanding of why Google would measure these metrics; this article aims to provide both.
While we will never know the order of importance for the ranking system, we need to start somewhere, so the first thing to look at is technical elements; these include the basics such as heading tags, meta descriptions and, of course, perhaps the most important – the title tag.
Since we can have direct control and edit these tags, it’s a very wise idea to start at this point if you want to gain search engine rankings quickly. Editing these elements or other on-page tags is by far the fastest way to gain new rankings and new keywords on page 1 of Google. These may be considered the basics and are generally one of the first things that people learn when studying SEO, which makes them one of the most overlooked areas. Getting these tags wrong can produce large-scale disasters further down the line.
First up is the title tag. After you have completed your keyword research, then you will want to modify your title tag and put the keyword you want to rank for as close to the front of the title tag as possible. This greatly increases the chance of you ranking for that keyword because it’s the first thing that humans and search engine crawlers see.
One common mistake that many people new to SEO make is to cram the title tag full of keywords and hope to rank for multiple combinations. This is a bad idea, and not only is it difficult for humans to read, but it may also get your website a penalty with Google. When in doubt, it’s actually better to focus on a single keyword rather than multiple keywords at the same time.
Another note on title tags and generally any other on-page tag is to avoid repeating the same ones over different pages; instead, make each tag unique, make it contain unique keywords, and really take the time to do this properly. Investing this amount of time may seem tedious and boring, but it will set a solid SEO foundation for your client’s website.
Heading tags are commonly used to split up content to make it easier to read for users; in SEO terms, you want to include your keyword here, but you should also include some descriptive text for the users. Learning how to write a good H1 tag will take time, but studying some copywriting is always a good idea. You should also include other tags such as H2, H3 and H4; these can be used as subheadings, and you can include some related keywords here.
Meta descriptions are one of the most overlooked areas of SEO. Many people think that just having a unique description is enough, so they just replace the main keyword and call it a day. This is a classic mistake. You really want to take your time, include your brand name in the meta description and also a keyword, but also include some features of your brand, such as low prices, large selection, free delivery and many more.
Meta descriptions and title tags are the first things that people will read about your brand; they are the initial advertisement and yield an overall impression about your brand and business. You can consider these tags as someone’s initial impression of you within the first few seconds. You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression, so get it right the first time and learn what works by testing different variations and recording the results.
The next item on the list is keywords. Perhaps one of the most important parts of the SEO process, picking out great keywords that are low competition or have a lot of searches is the key to the full game. It makes every other part of SEO seem simple because you already get great search engine positions without needing to do perfect SEO. Spending a large amount of time doing keyword research should be a priority.
Long-tail keywords and the study of them should be at the top of your list. With long-tail keywords, you have much less of a battle on your hands, and they generally tend to produce more sales. The great thing about this is that many companies don’t do much research into untapped long-tail keywords and instead just focus on what they find in a keyword research tool. This opens up all kinds of possibilities for someone who is willing to do a little extra work.
One of the things that is an important point is not to stuff your keywords just because you can; instead, be selective and think about placement. Ideally, you want your keyword to appear within the first sentence, and it’s a pretty good idea to put it in bold to give it more importance for search engine crawlers. Having your keyword as part of your domain name also seems to give a small SEO boost, but you should avoid exact match domains, as they will likely combine with your on-page elements and could trigger an over-optimisation penalty for your site.
The next item on any SEO agenda should be having some quality content uploaded to your website at the launch. You then also want to set a schedule and upload new content on a regular basis. This will not only keep visitors returning to your website but will also keep search engine bots happy because when they revisit, there are always new pages with fresh content to be added to the index.
Many sites will tell you that doing good SEO means you need to focus on “quality content” but never really describe how to produce it. Well, there are plenty of factors to focus on when producing your content; one of them is unique content. You want to offer your website visitors something that they haven’t already read on another site, and you also want to ensure correct spelling and grammar are used.
An underrated area of content production is having a template which includes headings. You need to have headings and subheadings and break content up into small bite-sized chunks to make it easier to read over for both mobile and desktop users. You also want to add in expert opinions based on data or perhaps find an expert in the market to give a unique opinion. This will help you to establish your content as an authoritative source in the marketplace.
Length is another popular topic within the content space, with many suggesting that content length may be a ranking factor with Google. It also means you have a greater chance at covering more keywords within your content and also providing some great internal and external links that your site visitors may find useful; just make sure not to overdo it with stuffing keywords in or providing too many links for users to follow.
The last point, but perhaps the most critical, is to focus on the users when writing content. Many companies these days just focus on getting keywords into the text and write content to rank on Google. Always remember that behind every website visitor is a person who has clicked on your site looking for information or to solve a problem. Your content should make it easier for them to do both. After all, if it doesn’t solve problems, then they will just hit the back button, and they will lose some trust in Google search results, which spells bad news for your website.
Freshness also plays a big factor when it comes to content; the last time you updated your website seems to be an important part of Google’s core algorithm, and this makes sense since you wouldn’t want to read out-of-date information, so keeping your website up to date with relevant content and industry news is a great way to stay at the top of the search engines.
Google is thought to give an overall score for content, but your score may drop if you don’t update your website on a regular basis. This essentially prevents thin affiliate sites or sites that are decades old from appearing in the results. Instead, Google wants to reward those who are actively working on their websites and providing fresh information. This has some limits, as the fresh sites are not always the best source, but we can also see that getting new backlinks to that website may give it a freshness boost.
Duplicate content must also be addressed as it is considered a negative ranking factor when it comes to content creation. Publishing the same content from another website in sheer copy and paste fashion is not a good idea as it just takes up more space in the index and offers nothing new for either Google or website visitors. Instead, if you find an article you like, try adding in some unique thoughts or starting another conversation about it rather than just copying the article. You should also take care with separate mobile and desktop versions of your website and instead use a responsive design to keep this issue from cropping up. A 301 redirect can also be set up to avoid having duplicate content on your own website.
Another thing to consider is duplicate tags. As mentioned previously, you should avoid having duplicate title tags or header tags on your website. Ensuring that you have unique content and tags on your site will make sure that Google gets fresh, unique content rather than having essentially a copy of the same page. These may seem like small things to worry about, but they make a big difference to search engine users.
The authority of a website carries great weight with Google. TAE (trust, authority and expertise) are signals that Google will take a look at when it comes to ranking a site. Page quality ratings use various metrics to determine if you should rank higher in the search results. Important things to help your site rank higher are things like the quality of your content, the amount of content, good site layout and navigation design, content freshness and even having a good social media presence to generate some further traffic, which could provide a further boost.
In terms of site-level signals, you want to focus on the main ones, which are good design and navigation. You should always have HTTPS set up for site security and privacy, as data security is going to be extremely important in the future. HTTP is now seen as unsecure and a non-trusted website within the Google Chrome browser. In terms of other signals, we can see that site speed is a critical one; having a slow website or, even worse, a site that crashes or whose hosting goes down frequently will land you in hot water, as this could mean a user clicks on a Google result only to visit a down website, which is not a good look for Google.
The last thing you should look at is making your website mobile friendly. This can be achieved with responsive design, which will enable your site to shrink down and function over different devices. For example, you may want to show mobile users a simple site that loads faster than desktop users, and you may also want to display less text and more images when it comes to mobile, as people tend to scroll more.
Internal links also play a big part in Google’s algorithm. Many sites are very poor at internal link structures; they sometimes provide way too many for users or simply don’t provide any at all. You really want to promote related topics to your readers and ensure that new pages or popular pages within your website get some attention and clicks. Promoting your pages in this way by linking to them from other pieces of content will let Google know that these pages are important and related.
One of the biggest mistakes that many websites make is not linking out to other sources of information within the industry or linking out to authority sites in general. This can date back many years, when site owners simply hated to provide other sources because they feared that sending a visitor away to another site would be a disaster and instead tried to keep the visitor for as long as possible. We now know that linking out to external sources is a great way to build trust with visitors, as it allows them to seek out other information sources and positions you as an expert who is willing to find others within the market and let them voice an opinion that may be different from your own.
There is such a thing as too many external links, but this should not be the case for many sites that actually provide data and research. After all, sites like Wikipedia can often have hundreds of external links as article authors collect information from all over the internet and build out a balanced page that gives plenty of viewpoints, so don’t be afraid to link out to other websites within your market or even authority sites that can be trusted.
Affiliate links are also considered an external link but ideally should be limited, as it can appear very spammy to have a lot of affiliate links on your page and may trigger a penalty if you overdo it, try to hide or disguise them from Google or position them at the top of the page before any real content, as it suggests you are just trying to make money instead of helping the user and providing real long-term value for visitors.
There are many great ways to build an affiliate website, and the best thing to do is start with the user in mind and forget search engines; instead, write content for users, include helpful YouTube videos, give your opinions on industry matters, publish how-to guides, link out to authors within the industry and plug related social media accounts.
You want to provide long-term value for your affiliate site by being a go-to source for information but also having something other affiliate sites don’t have, such as detailed pictures, negative product opinions and detailed information about an entire industry rather than just one or two products you are hoping to sell. The Gadget Show in the UK or Which Magazine could be seen as the best way to do affiliate marketing without overdoing it; apply what you learn from these and put it into an affiliate website.
Backlinks are perhaps one of the most important ranking factors when it comes to Google rankings; after all, the initial idea was that documents with more links to them were considered a better source. These days search engines have evolved to become more sophisticated, but backlinks still play a huge role in overall search rankings.
Backlinks from already established websites are extremely valuable, as this shows Google that your website can be trusted and is seen as a good and credible source by others. Having fewer backlinks is preferable if you can get some high-powered links, the ideal link being from the homepage of an authority site within your marketplace. These are the toughest links to get but not impossible if you provide something of value to others.
Backlinks within longer content are also more valuable; this tends to be because in-content links are usually from the author choosing your website as a trusted authority for information, whereas something like a sidebar link may just be a small endorsement rather than a shout-out for good work. You should also avoid sitewide links such as those in the footer of a website, as these can be seen as spammy or may even indicate a hacked website.
The best way to get links naturally is by building out great content or having something that your market will find valuable. After you have built this out, you really want to let people know it exists by any means you can; this will help you to market it and get links in naturally. Once you promote your website’s linkable asset, then your domain rating will improve and your overall trust with Google will go up, and you will achieve many more page 1’s than you ever had before.