What Is SEO? Learn the Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Business Profile signals are increasing in their perceived importance for the map pack over time too. Regularly check and update your business name, address, phone number, and other essential information on your website and business listings. GSC helps you monitor your website’s indexing status and identify issues preventing Google from properly crawling and indexing your pages. Identify gaps, outdated information, or underperforming pieces that need improvement.

seo ranking factors

On-page Experience

seo ranking factors

Google looks at over 200 factors to decide where a webpage appears in search results. Users often understand higher-ranking pages as more authoritative and reliable sources of information. The purpose of Core Web Vitals is to measure how good (or bad) is the experience for users on the webpage. It even became a stronger signal in 2016 when Google rolled out another update that put more emphasis on mobile optimization. Furthermore, including keywords unnaturally into your pages may lead to keyword stuffing. On the other hand, Google does use a specific algorithm as a signal that determines the relative importance of the web page in Google Search – PageRank.

seo ranking factors

It is rated very positively by the YouTube algorithm if a video is the first to be viewed in the current session, e.g. if the video is accessed via an external link. This video finally leads the user to the platform and if this ideally leads to a longer session, the video will be ranked higher. When someone searches for a business SEO Anomaly or place near their location, they’ll find local results across Google in places like Maps and Search.

Want To Improve Your SEO Rankings?

  • Addressing common questions about your business will help visitors find information quickly, while also adding valuable content for search engines to crawl.
  • In order to avoid increasing your bounce rate, you can use Google Pagespeed Insights to check out how your site is performing and where you can make improvements.
  • As mentioned above, quality content is a critical ranking factor, and there is no better blueprint to tell you how to achieve that than the E-E-A-T guidelines.
  • For example, if you want to rank for “How to learn SEO,” write an informational guide, not a landing page about SEO services.
  • While Google provides clues and guidelines about how they evaluate content, it typically includes a mix of utility, trust, authority, and user experience.
  • Technical SEO ensures search engines can efficiently crawl, index, and rank your site.

Pages that attract user engagement in the form of comments are a clear signal of quality and user interaction. Sites that have a high percentage of returning visitors are deemed to be of higher quality than sites that don’t get many return visitors. A lower bounce rate attracts higher visibility in the search results. A negative link velocity will have a negative effect on your visibility in search. John Mueller explains that no follow links aren’t included in the algorithm. John Mueller’s view on guest posting is to make any links back to your site ‘no follow’.

seo ranking factors

I have seen sites with decent traffic yet very short page duration, which signals a mismatch between expectation and content. Once we removed the pop-up, the bounce rate dropped significantly and visitors spent more time on the site. That one mention improved their ranking strength noticeably and helped move them from the second page to the first page for a competitive keyword.

seo ranking factors