Ranking Indicators
From a macro perspective the two most important indicators for ranking high in search results are content and backlinks with both holding approx. equal weight as ranking indicators. Content is a broad topic and there are many features of it that are used as ranking indicators. Things like quality, freshness, and even length weigh in on a sites ranking. Keeping up with *ranking indicators individually can be a tiresome rat race. Understanding the bigger picture and knowing the two biggest ranking indicators necessary to instilling good optimization sitewide is the most important thing. With algorithims that constantly change the best way to always stay on google’s radar is to design a quality site with rich content. High quality sites also gain recognition in the form of backlinks. Since backlinks are a highly weighted ranking indicator this is sure to propel your site to the top of the page.
This is alot easier said than done. You won’t be able to implement every feature of optimization but many of them you will. Don’t be discouraged. For example, the age of your domain is beyond your control and with the amount of new businesses that flood the internet everyday, you are not alone if your domain is newly purchased and hosting a site for the very first time. The overall effect this will have on your ranking is probably very little. I say “probably” because there are other factors that weigh upon this such as your competition. If most or all of your competitors have aged domains than it may have a greater impact on your ranking. Either way, you can use any of the other ranking optimization features to balance out some of the areas where you may fall short.
*Ranking Indicatiors (def. Certain characteristics or features of a website that are used by search engines to determine its placement or ranking on a page in search results). Naming all of them would be impossible. – and probably not the most efficient way to go about optimizing your site. Focus on a few of the most important ones. Often times other features occur naturally. Here’s a few I like to focus on when optimizing a website.
- Content – Quality – Amount – Accuracy – Freshness – Originality…
- Backlinks – Amount – Quality – Relevancy – One way – Two way – Anchor text used
- Keyword/Inclusion – Amount – Locations – Quality
- Meta tags – Inclusion – Accuracy – Relevancy
- Url Structure – Keyword inclusion – Relevancy – Textual
- Site Structure – Flat – Page Accessability – Coding (html)
- Navigational Flow – Simple – Accessible – Readable
- Inner Page Linking – *Anchor text inclusion
*Anchor text (def. Hyperlinked text on a page that represents a targeted keyword or keyphrase)
Hint: This should be an exact match to the keyword otherwise it cannot be called anchor text. Ex. If the keyword is “white dress” then “the white dress” is NOT anchor text. linking only the words “white dress” would be considered anchor text linking. Leave out unimportant or “extra” words when linking text between pages of your site or anywhere else for that matter.
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