The wave of coronavirus in the year 2020 has really turned every business down. However, some businesses have changed their marketing strategy. The change was mandatory because consumer behaviour has changed this year. Thus, SEO requirements have changed too.
One of the noteworthy things is that SEO methods keep on changing and sometimes it is hard to keep up with the most advanced developments. However, if you want your Google rankings to go on top, you have to be aware of the ranking factors of 2020.
Secure Website
The first and foremost ranking factor is having the appropriate URL. Google bots crawl and reach the URL to determine whether to display them on the search result page or not. Google visits the page to understand the content and acknowledge what it is all about. Have a good website coded well enough. A robot.txt is a file that says Google where or where not to look for getting the information of the site.
Speed of the Page
Google prefers the user experience and hence it checks the speed of your page. A slow-loading page is automatically ignored. The algorithm announced by Google concerning the mobile page speed was effective on sites from July 2018. Therefore, if your website does not load fast enough on a mobile phone, it might be penalized. Make use of Google’s mobile testing tool to check your site. Or, you can use Google Console.
Mobile Friendliness
Each individual has a mobile in their hands by now. Thus, sites are to be optimized to work efficiently in mobile and provide the best user experience. Mobile-friendliness is yet another major SEO ranking factor. Google draws results from mobile-optimized sites first rather than the ones geared to the desktop. If your website is not optimized for a mobile phone, you are more likely to get under-ranked. Use the correct font for a small screen, improve accessibility, and make your website responsive.
Domain Age, Authority
Over 60% of the websites that are shown in the top ten on Google are more than three years old. Therefore, if you have your website for a while and optimized it as per this article, you are at an advantage. Ahref study had shared a data that suggested that very few sites that are less than a year old achieve the ranking under top ten. Google checks the authority of the website by examing its inbound links and social shares and E.A.T.
Optimized Content
When we talk about SEO, we cannot skip the content. Optimized content is one of the most important SEO ranking factors. Use appropriate and enough keywords in the content. Make sure the content on the site is readable and as per the search intent. An optimized content attracts more traffic and visitors to website. Thus, the bounce rate also decreases compelling them to visit again.
Technical SEO
It includes optimizing your entire website for Google crawlers to study and consider your website as trustworthy. Use keywords, show content in proper headings, add meta descriptions, use alt tags for images, use schema markup, and much more.
User Experience
How do users find your website also matters to Google in case of the ranking? It is judged by the bounce rate, click-through rate, and dwell time. If people visit your website and do not like it then Google will think your website is not relevant to the user’s needs. And, if enough people bounce off, your site will face difficulty to rank anytime soon. This is not something to be skipped as technical SEO is required for better search engine rankings.
Links
The web is mostly built on links. Hence, it is normal for links to be one of the SEO ranking factors. Inbound Links, Internal Links, and Outbound Links- all of these are linked via anchor text. Inbound links say how authoritative and relatable your content is. Outbound links determine how reliable your website and the content in it. While internal links mean making each page valuable by interlinking them.
Real Business Information
This is important for the businesses in local areas. Make sure your website has information like Name, Address, Phone Number, Business listings on Facebook and Google, reviews, and others that provide information about your business.
If you want to rank your website by adopting SEO practices, reach out to the pioneers of SEO and digital marketing – Saskatoon Tech. Their expertise and years of experience will level up your business in the best possible way.