Google, websites, and SEO has become a major part of how business owners plan their digital marketing strategies. Naturally, this has led to businesses wanting to know how Google ranks their websites in the search engine algorithm. This is due to its power to reach a worldwide audience and levels of visibility on the internet that are unprecedented. However, some knowing how the algorithm works and how Google ranks sites can go a long way to helping your business succeed in digital marketing. Well, today, we’re here to give you a brief look at how Google ranks websites and some tips to help you out.
Secure Website
One of the main ranking factors that Google takes into consideration is having a safe and secure website. A lot of what makes your SEO rank on Google has to do with your website having the right URL. Specifically, that’s a URL that Google’s bots can easily reach and crawl.
Google has to be able to visit the URL that you provide and look at your content. This is so that they can understand what that page is about. There are some things that you can do in order to help the algorithm quickly identify pages. A website built with coding or a coding website builder is a great first step. You can also put a robots.txt file that lets Google know where to look for your website information. Finally, a sitemap that lists every page on your website is necessary too.
Apparently, HTTPS isn’t a major determining factor when it comes to ranking, but many Google officials have said that it’s a “lightweight” factor and great for user experience. So, don’t forget to get SSL security enabled on your website. It’s going to become the gold standard moving forward.
Content
This is without a doubt one of the most important ranking factors for your website. Google, at first, started out with more keyword-oriented content. Recently, there has been a shift away from that. Going forward, the idea now is to move towards more relevant content that is written in an informative and genuine manner.
The aim of this relevant content to help Google rank your site is to make it comprehensive. Your content should inform users or sell a product and service. That goes without saying. The trick here is to ask yourself if the content covers most details and is the information that you’re providing be interesting to a potential visitor? Google does a pretty darn good job at analyzing pages and determining whether they meet the searcher’s intent.
Your website should be loaded with informative and genuine content. Keep it as simple and to the point as possible. From there you will start to notice that Google is slowly and surely rising your website in the search engine ranks.
Mobile Optimization
We live in a mobile world. There is no escaping that reality anymore. In fact, nearly two-thirds of searches take place on mobile devices. Google noticed this in 2015 and made it a key component to their ranking criteria.
Ever since then, Google has placed a larger emphasis on mobile optimized websites. In 2019, they moved to mobile-first indexing. This means that they made it a ranking factor for desktop searches as well.
When you’re making changes to your website or if you’re commissioning your first one, you need to ensure that first and foremost, it is optimized for mobile devices. Websites such as Wix and WordPress are good platforms to use in order to build mobile-optimized websites. This is something that you cannot afford to be without anymore.
Internal Links
This ranking factor goes hand-in-hand with the content that you’re creating for your website. One the best things that you can do when making content is to link it to relevant and informative additional pages on your website. This is because the Google algorithm works by indexing different pieces of content on your website.
The more internal links you have, the more it works as a type of signal to the algorithm that lets it analyze and properly rank this information. The more structured and well-put together your content and links are, the easier it will be for Google to find what it needs in order to help boost your rank.
One great way to keep your links organized is by creating topic clusters. For example, you create content around a specific umbrella term. This keeps your internal linking within this umbrella. Don’t underestimate how important internal links are when it comes to ranking your website on Google. Take advantage now, so that you can reap the rewards in the future and grow your online presence.
Click-Through Rate
One final Google ranking factor to be aware of is the click-through rate of your website. What this means is that Google calculates the number of clicks you receive from the total number of people searching for that particular phrase you rank for. They then convert that into a percentage that they utilize for ranking purposes.
The higher your percentage is, the more appealing Google thinks your website is. This leads to a higher ranking than that of your competition. Going beyond that, if your click-through rate is higher than everyone else’s, Google will slowly start moving you up the search engine results page as this algorithm factor tells it that searchers prefer your listing.
To counteract deceptive page titles and meta descriptions, Google also looks at your bounce rate. It looks at the number of visitors who visit your website and leave it by hitting the back button to return to the search results page. For example, Google sends 1,000 people to your website and all of them leaves within a couple of seconds, Google will rank your site lower.
Having your website rank on Google is one of the best ways to get your name out there in the online world we live in. It can be tough to figure out how to accomplish this at first, but hopefully, this blog can help make things a bit easier when you decide to start your digital marketing efforts for your business. It can be one the best tools you have to help grow your business. If you need any help or need any of the services we discussed today, visit us at: https://anytimedigitalmarketing.com/ to see how we can help you to grow your business.
