Good, you have a website which means, you are surviving within the digital world. But having a website is nothing if someone cannot find you just when they need you.
People have problems and they depend on search engines to get them the right solutions. Meanwhile, search engines have their criteria based on which they judged the value of a website. In other words, if your website doesn’t make Google ranking factors, chances are it’s living in oblivion.
Google search engine is the world’s most popular and powerful search engine and every website strives to at least be found on the first page of a search result.
To achieve this, they strictly adhere to Google website ranking factors. Generally speaking, there are certain standards Google demands from websites and if you can do it, you enter and remain in Google’s good book. However, practically speaking, it’s easier said than done.
It is worth noting that the numero uno search result on Google gets the highest amount of clicks. That is, out of ten people will click the first result and the rest, only get ignored.
So if your competitor’s website is ahead of you, that’s some serious competition you’ve got to worry about. Simply put, you need to tweak your game and get in line to utilize and find success through Google search engine ranking factors.
How Many Google Ranking Factors Are There?
A website works only as well as its Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google ranking factors are directly connected to SEO.
Ranking factors of Google means the website elements that the Google search engine algorithm considers to decide on what webpages to show in the search result when triggered by a particular search query.
So if you are wondering how many Google ranking factors are there, then it would be around 200 factors. Some of these factors have a significant effect on your website while others matter less.
Yes, it won’t be possible to point out all the factors and the value but here are some important Google Ranking Factors you shouldn’t ignore in 2022
1. Mobile Optimized Site
More than half of global traffic amount to mobile users’. That is, a major chunk of people visit websites through their smartphones or phablets and expect sites to work perfectly on their devices. If your site fails to fulfill this need, then it’s bound to get a high bounce rate.
Therefore, mobile-friendliness cannot be ignored. Essentially, your website needs to be gadget friendly since this is an important Google ranking factor. Your website needs to work flawlessly, on any type of smartphone, tablet, laptop, or computer.
2. Core Web Vitals
In May 2020, Google introduced another important ranking factor called Core Web vitals. It deals with the overall health of your website based on the quality of user experience it provides.
The vitals in question is divided into LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).
LCP checks if the website loads its first page within 2.5 seconds because a higher loading time makes people leave the site. So it is important to optimize the website to load instantly.
FID expects a quick reaction from your website to anything the users interact with onsite. That is, your website has 100 ms or less to respond to a user’s click.
And CLS checks on the load predictability of your website to ensure the site does not change once it’s loaded. This metric checks an issue where a site is loading and halfway through, it jumps into an entirely different link. This is considered to be a very bad user experience and consequently, leads to a lower ranking from Google.
3. Valuable Content
Content is king only if can provide value to the end-user. Poor quality content hardly gets a gaze and the internet sure does not look mercifully on it.
Quality content is by far the most important Google ranking factor. If you can provide value-rich content then Google will work wonders for your website.
Armed with great, compelling content and the other SEO factors mentioned in the article, you have a fighting chance of improving your website ranking.
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4. Domain Age and Authority
Well, you simply cannot increase the age of your domain unless you are purchasing seasoned domains. The age of your domain is the time the domain has been registered and your reputation with Google is the authority.
Age takes its time and so does authority, but the latter is easier to achieve by following high standards of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. This is the same route as quality content with a command over subject expertise.
5. Links
Many websites don’t receive any traffic because they don’t have backlinks. Inbound links, outbound links, and internal links are all important ranking factors.
Google ranking SEO still values links since they increase the overall authority of your site proving it to be a valuable resource.
Inbound links increase the authority of your website as someone else is recommending your content while outbound links show authority by providing additional relevant information to your website visitors.
6. On-Page Experience
A direct impact of the Google ranking factor on your website is its bounce rate. Generally, a 50 to 60 percent bounce rate is acceptable but anything below that signals Google that the site is not giving what users need.
Consequently, the page is less likely to appear in search results eventually. Note that On-Page Experience also includes Click-through rate and dwell time which is how much time a visitor spends on your site.
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7. Technical SEO
As the name suggests, technical SEO refers to certain technical things that are an important Google ranking factor. Technical SEO is one of the easiest things to adjust to your website.
These technical requirements include the use of keywords in page titles and title tags, keyword-optimized header tags, properly optimized meta description, keyword-rich alt text and tags, and proper schema markup.
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8. Social Media Signals
Your presence on social media has a direct impact on the overall ranking of your website. Website ranking is directly proportional to the number of social media shares.
This is not the sole factor deciding the success of your website but is no less impactful on your ranking. Social presence is a significant trust factor and can increase sales and revenue.
Google Organic Ranking Factors
Google aspires to give the best experience to its users. It uses a series of algorithms based on certain factors to determine the best websites to present to a specific search query.
The value of the factors can change based on the type of query, but here are some of the vital Google organic ranking factors to consider.
- Search Intent: Google does not take a search query at its face value but attempts to ascertain what the user is searching for. It does this by using language, synonyms, trending keywords, and other indicators to give the most accurate results.
- Relevance: Google checks if the page fulfills the query request by checking if the query keywords show up on a given web page in the title, headings, and paragraphs.
- Usability: In other words the user experience of the website or its page. Google checks for consistency in the website appearance across a variety of devices, especially mobile. It also checks how fast and accurately the web page loads and bounce rate.
- Content Quality: This is the bread and butter of any website and cannot be stressed enough. If your website can demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on a given topic, then Google will work in your favor. Outbound links and backlinks also add up to this factor.
Conclusion
In conclusion, numerous Google ranking factors decide the well-being of your website and it is very hard to obsess over every single factor.
Unless you have a large, dedicated SEO team, it is but folly to try. However, more than 80% of the benefits that can be taken from Google ranking factors depend on 10 to 12 metrics.
So if you are unsure about how to make the best of Google Ranking Factors, then get in touch with the highly experienced SEO team of OneCity and watch your website grow and stand out in the digital competition.
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