Every week, we meet with business owners who complain that their search traffic is dropping off, even though they “have a good search engine optimization plan in place.” When we do a little bit of digging, we typically discover that they have optimized their website for a few keywords in the past, managed to get a few inbound links, and add the occasional piece of new content to their blog.
Those are all important steps, but they overlook the fact that the technical details associated with search engine optimization are getting to be more and more important. Those factors are getting more attention simply because Google has so many billions of webpages to crawl that it has to find new ways to separate the best results from the rest.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at seven search engine optimization factors you might be ignoring…
#1 Hosting Speed
Good web hosting means your website is always online, and loads quickly regardless of the amount of traffic you are experiencing. These details are noted by Google’s search spiders, since they matter to real-life users. Make your site faster and it will be more visible.
#2 Mobile Readiness
You are probably aware that more than half of all web traffic originates from mobile-ready phones and tablets. Google’s designers certainly are, which is why your site could virtually disappear from the rankings if you don’t have a responsive, mobile-friendly layout in place.
#3 SSL Certificates
SSL connections used to just be for banks and online retailers. However, these days Google uses secure exchanges as a search signal, since it means better encryption and the transfer of any information. Not only are SSL connections safer, but they are a feature you can add to your website for next to nothing.
#4 Content Depth
Numerous search engine optimization experts have determined that long-form content can be a friendlier search engine optimization. So, if you have lots of ideas on your topic or industry, go ahead and add a little volume to your pages and posts. Just be sure to break them up with subheadings and bullet points.
#5 Content Recency
Because the web has grown so much in the past few years, searchers have started to get pickier. They don’t just want good information, they want up-to-date thoughts, ideas, and statistics. The more often you refresh your content, the easier it’s going to be for buyers to find you through Google.
#6 Internal Links
Internal links have two important search engine optimization purposes. First, they help guide automated spiders from one page to the next and provide context for content. Additionally, they make it easier for actual users to locate the ideas and resources they are looking for. Make sure you have at least a few internal links on each page of your website.
#7 Offsite Info Verification
It’s not just the content on your own website that matters for search engine optimization. If other websites (like industry guides and local review resources) corroborate contact information and other details, Google will consider you more trustworthy and prioritize your website as a search listing.
None of the seven factors on this list are likely to make or break your search engine optimization campaigns. Put them all together, though, and you could easily give yourself an enormous advantage over the rest of your competitors.
Why not talk with a member of our team today about an in-depth search engine optimization audit of your website? In just a few hours, we might be able to uncover hidden problems and opportunities that could vote you to the top of Google’s rankings!