1. Security

Not only is security an important factor to rank your website, but it is a crucial factor to consider regardless. After all, the digital world is exposed to many threats, and not having the proper security implementations set for your website will leave it at the mercy of the attackers.

To ensure you satisfy Google's search algorithms and still meet your responsibility of securing your website, there are a few tactics to try out. One of the most important is to ensure your website is on HTTPS. HTTPS encrypts the data that is sent between your website's server and your user's browser. This keeps information safe from any attackers trying to intercept the connection and steal any data. 

Through security, you create a website that's trustworthy, a positive signal to Google's search engine algorithms.

2. Backlinks

Backlinks are more important than many people realize. It is the second most vital factor to consider, following right behind the content. Through backlinks, Google can check to see if there are any other ways your website is getting organic traffic. Also, it is a sign of confidence in the search algorithms, where backlinks can prove that users trust your website.

With that in mind, backlinks from high-authority websites are much more valuable than other sites without as high of an authority. Essentially, the higher the website's authority that you backlinked from, the more trustworthy you are. Through this trust, Google knows your website is reliable and can be vouched for, rewarding you with a higher rank.

3. Keywords

When researching SEO, you will have run into countless articles talking about keywords. They do so simply because keywords connect the user's search with your content, leading to organic traffic. Having keywords on your website related to what you do and offer will help bring in the right organic traffic, which is a positive signal to the search engine.

To implement keywords into your website, there are a few methods to keep in mind. You can add keywords to meta descriptions, title tags, image alt texts, the URL, and your content in general. 

Do note, however, that you should avoid keyword stuffing, a practice in which you stuff as many keywords as possible into a piece of content. Not only does this make the content unnatural to read, but it can be a signal to Google that you are trying to implement keywords for the sake of doing so.

4. Content quality

Content is king, and rightfully so. People go online to look for content for various purposes, whether for entertainment purposes, educational purposes, or any other reason. It is also through content that you can implement tactics like backlinks, keywords, and more! However, not all content is good content, and this is something you must be aware of.

So, what is good content? It is content that is original, unique, up to date, and easy to read. Google does also take into account how long the content is. However, its relevance and value to the visitors are much more significant factors of them all. This means that you should focus on producing high-quality, relevant content over long, useless content. In other words, content is all about quality, not quantity.

5. Loading speeds

Speed is something that shouldn't be ignored. It is safe to say that everyone today is in a hurry to get somewhere, do something, and complete an activity. When it comes to websites, visitors expect a quick, fast-loading, and responsive website to get to the things they need to reach. If anything slows them down, they become restless, frustrated, and even angry, causing them to leave. You wouldn't want this to happen on your website, as users often leaving simply means they do not like your site.

To ensure this isn't the case, always make sure that your website is as optimized as it can be. You can use things like Google's PageSpeed tool to test your website's speed and give you insights on what can be done to improve your overall speed. 

Remember, the faster your website loads, the better, and in all cases, you want your website to load in under 3 seconds. If your website is an e-commerce website, then you want it to load even faster!

6. Mobile-friendliness

With more and more users accessing the World Wide Web through their mobile devices, creating a good user experience for such users is becoming more critical. It is a must-have for any website looking to perform well on the internet, simply because the majority of all internet searches are done on a mobile platform.

Keep your mobile users happy by ensuring your website is mobile-friendly. This allows users working with a much smaller screen to navigate through your website quickly and do what needs to be done. 

Google has also shifted from focusing on your desktop website to move on to a mobile website as its primary version for indexing. They know that more and more people are simply going to do searches on mobile phones, and this is a change you must accommodate.

Conclusion

The tips above will help you create a user-friendly website that not only your visitors love to visit and use, but Google loves to reward with a high rank to satisfy its users. That being said, there are plenty more factors out there to consider, such as creating a good website structure for ease of crawling and indexing, boosting your domain authority to prove your expertise, and the like. 

Regardless, considering all the factors we've shared will help improve your rank significantly. While some may take much longer than others to implement successfully, understand that these different efforts will work hand-in-hand in creating an excellent website Google loves to have on their platform, rewarding you with a high rank and growing your business.

The Stack Group is a Massachusetts based digital marketing company offering modern website design, SEO, graphic design, and copywriting services.  If you are looking for SEO services to improve your website's rank, contact us today!