Google Ranking Factors That Will Impact Your Site This Year

If your business wants to improve its website SEO strategy, it is critical to know the latest ranking factors Google uses to determine site rankings. While there are other search engines, Google is by far the most popular, with over 8.5 billion searches being made every day. 

There are over 200 Google ranking factors, so with so many different elements, which factors are the most important to focus on? Here are a few that matter the most in 2023.

Backlinks

A backlink is a clickable link from one website to another. Backlinks are also called “inbound links” or “incoming links.” Backlinks are critical to SEO, as Google has previously confirmed they are among the strongest ranking factors. Regarding backlinks, however, not all are equal – some are stronger than others. Google advises you should build backlinks from other prominent websites on the subject. Followed backlinks from popular, trustworthy sites are the strongest backlinks to earn, while backlinks from spam-like sites are typically not desired. 

Relevance 

Google has systems to help it understand what searchers are looking for. Your business needs to understand this as well to rank higher. While there is no specific formula to follow, the top-ranking results offer some clues. For example, the top results for “air fryer” include blog posts with top picks, indicating that searchers are researching instead of buying. Your business can use this example by targeting keywords within your blog post vs. just focusing on a product page. 

HTTPS

HTTPS improves security for your website’s visitors, and any site without it shows a “not secure” warning in the browser. HTTPS is often referenced as a “tiebreaker” signal, meaning that having it can make a difference in the ranking positions between two semi-equal sites. Meaning – you do not necessarily need HTTPS to be ranked on Google, but you may lose out to another site if you do not have it. 

Mobile-Friendliness 

In this day and age, mobile-friendliness is crucial, as more than half of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices. As a result, Google has shifted its focus to mobile-friendly website optimization as a ranking factor. How do you ensure your site is optimized for mobile? Google has made the process easy with a tool on the Google Search Console. All you need to do is plug in your website’s URL, and Google will tell you whether or not it is mobile-friendly under its current algorithm. 

Page Speed 

Page Speed is exactly what it sounds like. This is the amount of time it takes for your webpage to load. A page’s loading speed is determined by a variety of factors, like page filesize, image compression, and more. Page speed is a ranking factor on desktop and mobile, and a slow-loading page could cost you. However, the goal does not need to be making your site lightning fast, just fast enough! Google only demotes pages that deliver the slowest experience to users. 

Looking to rank higher on Google and improve your overall SEO efforts? Call, message, or email sbellem@bbrookstone.com to get started. We would love to help you improve your website.