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5 Google Rank Factors You Should Know About

When we think about effective search engine optimization, there are likely a few things that come to mind for every marketer. What most people don't know is that the algorithm used to determine Google rank is enormous—there are about 200 different factors that determine whether or not your content will appear more prominently when people search on the internet!
With that many ways to optimize pages, how do you ever find the time to get things perfected to such an insane degree of efficiency? The good news is that some of these factors are a lot more crucial than others, and ones that you want to focus on. We've put together a list of SEO tips below that will help you improve the Google rank of your website.

Factors that affect Google rank:

1. Keyword prominence

The sooner you can get past the introductions and focus on your keyword, the better. Having a keyword appear in the first 100-words of a page’s content is a significant relevancy signal for Google.

2. Keyword in title tag

Other than the actual content of your article, the title tag is a webpage’s second most important piece of information for determining Google rank. Additionally, reports from Moz suggest that title tags starting with a keyword are preferred over title tags with the keyword towards the end. Don't forget to include the keyword in your URL as well, and to make sure you double check that in case you change keywords!

3. Domain trust and TrustRank

Are you linking to high quality websites that are not your own? Another important factor for appearing higher in the search engine results page (SERP), TrustRank is measured by the number of external links on your website to sites that Google has flagged as being trustworthy. Some experts go so far as to claim that Google doesn't penalize sites in any way if those sites are ones that they trust!

4. Page loading speed

Patience is not a virtue when it comes to other users on the internet, or search engines for that matter. This is especially true for e-commerce sites, where your conversion rate can drop significantly if the page loads too slowly. The best ways to improve your loading speed are to check your site's file size and code. Make sure images are optimized, and that your code is not generating any small errors that could be causing delays.

5. Dwell time

Dwell time refers to how long a user stays on your site after clicking through from Google. They pay close attention to this data, and longer site visits may be seen as a factor for quality. Remember, it's not just your content but also the design of your site that dictates how long someone will stay! A well designed website will attract more readers to the articles and pages within your site.
These are just a few of the many different strategies Google uses to determine where you'll end up on the SERP when someone searches for a keyword you're targeting. When in doubt, use your best judgement—linking too many affiliate sites, for example, is probably not going to help your cause!
Looking for more ideas to get your business on the first page of Google? Get in touch with us and we can help!

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