3 Important Google Ranking Factors You Should Not Joke With

There are lots of Google ranking factors. In fact, you can find tons of articles that talked about them, spread all over the internet. Many writers have compiled a long list of these search engine ranking factors, you can even come across over 200 of them in just a single article. But the truth is that many of these SEO recipes are still left unknown, as they tend to be mysterious. Google actually withheld them for competitive purposes, they don’t really want their “secret SEO sauce” to be copied.

Though we may not have complete knowledge of all the possible Google ranking factors, we can actually pinpoint some of the most effective of them all. These are the ones that weigh more on the search engine ranking factors scale. As depicted by most written articles on SEO, these important Google ranking factors sure have lots of quality we should not ignore.

Also read: 8 Important On-page SEO Mistakes To Avoid From 2017

The most important ranking factors will definitely make a huge difference for you and your online business. When you adhere strictly to them, within some period you will start to see it in form of traffic and conversion rates resulting from the traffic. Let me now introduce to you 3 important Google ranking factors and how you can apply them for a positive result.

3 Important Google Ranking Factors And How To Make Use Of Them

Before I proceed, I will like you to stick this main idea about ranking factors into your brain. They are all centered on the user experience.

If your site is catering to your audience, and you are making it as easy as possible to get what they need, then you will definitely rank better.

Now take a look at the list below.

1. Content

I guess you are familiar with this normal phrase “content is king”, and for sure it is. It has become an overused and popular cliché, just to lay emphasis on its importance in content marketing.

Providing quality content on your blog or website is one of the most important Google ranking factors you should not joke with.

Also read: Unique Content And Bad Guest Posting Habits

But I also want you to have this knowledge as well. As time progresses and new technologies are emerging, how you write and create your content for decent rankings has changed too.

Prior to this time, it used to be all about keywords. But at the moment Google is placing relevance as a top priority for content quality. When I say “relevance”, it means that:

• It should be relevant to your business or company, which means that if you are selling smartphones, you should not be writing about the music industry.
• It should be relevant to the targeted audience and their concerns, needs, or desires. That is if your customers are gadgets or technology lovers, you should not be writing about hotels.

To add to that, relevance also have to do with competitiveness. This means you should:

• Choose narrower topics, and spend your time to be tailed enough. Provide useful and needed information and lots of answers.
• Maintain long-form content over short articles. Longer articles tend to be more detailed and exhaustive.

A rule of thumb suggests you research your audience and collect data about them. This will enable you to understand their needs and how to address them. If your content influences them and gives them what they need, then you are sure on a journey to greater heights.

2. Links

After content, the next important Google ranking factors are your links. They should not be crappy or spammy, but of real quality. This means that you should be linking to authority sites and authority sites should be linking to you as well.

Google places relevance on link quality in different ways. Generally, larger and trustworthy sites have higher authority. Also, the sites that link to yours must have similar relevance as that yours.

How can you then earn quality backlinks?

it is quite simple, you need to promote your content and network with similar content marketers. This is often called “link building”.

Must read: 5 Link Building Facts Every Blogger Should Know

3. Site Architecture

After content and link building, the third most important Google ranking factor is site architecture (Headings, Crawlability, and Mobile-friendliness). A lot of section made up this broad category, and they include;

1. How easy it is for Google to crawl your site
2. How your pages are structured and organised with headings and subheadings
3. How mobile-friendly your site is.

There are more of them, but these are the major ones you should focus on for positive results. Let me break them down so you can have a better understanding.

Website Crawling

Search engines normally crawl each page on your site before they get indexed. As a result of this, you should read through your pages to help and help the search engine crawlers to understand what the page is all about. If they are finding it difficult to crawl your pages, they won’t get indexed. And if they don’t get indexed, they won’t appear on search results.

The good news is that it is quite easy to make your site crawlable. The rule thumb is that you should avoid a fussy design that can hide your basic information from crawlers. This includes JavaScript and Flash, errors in the code can hide your links even your text. If you want to add this to our site design, then you should seek the service of a professional web designer to make sure they are right.

Headings and Subheadings

If you want your content to rank on search engine result pages, then you should pay attention to your H1s and H2s. Search engines actually use them to understand what the page is all about. Placing your keyword in your H1 and H2 can increase your chances of ranking high as well.

In addition, without implementing these structures, your readers will get confused with a wall of text. Believe me, no reader will actually want to read through it to the end.

Mobile-Friendliness

Gone is the era when we can only access the internet with only a computer. These days, we can easily log in on our smartphones, tablets, and even watches. The percentage of mobile internet users is quite high compared to those that still use PC. As a result of this, Google is rewarding mobile-friendly sites by making them rank higher on mobile searches.

You should endeavor to make your site accessible on all devices, this will make you have a better chance of ranking higher.

You should also combine this aspect of site architecture to support your content and link building as well.

Conclusion

To rank higher on search engine result pages, you need quality content, links, and good site structure. These are the 3 important Google ranking factors that should place on top priority. To be precise, you must be detailed and thorough at each of them in order to rank. It is quite simple in theory, difficult in practice, but the good news is that it is totally achievable.