Ever wondered what’s the real deal behind a website’s success? Search Engine Ranking indicators takes a creative mind, perseverance, determination, brainstorming and a complete list of do’s and don’ts. An understanding of the business, the customer, the competition and technology are also helpful. Seriously, ranking on search engines requires common sense and attention to detail and a pinch of luck. So what’s included in the formula of a website’s success?
Below are some of the main factors and the basis for how search engines like Google rank a website:
Relevance
Is the website relevant to the searcher’s interest? Does your site provide the information that a visitor is looking for. Search Engines use a variety of methods and algorithms to determine which sites are the most relevant for searchers. The keywords must be in the content and be highly visible to not only the searcher but also to the search engine. The physical location of a business comes into play. Also, the number of appropriate, legitimate incoming links or citations are indications of relevance.
Mobility
Its official, website’s that are mobile responsive are ranked higher than those that are not. Why? Because visitors want websites that are mobile and over 50% of viewers come from mobile devices now.
Website Speed
Gone are the days when websites used high pixelated, heavy, eye-candy graphics and autoload videos on the first-fold area of the homepage. Sure, it looks cool but the frames and scripts that are embedded on those visual masterpieces can’t be crawled by search engine bots. Plus, the load time can hurt your website’s ranking.
However, we’re not conveying that you can’t have a video on your website. You can still set it up and have the file size compressed without having to affect the video’s quality. Same goes with the photos. If you’re an artist or designer, you can have a set of photos in your portfolio to showcase all your creations. Rule of thumb is to always reduce its file size and keep your site’s loading time or landing page to meet the suggested 3 seconds load time.
Website Security
Cyberspace has a loophole. Hackers from different parts of the globe can penetrate and harm your websites especially your rankings. You don’t want your site to be involved in any spam that drives traffic or sends automated links to everyone – it’s a definite red flag for search engines.
Make sure your website is secured, passwords are updated in a weekly or monthly basis and download necessary plugins (if you’re using WordPress) to help your site boost its security measures.
High Quality Content
Nothing beats a good and well-written content. Get creative and make your content more interactive! You can incorporate polls, questionnaires that encourages your visitors engage more with your brand. All it takes is a little bit of creativity and effort of creating a captivating content that will leave them wanting more.
User Experience
An awesome user experience guarantees repetitive visits, lower bounce rates, increase web page views and conversions. What comprises a great experience? Here’s a breakdown on how to increase engagement and give the best experience for your site visitors and users:
- Navigation. If a user want’s to get to the contact page or read more about your products and services, proper navigation is needed. You can arrange your navigation on your menu, footer and widgets area so that site visitors can easily navigate around your site and web pages.
- Good Interlinking. This is almost the same as having a great navigation. Interlinking pages within pages can help a web page get extra views. Here’s a great scenario – your blog already has hundreds or thousands of pages of content. Interlinking is one way to get your other pages viewed. It attracts more engagement between you and the user which yields to a good experience.