It happens every day. Seriously, we’re not exaggerating here. Someone contacts us with the inevitable question. So, it’s time to address the elephant in the room. Let’s face this question head-on and cut-to-the-chase.
Have you ever asked or thought about asking your SEO or digital marketing team, this all-important vital question: How Do I Rank in Google?
It’s okay, don’t be shy. We’re all friends here. You want to ask it and you really want to know the answer. Because, once you understand ranking signals and what the Google algorithm is really looking for – it should be super easy to rank on the first page…. Right?
Yes, we agree 100% that you do need to understand ranking signals and make sure you’ve got your ranking signal boxes ticked. However, this doesn’t mean you’re going to grab the attention of Google. It’s a cluttered and noisy Internet out there. So, once you’ve got your ranking signals sorted it takes time to get where you want to be.
This is the tricky part about ranking, Google, and the WWW. You can’t just create some content, update your metadata description, tighten up your URLS, and increase your page speed, and then assume the magic will happen. No, it takes a long-term commitment to tweaking and updating your website for ranking signals. It takes staying up-to-date with the changes and priority shifts at Google.
In other words, it takes a professional approach to SEO and digital marketing to make a real difference in how your ranking signals perform.
And this is exactly why we’re thrilled you’re so keen to learn about ranking signals. The more you understand about what we do, the better. This way, when we ask you to do some heavy-lifting, you’ll understand why we want you to do it. So, read on to learn about the ranking signals that matter and what this means for your website.
The Mighty Content
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: content is king and queen. Without quality content that answers the questions your website visitors are asking – you won’t get found or clicked. People are busy, the Internet is packed with websites, and attention spans are limited – in other words, you can’t afford to waste people’s time with poor content that doesn’t solve problems for people.
This means you need to do more than write long 1,000+ word blog posts or fill your website with H1 and H2 tags. You need to go a few steps further and find out what people want to know and give it to them.
This is where knowing things like visitor search intent and top keywords make a big difference in the value your content provides. Hint: the Know Agency team can do the work behind-the-scenes to uncover visitor search intent and do the keyword research. Heck, we can even get our content wizard to write the content that ticks all the key content boxes.
Remember that post we wrote about Google’s mobile-first index? Well, this is a polite reminder that you must think about voice search and rich snippets when planning and writing your content. The content of 2018 is not the same as the content of 2017…
Speed Matters
No one likes a slow web page. In fact, there are very few people who have the patience to wait for a webpage to load. We all want it now. No lags, no delays, no time to waste – give your visitors the content they came to you for.
Speed matters so much that Google even announced that page speed is a mobile ranking factor. With Google’s mobile-first index, it is even more important that you pay attention to your page speed.
We know that assessing your page speed isn’t a simple matter. This is why we want you to ask us about ranking signals and then give us the chance to review your capabilities. We’ll look at your page speed and give you suggestions on how to create a friendly, fast, and quality website experience.
Don’t Forget the User Experience
It’s easy to get caught up in the technicalities of your website and lose sight of the user experience. Please, don’t make this mistake. Remember, you created your website for two key reasons: to answer user questions and to drive sales. If your website is ugly, out-of-date, or just not that great – people won’t take the time to read your content.
You can have the best content and the fastest page load speeds, but if your website has a poor lay-out, uses blinking unicorns, or has an impractical design – you’ll lose out. Remember, Google pays attention to how much time people spend on your webpage and browsing your website, so you want people to stick around.
The dwell time or time people spend on your website is a key ranking signal that you cannot overlook. A click from the search engine results page is great, but now you need to follow-through with the goods: quality content, a simple but practical user experience, and a smart behind-the-scenes site architecture.
The site architecture is key in driving the user experience. The better the site architecture, the easier it is for your visitors to navigate your website. The page layout makes sense, the menu options are obvious, the URLs are easy to remember and share with others, and the website sticks out as one of the good ones. Simple wins when it comes to your website architecture. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they want when they want it.
It’s A Mobile World
We’ve mentioned it a few times, but we’ll repeat it here: mobile matters. People are walking away from their laptops and desktops and choosing to use their mobile devices. From looking for a restaurant to finding the movie listings to tracking a package to buying a birthday present – it’s all happening on mobile devices.
The longer you wait to create a mobile-friendly website, the more it will hurt you. Now, Google tells us that it’s not penalizing sites that aren’t mobile-friendly, but you know the time will come when mobile websites are the first choice.
Be proactive and get your website ready for the future. Go mobile. It won’t hurt, and we promise it won’t even be that hard. By moving to a responsive website design, you please your visitors and make the Google algorithm happy – this is a win-win. Yes, we can help you with your mobile-friendly responsive website design – this is what we do.
KNOW Agency
We’re not telling you this to scare you. We’re in this with you, for the long haul. This is why we want you to understand ranking signals and be ready and able to get the results you’re looking for.
Change is hard, we know this. But you can trust us to do everything we do with your best interests as our focus. We’re not going to suggest a complete website design just for fun – we don’t have the time to waste – and neither do you.
This is the perfect time for you to poke around our website and get to know us better. Then we suggest you contact us. That’s all there really is to it. You don’t need to sweat and struggle though this stuff. We’re here. We know what we’re doing. We’ll do it right.
