Top 10 Google Website Ranking Factors

I have made a list of a few most important Top 10 Google Ranking Factors for your website. If you are building a new website for your business or you are trying to get more visitors by achieving higher search engine rankings, you may wonder where to start. This SEO guide for Google's ranking factors will walk you through on how to optimize your website, and make sure that it rises in the Google rankings quickly.

You want to make sure that your optimizing your website for the most important search engines. Google, Yahoo and Bing are the ones that you need to concentrate on, and I suggest Google being your top search engine in mind.

When trying to achieve top rankings in Google search, you will eventually understand that SEO depends on many search ranking factors that these search engines take into consideration. Proper on-page and off-page SEO will tremendously change the ranks on Google easily. However, SEO is evolving quickly making it important to keep up with the ranking algorithms too.

Keep in mind, when you are working with SEO, algorithms provide smarter, semantic, more relevant search experiences for the user. These algorithms also work to help your website rise to the top of Google's rankings.

Google currently analyzes 200 different ranking factors. When websites take advantage of these ranking factors, they are more likely to reach top rankings in Google search. This can be especially helpful if you optimize for your top keywords and also to concentrate on building your brand. If you want your business to soar, along with your site rankings, keep these TOP 10 Google Website Ranking Factors in mind.

Your website's content is one of the first things anyone will see when visiting your website. With that, remember that it should be informative, with a few major keywords inside your content, preferably near the top. Your content should be in-depth, and cover most of your subject. Your content should be clear enough that it makes sense to your user, and you should have supporting visuals. These visuals should engage and excite the reader and complement your written content.

Certainly you would think that having a lot of content you would have a better chance for reaching higher ratings, right? Quality content will win out any day over quantity, so put the focus on quality content over quantity.

While there is no clear rule on an optimal word count, you should always aim for longer, relevant content using your subjects keywords and some semantic keywords. Make sure to provide a good user experience with all the right questions and answers to their problem. When the reader has a full scope of your product or service, they may return and you also gain more visibility by users linking to your content or sharing your page on social media. Search engines look for backlinks, and also any social media mentions, meaning more visibility for your website.

Use a semantic search when looking at SEO for articles. After choosing the subject of your title, search for it on Google. After searching, find the related search phrases at the bottom of the page. These phrases can help you get a better handle on the SEO phrases that you can put to work inside your content for more views and higher rankings.

Backlinks are one of the most important part of the search algorithm. With this, they are also one of the most misunderstood. Backlinks are other website owners that mention another websites domain, by creating a link to your websites content. Many website owners use these links to their advantage. When you have multiple backlinks from high-authority domains, your chances to ranking higher raises substantially for your targeted keywords.

Backlinks might sound great, but there are many things that can cause havoc and put you in trouble. Google explains that backlinks calculate a link score. This score is calculated by examining every incoming link to your website by the other websites quality score (aka PageRank) and the number of links to the site.

Link quantity is very important for Google, but more importantly is the quality of the link you are receiving to your site. You need to focus on gaining high domain authority sites that have many high quality linking domains. When creating or asking for backlinks, stay away from spammy, low quality websites. If Google finds you on too many spammy sites, your rankings can drop substantially, and at times, your website can get de-indexed from Google.

Also, if you outsource any backlink project to someone else, you need to know if they will not add you into a load of low quality, spammy sites. You must trust this individual by doing some research on their work. Some backlinks are so spammy that they can throw your whole backlink profile on Googles blacklist, eventually leading to a Google penalty.

In recent years, search engines have changed their formats with the times. With the rise of smartphones, there has been a shift to mobile-oriented searches. Because of this, Google also looks at page speed on mobile apps and sites.

What this means for you is that your website should load quickly. A recent survey found that 91% of users prioritize speed, leaving only 9% that will wait for more than 10 seconds on a page to load. If your website does not load fast, you will lose those important views, which will lead to a loss in business. All in all, the updates to Google's algorithm base their ranks on user experience. Page speed is a large, unavoidable part of this ranking factor.

Most people searching for results on Google have an idea of what they are searching for. The user will type exactly what they desire into Google to find it. This plays a large part in the algorithm that Google has set up. The more traffic a website gets from branded searches, the better it will be recognized by the algorithm.

While this might be great for popular industries or brands, what does it mean for you? Well, with branding, you can get more hits by using those well-known brands as a part of your SEO strategy. For example, if you wanted more information on a certain make and model vehicle, you might search that term. When you do, you will get results that are relevant to your search query. You may have a list of car dealerships that sell this type vehicle. If you are using their brand names within your SEO strategy, you will receive branded rankings which will lead to more views for your site.

This idea also includes "social signals". While that might sound confusing, it is very simple. Generally, most businesses on Google will already have a social media account. By getting more views onto your accounts, or paying for ads on them, you will be more recognized by Google's algorithms. There is plenty of evidence that show social signals plays a big roll. The correlation between rankings and social signals are very high.

Domain power means using your domain as a subtle SEO strategy as well. When the domain name exactly matches what is being searched for, then the domain will carry more weight within the search engine. This is a sure-fire way to boost your organic search visibility, as well as give you an edge over other results.

This ties into your branding, as well. One of the best ways that you could brand your product or service is by using domain power. For example, if you are wanting to open a Farmer's Market, you might add that phrase to your website's URL. This would ensure that any users searching for "Farmer's Market" would see your site at the top of results.

Another factor of domain power is that of domain seniority. This means that websites that are older or more established will usually be at the top of search results. New domains, even if they match the exact search, will often take longer to rank over older sites. Keep in mind, that once you rise in rankings, you don't often fall. Keep pushing on and establish your domain. Within time, your seniority will shoot you to the top of the ranks.

With an increase in online shopping, this should be a no-brainer. Google wants to protect their users, they put a lot of emphasis on a secured domain. Any website that requires personal information from their users should already have proper security, and encryption. Having a secure domain is one of Google's top ranking factors, Google almost always ranks encrypted sites higher.

Having a secure website also builds customer loyalty. When customers put sensitive information into an encrypted website, they feel safer. This safe feeling can lead to more traffic, and more views for your site, as well.

With the shift to mobile sites being more popular, the user experience is required. According to a Google press release, their algorithm is keeping up with that need in many ways. Is the website easy to navigate? Does it look professional? Are proper security protocols in place for customers?

A recent study showed that users say they need a website with an easy-to-understand format. 61% of users have stated that if they cannot find what they need, they will move on quickly. Because of this, you need to make sure the site is well-formatted, which gives you the most visits and in turn leads to more sales. Also, your website pages should be as relevant to the keywords you are using along with high quality content, creating a more reliable user experience.

Anyone can make a website. While this is great for those starting their own business, it can make it hard to get to the top of Google's ratings. As mentioned before, Google takes domain seniority into account with its algorithms. According to Google, your sites establishment is a ranking factor. Valuable, or legit, domains are often paid for multiple years in advance. However, illegitimate domains are rarely paid for more than a year in advance.

If you want to get a new domain registered, this is only 1 of roughly 200 ways that Google ranks your site. New domains, or not, having a domain name paid for over a year, does not mean that you will not rank. Do not let this hinder you from moving forward. I have personally built many new websites for my clients with new domain names and have had them rank very well quickly.

A new domain name simply means to keep up with your domain by purchasing a few years in advance, SEO strategies, building citations, gain quality backlinks and let it mature to get the best rankings on Google.

When you first register your domain name, you must give your personal information. This information can include private information, such as your phone number and address. When you have registered your domain, it goes through the ICANN, who sets up your WhoIs record.

Many website owners do not want to show their personal information, so many will set this as private, doing an injustice to one of Googles ranking factors. Be warned, if you do this, as it brings up questions within Google.

Google will often see sites set up with private WhoIs records as a potential threat. This can make the page come under more scrutiny from Google and may slow your rise through the rankings.

As you should create a Google My Business account and get your website ranking in the local maps, this ranking factor is more about on-page SEO than GMB. If you are a brick-and-mortar business, you will want your local customers to know where you are. This is where "real business" information on your website comes in to play.

One of the most crucial SEO ranking factors is the presence of business information. This means that it is important to make sure your website has your company name, phone number, address, and hours of your business, and displaying a Google map view. If you have this information on your website, it will help you become ranked on Google faster for views in your local area. Keep in mind also, that reviews from customers on both Google and Yelp will help your rise in the ranks.

Having business information on your website will help in other ways, as well. Businesses that have clear information typically end up within top Google searches quickly. This clear information can also help build further trust with your customers. Make sure that your reviews are positive and clear about your business, as this builds trust with your customers, as well.

As this is just a small handful of Google's ranking factors, I feel these are a few of the important ones. There are many things that you should consider when trying to get your website to the top of Google's rankings. Use these Top 10 ranking factor tips regularly when setting up and maintaining your website. With the skill set that these 10 tips give you, your website will rise through the ranks quickly.

Need help with your rankings, call us, we can discuss your goals and quickly analyze your website with our free SEO technical audit.