We’ve all heard about Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, but do you know how SEO works?

What are Google Ranking Factors

Google uses a list of more than 200 standards to grade your website. The more standards your website meets, the more favorable score it receives. That score is then used to rank your site in a list of results of a query. While that might sound intimidating, the standards are actually very straightforward and easy to work with.

Most Common Factors

While there are 200+ factors, here are some that are easier to achieve:

Content: freshness, quality in terms of grammar and spelling, the magnitude of updates, and frequency of updates.

Links: both internal and external links and the quality of the link (i.e. are you linking to something relevant).

Headers: in posts and throughout the site – is it easy to know where a section is beginning and ending?

Images: having images is important, but also ensuring that images are optimized correctly is key.

Architecture: this the behind-the-scenes part. A well designed and organized site with a site map is a must.

Security: a site without a security certificate is a huge downgrade. Ensure your site’s certificate is up to date – look for the “s” in “https” in your URL. If it’s not there, your site isn’t secure. Check with your hosting service or platform to have it added.

Best Ways to Improve

While a well-built and secure site is the best place to start, there are some easy ways to improve the site’s ranking. First, start a blog! Blogging checks off several factors with the biggest being magnitude of content updates. You don’t want to rewrite your site weekly, but adding a blog gives web crawlers big chunks of information to evaluate on a regular basis.

Let’s Talk

Thinking your ready to get that blog off the ground, but not sure where to start? Curious about which platform is best for a newsletter? Let’s talk! I can help get you started on the right path or we can talk about what BW Concepts can take off your plate. Click over to my contact page to get started.