Most business owners know by now that Google looks at things like content, page titles, and inbound links when determining search engine rankings for given terms or phrases., Many don’t realize that there are other technical and behind-the-scenes factors that can determine whether the world’s most popular search engine refers traffic to them or their competitors.
As it turns out, there are an estimated 200 or so different ingredients in Google’s proprietary search formula. Today, we want to highlight four that are often overlooked but have outsized importance…
#1 Website Speed
Google knows that the average search engine user will only spend a few seconds or less on a website result before they click away if they don’t see what they’re looking for. So, they emphasize page loading speed is a CERT signal because it’s something their users want. If you have underpowered web hosting, an outdated layout, or oversized blocks of content on your site it’s going to cost you search traffic.
#2 User Engagement
With the help of artificial intelligence and sophisticated tracking tools, Google now measures user engagement on individual search results. In other words, it uses software to see whether someone stays on a website, clicks links, or does things like comment on a blog post. Each of these signals the presence of “good” content in a way that a simple keyword-based search algorithm never could. That means it’s no longer enough to simply get people on your website; now you have to convince them to interact if you want to keep getting more search traffic in the future.
#3 Content Recency
In the past few years, businesses, even small ones, have become more active with content marketing and search engine optimization. One interesting side effect has been that billions of new pieces of content are being published every week. That, in turn, has led to a preference for newer information by searchers. Line is that Google looks for websites that are constantly being updated and rewards them with more search traffic than others that might have become stale due to neglect.
#4 Website Authority
All things considered, Google would like to send its users to websites that are credible and authoritative. There are a lot of different ways to measure this, including inbound links, citations for key facts, and even other associated factors across the web (mentions by professional business directories, published books on Amazon, etc.). The more authoritative your business is, and the better the content on your website, the easier it will be for you to draw in search engine visits.
Is Your Website Really Search Optimized?
Every week we meet with businesses who feel sure that their websites are optimized for Google search. However, once we dig into the details, we find that they have big errors hidden in their pages, or are following strategies that worked years ago but aren’t as relevant today.
If you aren’t absolutely sure you are getting as much traffic from Google as possible now is the perfect time to make a change. Contact the Weblinx at 630-551-0334 x1 today to request a free website audit!