What are the most important SEO ranking factors that can improve your ranking score with Google? Everyone would like to be on the first page for their keywords so that you get more free organic traffic.
That is what most of us strive for.
You may be using some type of keyword research tool to try and see where you can find these sweet little spots to even have a chance especially if your just a small company trying to compete with some major players in the online world.
Sometimes we use a keyword tool and then there are other times we just type in a phrase on the search bar just to see what we get like we did with this keyword we are using today.
Some folks do not even try to rank for certain keywords because they have a built-in audience that will find them anyways. Then again, others just write a post to share on social media for their audience.
Just like this article is for our small audience that we have to help them get a better understanding of how to use SEO to their advantage. Most of our audience is small business owners that are trying to rank in a local market.
We also have a few affiliate marketing folks that follow us for training and advice on our SEO and DIY digital marketing tools.
We sometimes use an on-page SEO tool when we are using the Builderall digital marketing platform. We use different keyword tools depending on what we are trying to accomplish.
KW finder is one and the other one is a less known tool called Jaaxy. These two tools are really good for the money you would have to spend on similar products. For WordPress, we use a plugin called Yoast.
What Are The Most Important SEO Factors That Can Help Beat The Competition?
Let’s look at 3 of the most important SEO factors that may make a difference and give you an advantage over other sites that are trying to do the same as you. If you have a restaurant check out the 5 SEO tasks that you can DIY.
There are over 200 SEO ranking factors that the search engines may consider. Everyone like a first-page ranking because you will more than likely get more visitors to your website.
Everyone should know by now that your website needs to be mobile friendly. There are 3 ways that you can accomplish this.
One is using a responsive design. Second, you could use an adaptive design and third is using a mobile design. It seems Google prefers the responsive design. But one thing you need to consider is the customer.
You should always think of the customer first. They are the ones that need to navigate your site and view it from the many devices they use. The customer is the one looking for information or a solution to their problem.
If you do not provide it to them, they will go elsewhere in a hurry.
First off a person will either type something into a search bar or use voice search. Results will be displayed by the search engine and usually, that person will pick one of the top 3 results 50% of the time.
So that is where you want to be listed, in the top 3 of the first page to get more visitors. Once they decide to click a link it the customer experience kicks in. That is why we are listing website speed as the first deciding factor.
Website Speed Is A Key SEO Ranking Factor
Once a person clicks that link they are waiting for that piece of information to appear.
If it takes too long then they will find another place to get that information. We all do it.
If we search for a local restaurant and if it takes more than a couple of seconds we are off to the next one.
So it is extremely important to keep your website speed 2 seconds or less.
We see a lot of websites that load between 2 – 4 seconds. That may stop you from having a better ranking score. Especially a local business due to the fact that most folks are using mobile devices to find your business.
There are a lot of different website builders that fall short of providing you the speed you need.
You must have a fast hosting. People purchase cheap hosting and you get what you pay for. A slow loading website is not good business. So choose hosting that has the speed you need. A couple of extra dollars spent on fast and reliable hosting will make a big difference in the long run.
Want to check your website speed then go to Pingdom tools, its the one we use to check a post or pages speed.
Hosting & Website Builders – Who Do We Recommend
We recommend SiteGround or WPX hosting for any WordPress website. You’ll also want a WordPress theme that has the speed you need. DIY marketing is how you learn about SEO and where to find great WordPress themes.
We are also looking into a paid theme called Thrive themes which has great reviews and is very fast with great performance.
Duda is probably the fastest hosting provider that provides a drag and drop responsive website builder. We tested it out and they are fast. Duda may have the fastest website builder on the market. They also have a mobile website builder.
We also found another good drop and drop builder from Builderall. They are not as fast but offer the best value with an excellent digital marketing platform with all the tools you need from a single dashboard.
In addition, they pay some pretty nice affiliate commissions with their 2 tier affiliate marketing program. Read that article for more info. They also have a DIY on page SEO tool.
Images
You should resize and compress your images before you even load them to your website. You want to keep your image very lean and optimized. If you’re using a WordPress theme you can use an image optimization plugin.
We use the EWWW image optimization plugin and it gives us great results. There are other image optimization plugins out there but this is the one that we have had the best results with. Plus we only use the free version.
If your looking for a paid theme for WordPress then Thrive Themes seems to have the best on the market from our research. They also provide most of the plugins that you will need.
Remember to use the least amount of plugins as possible as this could affect your speed as well.
Most of your drag and drop website providers have image optimization built into their software. It may be a good question to ask before you make a purchase.
Duda and Builderall have image optimization built into their platforms. It still is a good idea to resize your images before loading them to your website.
You will also want to use an Alt tag, title, description and sometimes even a caption for your images. Use images that tell the story about the headline you are using.
It will provide the visitor a better trust factor and may keep the visitor on your site longer. Try to use good file formats for your images like a JPEG. Especially for larger images.
Summary For Website Speed
- Get Fast Hosting
- Use A Fast WordPress Theme
- Use Just A Few WordPress Plugins
- Use The Fastest Drag and Drop Website Builders
- Use Responsive, Adaptive, or Mobile Website Builders
- Images – Resize, Make Them Light Weight
- Images – Use Alt Tags, Title, & Descriptions
- Always Keep Customer In Mind
Your Content Needs To Be Relevant, Detailed, & Provide A Solution For Your Visitors
Now that a person landed on your content you only have a few seconds to capture that person’s attention to see if they are even going to view the content you wrote.
Start off with a great headline. Then an image that draws them in. Next, the first paragraph has to have what they are looking for.
The outline of your web page or blog should be organized and have many other headlines. Your main topic or the title of the page is your H1. Then you should have H2, H3, or even H4 when needed.
This breaks the page down and is more appealing to your visitor as well as the search engines.
You may want to have a summary after an important title in your post or after the paragraph you wrote with the main bullet points. Sometimes we forget to do that ourselves.
But by setting up your post like this it makes it easier for the customer to follow and want to read it. We just started this and will find out if it makes a big difference using our analytics. Always find ways to improve your content.
We all do it ourselves. Land on someone’s post and scroll to the bottom checking the titles and images in a post. Sometimes that is the determining factor of us staying and reading the information.
Have you done that?
People do it all the time, so have it organized for a visitor to do that and they will just read your post.
Dwell Time
Dwell time is another SEO factor. The longer someone stays on your site the better. That is another reason to have your site organized. You’ll also want links to outside sources.
You should link to authority sites when explaining some of your very important subjects. Try not to use too many links to outside sources.
Inter-linking to the valuable content on your own website is an excellent way of keeping people on your website. Plus it’s another great way to get a better SEO ranking score.
You’ll notice that we have done that in this article. Try to link to your cornerstone content. This type of content is usually your best content on certain subjects.
Another good idea is to put your post in categories. Make sure they are unique and try to only use one category per article. We have used a couple of categories in the past and believe that it is a mistake to do so.
Each post should have its own separate category. Each category should be distinguishable. Example, don’t use tutorials and tips (one or the other).
Using categories gives the person another reason to stay on your site longer. If they liked what they read they might look at the categories on that subject to get more information and there you have it.
More dwell time. This dwell time sends the signal to the search engines that folks like this site and the subject which just might give you a better ranking score.
Social Signals
Do not leave social media out of the equation because your posts can get a big boost in the ranking with social signals. Someone that like’s your article may share it on one of their favorite social sites and all of a sudden your content is all over the place.
This sends another signal to Google and other search engines that your content is providing value.
It’s even a good idea to share your content on social media for your social audiences. Post a couple of nice images and a blog post per day. It seems if you post more than 3 posts on Facebook less and fewer people will see your content.
So your first three posts for Facebook should be your best.
Most folks will use sharing buttons at the bottom of each post. If you’re a WordPress user then you may want to know that these buttons will slow your page down.
Just like the more images you use the more weight that is on that page and slowing it down. We have tested many plugins and found one that allows us to have a decent speed. Its called, social sharing (by Danny).
Summary For Relevant Content For SEO
- Keep Your Website Organized
- Page or Post Structure
- Use Many Titles – H2, H3, H4
- Use Outbound Links
- Dwell Time – You want People On Your Site Longer
- Use Categories
- Interlinking
- Social Signals for Better SEO
Here is a Video From Miles Beckler, Learn SEO. Awesome video. This video explains a lot of what we have wrote about so we thought this would help.
Which brings us to the next subject video. Listen to Miles. He does an excellent job explaining SEO and how to use it on your website.
Use Video
How are we going to get that extra SEO juice we need using video? Remember we talked about that dwell time. We want folks on our websites longer so the search engines give us that extra boost and move us up the ladder on the rankings.
Having a video on a post is an excellent way to make that happen. Even using someone else’s video will help your dwell time.
It’s also a great way to update some old post and supply them with some extra SEO power. It’s been one of those things we have put on the back burner for a while.
If you could produce a video for each H2 title on your website and link them to another video that is the title of your post, it just might make that H1 title video a stronger video.
It will also give you some more traffic from YouTube if you did it right. You’d be building up an audience using these videos and then making the best video that you can use on your website.
Not only are you getting traffic from YouTube but you can use these videos for your social media sites as well.
In addition, all of this extra traffic is spending more time on your blog post and website from these keywords you were trying to rank for. Now you got more traffic and more dwell time on your website.
That increase will give you a boost in the rankings. Naturally, you’ll need to use some good SEO techniques for the videos.
Using explainer videos is a great way to boost that time people spend on your website. People are looking for ways to do things or to learn a specific task.
Give your website a shot of SEO juice and start doing some video. People love videos. More and more video is being used to send the message to your audience.
What Equipment Do We Need To Produce Video
The only equipment you need to start doing producing video is your smartphone. Most of us have one strapped to our sides daily.
It may take a little bit of getting used to but the more you do it the better you will get at it. All you need to do is be yourself. Don’t try and be someone you’re not.
Another thing about video is it builds that trust factor quicker than images or even your content. Your visitors can actually see you unless you’re producing an animated video, slideshow or something along them lines.
But just talking and showing folks what you’re doing is powerful.
Even the social media networks are getting into it. They have been for a while. Video has really exploded in 2018. It’s only going to get bigger and bigger.
We know people that cannot even write a 1000 word blog. But they sure can produce videos and get them ranked on YouTube.
Why not make a video blog. For each headline or title write 3 or 400 hundred words for each video. 3-4 videos and now you got a 1600 word blog.
Do a summary video and then you have a 2000 word blog. Vlogging, we’ve all heard the term. Well, it’s getting bigger and bigger. Pretty soon there will be blogs with nothing but video. O ya, there already is.
Screencasting
Screencasting is getting really big time. Letting people watch your screen while you give an explanation about a certain task or explain the message your trying to get across is red hot. Just go to YouTube and you’ll be amazed at all the videos that are doing that.
Your actually letting people communicate with you directly. They can watch you perform a task and learn how to do things that are just amazing. You can give entire presentations using this format.
From screencasting to providing webinars is a super fast way to capture leads, build a list and start making a bigger paycheck.
There are many software providers that offer screencasting. It may be time for you to get into the new. Myself included. We all know there are free solutions but we’ll want more control.
Screencast-o-matic runs like $18 a year for the deluxe version. Not a bad deal to help you get better SEO rankings.
Video for Email Marketing
Video is a great way for you to generate leads and build your email list. Instead of asking them to join a boring newsletter have them watch something you do.
Use a button to have them take action.
Then that action leads them to a video before you send them to fetch your email.
They are more likely to go check out the email if you send them to a video asking them to do so and thanking them for doing so.
It just makes sense.
Your building a trust faster and you’re telling them the exact steps you want them to take with video. Plus, it’s a great way to communicate with your mailing list. It will allow you to have better results.
Summary of Video To Improve Your SEO Ranking
- Use Video For Extra SEO Juice
- No Expensive Equipment To Buy
- Update Old Blog Post
- Explainer Videos
- Improve Dwell Time With Video
- Use Screencasting
Use Video For Email Marketing
Conclusion Of Most Important SEO Ranking Factors To Get You A Better Score
We covered a lot of ground today and we hope you got some golden nuggets from this post. Feel free to comment below and share some things that have helped you or someone’s post and pages get a better ranking in the search engines.
What are the most important SEO ranking factors? Here are some of the most important SEO ranking factors and other items that can have an affect on your rankings that we wrote about today.
- Website Speed
- Hosting
- Images
- Builders
- WordPress Themes
- Page or Post Organization
- Page or Post Structure
- Relevant Content
- Dwell Time
- Social Signals
- Video
- Updating Old Post With Video
- Screencasting
- Email Marketing
One other thing we forgot to mention earlier is that you may need to have a post that is 2000-3000 words long of great relevant content to even be considered to get a decent ranking.
Keep your website focused on a niche along with all the articles you write about. You can read about the top local SEO ranking factors at that link if you want to learn about local SEO.
We strive to get local businesses found on the first page of Google with a little local SEO. There are a lot of small businesses, entrepreneurs, and affiliate marketers that do their own SEO these days.
Don’t forget, Mobile Biz Buzz gets your biz buzzing with SEO. We hope you get to the top as we have done for many clients and our own pages. Cheers and have a great day.