How can my blog show up on Google’s first page? Why is my website’s ranking dropping? These questions linger in a digital marketer’s or a website owner’s head periodically. With over 83.3 billion monthly visits, Google is by far the most visited website in the world in 2024, and for good reasons. The site’s speed, search engine algorithms, index size, and user experience are some of the top reasons that make it the best search engine for users globally.
While traditional marketing remains relevant, digital marketing has also become an integral part of a company’s marketing plans to reach a wider audience and increase sales. As a result, businesses are scrambling to show up on Google’s first page underscoring the need for effective and impactful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
A website’s SEO heavily relies on Google’s ranking factors and other digital marketing activities which we will cover in this article today.
Read on to learn what are the most important Google ranking factors and why you must concentrate your SEO efforts around them.
6 Crucial Google Ranking Factors
You can only improve your website’s ranking when you know the different SEO ranking factors that influence it. These factors allow you to optimise your website in line with Google’s criteria and boost your site’s visibility.
We have picked a few Google ranking factors you should be looking at to improve your site’s search engine ranking.
1. Easily Accessible and Secure Website
How accessible is your website? Can Google index it easily? These are some of the most important and basic Google ranking factors to consider before you turn your focus on other SEO factors. Can you find a restaurant that does not exist? No, right? Similarly, Google cannot access a website it cannot find, which makes it very crucial to ensure it is indexed correctly.
Further, it is also important to ensure all the security protocols are followed so that Google understands and prioritises your site over other unsecured websites. The easiest way to tell whether a website is secured or not is to check whether it has the HTTPs label in the address bar. We recommend getting an SSL certificate, including a robots.txt file, and creating a sitemap to ensure your website easily crawls on Google.
2. Page Speed
Page speed is one of the most important ranking factors for SEO, and this has been confirmed by Google and leading digital marketers worldwide. According to Google, pages with scores above 90 have a good page speed, scores between 50 and 89 need improvement, and under 50 have a poor page speed. Page speeds are important as Google continues to focus on improving user experience.
Page speed refers to the total time a web page takes to load all the content including images, logos, texts, etc, and the time taken for a server to relay information to the user’s browsers. Google calculates the page speed by considering the Time to First Byte (TTFB). Please note that Google prioritises pages with faster load speeds compared to those pages that take time to load.
3. Mobile friendliness
More than 90% of internet users use a smartphone to access the internet and 60% of web traffic is generated from mobile devices. This trend compelled Google to tweak its ranking algorithm and add a mobile-first index. Therefore, it is particularly important to create a mobile-friendly site that adjusts its size and orientation according to different screens.
Use optimised images, videos, accessible menus, text formats, and other elements to ensure your website is mobile-friendly. In short, you need a responsive website to please Google. You can check out Google’s Google Accelerated Mobile Pages to create a mobile-friendly website.
4. Content Optimisation
Content optimisation is especially important, particularly since Google made it clear that it loves websites with unique and relevant content that adds value and addresses a user’s query. High-ranking content answers all the queries related to a particular topic with a mix of text, images, videos, and other engaging visual elements.
One of the most popular and common content optimisation technique is correct keyword usage and placement. However, do not spam the keywords to rank higher and maintain a keyword density of around 1-2% to remain in Google’s good books. Additionally, try to incorporate your keywords as naturally as possible to ensure your content is appealing to your readers.
5. Technical SEO
The importance of technical SEO is not highlighted enough while discussing the top Google ranking factors. It sets a solid foundation for all the other SEO activities including content optimisation, making mobile-friendly website, indexing, and other factors mentioned in this article. Despite creating engaging and authoritative content, many websites get a beating from Google as the fundaments of technical SEO are missing. It is worth nothing that technical SEO consists of all the activities performed to ensure a website is discoverable and crawlable. These include using header tags, writing SEO-friendly meta titles and descriptions, using alt texts on all images, and schema markup to notify Google about the type of content you are creating.
6. Links
The internet is complex web of web pages linked to each other internally or externally. That said, inbound links are unbelievably valuable in the SEO world as they measure the content’s authoritativeness and uniqueness. Additionally, Google also tracks the type of websites that link your content to their site. Simply put, the more the number of backlinks your website has from reputed websites, the higher it will rank in SERPs.
While backlinks help you establish authority, internal links help users browse through other relevant pages on your website.
Parting Notes
We hope you can focus on these Google search engine ranking factors while creating your site’s SEO strategy. It is also worth noting that these are not the only Google ranking factors worth considering. However, focusing on these factors is a good starting point as it can get a bit challenging to decide where to begin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does longer content rank better on Google?
While it is true that longer content has a better chance of ranking on Google, it is not the only criteria to achieve a better rank. Some of the other Google factors for SEO include user experience, fixing broken links, getting backlinks, optimising content, and more.
Are backlinks a ranking factor?
Yes, the higher the number of high-quality backlinks a web page has, the higher it ranks on search engine results page (SERP).
Does site speed affect Google ranking?
Yes, a site’s speed affects its Google ranking since Google prioritises websites that offer a seamless user experience.
How often does Google change rankings?
There is no sure shot to know how often Google changes rankings. That said, many experts believe that Google changes its search algorithms around 500 to 600 times every year.
