What makes a site rank?
Major ranking factors can be summed up into these 3 categories:
1. Age – how old the website is, the age of the URL in the index, when the content was published, etc – the only thing that can’t be gamed.
2. Focus – how laser focused the content is on the page to the target search term. Not just written content, but also videos, images, code, etc. This is on-page SEO.
By optimizing your content to match the target keywords, Google will reward the page and rank it higher.
- The Title Tag carries the most ranking weight on the page, and the focus keyword must be included.
- The meta description technically has no ranking value, but including keywords here is crucial as Google will bold words from the query which helps increase click through rate.
- The headings on the page also carry a lot of ranking value, so it’s important to include long tail variations or related keywords in your subheadings.
3. Trust – the authority of the domain name based on backlinks and the individual page’s link profile strength. This is off-page SEO.
Building backlinks solely for the purpose of ranking is actually against Google’s terms of service they have set out.
In today’s algorithm it is usually best to generate links naturally by creating great content that other websites will link to as a reference.
There are also other methods to help increase the chance of acquiring links, like creating embeddable videos for other websites to add to their pages, or by sponsoring events and organizations that link back to their donors.
Understanding and optimizing for these three core ranking factors—Age, Focus, and Trust—can significantly enhance your website's search engine rankings. Keep these principles in mind, and you'll pave the way for improved visibility and organic traffic growth.
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