3 ranking factors Google is looking out for in 2019

Ranking your website on Google for 2019 is harder than ever.

You simply can’t build a website and expect it to rank. Google wants so much more from your website before it will rank it.

What I mean by this is that it’s so competitive online and there is really only a small amount of space on the first page of Google, so Google will be very selective on which websites they show in their ranking results. If you want to be on the first page in the top 10 organic results you have to earn it.

So I thought that I would list 3 crucial ranking factors that will influence Google in terms of your websites overall authority, trust & therefore its rankings.

1) How valuable is the content of your website?

Content, as we all know, is what people are searching for online and if this content is going to rank on Google it has to be better than your competitors.

It’s got to immediately answer the browsers inquiry without them having to search endlessly throughout your site. Basically, the page they land on has to answer their search inquiry quickly!

Let me give you an example. If your a plumber in Sydney and one of your services is installing hot water systems, then if you want to rank for this service when people type in:

– hot water system repairs or hot water system installations.

You have to have a dedicated page all about this service. Adding other services to this page ( like drain repairs) will simply dilute its value and overall rankings. The golden rule here is it has to be on-topic all of the time.

The page also has to be about 750 to 1000 words and it’s got to be a unique copy. This may be hard for some businesses to write this much about their product or service but when it comes to Google, quality, new fresh, valuable content is what matters.

If you’re rolling your eyes at the thought of getting this done, you will need to get an SEO content marketing agency to help you with this as they know what Google is looking for.

2) Quality links

If your using an SEO agency (and most businesses should be) then in 2019 it’s all about the quality of the link building.

Link building is a great way to boost your website’s authority only if the referring link is from a trustworthy site.

If you don’t know what a link is, it’s a link from another site to your site. So for example, we would write a copy and get another website to publish this copy on their website with a referring link to your website.

If this website has been around a long time and has gained a certain amount of trust with Google, then this will be great for your website. Basically, it’s telling Google, hey these guys are great and you should rank them.

The more links we do, the more Google begins to trust your website and in turn your rankings increase.

Again, you shouldn’t think of this in terms of:’ let’s get as many links as we can’. This is not what Google wants. They are looking for a natural backlinking profile from well-established websites. This is why you have to leave this best practice linking technique to people who know what they are doing. Getting it wrong here will kill off all your Google rankings – if you have any.

3) Bounce rates

Are customers engaging with your website or are they landing on it and leaving it?

These are known as bounce rates as they are bouncing off your website and looking elsewhere. Essentially, they don’t like what they see. The higher these bounce rates the worse it will be for your rankings.

Google has sophisticated tools to measure these rates and in 2019 you better be on top of this.

You can get these bounce rates stats from your Google Analytics account. If you see them creeping up then you have to do something about them, such as changing the user experience through a better-designed website.

A great looking conversion-focused web page that really takes users on an easy online journey will rank far better than pages that are not user friendly with high bounce rates.

We are seeing more and more of these websites with really high bounce rates over the last year or so. This is due in part to the popularity of free web templates where little or no thought has been put into the user experience. All these free site templates look very similar to a cookie-cutter template approach. Understandably, bounce rates for these sites have skyrocketed and Google rankings have tanked.

Conclusion

These 3 important factors are crucial for your website to rank on Google. If your rankings aren’t moving I’m sure there’s a reason for this and Id be more than happy to go over these with you. Give me a call here in Sydney on 9360 8514.