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Essential SEO Ranking Factors for 2025 to Optimize Your Website

This will identify failed audits and provide a report that includes information on how to improve the page and fix any issues. If your website pages are not loading quickly, you can take several steps to shorten load times. For example, examine your site’s architecture, eliminate or reduce redirects, enable caching, and optimize images.

seo ranking factors

Number of Backlinks

  • Websites that take too long to load will see higher bounce rates and lower user engagement, which can negatively affect their rankings.
  • It also gives you full control to respond to reviews, post updates, and optimize your listing — key factors in improving your Google Maps ranking.
  • This will identify failed audits and provide a report that includes information on how to improve the page and fix any issues.
  • You probably pulled out your phone, searched for “best coffee shop near me,” and clicked on one of the top results in Google Maps.
  • It automatically checks your whole backlinks profile and sends email alerts when one of your links status changes.
  • If your small business relies on local traffic, you can’t afford to ignore mobile optimization.

The better your website serves users, the better it will rank in search results. 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.

seo ranking factors

Database for Searchmetrics Ranking Factors

seo ranking factors

If search engines are answer machines, content is the means by which the engines deliver those answers. This tactic made for terrible user experiences, and instead of laughing at funny jokes, people were bombarded by annoying, hard-to-read text. It may have worked in the past, but this is never what search engines wanted. Just as a crawler needs to discover your site via links from other sites, it needs a path of links on your own site to guide it from page to page.

When that’s done, you can start looking at site structure and the content on your pages. Search engines are working hard to get a better understanding of a user’s search intent, to show that user the results that fit their need best. Related to that, they continue to improve how information is presented in the search results, which can differ quite a bit per search intent.

In the next sections, we’ll dive into exactly how to improve key areas like business categories, reviews, and local keywords to help you rank higher and attract more customers. SEO Anomaly Interpreting results involves understanding metrics like keyword position, search volume, and organic traffic. A higher position generally indicates better visibility, while fluctuations can signal performance changes. Familiarizing yourself with these metrics can help you make informed SEO decisions. Ensure your business is listed in local directories and that your citations are consistent across the web.

Or it might be an alternative way of phrasing that’s not the most popular one. Listings with images and videos receive more clicks, calls, and direction requests, making it a crucial factor for Google Maps visibility. The Q&A section on your GBP allows potential customers to ask questions about your business directly in search results. Once those questions are asked, you or other customers are free to answer those questions. Keywords are the words and phrases people type into Google when searching for businesses like yours. And when they search for what you offer, they’re seeing your competitors first — even if your business is the better choice.

For example, if someone is searching about a movie that’s just been released, they probably want recent reviews rather than older articles from when production began. For another example, ordinarily a search for “earthquake” might bring back material about preparation and resources. However, if an earthquake happened recently, then news articles and fresher content might appear. Without a full-funnel approach, you probably won’t see the results you expect — even if you produce content at scale.