77 Top SEO Ranking Factors

Transcription

1

2 77 Top SEO Ranking Factors If you ve downloaded this resource, it suggests that you re likely looking to improve your website s search engine rankings and get more new customers for your business. Keep in mind that Google says that they use more than 200 ranking factors. We can t cover them all here but these are what we think are some of the most important to get you started. After you finish reading this report, feel free to run a free online SEO analysis on your website at You ll have your results, plus a list of action items in about 1-2 minutes. This list does not indicate in order or priority and there is no claim made that implementing or following this list will improve your search engine ranking results as there many other factors to consider. However, this is where we start as an agency when we work with our clients. Domain Factors 1. Length of Domain Name - A shorter domain name can increase your click through rate in the SERPS and make your website more memorable. 2. Type of Top Level Domain Extension - A.com domain is more memorable. Domains with.gov,.edu,.org are generally seen as being more authoritative. People generally avoid.info domains as they might be seen in Google as spam. 3. Length of Domain Subscription - Getting a 5 or 10 year subscription on your domain, versus your competitor who renews their domain yearly shows the search engines that you're in it for the long term. 4. Exact Match Domain (EMD) vs. Brand Domain - With the recent EMD penalty, you may or may not want to steer clear of exact match domains. A brand domain can often be more memorable. Hosting Server Factors 5. Load Speed of Website - The load speed of your website is an important factor that Google takes into account in their algorithm. Fast load speed is better. It'll help reduce your bounce rate too. 2

3 6. Hosting Server Speed - To get a better load speed for your website, you may want to test the speed of various web hosting packages from different companies. 7. Reliability of Hosting Server - If the down-time of the hosting server you're using is quite frequent, it may affect your Google rankings when they see that your site is frequently down. Website Factors 8. Age of Site - Purchasing an aged website and domain can give you a good boost in the search engines. 9. Privacy of Site - Remember to adjust your privacy settings to allow search engines to crawl your site, especially if you are using Wordpress. Sometimes, this doesn't come as the default setting. 10. Visitor Stay Duration - The longer visitors stay on your site, the better it is for you. This will send the search engines the signal that you are offering visitors relevant content to suit their needs. 11. Good Website Design - To keep visitors longer, ensure that you have good site design that is pleasing to the eye. 12. Good User Experience - Ensure your site is optimized for good user experience right out of the box so that visitors will want to stay longer. User friendliness and ease of navigation are also important considerations. 13. Light Background, Dark Text - Design based on light background and dark text as a rule of thumb generally makes the site more pleasing to the eye, and helps visitors to navigate around easier. 14. Use Breadcrumbs - Using breadcrumbs can help you in the search engines, as well as with your visitors. Content Factors 15. Create Good Content - It is universally agreed that creating good content will help you in your SEO endeavors. 16. Keyword Specific Content - Your content needs to be relevant and useful. As such, hyper target your content towards people searching on a particular topic by targeting relevant keywords they are using. 17. Amount of Content - Search engines generally prefer pages with larger amounts of content, covering a specific topic in-depth. This may also be favorable for visitors 3

4 who just want a single comprehensive resource that meets all their needs. 18. Lower Bounce Rate - If your bounce rate is high, people are not reading your content even if it might be very good. Consider enhancing the beginning of content in order to draw the interest or curiosity of visitors so they read the rest. 19. Keep Paragraphs Short and Concise - Long walls of text will scare off your visitors, increasing your bounce rate and decreasing the duration they stay on your page. Consider keeping paragraphs short and concise, with not more than three or four sentences per paragraph. 20. Content Above The Fold - Having sufficient content above the fold is something that search engines take into account these days. Make sure the top of your page is not so ad-heavy that content is pushed all the way down. Quality Factors 21. Unique Content - Make sure your pages are filled with unique content. Or at least, content that is perceived to be unique in the eyes of the search engines. 22. Fresh & Updated Content - Keeping your content fresh, and updating your site regularly with more content will help you to find favor in the eyes of the search engines. 23. No Illegal or Pirated Content - Google is currently acting to reduce pirated content on the web. As such, if you are repeatedly accused of piracy, you'll be penalized by Google. 24. Linkable Content - Create content that people will want to link to and talk about. This will help you to rank better in the search engines, and earn you more natural links. 25. Good Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation - Make sure you check your content for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. The search engines are good at detecting these errors. Have too many, and you might be penalized. Duplicate Factors 26. No On-Site Duplicate Content - If you have more than one page with identical or similar content, you might find those pages being discounted by the search engines. 27. Canonical tags - Make sure you apply the proper canonical tags so that various versions of your website URL don't get you labeled as having duplicate content. 28. No indexing of tag, category, date, archive, search pages 4

5 People often choose not to have their tag, category, date, archive, and search pages indexed as these can sometimes lead to duplicate content penalties. Structural Factors 29. Keyword-Optimized Content - Make sure you optimize your content for your desired keyword, and make sure that the keyword is found at least once in the content. 30. Keyword in Beginning of Content - Having your desired keyword you want to rank for at the beginning of the content (preferably the first sentence), helps to give your content more relevancy and prominence with regards to that keyword. 31. Keyword Sprinkled Throughout Content - Don't just include your keyword once or twice. Make sure it is sprinkled throughout the content. How often? 32. Natural Keyword Occurrence Frequency - There is no hard and fast rule as to how often your keyword should appear. It varies from topic to topic. As such, it is best to just make sure your keyword occurs at a natural frequency. 33. Keywords in Bold or Italics - Bold or italicize your keywords at least once. This can give you a slight boost in the search engines as you show them the prominence that the keyword plays in your content. 34. LSI Keywords and Long Tail Keywords - Make your content more relevant by including LSI keywords and long tail keywords related to the main keyword you're targeting. 35. Keywords in H1 Title Tag of Content - Make sure your keywords are found in the H1 Title Tag of your content. Make sure you have an H1 title tag as well. 36. Keywords in H2 Tag - If you have H2 tags include your keywords in at least one of them. 37. Keywords in H3 Tag - Same for H3 tags. 38. Avoid Over-optimization of keywords - Don't go overboard with trying to optimize your keyword by keyword stuffing all over the place. Just keep it nice and natural, and follow the tips above. 39. Good category structure - Ensure your site has a good, logical category structure. Not only will this help you in the search engines, but it will help your visitors navigate your site. 5

6 Visual Factors 40. Images in Content - Search engines want to see quality content. Having images in your content can give them the perception of having increased quality. 41. Keyword in Alt Tags of Images - Insert your desired keywords in the alt tags of your images. 42. Not Too Many Images - It will make your page seem spammy, and drastically lower your page load time. 43. Videos in Content - Having videos can increase the perceived quality of your content, and also keep visitors on your site longer. 44. Not Too Many Videos - As mentioned above, too many can cause your page load time to be drastically reduced. Meta Factors 45. Title Optimized for Keyword - Make sure you have your keyword included in your title, preferably towards the beginning. 46. Title Optimized for Click through Rate - Don't optimize your title just for your keywords though. Make sure they are optimized for web searchers as well to give you a higher CTR in the search results. 47. Keyword Optimized Meta-Description - Include your keyword in your metadescription. The closer to the beginning, the better it is for you. 48. Keyword Optimized Meta Keywords List - The Meta keywords list plays a very minimal role in Google rankings, but it still has some value nonetheless, especially in other search engines. URL Factors 49. Keyword Optimized URL - Make sure your keyword is included in your URL. 50. Title in URL - If you optimized your title for your keyword, your keyword will appear in your URL if your title does. 51. Category Hierarchy Structure in URL - Ensure that your category hierarchy structure is visible in your page URL. Search engines will be able to see the category your page is labeled under. 52. Using Hyphens Instead of Underscore - In your URL use hyphens instead of 6

7 underscore in order to represent empty space. Error Factors 53. No Broken Links and 404 Errors - Check your site and ensure that it doesn't have broken links or 404 errors. 54. Customized 404 error page Set up a customized 404 error page. 55. Good HTML code and markup - Ensure that you have properly formatted and used good HTML code without too many errors. 56. Good CSS code - Same for your CSS code. Special Page Factors 57. Have Privacy Statement - The privacy statement is something that search engines want to see. You will do well to include a page with this on your site. 58. Have Terms of Service - Make sure to include a terms of service page as well. 59. Have a Sitemap - A sitemap is important to help search engines crawl your website. Make sure you have a sitemap on your website. Internal Linking Factors 60. Good Internal Linking - Good internal linking practices will help you both with the search engines, and also with your visitors. Link articles to other relevant articles on your site. 61. Internal Link Anchor Text with Keywords - Make sure to include your desired keyword in the anchor text of the internal links that you have on your site. 62. Varying Internal Link Anchor Text - Don't just repeat the same anchor text over and over again in your internal links. This may get them discounted by the search engines. Instead, add some anchor text variations here and there. 63. Linking Back to Category Page - Make sure you link back to category pages on every page of your site. 64. Linking Back to Subcategory Pages - Do the same for subcategory pages if you have them. 65. Linking Back to Homepage - Ensure you link back to your homepage from every page of your site. This is usually done from a logo in the top left corner of the site. 7

8 66. Linking Back to Sitemap - Link back to your sitemap from every page on your site. This is usually placed at the bottom of the site. 67. Linking to Privacy Policy - Do the same for the privacy policy. 68. Linking to Terms of Service - Do the same for the terms of service. External Linking Factors 69. Linking to Off Page Authority Sites - Only keeping your link juice flowing to your site may be seen as being selfish by the search engines. As such, consider linking to authority sites in your niche as well, like Wikipedia. 70. Don't Link to Bad Sites - You don't want to be found linking to bad, spammy sites. 71. Keyword Optimized Anchor Text in External Links - Consider using your keyword in the anchor text to external links. Of course, don't link to sites that could compete with you for the keyword you are targeting with that anchor text. 72. Cloaking of affiliate links - Raw affiliate links may raise alarms in the search engines, resulting in penalties for your site. Make sure your affiliate links are wellcloaked. Social Factors 73. Make Your Content Shareable - When people come to your site, you want them to link to it and share it with their friends. Optimize your site further by making it easily shareable. 74. Include Social Sharing Buttons - Including sharing buttons that help your visitors share your content to the top social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and Google Plus. Other Factors 75. Have an On-Page SEO Checklist - You now have a good checklist and know what you need to optimize for. 76. Use It - This speaks for itself. 77. Keep Up To Date - Keep up to date with the latest Google Algorithm changes and update your on-page SEO accordingly. Stay updated here: 8

9 Analyze Your Website in 45 seconds for Free at: This report is brought to you by: Yokel Local Internet Marketing, Inc. 285 E. Warm Springs Rd., Ste. 104 Las Vegas, NV (702) (Local) (800) (Toll-Free) 9