When trying to get your website as high as you can in the search results, you will need to pay attention to the on-page ranking factors. These factors have changed over the years, with some things being removed and made redundant, while others are becoming more important.
Getting your onsite correct is a significant part of the SEO battle. Below, you will find the primary ranking factors you will need to consider for your website. Pay attention to these, and you can give your website a boost and watch it fly up the rankings.
Mobile-Friendly
Google and the other search engines have now started taking the mobile versions of websites and using these to assess a site and its relevance for its chosen keywords. If the mobile version of your website has issues, does not load correctly, and misses a lot of content on the main version of your site, it could hold it back from ranking as well as it may.
You will need to get your web developers to ensure that your mobile website performs well and has everything required to rank highly.
Page Loading Speed
How long it takes for your website to load is another ranking factor that many website owners do not pay enough attention to. Having a slow-loading website can significantly increase your site’s bounce rate, with people having no patience and leaving to go to one of your competitors’ websites.
If your website loads slowly, look for a reputable SEO company Sydney or your city has, if you live outside Australia, to help you speed it up and improve your online visibility and rankings.
Content, Relevance, And User Intent
Content is the king, as they say, and you will need to have engaging content on your website written with the user in mind, rather than search engines. You will need the content to be unique and informative, and you will want to use keywords in the text naturally, rather than forcing them in with a crowbar.
The content also needs to be relevant for the topic you are looking to rank for, and user intent is another vital factor. The search engines will look at how visitors use your website, whether they navigate to other pages, how long they dwell on a page, and whether they click straight off or not.
All these factors will have a bearing on the way your website is ranked, so you need to try and engage your users and ensure the content is easily readable and relevant to the user’s search query.
Backlinks
Backlinks are one of the most critical factors, and you will need to have quality websites pointing back to yours. The more high-quality referring domains your website has, the higher it will rank, so you need to do regular backlink audits and disavow low-quality links, and have an excellent backlink strategy.
A Secure Website
You will also need to ensure you have a secure website, especially if it is e-commerce. It is simple to tell if a website is secure and certificated by the padlock symbol on the left of the web address. A secure website will start with https://, and it is worth investing in this for your website to help it rank highly.