Every business with an online presence is craving to outperform competitors and rank higher on Google. That is why marketers, SEO professionals, and link builders work together to improve Google search results and reach higher website positions. The effect would appear only if Google search ranking factors are acknowledged and adhered to.
Google does not clearly state how exactly it arranges search results, though it has shed some light on that. This article reveals the secret of how Google transforms queries into Google ranking signals, analyzes them for issuing search results, and forms ranking. Therefore, you can improve Google search results for your website using such valuable information.
How to Rank Higher on Google?
Obviously, if you want your web pages to become more visible online, you need to perform some website optimization work. SEO techniques would be useful for your website promotion on search engines but the results won’t become tangible overnight. You will need to dedicate enough time and effort for your website optimization to rank higher on Google.
All SEO strategies implement a similar set of approaches to meet Google ranking factors requirements. Even though those ranking criteria remained a black box for some time, Google started to provide clearer guidelines recently. Some of them refer to webmasters’ work using SEO, while other explanations are dedicated to users who make search queries.
What Are the Top Google Search Ranking Factors?
Now let’s get closer to the details on Google ranking factors that mean the most for this search engine. According to the latest information on Google’s website, the company explains that they transform user search queries into important Google ranking signals. Then search algorithms utilize those signals understandable for AI-based machines inside the Google engine for providing search results. Thus, Google reports paying most attention to the following criteria:
- Words in a user search query.
- Web page authority.
- Usability of web pages.
- User location.
- The freshness of the web page content.
So let’s explore each of those ranking factors that Google focuses on.
Web Page Authority
This is a general concept that comprises several aspects that impact your web page’s credibility and trustworthiness. The most popular approach used in SEO to keep the web page authority high is to implement secure backlinks all over your website. Those would show the best results if you use backlink services that specialize in certain niches or industries. When your web page is connected with other websites with business operations in the same sphere – this means much for Google.
Another crucial aspect refers to web page security – the implementation of the security protocol so that your web address starts with HTTPS. This protocol ensures that your website stays secure, ensuring that your visitors are protected from any instances of the personal data breach.
Web Page Usability
This ranking factor comprises a range of SEO performance metrics that help determine how users interact with your website. All this information is also assessed by Google to determine whether your website is user-friendly or not. Obviously, better usability rates would open a free way to rank higher on Google.
At this stage, pay attention to the bounce rate and time-on-page indicators for your website. If the bounce rate is too high, while time-on-page constitutes only several seconds, then something needs to be done about it. You might need to improve the website design or text layout, check whether your website is mobile-friendly, and strive to increase the general user experience.
Search Query and Keywords
In the early times, when Google was an emerging platform for search, keywords already meant a lot to it. Years go by, but the value of the proper keywording remains as important as before. Thus, picking the right key phrases is one of the best ways to improve your website ranking on Google search results.
While compiling the list of keywords to use in your articles on the website, keep the branded traffic in mind. This means you need to use the brand name in some of your keywords, see the potential of such keywords, and integrate the best ones on your website. This will help to rank higher on Google as people would use keywords associated with your brand.
Location
Google also reports that user location means a lot when generating a list of search results based on their query. Given this fact, you need to do everything to specify the location of your business if you are not an only-online business. Select appropriate keywords that mention the local area or city your business operates in. Also, indicate your business location in My Google Business profile to make your website discoverable for local searches.
Mention the business address for your company on your profiles on social media. See cloudtweaks.com to discover other advantages of social media and digital marketing for improving your website rankings on Google.
Use the approaches of local SEO, especially if your business activity is concentrated in a certain area. Google search ranking factors for local SEO include keywords, website usability, website authority, content quality, etc.
Content Quality and Freshness
Neatly written text providing valuable information has always been of great value to Google. However, Google has recently emphasized that content freshness also means much when juxtaposing user search queries and available websites. That is why keeping the content up-to-date is the same important as the information it carries.
Inform Google on how often your web pages should be crawled so the search engine is aware of any changes made. For that, use sitemaps or robots.txt files to point out to Google how often the content should be reviewed and indexed via Google Search Console.