If you’re getting your feet wet in the world of SEO, it’s critical to familiarize yourself with the most important ranking factors. This also helps when you’re planning to work with an SEO provider because you can determine whether the strategy being laid out to you actually takes into consideration the best SEO practices.
1. Site security
Who would want to use a site that doesn’t prioritize the security of its visitors? Google has never been hesitant to say that site security is one of their ranking factors. This explains why websites these days use HTTPS encryption. Studies also show that these websites rank better than their HTTP counterparts.
2. Crawlability
Your SEO efforts would prove futile if your site doesn’t have the best crawlability. Remember that if the search engine spiders can’t find your website, then it will never show up in the search index. For this reason, you need to take steps to ensure that the crawlers will see all of the pages on your site. Simply submitting a sitemap helps a lot to improve site crawlability.
3. Mobile friendliness
Is your site optimized for smartphones and tablets? If not, then don’t be surprised if you’re not ranking well. Google has been prioritizing mobile users for years now, and it makes sense because more people now use mobile devices compared to desktops or laptops.
4. Page load speed
Online users won’t think twice about leaving your site if it doesn’t load within two seconds. You need to make sure that you optimize your website and improve page load speed. It doesn’t matter if you rank on the first page if visitors will only leave immediately. This site is a great resource to increase your SEO knowledge.
5. High-quality content
Don’t forget that content continues to be king in the world of SEO. You need to find the perfect balance between optimizing your content and offering the answers to your visitor’s queries. Also, explore your content options whenever possible. You can try adding videos, infographics, or even GIFs to your content marketing strategy. For all you know, these could compel your visitors to stay on your site for a longer period.