July 15th, 2015
Even though Google has only indexed about 0.004% of the 4.49 billion webpages on the Internet, it's still the king of the search engine industry for one simple reason. It's created the best way to sort through the copious amounts of sites and find the most relevant results for its users.
To do so, Google came up with an algorithm that uses specific ranking factors to judge websites. In other words, it uses technology and common sense to measure sites against one another to decide which should come first.
Many of Google's ranking factors make perfect sense. For example, its PageRank algorithm is going to rank your site based on the keywords it uses, how many people are linking to it, and how often it's updated. Google wants to deliver the best, most relevant results to its users, so it's going to look at pages that have the keywords users are searching for. It's going to look at the links to see how many people are citing it as a source. And it's going to look at how recently the site was updated to make sure the information is as up to date as it possibly can be.
Below are a few of Google’s key ranking factors.
Credible Links To Your Website Are Important
Links are an essential part of search engine optimization. Without them, no one will be able to get to any of your pages, which is why it's absolutely necessary to build a diversification of links. Of course, there are black hat methods that are used to cheat the system, so rather than merely counting all links as being equal, Google favors links from certain places. If you get a link from the New York Times, it's going to score a lot more than a link from someplace like www.NewsNewsNewsNow.com that is not seen as credible.
Your Website Isn’t Mobile Optimized
For over a year now, more than half of all Internet users access the web through their mobile devices. Google knows this. So if a site isn't optimized for mobile devices, Google is going to push it down a few ranks. Remember, not only do the search engines want to deliver the most relevant information, they want the information to be user-friendly.
The Server Your Site's Hosted On
Believe it or not, Google also judges your website by where it lives. Unless a company pays for a private server, website hosting services might lump the site on a server with other less favorable sites. It's similar to renting an apartment. Just the same way shady neighbors bring down the property value of an apartment building, if the site's neighbors are low-quality, the ranking of the company's website will decrease, too. Sectorlink's cloud web hosting services are an excellent alternative to traditional shared web hosting. Sectorlink's line of VPS and Dedicated Servers will also eliminate the shared web hosting problems that can occur since those services are private to your organization.
Google's algorithm is complex. No doubt about that. If you'd like to take a shot at ranking better, it's best to leave the task to a professional digital marketing agency. One that is full service that can handle comprehensive digital strategies such as PPC services, social media marketing strategy, email marketing campaigns, and cloud web hosting is a great place to start.
If you have any questions about how a digital marketing agency can help your website be successful or would like to know more about what a digital marketing agency can do, contact us today.