There are many things that affect a website’s ranking, and as search engine algorithms change, so do the factors which have the most impact. However, recent studies suggest that there are four factors which are always at or near the top of the list.
Content is king
If property is all about location, location, location, then websites are all about content, content, content. It’s one of the top elements that Google uses to rank sites, as explained by SearchEngineJournal.com But the type of content matters too. In recent years, there’s been a move to relevant material that’s written in a readable form, rather than text packed with keywords.
Links matter
Linking to other sites is another major factor, as Dublin SEO agency, Ryco Marketing, will confirm. Again, quality is key, and search engines have become smarter and better able to distinguish bad links from good. Site links need to be authoritative and from a diverse range of other domains. To get quality backlinks, you need to create good quality content that people will be keen to refer and link to.
Safe and secure
Consumers are more aware of security and privacy online than ever before. Search engines therefore prioritise sites that use HTTPS encryption. rycomarketing.ie Dublin’s leading SEO Agency will advise you that a website delivered over HTTP could rank lower than one using HTTPS, and indeed Google Chrome now flags HTTP sites as being ‘unsafe’.
Don’t neglect mobile
We’re increasingly accessing the web not on our desktops and laptops, but using smartphones and tablets. This means that to succeed, your site has to be mobile friendly. Google’s crawlers now look at the mobile site first, rather than the desktop version, so if your site isn’t mobile optimised, your rankings will suffer. Speed is a key issue here too, and mobile sites should load in two seconds or less. Mobile sites that have pop-up ads obscuring part of the content are also likely to be penalised, so use them with care.
There are other factors too, and for example, having natural anchor text for links and using H1 and H2 headings can all help boost a page’s rank. The world of SEO is hard to second guess, but following the advice in the four sections above will help ensure your site maintains its ranking in 2017.
