If you run your own website, you likely have a good idea of the importance of SEO. SEO dictates your position in search engine results. Having good SEO for your website can prove to be hugely beneficial to your business, and is something which a lot of people aim for with their own websites. Of course, though, it can be just about impossible to improve something like this if you’re not sure what influences it. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the biggest influences on your Google rankings, giving you the chance to start making improvements in the right direction.
5 SEO Factors That Are Critical To Increase Your Google Ranking
Website Loading Times
People won’t wait very long for a website to load, they’ll simply move onto their next option when they find pages hanging. You’ve probably done this as well! Google knows this, and doesn’t like to serve slow websites, as this will make their system look bad. Websites like GTMetrix can provide with you a wealth of information about the speed of your website, even giving you access to the scores which search engines will use. This can give you the chance to look for ways to optimize your website, improving its speed and its rank at the same time.
On-Site Content & Keywords
Next, it’s time to think about the content on your website. Google can only read text, and this means that you have to use this resource to its full capacity. Every piece of content on your website should include text-based descriptions, including your images. Be sure to include alternative text phrases for all images you want Google to index. Google offers an excellent keyword research tool, making it much easier to figure out which words you should be trying to include in your content. This leads directly into the next area, with the way that you structure your pages also having a huge impact on your SEO.
[Tweet “Google can only read text, and this means that you should include an alternative text description for all images you want Google to index. #seotips”]
Page Structure
Your page structure is used for more than human readability. Google will use things like titles, paragraphs, and lists to get an idea of how well your website is laid out. Your pages should always start with a H1 heading, followed by H2, going all the way down to H6 (if applicable). It isn’t essential that you have every title type; they just need to follow the right hierarchy. Alongside titles, your page structure will also include things like image placement and ALT tags. Sites like SEObility can help you to figure out whether or not you need to improve the structure of your pages, giving clear instructions to help you to make improvements.
Backend Setup
Most people will never see the backend of their website, leaving this area for their developer to deal with. Much of your SEO work will be done in this area, though, and this means that you have to work hard to make sure that it is set up correctly. Meta titles and descriptions should be added to every page indexed. You should also make sure that your website is taking advantage of tools like G-Zip compression to make sure that it loads quickly. Working with your backend can be intimidating, and it can be worth asking for help if you’re worried about breaking things.
Off-Site Content (Backlinking)
Not all of the work you do towards your SEO happens on your website. In fact, nowadays, backlinking is one of the most important parts of your SEO journey, and this is something you need to take advantage of. Getting links to your website onto other sites is easier than you might expect. There are a lot of blogs which will be happy to accept free content, and you can find countless directories which will happily host links to your website. You just need to make sure that you’re choosing reputable websites for this.
The Support You Receive
Finally, as the last area to consider, it’s time to think about the help you get with your SEO. There are a few complex jobs in your business which will you do by yourself, and SEO may fall into this category. However, most people have only the most basic understanding of how this all works. Local SEO from Let’s Get Optimized is a great example of the sort of services you should be seeking for your business. Not only will they be able to improve your SEO, but they will also be able to support your other marketing efforts, and this can prove to be invaluable down the line.
SEO is a complex field, and many people struggle to understand it. Of course, as a big part of this, it makes sense for you to put a lot of time into making sure that you get your SEO right. Whether you go it alone or get some help, it will be crucial that you work hard at this if you want to optimize your website and get as much reach as possible from the SERPs.
Ciao,
Miss Kemya
