There are many depths and levels to SEO and different tactics behind what could be considered the best-optimized site. This blog will be touching on the 9 heaviest weighed factors in SEO based off of the current SEO Periodic Table of Success and Google algorithm. We hope that this will guide you in the right direction when starting to optimize and plan your site providing you with key elements to think about when writing content.
We are going to start by covering the top 5 “On Page” SEO factors. On Page SEO is described as the factors that have an effect on your site in the natural search results. The optimization is affected by what is directly on your website, such as the coding, content, meta tags, and keywords. Next, to each listed factor below, you will see a number such as a (+3). These are there to symbolize the strength of the factors and how much they positively affect your rankings.
1: Research of Content (+3)
Have you run a keyword search in Google’s Keyword Planner? If not, we would highly recommend you take some time to do so. The Google Keyword Planner is a tool that every web building entrepreneur should use before the first word is ever written for a site. The tool allows you to see statistics about the direct keywords you are searching for, the average monthly searches, the competition and also the relevant phrases or keywords that correlate with the topic of your search. You do need a Gmail account to use this tool.
2: Content Quality (+3)
If you are building a site and hoping to achieve a high Google PageRank, then you will have to learn to love the phrase “Content is King”. Content is the meat and potatoes of the website. It is where you are stuffing the appropriate words into your site, which should parallel the keywords, page descriptions and title tags you have chosen. If you are competing for a highly competitive search phrase during your launch, you might find an easier avenue to success by targeting less competitive keywords and content around less competitive search topics. Once you have a list of keywords and phrases relevant to your website, remember to use them in the appropriate places (Title tags, Header tags, Page Descriptions and Keyword listings). Also, keep in mind not to “Over stuff” your content with keywords as this can result in a negative ranking. Your content should have an overall natural flow.
3: Title Tags (+3)
A title tag is located at the top of every web page and is crucial to a well-optimized site. Every page should have a title tag that is relevant to the content on the individual page but should be broad enough to bring in traffic from similar, relevant searches. One of the biggest mistakes web builders make is using one (universal) <Title> tag. I see plenty of websites where the (home) page title tag is “Home” or under the (Services) menu; the title tag is “Services”. This tells the search engine nothing about what you do or how you are doing it and makes it almost impossible for the content on your page to become indexed.
4: Meta Descriptions (+2)
A Meta description or “Page description” is on the back end of the site and is a short sentence directed at web crawlers with precise information as to the context of each page and who the audience should be. Make sure you sprinkle in a few of your most important keywords but don’t over stuff. A complete page description is usually 160 characters or less.
5: Can it be Crawled easily (+3)
A web crawler or web robot is the method search engines use to index all of the data flowing through the internet. It copies all the data and can recall stored information in fractions of a second during a web search. If visitors notice that your site has a slow load time on the front end then you know that the search engines are going to have a difficult time while crawling. Extensions such as image rotators, flash components or uncompressed images can slow down your site’s load time. Ensuring that you are optimizing your images with the proper size and file name is also very important. This will help to ensure that your website loads as fast as possible.
Now we will go into „Off Page” SEO, which refers to the factors that are not controlled by what is directly on your website, but by (for example) link popularity or page ranks.
6: Link Quality (+3)
Link quality is in reference to any website that has a backlink. The more trusted the backlink, the higher your site’s PageRank will climb. Google local would be an example of a trusted backlink. Keep in mind that having fewer links to trusted sites is better than having many links to mediocre or poor quality sites. Having social media accounts that are backlinked to your site can also be beneficial, especially if you have a good following that is actively clicking on links and sharing them.
7: Authority and Trust (+3)
We are going to bring up backlinks again here since the search engines want to see you use reputable online businesses as backlinks to your site, which adds to the trustworthiness of your online presence. If you can get your site link mentioned on a well known trusted press site, related blog, or even the local news it can do great things for your link quality SEO over time.
8: Country|City Location (+3)
There was a time when (backlinks) ruled. In today’s algorithm, if you use backlinking from other countries for the sake of just having more it can work against you. Your site would serve better by having 4 to 6 relevant backlinks than having hundreds of backlinks to sites that do not pertain to your relevant search fields.
The same information that applies to Country locations also applies to City locations. Google loves local businesses! Try to get your name out there by posting to pages such as Yelp, Google local, Manta, Yahoo local, and many more. Be sure to make a presence by posting on local external blogs and try to get published on your local news outlets with your latest press releases. Another big key is to encourage local reviews. You can do this by making welcoming comments to motivate your readers to leave positive reviews. It’s just as important to check the reviews posted and reply to them. This tells your visitors that you are involved and the search engines that you are active. Backlinks coming from your local business listings within your area or even neighboring cities will also be highly beneficial.
9: History (+3)
Your domain history is the overall impression on how your site has performed. This is based on the following factors.
- Are your building practices improving the site over time?
- Content history - Are you active in updating your content and ensuring that your content is put together well and honest?
- Traffic - Are you getting new visitors and what is their overall session duration?
- Identity - Is your purpose and services clear to the audience? Were you honest in setting up keywords and links?
- Penalties- Such as Google or another search engine recognizing dishonest activity which may have lead to temporary suspension or other write ups.