Why is Search Engine Ranking Crucial?
Did you know? The first five organic results on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) account for 67.6% of all clicks.
This implies most of your potential customers are already busy exploring the top five options ranked by the Search Engine. Alarming! Isn’t it?
Search Engines are a powerful medium that can generate high-quality leads if you optimize your website to rank #1 in SERP.
In this blog, let us discuss 7 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking factors that search engines consider ranking your webpage.
The Quality and Relevance of Your Content
Search Engines always encourage a people-first approach when it comes to content creation. It gives high weightage to the quality and relevance of your content when ranking your page.
Hence, your content should be engaging, well-written, and valuable to your target audience.
Using keywords is essential but keyword stuffing will never help you rank higher.
Mobile Friendliness
Almost 7 billion people use smartphones worldwide, which makes mobile-friendliness a critical ranking factor. Your website should be optimized for mobiles and tabs to attract more traffic.
You can use the Google mobile-friendly test to check whether your site is compatible with mobile devices. If the result is otherwise, it’s high time you fix it.
Site Architecture
Have you ever wondered how Search Engines bring up results? They have web crawlers that systematically browse your web pages and index them. If your site structure is not organized, the crawlers may find it extremely difficult to index your pages. This leads to low ranking in Search Engines.
So, you need to ensure that your site has the proper structure and hierarchy to make it easier for crawlers to browse and index your pages.
User Experience (UX)
To rank higher, you must focus on enhancing your site for a positive user experience. Some of the crucial factors that determine user experience are:
- Page Loading Speed
- Mobile Friendliness
- Structured Navigation Menus
- Low bounce rates (Percentage of visitors who leave the site after visiting just the home page)
You can use https://pagespeed.web.dev/ to get insights on speed performance.
Backlinks (Inbound Links):
Imagine you sell budget-friendly home appliances online. A well-known blog site that reviews home appliances adds a hyperlink in a blog titled ‘Budget-Friendly Home Appliances’ leading to your site. People reading the blog are more likely to click on the hyperlink and visit your site. This is called a backlink.
By adding a hyperlink to your site, the blog site is vouching for your business. This boosts the credibility and authority of your site.
To rank higher on Search Engines, build a solid backlink profile with reputable websites to demonstrate your authority in your niche.
On-Page Optimization
As the name suggests, it involves techniques that optimize your website pages for Search Engines. Some of the optimization techniques are:
- Usage of relevant keywords in the title tag, meta description, and content.
- Image optimization – File naming, Alt Text, Content Relevance, Image Sitemaps, etc.
- URL optimization – Descriptive URLs using Target Keywords.
- Internal Link Optimization – strategic linking of internal pages within the website for better user experience.
Technical SEO
A well-structured website should have a clean code, proper URL structure, XML sitemaps, and canonical tags for higher ranking in the SERP. HTTPS encryption for security is also a ranking factor.
Other Factors that Impact Search Engine Ranking
Engagement Metrics
User engagement metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), time on site, and bounce rates can impact rankings.
Social Media Activity
Social Media activities have an indirect influence on the visibility of your site in search engines but do not contribute directly to Search Engine Ranking.
Local SEO (for Local Businesses)
Businesses with a physical location should optimize their site for local search through business listings, customer reviews, and local citations.
Security and Trustworthiness
If your site has security issues frequently, it may rank lower in SERP.
Remember search engine algorithms are complex, and the SEO landscape keeps evolving. Hence, stay informed about the latest updates and best practices to boost your SERP rank.
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