SEO Ranking Factors In 2017

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is crucial to the success of any business’ online presence today. With the rapid evolution of the internet and digital marketing strategies, it can be tough to keep up with what Google wants. However, it is necessary to understand the strategies and techniques underlying great rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). It allows you to be found so you can convert prospects into customers. Without further ado, here are the major SEO Ranking Factors in 2017:

Content

The state of organic rankings today is run by one thing: quality content. Google especially wants the content on any site to be so useful to the searcher that they don’t need to go anywhere else to get what they’re looking for. After all, the more a user stays and engages with your page, the more relevant it must be.

That’s what Google and Bing want: to give the users what they’re looking for. Ultimately, it means that more people use those search engines and they can sell more ads to companies, where 90%+ of their revenue comes from. And the “time on site” is just one metric that they use to judge how good your content is.

Google also takes the length of your content into account. The longer the content, typically the better it will rank. It is seen as being more comprehensive. Also, you want to include internal links (to your website) and external links to authoritative sources.

Don’t forget to use the right headers and title tags. They still make up a large portion of the link juice that they will rank you on. Finally, images have alt tags that can be filled with keywords.

Long gone are the days where companies could rank highly just by stuffing keywords all over the text of their articles. Today, the way content helps you rank is more complex but also more friendly to humans. Using a keyword two or three times will suffice.

Backlinks

Today, backlinks are more important than ever in ranking highly in the search results. Simply put, a backlink is any link from a website that is not your own to your website. These are important because they represent the fact that other sites find your site useful or trustworthy.

However, not all links are equal. Search engines have a weighted system for links. That means that a link from CNN, for example, will give you more juice than a link from a blog that started up yesterday. This is good in the end, as it prevents spamming.

Technical

In addition to how well your content is written or how many backlinks you get, there is always the technical aspect of things. This includes the way your website is set up from the beginning.

For example, you should have your webmaster contact Google whenever you put a new site up. This lets them know to crawl your site sooner and get your pages ranked. Another aspect of technical rankings is the site security.

Google wanted people to switch to the more secure internet protocol called https from http a while back. To do this, they added a rankings boost to anyone who was willing to make the switch.

Keep in mind that this can have grave effects on your rank if you don’t do it right. You need to use redirects such as 301s and 307s to make sure you don’t lose ranking “juice.” That’s because when content moves a URL or a complete domain, it needs to be crawled all over again.

Mobile First

With the new mobile revolution we are living in, smart phones rule. People are using their mobile devices to check emails, share information, check news, and shop. No matter what, most people today have a smart phone in their pocket all day. And the search engines understand this.

If you don’t optimize for mobile first, you will not rank as highly. It is difficult to navigate a site that’s meant for a desktop when you’re using your thumbs. If you want to have a great organic result, you need to keep the end user in mind. Not only will it boost your rankings, but it will also make them like your company better and be more likely to buy because its easier.

It takes more than just a few minutes to make your site mobile friendly. However, there are certain frameworks and code you can use to make it easier to use for people. It will resize the window to their screen, scroll when they drag their finger, and emulate a click when they tap their finger. Use this final ranking factor to get more conversions.

Search engine optimization will always be a relevant technique in online marketing for the years to come. You need to make sure your SEO is on point. If you don’t, you could miss out on major opportunities while your competitors take over your clients, readers, and customers. But if you put the tactics above to good use, you’ll find your rankings increasing steadily now and into the future.