Factors that Determine SEO Ranking

Search engines constantly seek relevant information on the World Wide Web. They aim to provide exactly what the online seeker is searching for. There are more than 200 factors that influence the ranking of websites. Some of them are crucial to ranking. Writing for the World Wide Web is completely different from other forms of writing. The content writer needs to fulfil certain basic requirements for the website to perform well.

The importance of SEO (search engine optimisation) ranking has been widely acknowledged in recent times. There have been several changes and updates on search engines, making it mandatory for websites to follow the trend. Rules and ethics of SEO ranking keep changing every year. This means that good results last year may not be repeated this year. Companies spend a lot of time planning their websites, but it is not easy to keep up with all the requirements. Having said that, there are certain factors that cannot be ignored and are called fundamental aspects of determining SEO ranking.

Successful SEO practice is the result of key ranking factors as listed below.

• Relevant Content – Although content has always been important, earlier search engines used to focus more on keyword usage in articles or blogs. Nowadays, there has been a slight shift in this practice, with emphasis on relevant content. High-quality writing styles and the appropriate approach helps to produce good articles.
• Social Media Presence – Many SEO companies in Mumbai make it a point to share content on social media. This indicates that the content being shared is valuable. Search engines maintain a list of total shares and indirectly give those pages a higher rank. Although shares are not considered to be an official factor for higher ranking, the fact remains that the highest ranking pages have many shares.

• Mobile-friendly Websites – Search engines have recently turned their attention towards mobile-friendly websites. The page speed on a mobile is monitored. Websites that open quickly on mobile phones are ranked better than those that take longer to load. Companies have started to focus on mobile websites for higher rankings.
• Domain Factors – Companies that use SEO services in Mumbai ensure that keywords appear in the top level domain and are used as first words too. This increases page relevance. Some industry professionals believe that keywords in the sub-domain boosts ranking. Domain registration length has its own importance.
• Technical factors – Header tags, meta description, keyword phrases and schema mark-ups add to factors that influence SEO ranking. Content appears rich and clear. Users may read the key points quickly without getting confused with excessive content. The page looks well formatted and appealing to the human eye.
• User experience – Search engines use artificial intelligence to rank websites. There are certain signals that indicate the user’s experience after visiting a particular web page. Some of them include the percentage of people who click a particular web page from the list of web pages on the first page of search engines, the time people spend on a web page and the number of people who exit from the page almost immediately.
• Google AdWords Services – It has helped many start-ups and small and medium enterprises grow their businesses using online marketing. It works on pay-per-click methodology and is offered at an affordable price, analysing keyword strategy and matches with the searched phrase. Companies can monitor searched keywords and analyse competitors.

Bal Rai is an Internet Marketing Consultant at eTrack Media, a leading SEO company in Redditch, UK.