For example, backlinks from trustworthy and high-authority websites like The New York Times boost your chances of ranking higher. Let’s dive into the SEO ranking factors we think will help your startup business rank higher in Google’s search results. Discover actionable steps to amplify your brand’s online presence, drive organic traffic, increase lead quality, and accelerate business growth.

A Google ranking factor is a criterion used by Google’s algorithm to determine the relevance, quality, and authority of a webpage for ranking in search results. Examples include SEO Anomaly keywords, backlinks, mobile-friendliness, and page speed. These factors collectively influence a site’s visibility in search engine results. Achieving a high website ranking involves a multifaceted approach. Content quality, on-page SEO, backlinks, user experience, mobile optimization, and technical SEO all play crucial roles in improving your website’s visibility on search engines. By focusing on these factors, you can enhance your website’s chances of ranking higher, attracting more traffic, and ultimately, achieving your business goals.

These factors are all changes you can make to your site to rank higher. Even if it’s just 1 bad outbound link across your entire site and having too many outbound links can hurt your site’s ranking. For a long time we have been using ALT tags to tell Google what our images are about. Now John Mueller has revealed that with the mobile first index you can contain/hide content in tabs because of user experience purposes. A list of page level factors that can affect your rankings positively or negatively.

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside your site to affect your site’s trustworthiness and authority by building the right inbound links and social signals. Two terms you’ll hear mentioned a lot when talking about SEO ranking factors are on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Now, some SEO-ers downplay the importance of E-A-T as an SEO ranking factor. And it’s hard to concretely argue with them because, again, no one truly understands Google’s complex ranking algorithms.

Tools for Tracking CR and CTR

So, search volume tells me that the keyword “how to create content” is searched for 500 times a month. However, it’s likely a subtopic and not a main one because its overall Traffic Potential is much higher at 1,200. Today, consumers can use smart speakers and reverse-image searches to discover and purchase new products.

• SEO, or search engine optimization, is the strategic process of enhancing a website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages to increase organic traffic and online presence.
• Based on the rating guidelines above, Google shows searchers the most relevant, high-quality results related to what they’re looking for.
• Search engines rank pages higher when they provide accurate and useful information related to the search query.
• So make sure to include your contact info such as phone, address and links to your social profiles because they add trustworthiness to your website.

The Top 9 SEO Ranking Factors (That Get Results on Google)

Because more users are on mobile devices, Google followed the logical path and began prioritizing sites with designs that adapt to mobile screens. Google added experience as a new component, signaling the increasing value placed on content created by those with relevant credentials and direct, real-world experience with the topic. This is especially critical for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics like health, finance, safety, etc. Track your SEO rankings to gauge the success of your SEO strategy. And for each keyword, the tool will calculate a Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %) score. Which indicates how hard it’ll be for your website to earn a top-10 SEO ranking.

The goal is to attract more visitors to your site naturally, without paying for ads, by making your site more appealing to search engines like Google. High authority backlinks are links from highly trusted and credible websites. A backlink from a reputable, high-authority site boosts your site’s SEO more than one from a lesser-known source. It’s pivotal in determining your site’s ranking in search engine results. At Digital Sprout, we specialize in providing customized SEO solutions for businesses in Maryland and beyond.

What are the best practices for using an SEO checker to improve my website’s ranking?

When you understand these data points ahead of time, you can create content that exactly fills an existing need. You also know who to reach out to—or who your audience is—before investing a ton of work. The wrong way to create category pages is to simply list your latest posts, or a list of relevant products. The best category pages typically have their own unique content, relevant answers to questions, and links to sub-topics and related pages.

Freshness refers to how much time has passed since the content of your page was updated or published. In some queries, Google’s algorithm prefers newer, up-to-date content. Frequent refreshes of your content and timely updates are important if you want to rank high in search engines. AI-created content can help build linkable assets efficiently, but it needs to be reviewed for quality. Google may penalize thin pages that aren’t unique, lack depth, or appear mass-produced.