SEO Ranking Factors
SEO in Plain Words so You Can Understand Your Google Search Rankings
When searching for top SEO experts, it’s crucial to choose a company that truly understands SEO and the key factors that influence rankings. This ensures you get the most out of your investment.
ADVAN stands out as a premier SEO services provider with a deep understanding of search optimization and a proven history of delivering results. With over 20 years of experience, our skilled team knows how to craft the content that Google prioritizes, helping businesses achieve top search rankings.
So what is SEO, and how can it help your business? Simply put, SEO is how well your website is optimized to rank on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. For example, if you searched “SEO Company” in Google, you found a list of results with the top-ranking websites showing up first, descending in the order of how Google ranks them. A website’s ranking is based on how well its content is optimized for specific keywords or phrases.
While hard to achieve, we understand what it takes to get your business to the top of search rankings, even with Google’s high standards. Our digital marketing strategists and content writers are experts in both website redesign SEO and content optimization, helping fill your site with high-quality content and links to achieve those top rankings.
The Difference Between PPC and SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is the process that organizations go through to help make sure that their site ranks high in the search engines for relevant keywords and phrases. Ranking for these keyphrases or keywords helps get traffic to your website from “free”, “organic”, or “natural” search results on search engines instead of using paid ads.
Organic traffic means that a user did not end up on your site by clicking on a paid ad as shown above. Instead, they scrolled past the ads and clicked on the links Google is ranking on their first page.
On-Page SEO
Two terms you’ll hear mentioned a lot when talking about SEO ranking factors are on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to factors on your own website that you can optimize such as the underlying code and the content.
However, on-page SEO factors go deeper than just your site’s content. It’s the deep levels of your site’s HTML. Optimizing your title tags, meta descriptions, sub-headings, internal links, image names, and ALT tags.
ADVAN knows how to strategically place your SEO keywords and phrases on your page while avoiding over-optimization. Because Google and other search engines will penalize your site if you attempt to use keywords too many times through the content. We understand how to keep your on-page SEO well balanced and relevant.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside of your site to affect your site’s trustworthiness and authority by building the right inbound links and social signals. Though you may not have direct control over the off-page factors of your SEO, ADVAN knows the best practices to improve your chances of having these factors work out in your favor. Off-page SEO includes backlinks, social media, building trust.
ADVAN understands that the more relevant and interesting your content is, the more likely others will be to link to your content and share it on social media. And the more users trust your content, the more the search engines will as well.
Now that we understand on-page and off-page SEO, let’s look in detail at the top Google ranking factors for 2020.
Factors that affect SEO rankings:
A Secure and Accessible Website
The first important ranking factor is, of course, having a secure and accessible site. A URL that Google’s bots can easily reach and crawl. Google has to be able to visit your website and look at the page content to start to understand what each page is about.
Page Speed
Page speed has been cited as one of the main SEO ranking factors for years. Google wants to improve users’ experience of the web, and fast-loading web pages will definitely do that. When a page is slow to load, users often tend to get frustrated and click off before it fully loads. ADVAN’s web developers know the best strategies for improving your page speed optimization.
A Mobile Website
More people use mobile devices than desktops to access the web, and that’s one reason there’ve been changes in how Google ranks search results. Google’s mobile-first index is now a reality, which means it’s drawing its results from mobile-optimized sites first, rather than sites geared to desktop computers. If your site isn’t mobile-optimized you risk being out in the cold, in SEO terms at least.
Domain Authority, Age, and URL
Google considers domains registered for longer than a year as more trustworthy. Tying in with that is your Domain’s history. You may not be the first person who registered the domain.
And if your domain has been penalized in the past, its history might affect its current rankings. And in some cases, the domain name matters.
Though Google has penalized exact-match domains (those where the target keyword is in the URL), that penalty is generally for spammy sites with thin content.
Content Marketing
The more quality, relevant content that you have on your site, the more likely search engines will be to rank your pages higher on the search engine results page. Similarly, the more engaging and effective content you have on your site, the more likely the user will be to spend time on your website and maybe even make a purchase.
The secret to creating content that is SEO optimized is for the content to please both the search engines and the human site visitors. Our team of experts populate your website with quality content and links to make Internet users happy, and do what it takes to provide the results searchers want. We understand to make search engines happy your site needs to make users happy.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is part of your on-page SEO. It’s the deep levels of your site’s HTML. Optimizing your title tags, meta descriptions, sub-headings, internal links, image names, and ALT tags.
Power Linking Strategy
Links are a crucial SEO ranking signal. There are three kinds of links to think about:
- Inbound links
- Outbound links
- Internal links
Google uses inbound links as one way to help determine how authoritative and relevant your content is. At the same time, you want to show that you’re creating quality content for your visitors and linking to relevant, authoritative sites in your niche is a good thing. Internal linking to your own content can help tie pages together for both Google and your visitors, making each page more valuable.
Accurate Business Information
The presence or absence of accurate business information is one of the most crucial local SEO ranking factors. It’s important to look after areas like:
- NAP – name, address, phone number
- Business listings on Google My Business and Facebook
- Reviews on both those sites and on relevant directories like Yelp and others
- The right local search terms
Experts Wearing Whitehats Only for the Best SEO Practices
While ranking high in search engines can be hard to achieve, ADVAN’s SEO marketing experts understand what it takes to get your business to the top of search rankings even with Google’s high standards. We use best practices for SEO by focusing your content on your human visitors to build a sustainable online business that continues to bring in new organic site traffic for the years to come. We keep your content valuable and relevant to your intended audience and make your website “the Bible” of your industry.
If your users love your website, search engines will too. We use the latest online tools, techniques, and strategies to gain the right kind of traffic and we provide you with measurable results. You’ll know your site is working because you will benefit from the effects of it.
As one of the best SEO companies, we take pride in our ability to outperform all other Cleveland SEO companies and marketing firms and you’ll benefit from our hard work!
Are you ready to rank higher on Google?
Contact us today to learn more about how we can get you to the top of the rankings results – for a free consultation or to find out more about how we can help you build a professional website that best promotes your business.
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