What You Need to Do to Rank Your Site in Google
Securing the top spot in the Google search results is a worthwhile goal, one that can certainly bring a load of traffic to your pages. It's said the top spot can get as much as 44% of the search traffic for a specific keyword.
Now obviously, we all know that it's definately not free, as it requires time and effort to see this happen. Nevertheless, getting a top spot on Page One can go a long way toward making your business more successful.
Let's have a quick look at 15 of the more than 200 ranking factors necessary to rank your site in Google.
15 Important Ranking Factors
- Keyword in title tag – Still an important factor, this tells Google what your page is about.
- Content length – It's been demonstrated that content in the 1000-1500 word range ranks better.
- Page loads – If your page loads as slow as molasses, you won't rank well or be seen.
- Keyword in URL – This helps rank your page better, particularly with longer tail phrases.
- Videos and visual content – Google is in love with visual content: they OWN YouTube, so make visual content a high priority.
- Outgoing links to authority sites – Outbound links to leaders in your market bode well for you.
- Domain Trust – Having Trustrank on your domain helps.
- Terms of service and privacy policy – This is a must-do for any serious business, and Google will penalize sites that don't.
- Contextual links – Links in the body of your content, especially to inner pages on your site help.
- Natural link profiles – Spammy links are a sure sign to Google that you're attempting to game the system.
- Social engagement – Having people engage with your content and share it over social media is a sure sign to Google that you've got a popular page worth ranking.
- Relevant content – Showcasing content relevant to your site and keywords is a must.
- Excessive advertisements – If your page is full of ads, you won't rank well.
- Domain age – Google gives aged domains better ranking than newer ones.
- Recent content updates – Google is very fond of relevant, recently updated content!