Every day, more and more content is getting uploaded on the internet. Simultaneously, the importance of having the rightly optimized content is also increasing. The right techniques ensure your website ranks higher on SERPs as well as gets the maximum engagement. How then can you rank higher?

There are several ranking signals or factors based on which search engines rank your website. Google currently has 200 such ranking factors.

Take a look at some of the most important ones to optimize your website accordingly.

1.   Optimized Content

The use of proper keywords to optimize your content to SEO-friendly standards is a crucial ranking signal. It not only helps you rank higher but also reach your target audience more effectively. Keywords are essentially what a user types in the search box. The better you use these, the more you will reach your target audience.

• Different keywords bring in different search volumes. While keywords with higher search volumes can seem more promising, they are also more competitive. More unique keywords, catered to what you are offering, are often more beneficial—a careful balance between these two works the best.
• There are many steps to optimize your content the best. From the types of keywords to the number of keywords and more. You must also be careful not to overuse keywords in your content. This might get you rebuked by search engines, plus it also harms the user experience.
• The more informative your content, the better it will rank. If Google finds that your content answers the questions your target audience might have, it will rank your website higher. So, the focus should be on how to seamlessly incorporate keywords in good-quality content.

These days it is also important to optimize your content to voice search. There has been an increase in the use of voice search and devices like Alexa and Siri, which is an important factor when optimizing a website.

2.   Website Speed

Your website speed goes a long way in improving the user experience. It is an important factor because Google wants pages that are more accessible, to appear more easily to users. This, in turn, makes them rank these websites higher on SERPs. There are various ways to do this.

Your website must also be appropriately optimized for mobile devices. They must load fast and be as user-friendly. You can face serious repercussions if you fail to comply with such standards.

Even if you were not, this is an important enough factor. If you cannot provide the necessary features to your users, you will naturally not get many visitors.

3.   Optimized for Mobiles

These days, most people access the internet from their mobile phones, which is why it is important to ensure a good experience for them. Google takes mobile optimization as one of the most crucial factors when indexing a site.

There are several ways to make your site better suited for use on mobile phones. This includes improving the time to download pages and easier navigation. Font and graphics quality and size are also important factors. You also have to be careful with your image and ad placements.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Not only will it help you rank higher, but it will also attract more visitors.

4.   Secure Website

To rank higher on search engines, your website must be secure for the user to use. You can start using HTTPS for this if you haven’t already. It helps Google to easily find your website, look through it, and judge how secure it is for the users.

Google usually puts a “Not Secure” warning in your URL if you do not use HTTPS. It can keep users from your website. Plus, Google might also keep your page away from the top results of a search page.

You should also add appropriate terms and conditions pages where necessary. It helps both Google and your visitor place more trust into your website.

5.   User Friendliness

Your website will receive more engagement when it is more user-friendly. Search engines too look at how the user experience is on your website and rank it accordingly. You need to design your site to aptly display all that you have to offer and make it easy for the visitor to navigate it. This factor goes hand in hand with SEO optimization and website speed to boost your SERP rank. 

A site map, distinct tabs stating all that you have to offer and more, are crucial to improving your user experience. If you are placing ads, make sure they do not get in the way of your content. Bug-filled ads also hamper user-experience.

The visitor should be able to find a suitable page with the least number of clicks. The website should also have the necessary information instead of unnecessary jargon for click-bait. There are many ways like this in which you can make your website more user-friendly. It also helps search engine crawler bots to navigate your site easily and index it.

6.   Domain Authority

Domain Authority is a measure of how well your website will rank on SERPs. The higher the authority, the stronger the website. This, in turn, means that your website has a better stronghold. It helps you understand how well your website will be ranked by Google.

There are several ways to increase your domain authority. Optimize your site to strengthen its domain authority and ensure a better user experience, as well as get ranked higher by Google.

There are several minute details that you need to pay attention to rank higher on SERPs. The ranking signals cover everything from the images to your words and much more. As is evident from the above factors, you need to take all of them into account.

The most important task is to incorporate these points in the most natural way possible. For example, awkward usage of keywords or in-your-face images is a big no. It makes for a bad user experience and also lowers your rank.