SEO Ranking Factors 

As SEO requirements change, it can be difficult to stay on top of the latest development. However, if you want your Google ranking to rise from authority to the top, you must know what you’re doing.  

There are over 200 SEO ranking factors that search engines use to determine which site appears in the search engine and where they would appear. For your site to rank high on the search engine result page or SERP, you must optimize the following factors for your website’s visibility.  

1. Page Speed  

Page speed does affect SEO. Therefore, if you hope to rank high on Google, you should improve your site’s page speed.  

It is a direct ranking factor, but it can also affect ranking indirectly by reducing dwell time and increasing the bounce rate.  

Your site’s speed is a good indicator of how well it will perform with the search engine. Your speed must compete with the loading time of the top 10 organic results.  

2. User experience 

User experience or UX has a powerful impact on search engine optimization ranking. It helps you better understand how visitors interact and engage with your website. Search engine like Google considers things like: 

• Bounce rate: The percentage of web users who leave your website and return to the search result.  
• Click-through rate: Click-through rate is the percentage of visitors who visit your website after a listing appears on the SERP.  
• Page dwell time: It’s how long visitors spend on your website.  

Google will think that your site doesn’t satisfy your visitor’s needs if they don’t like your site after they land on it and bounce away. If this happens too often, you may have more trouble ranking higher in the search result.  

3. Mobile-friendliness 

Another essential SEO ranking factor is mobile-friendliness. Due to the increasing number of mobile devices used to access the web, Google has changed its ranks search results. In addition, it’s a fact that Google is now using mobile-optimized sites to index results rather than ones geared towards desktop computers. Therefore, a mobile-friendly website may rank you on the search engine result page.  

4. Optimized content 

One of the most important ranking factors is having optimized content. When you optimize your content for one specific keyword, you tell the search engine what it’s about and what it should rank for. As a result, optimized content helps improve your visibility on Google and other search engines. This brings visitors to your website and makes them more likely to purchase your products or services. So, investing in SEO content can genuinely lead to a better return on investment.  

5. Secure and accessible website 

Having the right kind of URL does matter, particularly the ones that Google’s bot can easily crawl and access. This means Google must be able to view your site’s URL and its content to determine what the page is about. If Google and other search engines can’t find your website, they can’t rank it. So make sure: 

• Check your index status in Google Search Console 
• You have a sitemap listing all your pages 

• Your robots.txt file specifies where Google can and cannot access information on your site 

6. URL, domain name, and domain age 

While your domain name may not be a direct Google ranking factor, it could influence your SEO success. Having a good domain name can help boost your search engine rankings, while a poor domain name choice can negatively impact your SEO ranking. So is having a domain name that’s three years old or more. Research shows that nearly 60% of all sites with top ten Google rankings are three years old.  

7. Links 

The web is built on links. So, naturally, links are a crucial SEO ranking signal. Links may include: 

• Outbound links: An outbound link tells Google that the site 

Google can learn a lot about the site linking to from outbound links – that it’s considered authoritative and trustworthy. Outbound links play an important role in how websites participate in and contribute to the Internet. Outbound links help your site with SEO, adds value for readers, and open conversations with other businesses. 

• Inbound links: It’s one of the most important elements in SEO. Getting links from reputable and relevant sites to your business is much better for your SEO than getting links from low-quality sites that have nothing to do with you. 
• Internal link: Google understands and ranks your website better when there are internal links or backlinks. Moreover, it’s also considered a significant SEO ranking factor.  

Providing Google with links and descriptive anchor text will let Google know what kinds of pages on your website are essential. And if you want your site to rank, build on high-quality backlinks.  

8. Business Information 

It’s also important to have business information if you aim to rank in local SEO. You might want to consider this last tip if you are targeting local areas. Pay attention to things like: 

• Name, address, and phone number 
• Business listing on Facebook and Google My Business 

• Reviews on-site as well as relevant directories 
• The right local search term