SEO #3: Google Ranking Factors

Vaughn C. Hardacker

This is the third post on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and I will conclude with how Google ranks webpages. As I’ve stated before, Google controls 90% of the search market. Therefore, if we are going to use SEO, it only makes sense that we see how Google Ranks Pages. I a previous blog I mentioned that there are two ranking factores, On Page and Off Page. This is not entirely true; there are three:

Off-page. These are being measured by Google elsewhere from your site and primarily involve backlinks.On-Page. These are mainly related to the keywords and informational quality of your pages.Technical. These are also measured on-site, but have more to do with the overall performance of the site as a whole, as opposed to individual pages.

We now have the foundation. Let’s look a bit deeper.

Top 10 Google Ranking Factors 

For search engines to crawl and index your web page correctly, certain core technical elements or factors must work seamlessly. These are the back-end building blocks that make up your site so it will function the way it should.

Technical Ranking Factors: Deal with the website as a whole.Site and page speed. No one likes to wait for a slow page to load. whether on your phone or computer. How patient are you? If it aggravates you, it will make many searchers go elsewhere. Google agrees with the searcher on this. If your page is slow, your bounce rate will increase, a big no-no for Google. Your ranking will sink like the Titanic. There are tools to help improve page speed. Among these are GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights (both are free), which provide valuable insights into site speed, allowing for easy optimization.Usability on mobile. Even if your website is top-of-the-line on computers, but you have a subpar mobile version, your ranking will take a significant hit. Therefore, it is essential to preview both platforms before going live. This is important because Google uses mobile-first indexing when crawling websites. Ensure your hosting platform (i.e., WordPress or Wix) has built-in features that allow you to preview your website before publishing. You can also use a free mobile usability testing tool, such as Google Mobile-Friendly Test, to ensure everything is okay. Internal links. In my previous blog, I spoke about including links on your site. Why should you? For search engines to do a good job of crawling and indexing your pages, they need to follow links wherever they may lead. The links on your page help them analyze and properly index your pages. Internal links are the hyperlinks you place on your pages to link to other pages on your site. Proper linking is a huge benefit to your site. To do this, you should use topic clusters. This is when you create content around a specific umbrella pillow (think genealogy chart) and link each to the others in the cluster. For instance, think of a genealogical chart. The topic cluster would be family surname, and the pillow would represent the 1st generation, followed by 2nd to 3rd, and so on. This keeps your links tightly organized … Google and other search engines love this.On-Page Ranking Factors: Are page-specific Keyword Targeting. Keywords are the backbone of an efficient SEO strategy. All content and articles should revolve around these search phrases. These keywords become the clusters mentioned above. You need to find at least four to five related keywords and group them into clusters. Caution: Add these keywords or phrases. Do not stuff them just because you want to rank. Google is smarter now, and your site will drop in ranking.Title and Header Tags. Once you have identified the keywords you want to rank for, it is essential to insert them in specific places on your page, such as the title and header tags. Search engines use these tags to determine the content of the page and index it accordingly. The title tag is what is displayed prominently in the search results pages.Meta Description. A short description that appears on SERPs under your page title. They are part of the HTML of your pages. They do not appear on the front of your pages and are not visible to site visitors.Image alt-text. Images on your site have SEO value attached to them via alt-text. This description serves to illustrate the image and fulfills several purposes. (a) It makes your website accessible to visually impaired readers who rely on screen readers to browse the internet. (b) If your image fails to load, the alt-text will appear in its place. (c) It helps search engines to understand the image and index it properly.URL structure. An ugly URL is not appealing to people or search engines. Ensure your URL is well-structured to appear visually appealing.                                          Poorly structured URL: http://www.website.com/us.php?id=03736&edit=1            Properly structured URL: http://www.website.com/blog/google-ranking-factors

Information quality. Quality should be above par. You need to update outdated content on your site. Quality content provides enough detail to answer all your visitors’ questions in a way that leaves them satisfied. Don’t forget that Google values both freshness and accuracy when determining rankings.

Off-Page Ranking Factors: Rankings outside your website, such as social media platforms, influencers, and other websites.Backlinks. These are hyperlinks that contain pages from outside. Part of SEO is building trust, and when other websites link to you, it shows Google that you are a trusted source. This improves your credibility and ranking. Therefore, the pages linking to you must also be high quality.

 Question of the day. “How do you get backlinks?”

Answer: Four ways.

Quality Content. To earn backlinks, your content must be high quality. If your site generates numerous backlinks, this will help increase your authority, which is a signal to Google that you are a reputable source, resulting in a better ranking.Cold Outreach. You reach out to other webmasters and ask them to link to your content. You must provide value and demonstrate the value you offer. What they link to must complement what they already have or be better than,Guest Posts. Write content for other websites, and they agree to leave a link back to your site or content on the bio section of the page. As always, we only offer high-quality products.Thought Leadership Content. A growing number of marketers are recognizing the value of thought leadership backlink building. There are two parts to this strategy. (a) Identify opportunities to get featured on podcasts, webinars, or other forms of media. (b) Create data-driven content that generates links naturally.

NOTE: It’s essential to recognize that there is no single factor that will make or break your SEO. It’s the combination of all your technical, on-page, and off-page efforts that work together to build an SEO-friendly website.

In closing. If nothing else, I hope this series of blogs has illustrated what an effective website is from an SEO perspective (as well as explaining why it costs what it does to have a Great webpage designer build your page). To quote an old IT saying: GI-GO. “Garbage In-Garbage Out. Doing it right will pay off.

As we approach the busiest time of my year, I will not be posting again until after January 1. I am highly active in veterans’ issues (Commandant of the northern most Marine Corps League detachment in the country, life member of three vetran groups–VFW, DAV, & MCL, Maine Veteran Cemetery Committee, and founder and chair of the Aroostook Veterans Advocacy Committee) and we have Veterans’ Day as well as some group specific events coming up in November and December

I am currently working on the rewrite of the third installment of my Houston & Bouchard series (my editor is awaiting the final draft), in addition to a number of upcoming events and appearances, as well as the holiday season. I have to back away for a while.

If anyone is interested in adding backlinks between your website and mine, contact me via my page: https://vaughnhardacker.com. I’ve already spoken with my web designer, Melissa Gerety (who I highly recommend), and she has informed me that it is not a significant thing to add a links page. All I need to do is send the links. So, send in those links, People!