5 SEO ideas you overlooked that will skyrocket your rankings
With a reconciliation rate eight times higher than traditional marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) is a trusted digital marketing strategy. It is however in constant evolution. That’s why, if your company wants to succeed in the SEO field next year, you need to understand the most important factors in search engine rankings in 2021. Are you a business owner that wants to learn how search engines work and how google search prefers sites that are SEO friendly?
Ready to learn more about the six most influential SEO ranking factors of 2021? Keep reading!
1. HTTPS
In 2018, Google launched more than 10 major algorithm updates, including a major fix for its web browser, Chrome. The update allows Chrome to alert users to unsecured sites, websites whose URL is “HTTP” or “HTTPS”.
This update has prompted many website owners to invest in an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate not only grants your website the HTTPS designation but also ensures that your site protects users’ data. For users, as well as for Google, this update was important.
For companies that have not invested in an SSL certification, this update is deadly for your SEO strategy.
Since 2014, Google uses HTTPS as a classification signal. This recent update, however, has a direct impact on the user’s behavior. When a Chrome user visits your website, he now receives a Google full-screen alert, indicating that your site is not secure.
Next to your URL, Chrome also displays a “Not Safe” tag.
These notifications can keep any user away, which can have a direct impact on your ranking in search results. A recent study even revealed that 85% of people do not visit an unsecured site, which is not good news for a company with an HTTP URL.
How can HTTP affect your ranking in the search engine?
If a user clicks on your website in a search result but receives the warnings from Chrome, he is redirected to the search results. Even if you have a professional and well-designed site, these warnings are enough to scare all users. This action can explode your bounce rate.
For Google, a high bounce rate is a direct indicator that your website is not responding to the user’s intentions. People are leaving your site at a record speed, so why should it be at the top of the listings? Instead, Google will reduce your rankings, pushing your business to lower-ranking positions.
How can you counter this SEO ranking factor in 2021?
Simply invest in an SSL certificate. Your team will need to purchase the license and configure it on your server. If you use website creators such as WordPress for your site, plug-ins are available to simplify this process.
2. Intention of the user
For search engines such as Google, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning become essential tools for determining not only the search intent but also the context of the content. With these advanced technologies, Google understands what users want.
If your company wants its SEO strategy to be successful beyond 2021, you need to start thinking about the user’s intent as soon as possible. You must go from optimizing a content item to a specific keyword to find what a user wants to use when using that keyword.
Get ahead of this ranking factor in 2021 by re-evaluating your SEO strategy. Examine your most valuable keywords, their content, and whether they match the intent of current users. If you have recently experienced a downgrade, this could indicate that your content is not providing users with what they want.
Before you start writing the next blog post or landing page, review the current ranking of that keyword. Then think about why a user can search with this term. If you’re looking for a keyword, what are you expecting from a piece of content and what would you like to know later?
Build your SEO strategy from the point of view of your target market and optimize your results.
3. Mobile page speed
In 2018, Google also launched its mobile update on mobile sites. This update supports the company’s previous move to a mobile index, which means Google is now exploring websites from the perspective of a mobile user rather than an office user.
What is the update of the mobile speed, however?
This update means that Google is now using page speed as a ranking factor for mobile results. Although this does not mean that slow websites can not figure at the top of search results, it decreases the likelihood that a slow site will rank at the top of the search results.
For businesses with a slow mobile website, optimizing the page load speed is a top priority.
Check out Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool. With PageSpeed Insights, your team can assess the speed of your mobile and desktop website, as well as receive helpful tips for speeding up your site.
4. Clickthrough rate
For Google, it is essential to quickly provide users with relevant search results. That’s why search results on Google have evolved to include more than just organic search results. Now, a search result can include a variety of items that go beyond organic and paid search results.
Some examples of these elements include:
• Featured Snippets
• Questions answers
• Videos
• Carousels
• And more
Your website must compete with these elements, which have effectively reduced the clickthrough rate (CTR) of mobile organic search results by more than 40%. Remember that over 50% of global Internet traffic comes from mobile devices.
What does a low CTR have to do with SEO, though?
Like the bounce rate, the CTR can have a direct impact on your ranking in the search results. When Google finds that the CTR of your website is low, it means that your website is not relevant to the search. In response, this decreases the position of your site in the search results.
A low position causes less traffic, which does not help your business to generate more leads or sales.
How can you increase your CTR and make this SEO ranking factor 2021 work in your favor? The solution is to ensure that all the elements that pull traffic from your website generate traffic to your site.
For example, if your website ranks for a keyword with a featured snippet, optimize your content for that snippet. You can also use the questions in the “Other Questions Asked” section to develop a content item.
Keep in mind that SEO requires a little time. If you optimize a web page for a featured snippet, for example, it may take a few weeks or months for your team to see the results. Based on these results, you can plan your next action.
5. EAT
If you know Google’s quality guidelines, you know that Google values expertise, authority, and trust, also referred to as EAT, with respect to any type of content on the Internet.
According to Google, EAT is extremely important for sites that can influence users:
• Health
• Financial stability
• Security
• Future happiness
With more than 5.5 billion web pages hosted on the Internet, it’s hard for Google’s quality review team to rate and rate each website. This is why Google considers its EAT standards more like a goal for its search algorithm than as a ranking factor for websites.
This does not mean, however, that your company should ignore EAT.
Like Google, you need to use E AT as a reference for content creation. Try to write and publish content that provides readers with accurate and up-to-date information. Also, make sure your content is user-friendly by answering the reader’s initial question before providing additional information.
6. SERPs
In 2018, a series of updates highlighted Google’s growth in Natural Language Understanding (NLU). With NLU, Google aims to understand not only words but also concepts. Advances in the NLU have allowed Google to detect minor syntax differences that have revolutionized search results.
For example, Google can determine the difference between research, “signs of arthritis” and “early signs of arthritis.” Although this research shares a similar intent, Google’s algorithm can recognize the slight difference between the two.
This recognition may result in updates to the ranking positions
If your website appears in search results for both terms, for example, but the content is more focused on early signs of arthritis, you may notice a drop in your rank for the keyword “signs of arthritis”. ‘Arthritis’ as Google develops its NLU.
Because of the NLU, companies need to pay attention to search engine results pages (SERPs).
With SERPs, your team can monitor keyword syntax as detected by Google. You can also see what type of content matches the user’s intentions, which can influence your company’s content strategy. In addition, you can determine whether existing content that targets a keyword needs to be revised or re-optimized.
Get ahead of this SEO ranking factor for 2021 by incorporating SERPs into your internal SEO processes. Before you create content, for example, examine the actual results and ranking pages, instead of analyzing all of this data through a tool.
With this proactive step, you can create relevant content that not only drives traffic to your website, but also conversions, sales, and revenue. Your company can also get ahead of competitors who do not focus on SERP or NLU.
The result is an SEO strategy based on a foundation for the future
Now let us give you a top-notch top: Start interacting with users that own websites online and post updated content weekly. Ask those people if they could give you a guest post on their site. This will give you an opportunity to make use of social media platforms to advertise your content. Having a connection with content marketers will give a big boost to your business online.
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Skyrocket your rankings with links
Knowing how to link build your links through your connections is very important. Organic traffic is traffic that comes through the search engine and from other websites. Make sure that your first step in SEO which is keyword research is done right before you proceed with any other thing. These are some of the best SEO tips that will help your business grow.