Ranking high in search engines is essential for your brand’s growth. But there are about 200 variables that determine your website’s ranking. It’s impossible to factor in each one of them. Puzzled which ones matter the most and others not so much?
This is why you should seek expert guidance while revamping your website- let the professionals take care of it. You can find the best SEO experts at https://studiohawk.com.au.
To make it easier, we have listed five critical factors to improve the SERP ranking. Let’s dive right in –
Content
The first one might seem like a no-brainer, but you must understand how content plays an essential role. Only then can you optimize your website properly.
After discovering your page, a search engine algorithm formulates an accurate picture of your niche. Your content is the primary factor that gives a clear picture of your domain. Fresh contents with accurate information help in crawling, leading to a higher rank.
Search engines, Google especially, looks for relevant, high-quality content that adds value to their user base. By a rule of thumb, high-quality content includes relevant information, proper keywords, authentic backlinks and is preferably written by a subject matter expert.
Backlinks
SEO has become the most hackneyed term in the last few years. So much so that we were rooting for it to be chosen as the Word of the Year by The Australian National Dictionary. Well, next year, maybe!
All jokes aside, you must be wondering, if it’s cliched, why are we harping on the same string? Simple because SEO-optimized content drives more traffic.
And backlinks are a prime factor in SEO optimization. Search engines are fine-tuning their AI mechanisms to crawl high-quality websites which went under the radar previously. Consequently, many websites with broken backlinks or irrelevant links are getting cleaned and filtered.
Instead of permeating your content with unnecessary backlinks, site high-authority papers or surveys to back your claim. That is how Pagerank, Google’s ranking algorithm, gauges a content’s authenticity.
Keywords
This brings us to the second most crucial factor- keywords. Like backlinks, stuffing your content keywords after every two or three lines is not always the best strategy.
Instead, pick one primary keyword and three to four related keywords. Google’s semantic search (related search results at the bottom of the page) is a surefire way to get a list of associated keywords.
Use them strategically- distribute keywords in headings, subheadings, and the first few paragraphs of your content. Rankbrain, Google’s AI for ranking websites, uses machine learning to understand user intents behind a particular query. This is why using related keywords will keep you ahead of the curve.
Responsive web Design
Did you know that mobile internet traffic accounts for 55% of all website traffic? Search engines, too, keeping up with the upward trend in mobile internet usage, made responsive UI a key factor in their ranking mechanism.
What this means is, your Responsive website web design will directly affect your ranking. So, it’s time to say goodbye to earlier designs and redesign your website, considering different screen sizes. If your website menu is not navigable on a smaller screen and images are not appearing correctly, chances are clients will not be patient enough to navigate your website. You can use the Google mobile usability test tool to gauge your website performance.
Site speed
If you plan to revamp your website in 2022, keep the load speed at the top of your priority list. Using CDN instead of local servers is a quick way to boost up your page load speed.
The optimal load speed for websites is under 3-4 seconds. If it takes more than that, users will shift to another page. Furthermore, search engine algorithms will take time to crawl your website. Using Google core’s web vitals report, you can check the page load time and fix issues in your page.
Quick takeaways
We hope that our tips have been helpful to you. Remember, the key is to think like a client. We all have our trusted websites that we keep visiting for content. Notice what keeps you hooked to their website, their SEO guidelines, UI design, and implement them on your website.