It’s inevitable to understand Google ranking factors to improve your SEO score. Let’s see how Google ranks your keywords.
Google uses an intricate ranking mechanism in order to give preference to the topmost result page shelves. This mechanism has changed a lot over time and continuously goes through revisions. If you want your SEO efforts to bear fruit, you must understand the latest additions made to it.
Earlier it was thought that having an “https” website or increasing page speed was the key. But with the 2018 updates, things have changed a bit. Let’s see what we should expect from the search engine.
Top Google Ranking Factors 2018
Type of Content
Undebatably, the type of content you publish is the most important factor in ranking. Interesting, informative and well-structured content always finds its way to the top results. If you follow Google’s content guidelines, you can easily attract high rankings for your keywords.
There are certain sub-factors associated with content such as its length, placement of keywords and optimizing the readability of the written word. If these sub-factors are taken care of properly, you’re destined your way up.
Link Building
The second most important factor is link building or the number of backlinks. Now, backlinks further depend on two things – quantity and quality. You want to build a number of backlinks but you also want them to be from strong domains. Building a thousand backlinks from spammy sites is not the solution.
You should try to expend effort in linking back from high PA and DA sites. This will encourage Google to pay attention to your website.
Mobile First
The major addition to the search preference line-up is Mobile First. This Google ranking factor incentivizes websites that are mobile optimized. Google did this to cash on the growing volume of smartphones that clearly outnumber any other internet device. The larger the users, the more the traffic and more the need for a better search experience.
Hence, pay attention to the mobile semantic code if you haven’t till now.
Page Load Time
Page load time is one of the ranking factors that are more inclined towards UX than Google. Websites that load faster retain more users naturally and more users mean better discoverability in Google’s eyes. Therefore, whether you’re looking to improve your SEO performance or not, you must make your website load up under 5 seconds. You can hog in great results just by doing so.
Structure of the Website
The next big change we will talk about in Google ranking factors is how Google ranks keywords. It depends on how structured a site is. Or how well defined their schema is. The schema makes up the structure of the code and how search engine friendly it is. Websites that have clearly defined schema are preferred more for Google website ranking.
Domain Characteristics
Then we must not forget that the good old metrics associated with the domain are also true. These are Domain Authority, Domain age and Domain’s keywords relevancy. We have observed that domains that have keywords in their name, rank better. Also, domains that are older in age also attract better traffic than newer ones
James writes SEO/SMO articles for businesses that want to see their Google search rankings surge His articles have appeared in a number of Websites. He contributes articles about SEO/SMO techniques regularly.