11 Important Ranking Factors for Google Search from SEO Point of View in 2018!

11 Important Ranking Factors for Google Search: Gone are the days when Backlinks was the only ranking factors to rank high on Google Search Results Page (SERP). Read on my blog on 11 important ranking factors for Google Search from SEO point of view, especially in 2018.

Although I am not an SEO expert, though since I am working in this field for the last few years, so I myself test many things while doing the SEO of my clients. Some of these works and some of them don’t. So based on my own experience I came up with some blog posts which might help others in Search Engine Optimization or SEO which you can find at this site or at www.inewsindia.com too.

Though I don’t know if you trust me or not, if you are reading this line, you must be interested to know about the 11 Ranking Factors which are crucial and can help a website to rank higher in Google Search, especially in 2018.

11 Important Ranking Factors for Google Search from SEO Point of View!

There was an era when every webmaster was going behind Building Links. It was an obvious thing as well, as that was the time when Google Ranking was directly proportional to the number of backlinks your website has. More the number of backlinks and your website has better chances to rank higher in Google.

There was a time when webmasters did plenty of such works, which also includes copying content from some piece and pasting it at a place. It was a time when webmasters use to submit an article to around thousands of article directory websites. It was fruitful as well, as Google was working on a simple algorithm, and it was if you have a higher number of links then your website is a popular one and should rank higher on Google.

The formula changed a few years back when Google started penalizing websites having the poor quality of backlinks and duplicate content. Thanks to Google Penguin and Panda updates which were known for bad links and bad content respectively, the webmaster’s community are forced to adopt different means to gain higher keywords ranking to their website.

Many things have changed in SEO during the last few years. SEO’s normally say that it is almost around hundreds of ranking factors based on which Google decide the ranking of any website. It is actually true as well. Here are a few important ranking factors for Google Search from SEO point of view which are unusual and not many webmasters take a note of these:

1. Average Time Spent

Do you know that the average time spent by your website visitors is an important ranking factor? If you are trying your best to improve the SEO ranking of your website and your website visitors are staying for a few seconds only on your website, it is a serious threat to your efforts. These days Google understand that if a visitor is visiting a website and quitting or going back within a few seconds, it gives an impression that they are not liking the things which they are seeing on your website. It is like not providing the things which they were looking for on your website.

Try to work on things which can give your website visitors the things which they were looking for. Never disappoint them so that Google should rank your website.

2. Bounce Rate

It is through clear enough from the time spent point that if your website visitors are not staying in your website for long, then the bounce rate of your site is surely going to be very high. Now, this is an alarming situation for your website. Post-Penguin and Panda update Google gives much importance on bounce rate. It is one of the most important ranking factors and you should always give a look into it.

Normally, what should be an ideal bounce rate for a website?

Well, to be honest, it depends on the industry by industry. Still, a bounce rate of around 30-50% is fair enough. On the other hand, a bounce rate of 50-75% is moderate, though anything above than 75% is dangerous. As per a speculation, the bounce rate for the domains which are ranking within top 3 in Google Search is less than 49%.

Try to provide interactive things to your visitors so that they should stay for a longer duration on your website and should visit at least 4-5 pages of your site in each session. It is also true that normally if a user is coming from search results to a website, they normally do 3 to 3.5 pages visit per one session.

3. Length of Content

We all know that Google loves content. Content is the Real King, is not an unknown stuff for any Digital Marketer. If we have more and relevant content on our websites then Google will surely give us preference on other websites in Google Search.

Do you know the fact that there is a difference of around 45% in the length of content between Top-3 results and 20th Position on Google Search?

Also, do you know about what is the average length of a content which can bring you to the top-3 of Google search? I already discussed it in “Length of a Blog Post” section in Blog Now Live Forever (BNLF) Meet Experience – by IndiBlogger blog that it is around 2400+ words which can bring you to the top-10 in Google Search.

Although, it is not an easy task to develop 2400+ words content. Many people are there who think 500 words are more than enough for a page. And then they handover such pages to an SEO like me and say this is one of the best pages which we developed recently, now it is your turn to rank them well in Google. Do you think we will be able to rank them in these days competition?

So the third most important ranking factor for ranking high in Google is the length of the content. Although, don’t take it like putting garbage on a page will also bring you to the top. It should be relevant, interesting and useful to the visitors.

4. Title Tag

In my opinion, Title is the life of an article. Be it a blog page or a normal webpage, the title is very important. Though many people might argue that Meta Tags value has reduced over the last few years in Google, the Title tag is a clickable hyperlink text and it displays in Google Search. People use to click on a search result based on Meta Title and Meta Description only. Although, for the time being, we can even ignore the Meta Description part, as Google might replace that with some On Page Content in search results, in absence of a null Meta Description, the Title Tag cannot be left blank.

Use proper keywords in your Title tag and make it effective. As per many experts, Title Tag of a page is the second most important piece of content and therefore should have higher importance. You might ask me if the Title Tag is the second most then which is the top most important thing.

Well, I thought you know the answer. It is the content of the page itself.

So, let us consider Title Tag as the 4th most important ranking factors for Google Search from SEO Point of View.

5. Meta Description

Many times Digital Marketers consider Meta Description as a tool to spam their own website. They understand it as a field to do keyword stuffing. Thus, if you are also thinking the same, let us drop that idea right now.

Always try to put unique content in the Meta Description field. It should be about the page itself. Try to put a few keywords to make it impressive, but don’t stuff it with lots of keywords. Remember, it is a powerful tool to get ranking and click-through as well.

6. Heading Tags

Other than the normal Meta Title, Heading Tag H1 is considered as the second title tag in the page. Also Heading Tags like H2, H3, H4, etc. are also important and should help us in formatting the content in a proper manner. Remember there should not be more than one H1 tag in a page.

Uses of Heading Tags like H1, H2, H3, etc. helps the content to look better and rank well in Search Engines. Consider it as a very important ranking factor.

7. Alt Tags

I have written this line many times that the most ignored thing in a website is mostly the images. We try to select the best images for our website, though we forget the fact that only a human visitor might be impressed with the image, but not the search engine crawlers. For them, a beautiful looking image is a blank space. They can’t see the graphical things.

So, what are the ways to let them read and understand images?

Alt Tag my dear friends, is the response to the above question. Alt Tag or the Alternative Tag is the textual representation of an image. Describe your image into texts and put that text into Alt Tag, so that Search Engines can read them, understand them and rank your page depending on different factors.

8. Internal and External Linking

Remember, I am not discussing Back Links to your website. I am talking about the links which you can give in your own website. Be it to other pages of your own site or to some external site as well, a link is always an entity which passes some link juice to the receiver. So, while developing a blog post, always try to link to some internal pages of your website and in a similar way also link to some extraordinary content on the related topics from the web.

Linking to Authority website and great content is not at all a bad things to do. Remember in 2018 and coming years Internal and External links are a major ranking factor.

9. Website Loading Time

Slow websites are a thing of past now. Remember at this age of faster internet nobody waits to let your website load. They can exit the website if it is taking a longer duration to load.

Considering the same fact, Google gives higher importance to the website loading time. Remember, this is the main reason why I always suggest everyone invest a bit extra on Web Hosting. A good web hosting website will never let you down as far as the website loading time is concerned. I recommend Hostgator, iPage, BlueHost or WebHostingHub for hosting your website.

10. Mobile First

It was early 2010 (during Mobile World Congress) only when Google put forward the concept of Mobile First. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, emphasized that designers should follow the “mobile first” rule in their designs. He expressed his concern about Mobile First Approach in Mobile World Congress.

Many people usually confuse Mobile First approach with the Responsive Web Design thing. To be honest, having a responsive web design is a factor of Mobile First approach, but it simply doesn’t mean that if your website is responsive then it is also following the mobile first approach.

Understand the fact that mobile internet user has grown rapidly and surpassed the desktop usage way back in 2016 only. It is a fact that nowadays people are spending more time searching on their mobile handset than on their desktops. Considering this only Google came up with Mobile First approach and it is a must for the SEO success of your website.

Primarily, a responsive design is well enough for it, but along with it, you should focus on the better readability of your content on mobile phones. A content-centered approach is very much required for Mobile First approach. If you define Mobile First Approach, then it will come like “designing for the smallest screen and working your way up”.

11. Secure Website with SSL

I am sure you all are aware of the https and HTTP things. Although still a few days it was not that much important, recently Google started displaying not secure term with the HTTP website and thus it is not at all recommended to go ahead with an HTTP website anymore; always have an SSL certificate installed for your website and let’s make it an HTTPS version.

Remember, 65% of the websites ranking for high volume keywords are using HTTPS, and it is becoming a major ranking factor these days. So, why to take a chance. Let us upgrade your account for SSL certification and get the trust value of Search Engines.

So far we discussed some On Page Factors and now let us discuss some of the Off Page Factors. Do you know about On Page and Off Page factors?

If you know then it’s great, but if you don’t know then let me tell you something about it. On Page, Factors are simply some factors which are present on your own website and you can take care of them by yourself, but Off-Page factors are some factors which are present on other websites and normally you cannot take care of these by yourself. You need to contact other website owners to manage it.

Back Links are the same things which are present on other websites. It is a link back to your website. Although, Google considers it a bad thing, so asking other websites to link you back is a BAD approach, never do that. Instead of building links to your website you should always try to earn it with the hard work on your own website. Try to provide quality content which will compel others to share your posts. Try to provide quality products or services from your own end, which will compel others to mention you on their website or at their Social Media Profiles.

So, this along with the 11 important ranking factors which we discussed above, will increase your backlinks and will increase your websites ranking as well in Search Engines.

Please do let me know your opinion about this blog post of mine. How useful is it for you? Do you think it gives some value addition to you? Please do share your opinion about this blog post in the form of a comment. If you have some query you can also raise the same in the comments.