We want good service, all the time. Whether it’s at our local supermarket, fuel station or favourite restaurant. We want good service and we rate it!
Think of it, what actions or ‘brownie points’ lead you to give a tip to a waiter/waitress at your local restaurant or better yet recommend the eatery to friends and family?
Surely such questions come to mind: ‘Was I greeted with a smile?’, ‘Did he or she introduce themself’?’, ‘Was the taking of my order accurate?’ ‘Was my food delivered fast enough? ‘Etc.…
These are questions that lead you to rank how good a product or service is.
Google does no different.
A website is ranked according to a set of factors that are aligned against it. Once Google has ranked your website the search engine will place your website where it thinks it should placed i.e. (page 1, position 4). Search engines rank websites to make sure that customers and users in general get relevant results to what they are searching for and an excellent online experience every time they visit the search engine.
What are these “Ranking Factors”?
If we knew this, then well ….we would be Google! Google today use over 280 signals in their algorithm for ranking your site, last year there were over 540 quality improvements to their search algorithm alone. As you can see its a lot of factors to consider and no one knows them all except for Google itself.
This being said, Google and other search engines do make certain search guidelines available to all. As SEO specialists it is our job to “know” all of these ranking factors.
Google search guidelines serves as guidelines on what a search engine considers to be a ‘good and useful website’ to one that is ‘unhelpful and misleading’.
As a business owner it is of high importance that you know what factors search engines use to rank your site. This will not only help you improve your SEO but it will guarantee you profit and a good relationship with your customers.
We will now take a look at these factors and see how they can help you move in the right direction with search engines.
• Code of the website – A well coded website applying the correct use of HTML5 and CSS3 makes it easy for search engines to discover your content. It is the foundation of your website and holds everything together.
• Content – Content can never be too overly emphasized. Search engines can easily detect a website with too little irrelevant content. Content is there to inform and educate your customers about your products. But not only that, online users are always looking for something ‘new’, therefore your content has to be fresh, engaging and interesting.
• Structure (Site Architecture) – The structure of your website and how it is built will enable or disenable crawlers to move through it .e.g. Like a map, it takes you from point A to point B. So make sure that your website is well structured in order for navigation to be easily made by your customers as well as search engines. People need to discover your content and in order for that to happen you have to structure your website logically for them. Just as in libraries for instance, everything is logically and systematically placed.
• Link Popularity – Receiving links from a well-known trusted website will increase your ranking points with Google. The principle behind it is ‘the more relevant the links you receive, the better you are.’
• Social presence – Social presence refers to the number of retweets on Twitter, likes and shares on Facebook your website gets and the source they come from. If it’s from an opinion leader or followers of a well-known figure your ranking goes up. Your social presence is basic ‘word-of-mouth’ from people who approve of your website. Creating a buzz around your website popularity.
• Key word usage – Although the usage of keywords is no longer that important in search engine ranking, a minimum number of keywords used on your website still ranks.
• How long the website has been running – The number of years the website has been running will boost its value with search engines.
• Locality (are users from your geographic location accessing it?) – Your website should support local search in order for customers who are in the same geographic location to be able to get you.
• CTR – through rate of your website – The number of visits your website receives determines its popularity amongst your customers. Also the longer users stay on your website, the higher the ranking with search engines.
• How long it takes to open pages – The time used to land on your homepage can damage your image online as customers will move on to the next website and search engines will not be impressed.
• Navigation (layout of website) – The layout of a website (structure) can either attract or put away your customers. When everything is easy and simply laid out, your customers are likely to stay longer on your website and this search engines rank your website according to the structure (if they can crawl through your site) as well as the time your customers spend on your site.
• Use of images, videos and graphs – Google does rank websites well when images, videos and graphs are used. But too much of the graphics can easily land you to be penalized. Balance everything out with good content.
In closing, ranking factors serve as guidelines in improving SEO practises and for websites to be more transparent in everything they do.
In Summary
Google guidelines are there not only to assist websites in driving excellent SEO but also to ensure that customers and search engine users get the best search results and information every time they visit a website. Used correctly, these guidelines can help you as a business owner achieve your SEO goals and in turn gain happy customers which equal profit. Full circle!
