The Factors that Affect Your Website’s Google Ranking
You might not like it very much, but modern webpages kind of need to bow to Google. Google is the number one website in the world, and it’s where most people find their way onto another website. Making sure your Google ranking is strong is crucial to website success. Otherwise, your website will be lingering in the double-digits of the search result pages.
Of course, a general search engine ranking is usually what people mean when they refer to Google rankings. But “Google” is a bit easier to write, isn’t it? Let’s take a look at key factors that affect this ranking.
Keyword density
Ah, I’ve bet you’ve heard this snappy term before! Keyword density. If you’re engaging in any form of SEO, then you need to put a focus on keywords. Words that are related to your niche, or the specific subject at hand in the copy, need to be included. Otherwise, your website probably won’t do too well when it comes to search results. When business owners hear the term keyword density, they seem to think they instinctively know what it means.
Unfortunately, what they think it means is usually “Keywords! Keywords EVERYWHERE!” Keyword density doesn’t refer to a need to have a high density of keywords; it simply refers to the relative density of keywords to the rest of your text. And your keyword density shouldn’t really be any more than 5%. Otherwise, Google will assume you’re over-optimizing. This is a polite way of saying “trying too hard”. They don’t like that.
Website speed
A lot of people forget that this is even a factor when it comes to Google rankings. They think it all just boils down to raw content. At best, it may involve a look at the HTML skeleton of your website. But not much deeper than that. Right?
Wrong. The speed of your website is an important factor in its overall quality. And Google knows this. As the algorithm plows through the Internet, it records response and return times. This data allows Google to calculate whether or not your website is slow. And Google does not favour the slow. You need to ensure your web hosting service is uncluttered and top notch. If your website is on a server that is overfull, with thousands of other websites going at a crawl, then your rank will suffer.
Article length
You may be under the impression that keeping it short and snappy is the best way to go. After all, isn’t that how people consume web content these days? They’re always sharing things that can be seen and understood in mere seconds. Of course, you should remember that that sort of content is usually visual. Photos, videos, that sort of thing. When it comes to text, people still don’t mind a long read. Don’t let the brevity of Twitter posts fool you!
Google prefers longer articles. If your article is hovering in the 100-400 word zone? Then they’ll figure that it’s not very informative; that it’s simply there to fill up space. Google is on the lookout for articles that are at least 500 words in length, and seem to prefer even bigger word counts. Of course, a 2000 word article might not be as good as a 100 word one. Remember: quality over quantity. But, y’know, you still need to worry about quantity.
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