Thanks to Yohsi, SEO experts have been scrambling to make sense of the 14k attributes that affect your website’s ranking. And now we have an insight into Google’s secret algorithm for ranking websites.
Here are five factors you can’t afford to ignore:
How does your article/page relate to your overall site? This is the main factor in determining where your site sits in Search Engine Ranking.
If you’re a psychologist, post about health, not hippos.
If you’re a plumber, stick to leaks, not lego.
…you get the picture!
When people find your site in Google, are they clicking on it?
If you’re ranking for hippos, when you’re clearly a psychologist, are people going to click on your site? No! Google learns that it’s a waste of time showing people your site, and before you know it, you’re demoted.
How long do people stay on your page?
If after three seconds people are bouncing off your site because it’s boring / poorly designed / not relevant, Google remembers that you’re not one of the popular kids, and guess what it does? Demotion. Hello page 2.
*BTW, if your site isn’t linked to Google Analytics, you’re missing a trick. If you’re a Wild Tree Digital client, don’t worry – we would have set you up when your site was launched 😊
For everyone wondering how often they should blog – now we know! Regularly.
Google ranks fresh content higher. Google’s reading three pieces of information here:
It’s not clear if you need all of the above, but what we have learned is that if there are any mismatches, Google will smell a rat, and you know what this means!
The ease of navigating around your site.
Links are super-important, both ones that link to other pages on your site, and external links. Help site visitors find their way around by making your menu easy to access, and use submenu options when you have a lot of content/pages.
