The Complete Guide to Ranking Factors (continued)

Part 2 – On-Site Factors

You may have read the first part to our complete guide of ranking factors. Here we spoke about domain factors. Now we will talk about on-site factors.

1.Page Titles

The page title is the webpage’s second more important piece of content meaning this need to have your main keyword here. We recommend optimising each page to a different keyword, underpinned by keyword research to find out what your customers are actually searching for. It has also been suggested that page titles that start with your keyword perform better than when your keyword is towards the end of the title.

2.Meta Description

Although meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, they influence the click-through-rate of your website. Therefore, these need to be clear, concise and have a call to action.

3.H1 Tags

H1 tags are essential a second page title that sends another relevancy signal to Google.

4.Page Content

This is something which is absolutely crucial. Content with more words are likely to rank for a wider variety of terms. With the Panda Algorithm, this is an areas which is becoming more and more important – but of course, the words need to be rich, relevant and engaging.

5.Keyword Density

Although this has less importance than it used to, keyword density is still a ranking factor of Google, however, be careful not to go to crazy or this can lead to a penalty.

6.Duplicate Content

Duplicate content on the same website or external websites can negatively influence your website. Therefore, always ensure content is unique.

7.Page Loading Speed

The amount of time it takes for your page to loads is a ranking factor for search engines. It is also key for your CX to ensure your page loads fast as a lot of people will go to the next website if your page takes more than three seconds to load.

8.Use Rel=Canonical

This prevents Google from considering duplicate content on your pages.

9.Alt Tags

Ensure your images are optimise with alt tags, titles, descriptions and caption. This can help your rankings for Google’s organic images.

10.Keep your website fresh

Ensure you’re regularly updating your content. If your page hasn’t been updated for a year, Google will see this as not relevant and will push you down the rankings This is where blog content can be great.

11.H2 and H3 Tags

Although these do not have as much weighting as H1 tags, they are still important, signalling to Google what the page is actually about.

12.Outbound Links

Linking to high quality external websites can help send trust signals to Google.

13.Inbound Links

Linking to your core pages shows Google where to send your traffic and is a new ranking factor which is becoming more important.

14.Videos and Images

Videos and images can act as a quality signal and also keeps your customer on your website for longer.

15.Number of Internal Links

The number of links pointing to your page tells Google the importance of that pages relative to other pages on the website.

16.HTML:Text Ratio

You may find that some websites are very code heavy. This is especially the case with certain themes. This dilutes your content as Google is bombarded with reams of code.

17.URL Length

Longer URLs can damage your search visibility. Try and make URLs concise and to the point.

18.URL Path

A page that is hidden deep in your website may be hard for Google to find. Therefore, pages closer to the homepage may receive an authority boost.

19.Page Category

The category the page appears on a is ranking signal.

20.Bullet Points & Lists

Google are great advocates of the nice user experience for their customers. Therefore, bullet points and list can breakdown the content, helping to break up content for customers.

21.XML Sitemap

Ensure you have an XML sitemap and make sure this is included within your Google Search Console.