5 Crucial SEO Ranking Factors

Businesses are often confused about what is needed to rank a website on Google.

Following are some important SEO ranking factors that Google will look at to determine the quality of your website and if it’s worthwhile ranking in the SERP’s.

Without all of these factors fitting together nicely, you can forget about being able to get to page 1 of Google.

They are all weighted evenly and all need to be implemented with the same consistency. Thinking you can do one without the other is simply not on.

Google takes these ranking factors extremely seriously and if your website is lacking in any of these factors, they will have a detrimental effect on your overall web quality score and in turn your rankings. Be mindful of these at all times when talking to your SEO agency as these guys should be on top of all of these critical factors.

Backlinks are and will always be seriously important

Without doubt backlinks (and I have gone on and on about this on this website) are the most important ranking signal. How else is Google going to know about your website if there are no links pointing towards it? Having said that, there is a massive difference between good and bad links and choosing the right SEO agency that can implement top quality ‘white hat’ links is the key to a successful SEO campaign. Make the wrong choice and you are going to be stuffed.

When it comes to your backlinking it’s all about the quality and relevancy of the links and NEVER about the quantity of the links. Some people take the attitude of the more you have the better but this is so wrong. Be very wary of agencies that tell you that they are going to build heaps of links as this is just spammy. Don’t be fooled by this sales spiel. One really powerful, high-quality backlink is way better than 10 irrelevant links put on cheap sites.

This is what differentiates us here at SEO Sydney Experts from so many other SEO companies because when we implement our backlinks you know you are getting the best, most valuable links pointed towards your site.

Great Content makes a huge difference

Client’s always ask me what to write about on their website. I always tell them to make the content relevant to the keyword they are targeting. Let me be very clear about this. If you are for example a plumber in Sydney and you offer 24-hour emergency service, and you want to promote this, then you need to have a page dedicated to this service. This means that all the content and all the information on this page needs to be about ’24 hour emergency plumbing. You cannot write about anything else.

This content relevancy is vital and it’s what Google is looking for. Why? Because when people are searching for ’24 hour emergency plumbing’ they want to find results on Google immediately that are relevant for their search. If pages for ‘hot water repairs’ came up instead it would annoy people and this, in turn, would diminish Google as the best place to find information. So whatever you do make sure your writing is on topic.

Thin Content is not going to work

SEO copywriting is crucial for your SEO rankings as it adds trust and authority to your website as more people link to your content. I know this is hard and I know this can be painful but when you are writing content for your blogs or your web pages please make sure that they are well over 1000 words. I know you might think that people don’t want to read that much or that their attention spans are limited (so what’s the point in writing so much copy) or the copy makes your website look ugly, but the reality of one of the ranking factors is the amount of copy you publish. Thin web pages without enough information are not good enough to outrank pages that have juicy well-worded content. Google rewards pages that have been written with passion and useful content. If you think you can get by on anything less than 1000 words, think again.

Add some images to create interest

Google will penalise websites that have high bounce rates. When people come to your site and simply exit from the page they entered the site it’s called a bounce rate. Get enough of these and you are going to pay a heavy price in terms of rankings.

Adding cool images, (even one picture), videos, infographics or animated banners, are a good way to keep people on your site. If they stay there long enough and like what they see they will probably look around your site and this is great for improving your bounce rates. Google wants to keep the user engaged and if your site can do this then it will promote it.

Fast SEO rankings are killer

One of the first questions people ask me is how long till they will start to see some positive results and how long before their main keywords get to page 1? One thing we always tell them is that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint and that if they want quick sugar-coated fast ranking then we are the wrong agency. Basically, quick SEO rankings are not possible. A massive ranking signal is to show Google a slow and steady backlinking profile. Any unusual spikes in your link building will raise alarms and you may end up with more than you bargained for; a Google penalty.

Related article: How much should I pay for SEO in 2021 in Sydney

So be careful when an SEO company promises you fast rankings. These are generally achieved in an unethical manner and the results, whilst good at first, will have disastrous consequences.

Conclusion

These are just some ranking factors you need to be aware of. There are about 195 more but these are very important and the tip of the iceberg.  If your concerned about your rankings and feel that your website is not compliant and your SEO agency may not be doing their job properly, please get in touch with us at SEO Sydney Experts.