Google also uses information from other sources on the web, such as links and articles. Back when search engines lacked a lot of the sophistication they have today, the term “10 blue links” was coined to describe the flat structure of the SERP. Any time a search was performed, Google would return a page with 10 organic results, each in the same format. In terms of ranking web pages, engagement metrics act SEO Anomaly like a fact-checker.
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool provided by Google that helps website owners, webmasters, and SEO professionals understand how their site is performing in Google Search. For beginners looking to harness the power of SEO, mastering Google Search Console is a crucial step. Since voice searches are more detailed, long-tail keywords become incredibly important. These are longer and more specific phrases that visitors are likely to use. Incorporating long-tail keywords helps you target specific queries and increases your chances of appearing in voice search results. Voice searches are typically more conversational and longer than text searches.
Which local SEO ranking factors does Google care about?
- Many businesses claim their profile but forget to fully complete it.
- With a team working non-stop on improving Google’s search engine, the focus moved from factors like keyword density to user experience and high-quality content.
- With this tool, you can submit sitemaps for your site and monitor how many submitted pages have actually been added to Google’s index, among other things.
- Focus on improving your Core Web Vitals, which measure loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability.
- Newly launched websites on brand-new domains may experience a temporary ranking suppression known as the “Google Sandbox effect”.
To rank well, help Google meet its goal by creating content that satisfies users and is original, unique, and reliable. While Google’s algorithms remain secret, optimizing for the top factors typically elevates a site and confers competitive advantage. Ranking higher on Google requires expertise, strategy, and deep market knowledge.
A professional website design company can help you incorporate these features into your website and keep it updated with the latest trends. With over 60% of global online traffic coming from mobile devices, Google now predominantly uses mobile-first indexing. This means the mobile version of your site is the primary basis for how your content is ranked and indexed. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on a significant opportunity to rank higher and engage users. Note – while product schema is an important optimization for this ranking factor, we’ve categorized it under a separate ranking factor, structured data.
Some of the most common include excessive ads that interfere with organic content and interstitials that make it difficult for visitors to navigate the site. To check a query for local intent, Google it and check the results. If that isn’t the case for your services, it’s not a local SEO opportunity. This is probably the case whichever city we’re in, so it’s an excellent way to prioritize keywords. You can do this with a keyword research tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. For that reason, checking the relative popularity of keywords at the national level tends to be more productive.
Key Features of Google Search Console
So optimizing page speed, site architecture, responsiveness, and general ease-of-use has a growing influence over site rankings in SERPs. Intrusive interstitial ads and popup videos can provide a poor page experience. This is why alt text, or alternative text, is important in search engine optimization (SEO). By contrast, authentic internal links and backlinks gained through creation of value help pages rank better. If you want to rank high, your article has to be top-quality and satisfy search intent.
We would learn even more from diving into the individual pages themselves. Google has already tested your keyword across thousands or millions of searches, so they have a pretty good idea of what people are looking for. Each of these new keywords supports our seed keyword, and gives us a ton of new content ideas.
