Search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving, and it can be challenging to keep up with the latest ranking factors that Google uses to determine search engine results page (SERP) rankings. In this ultimate guide to ranking factors for 2023, we'll explore the major categories of ranking factors and provide educational tips and strategies for each category that you can use to improve your own SEO strategy.
Be sure to download the free SEO checklist to make this work for your website or digital marketing agency to ensure maximum SEO success.
Technical SEO ranking factors include elements of your website's structure, coding, and performance that affect search engine crawling and indexing. Here are some key technical SEO ranking factors to consider:
Site speed is a critical technical SEO ranking factor that affects user experience, bounce rates, and search engine crawling and indexing. To improve your site speed, consider optimizing your images, using a content delivery network (CDN), and minimizing HTTP requests. Explore website metrics in more depth here.
After all, people are 5x more likely to leave a mobile website that loads slowly and isn’t mobile-friendly. Check the speed of your mobile page with the PageSpeed Insights tool, or run a quick RunningSEO audit which includes PageSpeed and more.
Mobile-friendliness, the precursor to mobile-first, is another important technical SEO ranking factor, as more and more users are accessing the web on mobile devices. To ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, consider using responsive design, optimizing your font sizes and buttons for mobile screens, and avoiding pop-ups or interstitials that can interrupt the user experience.
Looking for more tips and insights on ways to create a stronger mobile experience? Explore tips from Think With Google.
Site architecture refers to the organization and structure of your website's pages and content. A clear and logical site architecture can improve user experience and make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site. To improve your site architecture, consider using a clear hierarchy of pages, creating a sitemap, and using internal linking to connect related pages.
Content ranking factors include the quality, relevance, and uniqueness of your website's content. Here are some key content ranking factors to consider:
Quality content is one of the most important content ranking factors. Google's E-A-T guidelines were updated in late 2022 to include emphasis on "experience" turning it into E-E-A-T. Along with experience, the importance of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness in creating high-quality content is critical to the searcher journey. To improve your content quality, consider using reliable sources, providing original insights and analysis, and using clear and concise language.
Explore Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines: An Overview here or see the full guidelines here.
Relevance is another important content ranking factor, as search engines strive to provide users with the most relevant and useful results for their queries. To ensure that your content is relevant, consider using target keywords and phrases, creating content that aligns with your audience's interests and needs, and using internal linking to connect related content.
User engagement is a content ranking factor that measures how users interact with your website's content. Metrics like bounce rate, time on page, and click-through rate can indicate whether your content is engaging and valuable to users. To improve user engagement, consider using multimedia elements like images and videos, including calls to action and interactive elements, and analyzing user behavior to identify areas for improvement.
Backlink ranking factors include the quantity, quality, and relevance of external links pointing to your website. Here are some key backlink ranking factors to consider:
The quality and relevance of backlinks are critical backlink ranking factors. Backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites can signal to search engines that your website is a valuable and trustworthy source of information. To improve the quality and relevance of your backlinks, consider reaching out to relevant websites and asking for links, creating high-quality content that other websites will want to link to, and avoiding paid or spammy backlinks.
Anchor text refers to the clickable text that appears in a hyperlink. Anchor text can signal to search engines the relevance and importance of the linked page. To optimize your anchor text, consider using descriptive and relevant phrases, avoiding keyword stuffing or exact-match anchor text, and using a mix of branded and non-branded anchor text.
The diversity of backlinks is another important backlink ranking factor. A diverse range of links from different types of websites can indicate to search engines that your website is a valuable and authoritative source of information. To improve the diversity of your backlinks, consider reaching out to a variety of websites and sources, creating content that appeals to different types of audiences and interests, and avoiding relying on a single source of backlinks.
Local SEO ranking factors are particularly important for businesses that rely on local customers or foot traffic. Here are some key local SEO ranking factors to consider:
Your Google My Business listing is a critical local SEO ranking factor, as it provides key information about your business to potential customers and signals to search engines that your business is relevant and trustworthy. To optimize your Google My Business listing, consider providing accurate and up-to-date information, using relevant categories and keywords, and encouraging customer reviews and feedback.
Local keywords are another important local SEO ranking factor, as they signal to search engines that your website and business are relevant to local searches. To optimize your local keywords, consider using location-specific phrases and keywords, creating content that addresses local interests and needs, and using local events and news to generate backlinks and social media engagement.
Behavioral signals like website traffic, engagement, and social media activity can also influence local SEO rankings. To improve your behavioral signals, consider creating high-quality and engaging content, using social media to connect with your audience and promote your content, and using local events and promotions to drive traffic and engagement.
SEO is complex and constantly evolving, but understanding the major ranking factors and implementing strategies to improve them can help you achieve higher search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website. By optimizing your technical SEO, creating high-quality and relevant content, building high-quality backlinks, and focusing on local SEO, you can position your website for success in 2023 and beyond.
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The world of search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving, with new trends and techniques emerging all the time. To stay ahead of the game, it is important for website owners and SEO professionals to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices. In this article, we will discuss the top 21 SEO trends to consider in 2023. From personalization and helpful user-generated content, to e-commerce optimization and AI-powered tools, these trends will help you optimize your website and improve your ranking on Google. Whether you are new to SEO or an experienced professional, these SEO trends are worth keeping on your radar as you plan your SEO strategy for the coming year.
In conclusion, these 21 SEO trends are worth considering in 2023 to stay ahead of the competition and improve your website's ranking on search engines. From personalization and user-generated content, to e-commerce optimization and AI-powered tools, there are many strategies to choose from.
Start with an SEO analysis using our free SEO audit tool
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Are you looking to boost the SEO growth of your website and get it on the first page of Google? Look no further! In this post, we'll cover 20 of the best ways to get your website ranking higher on Google, from conducting keyword research to optimizing your loading speed. Search engine optimization is essential for any website wanting to get traffic. After all, most users don’t go beyond the first page of Google when searching for something. That’s why it’s so important to get your website on that coveted first page.
Keep reading to learn all the tips and tricks you need to know to get your website on the first page with these 20 time-tested and proven ways.
These keywords should be included in your title tags, meta descriptions, and throughout your content to improve your ranking on Google. You may also consider using them if you run Google Ad campaigns, or to conduct competitor and market research. For even more on this, see this guide on keyword research including identifying keyword intent.
These elements should accurately and compellingly describe your content and include the targeted keywords to improve your ranking on Google. It is important to note that Google programmatically pulls in the title and description based on a user's search, so it is crucial to optimize these elements to ensure that your website appears prominently in the search results. By taking the time to carefully craft your title tags and meta descriptions, you can improve your website's visibility and attract more users to your site.
Use these keywords in your headings, subheadings, and body text to signal to search engines the relevance of your content to users' search queries. It is important to be mindful of the keyword density, or the number of times a keyword appears in relation to the total number of words on the page, when incorporating keywords into your content. Keyword stuffing, or the practice of excessively using keywords in an attempt to manipulate search rankings, is not only ineffective, but it can also harm your website's ranking and user experience. Instead, aim to create helpful, informative, and easy-to-read content that naturally incorporates your targeted keywords. By focusing on creating high-quality content that provides value to users, you can improve your ranking on Google and attract more visitors to your website.
It is important to provide value to users and address their needs and interests through your content to keep them engaged and interested in your site. Good content can also help to improve your ranking on Google. Search engines want to provide the best possible results to users, so they will rank websites with high-quality, relevant content higher in the search results. By consistently producing unique and valuable content, you can establish your website as an authority in your industry and improve your ranking on Google. Additionally, good content can help to attract links and social shares, which can also contribute to your ranking on the search engine. Overall, investing in high-quality, unique, and engaging content is a crucial element of a successful SEO strategy.
By linking related pages on your site, you can improve your ranking on Google. This is because you build "link juice" internally, and point users to even more helpful content that they may be interested in that is relevant.
By linking to reputable sources, you can show search engines the value of your content and improve your ranking on Google. Not just that, but in SEO, "followed" links are considered more valuable because they are the default behavior for links. "No-followed" links were introduced to combat spam, but they can cause problems if used too frequently. To encourage websites to link to other sites, Google rewards websites that use followed links. Pro tip: It is important to carefully manage your use of external links by creating a whitelist or blacklist of trusted or untrusted domains, rather than no-following every external link.
Use descriptive and keyword-rich file names and alt text for your media to signal to search engines the relevance of these elements to your content. Alternative (alt) text is also important for user experience overall, and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) mandate using it to help folks who may have temporary or permanent disAbilities.
By actively using social media, you can indirectly improve your ranking on Google. This is because Google has shown to pull in popular Twitter posts in the past. Not just that, but it achieves a social viral coefficient greater than 1, meaning it is leveraging network effects, helping to share and even create user generated content (UGC).
By providing opportunities for users to comment, share, and interact with your content, you can improve the user experience on your website and signal to search engines the value of your content. This can ultimately help to improve your ranking on Google. There are several ways to increase user engagement on your website, including:
These keywords are often more descriptive and contain more than one or two words, making them more closely aligned with the way users typically search for information. By incorporating long-tail keywords into your content, you can increase the chances of ranking for those keywords and improve your overall ranking on Google. By targeting a specific audience with long-tail keywords, you can also attract more qualified traffic to your website and potentially generate more leads or sales. It is important to note that while long-tail keywords may have lower search volume, they can still drive valuable traffic to your website and should be a key part of your overall SEO strategy.
A slow-loading website can be frustrating for users and may lead them to leave your site before they have a chance to engage with your content. According to Google research, "a one-second delay in mobile load times can impact conversion rates by up to 20%." On the other hand, a fast-loading website with a seamless user experience can keep users on your site longer and encourage them to explore more of your content. This can ultimately improve your ranking on Google, as search engines consider loading speed and user experience as ranking factors. There are several ways to optimize your website's loading speed and user experience, including optimizing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript, using a content delivery network (CDN), and reducing the number of redirects and external requests. By taking the time to optimize these elements, you can improve your website's performance and ranking on Google.
By incorporating local keywords and optimizing your website for local search, you can improve your visibility and ranking in the search results. For example, a Pennsylvania-based marketing firm may want to include the regions served, such as "Pennsylvania SEO Agency" on the homepage of your site.
By providing accurate and relevant information about your business, you can improve your ranking on Google. You can see how many views your listing gets, and even post updates and respond to positive or negative reviews for reputation management.
It is a type of code that is added to the HTML of your website and helps search engines understand the meaning and structure of your content. By using schema markup, you can help search engines understand the content on your website and improve your ranking on Google. There are several types of schema markup, including product, event, recipe, and article schema. By using the appropriate schema markup for your content, you can help search engines understand the relevance and context of your content to users' search queries. This can improve the chances of your website appearing in rich results, such as rich snippets or featured snippets, which can increase its visibility and improve its ranking on Google. In addition to improving your ranking, schema markup can also help to increase the click-through rate (CTR) of your website by providing users with more information about your content in the search results.
A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages, posts, and other content on your website, along with their respective URLs. By providing a comprehensive and up-to-date sitemap, you can improve your ranking on Google. When search engines crawl your website, they use the sitemap as a roadmap to discover and index your content. This can help ensure that all of your pages and posts are being properly indexed and considered for ranking. It is important to note that sitemaps are not a ranking factor in and of themselves, but they can help search engines discover and index your content more efficiently, which can ultimately improve your ranking. In addition to creating a sitemap, you should also regularly update it to reflect any changes or additions to your website. This will help ensure that search engines have the most current and accurate information about your website.
These types of issues can create a poor user experience and make it more difficult for search engines to crawl and index your website, which can ultimately harm your ranking. By regularly monitoring and addressing any such issues, you can improve your ranking on the search engine. There are several tools and resources available to help you monitor and address technical errors and issues on your website, including Google Search Console and SEO audit tools. By using these tools to identify and fix issues, you can ensure that your website is running smoothly and performing optimally. In addition to monitoring and addressing technical errors and issues, it is also important to regularly update and maintain your website to prevent such issues from occurring in the first place. By taking proactive measures to maintain your website, you can improve your ranking on Google and provide a better user experience for your visitors.
It is a free service provided by Google that allows you to monitor and maintain your website's presence in search results. By using Search Console, you can identify areas for improvement and optimize your website to improve your ranking on the search engine. Some of the key features and benefits of Search Console include:
By regularly monitoring and responding to these reviews, you can improve your reputation and ranking on the search engine. This is especially true with the latest Google algorithm update released in August 2022 called the Helpful Content Update. With this update, Google is prioritizing websites that provide helpful and relevant information to users, as well as those with high-quality and engaging content. By responding to user reviews and ratings, you can demonstrate to Google that your website is valuable and useful to users. This can help improve your reputation and ranking on the search engine. It is important to note that it is not just the number of reviews and ratings that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those reviews, as well as any response from you. By actively encouraging users to leave reviews and ratings and responding to them in a timely and helpful manner, you can improve your reputation and ranking on Google.
On-page strategies involve optimizing the content and structure of your own website, such as using targeted keywords in your content and optimizing your website's loading speed. Off-page strategies involve building links and citations from external websites, such as by promoting your content on social media or getting mentioned in news articles. By using a combination of both types of strategies, you can improve your overall ranking on Google. On-page and off-page SEO strategies work together to help search engines understand the relevance and value of your website to users. By optimizing both the content and structure of your website and building links and citations from external sources, you can demonstrate to search engines that your website is a valuable and useful resource for users. This can help improve your ranking on Google and increase the visibility and traffic to your website.
Google frequently updates its algorithms to improve the quality and relevance of the search results it delivers to users. By staying informed about these updates and how they may affect your website's ranking, you can make the necessary changes to optimize your website and improve your ranking on Google. There are several resources available to help you stay up-to-date with the latest algorithms and ranking factors, such as industry blogs, newsletters, and webinars. It is also important to regularly update and optimize your website to align with these factors. This may include creating high-quality and engaging content, optimizing your website's structure and navigation, and building links and citations from external sources. By regularly updating and optimizing your website, you can improve your ranking on Google and stay ahead of the competition.
To improve your website's ranking on Google, it is important to follow these proven 20 SEO strategies and tips listed. These strategies will help you increase your website's visibility and attract more users. Some of these strategies mentioned above include conducting keyword research, optimizing your website's title tags and meta descriptions, creating high-quality and engaging content, using internal and external linking, optimizing images and videos, promoting your content on social media, encouraging user engagement, optimizing for local search, claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing, using schema markup, creating and submitting a sitemap, monitoring and addressing technical errors, using Google Search Console, responding to user reviews, using a combination of on-page and off-page SEO strategies, and staying up-to-date with the latest ranking factors.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to take your website and SEO to the next level! Key Medium is here to help you achieve your online growth goals with expert SEO support. Don't just take our word for it, see for yourself with a free website and SEO consultation or check out our SEO service packages.
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Website performance has a huge impact on both SEO and UX - and so getting your website speed up is a key priority for website owners. But how do you know if your website is slow, and how can you improve website speed it for better performance?
Fortunately, there are several ways to improve website speed and ensure that your website provides a good user experience. In this article, we’ll cover the top tips for improving website speed and how to measure the results. With these tips, you can make sure that your website is running quickly and efficiently and your customers are having a great experience.
There are several ways to improve the speed of a website, including the following:
Improving the speed of a website is important for several reasons. Firstly, a slow-loading website can frustrate users and decrease engagement. Users are less likely to stick around and interact with a slow-loading website, and are more likely to leave (bounce) and go to a competitor’s site.
Take bounce rate for example, which is not good as it causes people to leave after just one page view, from Think With Google.
Secondly, website speed is a ranking factor for search engines. Search engines prefer faster-loading websites and may rank them higher in search results. This can improve the visibility and traffic of a website, leading to increased sales and revenue.
Thirdly, website speed is a factor in user experience. A faster-loading website provides a better user experience, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. This is particularly important for e-commerce websites, where a smooth and efficient user experience can lead to increased sales.
In conclusion, improving the speed of a website is important for user engagement, search engine ranking, and user experience. By optimizing images, using a CDN, enabling caching, minifying files, and using performance tools, you can improve the speed of your website and see a range of benefits.
There is no denying that the internet plays a central role in our lives and in modern-day business. It's truly a cornerstone of our daily activities.
The challenge of the internet, however, is figuring out how to use it to your advantage, especially for recruiting new employees and building or bolstering your organization's employer brand. It is critical to build a great employer brand and have good discoverability through search engine optimization (SEO).
This short read goes into the benefits of SEO for human resources recruiting leaders. It will help you understand how important it is for your recruiting or HR website pages to be on top of the Google search results, and how to make that happen.
When using SEO for human resources, there are multiple benefits. Human resource recruitments require visibility from qualified job seekers. By using search engine optimization, HR professionals will be able to create relevant listings that rise to the top of the search results page.
SEO for human resources enables HR professionals to create job listings that have clear information the candidate needs, ensure listings are formatted for readability, and to choose the right keywords for each listing.
With these opportunities, each listing will provide more qualified candidates and have top-notch results. Hiring great candidates is simplified through HR SEO efforts.
SEO helps increase the visibility of the employer brand and job postings alike. Building the employer brand is important for attracting the right candidates. When people are searching for a job, they typically check out the employer brand on job search websites where former and current employees share their experiences and opinions on the company.
If you want to have multiple high-quality candidates, you will need to ensure your employer brand is optimized. Not only will that make sure your listings are showing up, it will also help you shape the information making up your employer brand.
When your listings show up for job seekers, it’s essential that they see positive information that makes them want to apply. By focusing on building and optimizing your employer brand, you are helping create a company that great people want to work for.
SEO helps increase the visibility of job postings. Just as regular search engines use SEO to determine ranking, job boards and ATS portals do the same. Job listings are ranked due to optimization, which means that if you’re not intentional about your listings, there’s a good chance they won’t be seen by the right people.
By using SEO strategies on your job listings, you will be able to attract top-notch, targeted candidates. It helps to reduce the number of applications you get, narrowing them down to the best. The right people will be searching for a company just like yours and will find what they need in your listing.
Instead of having an enormous pool of unqualified people to choose from, you’ll find that you have a handful of incredible, top candidates. Not a bad problem to have.
Create an account at CO.CAREERS for a free Job Board and ATS
Now that you understand the importance of using SEO for hiring, you’ll want to know the best practices for doing so. Here’s what you need to do when you are creating job listings for your company:
This concludes the special post in our new Branding category in the SEO Academy! Please be sure to also measure and track your HR metrics for employer brand, and to ensure your goals are being, from everything from time-to-fill, time-hire, time to productivity (when you fill an open position), and consider using an HR dashboard to track all your analytics and metrics for actionable HR insights.
It is no secret that it can be challenging to capture and hold your audience's attention. This is never truer than when it comes to web content. It takes only a matter of seconds for your audience to see if they are interested in your site before deciding to click away. So, the question is, how do you keep people from leaving your website in those first few seconds?
The good news is that there are some techniques that you can incorporate into your content that will make it more likely that you will retain your audience's attention and lower your bounce rate.
1. Presentation. Presentation is critical with your site. Whether you have a blog or a website, you need to make an excellent first impression. Make sure that everything looks uniform, and keep to muted colors with a white background. You want your design to be subtle, while the content pops.
2. Headlines. Headlines are so important. Not only for SEO purposes (they help though) but also for capturing your audience. A good headline lets them know what you are going to be talking about, and what benefit there is for them. This is not just for articles, landing pages, and blog posts; it stands true for email subject lines, as well as during presentations/pitches, webinars, and during public speaking.
3. Text. The text of your content plays just as important a role as the appearance and design. You want to write with short, attention-grabbing lead text that is easy to understand and for your audience to follow along with. This article explains more about how to get your audience to read your words.
4. Novelty. If you feel that your content is droning on try throwing out something unexpected to get your audience's notice: a funny anecdote, a joke, or a story. You want to lighten things up, and slightly change the subject to get them interested again.
5. Have an offer. Make it about them and let your audience know how they are going to benefit right from the get-go.
6. Connect. Using emotion and being relatable are great ways to connect with your audience. Be personable, tell stories, and find ways for your audience to see themselves and what they need in your subject (or why your product is right for them).
If you feel that you are not retaining your audience's attention take a quick overview of your content, or approach, and see it is following all of the above. You can do this with a content audit- read more on how to do that here. Next, continue to make changes until you find the techniques that work for you and keeps your audience interested.
When you are trying to keep people interested, these are the things to remember, whether you are using speaking, writing, or design as your medium to communicate.
Key Medium, Running SEO's digital agency sister brand, are SEO marketing experts in Philadelphia can help you come up with a content strategy that will work for your business. Get in touch today.
Sources:
https://www.inc.com/sims-wyeth/how-to-capture-and-hold-audience-attention.html
https://conversionxl.com/blog/how-to-grab-and-hold-attention/
https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2018/11/12/how-to-grab-peoples-attention/
