Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is becoming challenging and more technical every passing year. With the addition of new AI algorithms, the search has become more complex. To achieve top SEO Rankings, we have to understand and implement the Top 18 SEO factors in our websites to make it as per search guidelines. Unlock the secrets to SEO success with the top 18 factors you need to know. Partner with the top SEO company in India for expert guidance and boost your rankings today!

Top 18 SEO factors for improving ranking

1. Content

Showing users with the most appropriate results for their search questions is Google’s top concern. Both visitors and Google like fresh new, understandable, informative, and detailed user-relevant search intent content. In addition, numerous research studies have revealed that long-form detailed Content does a much better job at ranking in search engine results pages. In reality, the leading 10 outcomes on average tend to have more than 1890 words.

Another thing that Google considers is whether the content matches what users intend when they type a search query in their Google. Generally, if your page makes users delighted, Google will reward you by boosting and improving your site’s rankings in SERP.

2. Backlinks

Even though Google is preparing to move away from backlinks in the future, they remain the most essential ranking factor for your web pages. Backlinks remain one of the most essential ranking factors as they assist Google in recognizing great, trusted, user-intended relevant content on the Web for any search query. Some Google patents say that freshness and traffic might also be crucial backlink metrics.

It is now too risky to use black hat SEO techniques– your links have to come from a range of high-authority websites that resemble your website niche.

Nevertheless, do not use dubious methods of getting backlinks– After RankBrain Machine Learning Algorithm Google is smarter than ever and able to figure out whether the backlinks toward a website are legitimate or not. If you use Black-hat approaches to acquire backlinks, Google can penalize your website and even remove it from their indexing entirely.

3. Semantic saturation

Semantic saturation is a search or a user action that produces meaningful results, even when the retrieved content contains none of the question terms, or the search involves no query text at all but still it relates to the user search query.

Your SEO content needs to include an appropriate quantity of appropriate keywords, entities, and images for the length of the copy.

4. HTML Tags and Keyword correlation.

It’s 2020, and yes, keywords still matter. HTML tags tell Google which of your content copies are the most important. The title and meta description tags are what users see in search results—the Google algorithm checks the relevancy and accuracy of the tags and keywords. Heading tags (H1-H6) split your copy into sections– they need to also include keywords and be written in an informative style. Alt tag text is used to describe images to search engines and should be renamed according to the surrounding content to appear in the image search results. Using them in the title tag, URL, header tags, meta description, and the body of the posts/pages increases the significance of your content and helps Google evaluate it more successfully.

Also, it is very important to consist of terms associated with the primary keywords, also known as LSI. They provide Google with a much better understanding of the content’s meaning, assisting it to decide which results to show. Additionally, they are great for mobile optimization, and current voice search statistics reveal they contribute considerably to optimizing voice search inquiries.

05. Core Vitals: Interactivity – First Input Delay ( FID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Visual Stability – Commutative Layout Shift (CLS) and Site Speed:

These are Core Web Vitals metrics of Google algorithms.

• a. Interactivity – First Input Delay ( FID) catches a user’s impression of a site’s interactivity and responsiveness. It determines the time from when a user initially engages with a page to the time when the browser can react to that interaction.

FID is a field metric and cannot be simulated in a lab environment. A genuine real-time web user interaction is needed to identify the action response delay time.

• b. Visual Stability – Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is an essential, web user-centric metric for figuring out visual stability because it helps measure how frequently a website users experience unexpected design shifts– a low CLS helps ensure that the page is wonderful.
• c. Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) are both metrics that determine the time it takes for web content to visually render (paint) on a page. Although essential, paint times do not catch load responsiveness: or how rapidly a page responds to user interaction. It identifies the time from when a user initially communicates with a page to the time when the internet web browser can react to that interaction. A real user interaction is required to determine the response delay.
• d.Site Speed: Poor Loading Site speed affects SEO indirectly. Search engines will crawl fewer pages if your website is slow, which might negatively impact your website indexation. Slower pages affect user experience and bring about greater bounce rates.

06. No Intrusive Interstitial

Intrusive interstitials are essentially popup ads. They tend to obstruct or block most or all of a page, resulting in a bad user experience for desktop and mobile users alike.

These types of ads make it irritating at best to access the page as meant. The basic exception to the guideline is when there are lawfully needed (or ethically recommended) notices, such as pop-ups for age verification.

These pop-ups are reasonably irritating on desktops, there is even less screen genuine available to deal with on mobile devices. In these cases, it can destroy the user experience. Here are a couple of examples of how this goes incorrect:

The interstitial pop-up ads cover most or all of the content of the webpage page.

The interstitial is not responsive. That means it is difficult or difficult to close it on a mobile, rendering the page ineffective for mobile users.

The interstitial is not triggered by an action, such as “Click on this link to subscribe.” Rather, it pops up on its own without triggering, producing an unpleasant surprise for the mobile viewer. Concluding, this concern is not only the annoyance of popups but their function in destroying the user experience and harming websites according to Google algorithms.

07. Website Loading Speed

Website speed influences SEO indirectly. Web search engine bots will crawl fewer pages if your site is slow, which could negatively affect your website indexation. Slower pages affect user experience and bring about greater bounce rates.

According to a Backlinko research study, a leading ranking site has a loading speed of 1900 ms which is 17% faster than a website that ranks at number 10. In addition, with Google’s Speed Update, page speed is a ranking element for mobile searches too. Technically speaking, it’s best that the mobile website loads in 2 seconds or less, and its desktop equivalent in less than three seconds.

08. Mobile Optimised Friendly Website

Mobile-first indexing has rolled out. Google revealed that beginning with September 2020 all websites without exception will be judged on their mobile indexing variation version, not the desktop version. If you want your website to have any chance of ranking in search results, you have to make sure that it is developed for mobile users.

09. Security – HTTPS

Security has always been Google’s top priority. Apart from using safe usage of Browse, Google Drive, and Gmail, Google aims towards making all the websites accessed from Browse safe.

Because of that, Google has made mandatory the usage of HTTPS a signal in its ranking algorithm. The sites that do not utilize HTTPS are being determined as not safe and secure, and their ranking position gradually decreases.

10. Simple URL Structure

A simple, concise, relevant URL enables both users and Google to know and understand what the page is about. You can further enter relevant keywords, matching the content on the page. This permits Google to provide your content to users performing a user-relevant search question.

Using a customized URL will shorten the URL path and avoid loss of authority of the landing page rank up and domain authority will increase.

11. Structure data, Rich Snippets, Schema

Structure data

Structure data is a term to describe when adding code on to a website, for example, abundant snippets, Schema, and Twitter cards are all examples of structured data. Structured data is increased so it can be comprehended more effectively, especially by search engines. Google determines and reads structured information so that it can display rich snippets on its search results page.

Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets are some additional information about a site’s material on the search engine results page. Abundant Snippets can reveal evaluation stars and aggregate review evaluations which can all be seen in the local search results or Google My Business box results.

Schema

Schema is an agreed term for website usage so it’s much easier and consistent to develop code to mark up their site pages so that they can be crawled better by search engines. The business’s name, location, phone number, (NAP) also email address, and products are what can be marked up so search engines can comprehend the meaning behind the content. Schema permits you to leverage the worth of your content from your site so search engines can understand the meaning of the content, how to crawl and index it however also how to characterize the trust most trustworthy, accurate query intended as the content for the users.

12. User behavior, Time on Site & Click Through Rate

User behaviour

Google claims it does not, but some solid evidence suggests it may.

The click-through rate (CTR), bounce rate, session depth, and session length are the measures under discussion. Analyzing Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts can help you evaluate your performance on measures of user behavior.

Time on Website

The quantity of time a visitor spends on your page before going anywhere else signals to Google that the website content is engaging, associating, and valuable to the user query intended. A higher site quality results high ranking on the search engine result pages.

If, on the other hand, a visitor lands on your page and stays for just seconds, Google will understand that your content wasn’t engaging or informative. The typical time on site to increase the organic rankings is three minutes.

Click Through Rate (CTR).

CTR plays an important function when Google analyses and measures your site’s SEO success since it reveals how well your website is performing in the SERPs. A high CTR indicates that the website and its content are appealing enough to catch the attention of searchers and engage them.

13. Social Signals

Creating great content is the most efficient way of getting your site in front of your target audience through social media. Reliable social engagement signals, especially from people who have developed popularity such as influencers and blog writers, will boost your rankings.

The social signals will improve the domain authority and page authority, even in cases when links from Twitter and Facebook are ‘nofollow’.

14. Internal links

Internal linking is among the most important SEO ranking factors. To start with, internal links assist Google in comprehending much better your website and guide search spiders, crawlers, and bot — if a large number of internal links indicate a particular page Google considers that page essential.

Internal linking likewise helps spread out link equity throughout the site, enabling you to get the most out of the offsite optimization. The number of quality, and web page content internal links have driven and influenced user engagement metrics, consisting of conversion rate and time spent on the site, which gives search engine crawlers spread link juice equity with positive ranking for the website.

15. Google My Business listing

For your Local Business, three mandatory things are to Claim, optimize, and maintain your Google My Business listing are the most important thing you can do for your local SEO. It helps establish your business as an entity, which in itself is a fantastic possession of your SEO. More notably, it increases your chances to rank in local search efficiently. Once you produce a listing, the Name, address, phone number, email address, website link, and operation hours, it ends up being qualified for the local business as well as Google Maps, opening and showing your business to neighboring searchers by example say term nearby, near me, etc.

16. Direct Website Traffic

The traffic produced by users who type in the URL of the site into the web browser bar signals to Google that your site supplies value to users and they wish to visit it regularly.

The more direct website traffic you have, the better your brand searches for Google and the higher you will rank in your niche, taking that your UX and user engagement factors are also greater than average.

17. Bounce Rate

You require giving search results to users what they require and when they need it. If your content, user intent query is not crucial, not optimized to user importance, and most importantly not relevant, content is jumbled up, your visitors will leave the site and bounce back and so your website rank will drop.

Bounce rate, or the percentage of single-engagement visits to your website, is among the primary aspects Google’s RankBrain algorithm takes into factor to consider. For the RankBrain algorithm high bounce rate signals that users have found the info on your site useless.

18. Video and Images

Any form of images, video, info-graphics, or charts adds depth to the content. Having illustrations, screenshots, and info-graphics support the text and provides the readers with visual information, thus enhancing the user experience.

Including video on your website also enhances online search engine rankings and CTR. A video shows a greater level of engagement and a better way to communicate the message across. According to the MOZ website, a business website or even an individual normal website with videos on its page has a 27% greater CTR and 34% higher conversion rate.

Focus on the above 18 SEO Factors to improve your ranking as per Google Guidelines.