There is a fact that there are more than 200 ranking signals used by Google. And in 2020, Google continues to adjust and refine its algorithms to give new ranking signals and the thing you need to consider is which ones you need to pay attention to first.
I know that the idea of optimizing for hundreds of factors can terrify you. The good news is that there are not too many ranking signals that need to be optimized, but simply to be noted. In 2020, Google prioritizes mobile indexing. So, the most important thing is that mobile websites are optimized for the ranking signals are listed below.
Content:
Website Architecture: Site Architecture
Relevance:
Consistent with the purpose of the search (Search intent)
CTR: Clickthrough rate
Content Signal: Content
- Topic Authority
- Content structure
- Keywords on your page
- Comprehensive
- Grammar
- Data structured Markup: Mark structured data
- Unique content, not duplicates
Meta tags
- Title tag: The title tag
- Text Alt for Photos
- Meta description
Backlinks
- Number of backlinks and domain links
- Link authority
- Link Anchor text
UX: User experience
- PageSpeed
- Dwell time: Time on the site and bounce rate
- Page Authority: Page Authority in the website
- HTTPS for the site
Here is a list of the most important ranking factors for you to dominate your search in 2020.
Let’s get started
Website Architecture: Site Architecture
Importance: Important
There are factors that have a greater impact on your Google rankings than this. But website architecture is the first thing you should get right away – especially when launching (or relaunching) your site.
All pages clicked from the homepage no more than 3 times
By arranging your site into subdirectories and having clear text strings (or “slugs”) at the end of each URL, it is easier for Google to understand who you are and what topics you want to become a competent person.
For example, if you want to launch a gardening blog – and plan to publish specific content about products, watering and pests – you should organize your website content into those three subdirectories. A good blog post URL might look like this:
https://www.yourwebsite.com/produce/how-to-grow-tomatoes
Looking for more information:
- Good website architecture successful SEO platform
- How to organize Silo effectively for Website
Relevance
Importance: Very important
Semantic related factors gradually became more importance than just keyword optimization
For any SEO optimization Google works for the most relevant search results. Now that we are living in a semantic search, Google aims to find the meaning behind a certain search query to provide the most accurate search results. In addition, Google also considers factors such as search patterns, search history, location and user time.
Semantic search should take care of these 4 important factors
Consistent with the purpose of the search (Search intent)
Of course, when searching for something, users have a certain intention in mind. And Google’s ultimate mission is to try to find them to provide users with the most relevant search results in the top positions. Ranking, the more relevant your page is to a certain query, the higher the position in the SERPs. Moreover, satisfying search intent almost always results in high CTR.
3 pillar elements in Search Intent
If you want to understand the search intent hidden behind keywords, you should consider experimenting with different queries. After typing them into the search box, take a look at the first results page and try to find their search purpose. If you find that some of your pages are not really suitable for the search purpose designed, it may indicate that these are not the right pages to be optimized for those keywords. So, consider finding the corresponding pages and adding more relevant content to them or creating some new pages related to the intent of search intent.
CTR: Clickthrough rate
CTR is one of the strongest relevancy signals for Google. And there is no doubt that CTR is highly correlated with rankings because the increase of CTR almost every time requires a significant ranking increase.
If you want to get an idea of what people tend to click on the SERPs to visit your website, you can use the Google Search Console’s Search Analytics report. Pay special attention to pages that rank high but have low CTR. It may be a marker that your title tags or meta description are not relevant enough and need improvement.
Content Signal: Content
Importance: Very important
Sure enough, Rank and Content always belong together. Basically, content is the reason for people to visit your website. Google has rolled out Panda and Fred updates that aimed at making the web more useful for the content. However, even well-written content pages do not always rank well. With Google continually raising its standards, your content will also meet the ranking factors listed below.
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Topic Authority: Topic authority
Topic SEO is very important in 2020 for Google to rank well – they help lay the ground for the page authority that you will need to rank high in the long run.
In its simplest form, topics mean: The more content you publish on a particular topic, the higher each part of that topic will rank in Google’s SERPs.
Organizing content according to Hubspot’s Topic Cluster is worth your learning
For example, gardening is the first ranking factor, above? Create content for this site that has 20 articles on garden pests. As of now, Google knows this site is probably an authority on the topic of pest control. As a result, the site has a much higher chance of ranking for a blog post about plant-friendly pesticides than Google’s article about ranking factors – even if this article is optimized keywords and very well written.
Learn more about SEO Cluster topics in this article.
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Content structure
Importance: Important
It is not enough to just give your website visitors the information they are looking for. As many websites provide visitors with a good answer, how that answer is structured becomes a major breaking point when ranking content according to more competitive keywords.
Good content structure includes headings <H1> and subheadings (H2, H3) to make the answer more understandable for everyone. It can also include bulleted lists, numbered lists, well-supported research and research images.
The more readers engage with your content, the longer they will stay on your site – increasing the time known as their “session time”, another relevant Google ranking factor created by Good content.
Learn more: How content is structured to improve reading experience
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Keywords on your page
In 2020, the title tag title is still a strong ranking signal because this is one of the ways Google decides whether your page is related to a certain query. Moreover, the closer the keyword is to the beginning of the title. And of course, the most important keywords should be in the body, the ATL text of the image and the H1 tag of the page. But make sure you do not overdo them because you do not want to be penalized for keyword stuffing, right?
Of course, except for your main keyword, you need to be optimized for some related terms that will accompany them. Just in case you have not collected such keywords, here are some tips on how to research keywords today.
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Comprehensive
As I mentioned before, Google will try to improve search quality. With Hummingbird, Google now prioritizes pages that match the meaning of the query over individual keywords. That is why you need to aim not just to fill your content with keywords but to make it as comprehensive as possible.
To fully optimize your content, consider using TF-IDF analysis, which can help calculate the frequency of using certain keywords on competitors’ pages. By this way, you can get a lot of relevant terms and concepts used by your top competitors. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools that have TF-IDF analysis in them now.
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Grammar
Publishing error-free content is another signal to Google that the content is of good quality. Not much to say here. Just make sure you proofread your content before publishing or using an online grammar checker like Grammarly.
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Data structured Markup: Mark structured data
By clearly organizing your HTML markup, you will make it much easier for search engines to understand what your content really is about. Yes, search engines still rely on HTML structure and its semantic markup. So, no matter how interesting your content is, if your page has cluttered HTML, top search engines may think it is of poor quality and rank low. Luckily, there are many plugins (including WordPress plugins) that can help clean and optimize your HTML.
To make your HTML even more structured, consider implementing Schema markup. Structured data markup helper can help you do that. Doing this will help search engines understand your content better, identify the most important information on your site, as well as make your snippets look more appealing. You can also preview your snippet with the help of Google Testing Tools to make sure everything is displayed correctly.
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Unique content, not duplicates
Just as Google appreciates uniqueness, it also penalizes sites with duplicate content. So, to improve your rankings and get Panda out of your site, make sure it does not have duplicate issues.
You should also consider checking for duplicates outside your page. So, if you suspect some pages on your website might have it, go ahead and check them out with Copyscape.
If you work for one of the industries that simply can’t publish unique content each time (like an online store with many product pages), try making your product description as diverse as possible. Another way to solve the problem is to use user-generated content.
Meta tags
Importance: Important
Meta tags may sound like something best left to developers, but meta tags are an easy-to-use and commonly used aspect of your content management system (CMS). They also happened to be SEO executives to rank well in Google results.
Meta tags help Google determine the specific purpose of a page and the role of each page element on the topic and target keywords. There are several types of meta tags to be filled, with target keywords or details related to that keyword:
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Title tag
The title tag is usually the title of your post, shown in the article’s HTML. This helps Google create a blue, clickable title you see on the SERP itself. Title tags are useful for non-article websites with no natural titles or article types to describe themselves. In these cases, you can access the site’s HTML and add keyword-optimized title tags that serve the same purpose as the article title.
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Text Alt for Photos
Google cannot read or “crawl” the image the same way it collects text information. And it is a shame, because images can help blog posts and websites rank pretty well in organic search results. To help Google read images, content creators are encouraged to provide alternative text images (or “alt tags”) that best describe the image in the context of the website where the image is published.
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Meta description
The meta description of the URL is a concise text string that appears below each blue link on Google SERPs, summarizing the content within. A meta description does not have to include specific keywords, but filling it in is an important box to check according to Google. Most CMSs have a dedicated field where you can enter your meta description.
Backlinks
Importance: Very important
I guess it is no surprise to you that backlinks have been a ranking factor for a long time. The fact is that backlinks are still the strongest sign for Google. And in 2020 it is almost unchanged. That is why quality link building should be your top concern if you want to get it to the top of the SERPs.
Here are some powerful link building strategies to get you inspired from.
Of course, one of the most interesting tactics is to follow the link profile of the opponent. One of my favorite tools for this type of activity is SEO SpyGlass. With the help of this, you can compare your affiliate profile with competitors as well as see where your links intersect. By doing this, you gain invaluable insights into new link building strategies that you can implement on your own.
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Number of backlinks and domain links
Although Google definitely valuesquality over quantity, the total number of backlinks is still a strong ranking signal. Please note that links coming from a domain have much less weight than links coming from different domains. So just look at the total number of backlinks and total link domain parameters in any SEO tool you are using and see if your link profile needs to improve the number of backlinks.
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Link authority
No matter how many links you have, they need to be of good quality. If not, they will probably get you in trouble (Penguin is watching you) instead of giving you good rankings. That is why in order to maintain your link quality, you need to perform backlink audits regularly.
Fortunately, there are a large number of tools that help identify the harmful effects of links. So, if you have found some spam links, make sure to contact the website owner who linked to you politely asking to remove them. If it fails, simply reject these vandals and forget it.
If you spot some links suddenly, be sure to check them periodically every week. Because there is always a chance your competitors can point spammy links to you.
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Link Anchor text
Although link anchor text is now less important than the two link parameters mentioned above, keyword-rich anchor text is still an important relevant signal for Google.
To be on the safe side, the anchor text of links needs to be semantically relevant to your content topic and also maintain diversity. On top of that, do not over-optimized anchor texts with keywords, especially for keywords that are somehow connected with the ability to make money, as this will undoubtedly lead to penalties of Google’s Penguin.
UX: User experience
Importance: Very important
With Google being obsessed with user experience like never before, the pressure on website owners and SEOs is really high. You are said to have a super fast and convenient website to keep your visitors staying and competing for high positions in the SERPs. So, here are three key user experience ranking signals for Google that I want to direct your attention specifically.
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PageSpeed
Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of user experience is page speed. And I am sure you know about Google Speed Update that officially turns page speed into a ranking factor for mobile devices.
Optimize page load speed is the priority should be done immediately if the page you load more than 3s
Another recent speed-related change must be made with the PageSpeed Insights tool, which currently evaluates websites according to two criteria: Speed and Optimization. The Speedparameter is currently calculated based on real-user measurements: FCP (First Contentful Pain) and DCL (DOM Content Loaded) are extracted from the CrUX database. And the optimization point must be done with specifications like navigation, compression, zooming, etc.
Prior to recent changes, our team conducted a study to find page speed relative to rankings. Surprisingly enough, it turned out that Optimization score has a huge influence on rankings these days.
So, to give yourself an idea of how your site works quickly, go ahead and test it with PageSpeed Insights. Pay special attention to the Optimization parameter and fix technical issues (if you have any). If you are not sure how to do this, please refer to this guide on improving page loading speed optimization points.
In case your Optimization score is perfectly fine but the Speed parameter is undesirable, the only thing you can do is make it less cumbersome and sophisticated by minimizing the number of images and scripts. You might also consider deploying AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to your mobile sites because it will cause them to load almost immediately.
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Dwell time: Time on the site and bounce rate
The other two ranking signals that are closely connected with the user experience are site time and bounce rate. To be honest, both of these metrics depend heavily on the type of query. For example, when it comes to bounce rates, users can get immediate answers by visiting only one page on your site. This will still be considered a bounce, although that does not mean your page is not good enough. But as a rule, researching something that makes users not only need one page is enough.
Talking about the time on site (dwell time), the longer a certain user stays on your site, the better Google will seem. As with bounce rates, users can only spend 5 seconds on your site and be completely satisfied with the answer at the same time.
Although both of these parameters depend on exactly what the user enters in the search box, the combination of these two parameters allows Google to evaluate the relevance of the pages quite accurately.
So, to make your visitors stay longer, try to attract them as much as possible. For example, think of giving your users some additional content links so they go to some relevant post on your site.
Another good idea is to implement the so-called Breadcrumb. These are links at the top of the page that improve site navigation and help users understand their position on your site. What is more, you can add comment sections under your post, which can save you a few minutes.
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Page Authority: Page Authority in the website
I guess that PageRank is one of Google’s most powerful signals. The problem is, except for the external PageRank, your page is also affected by the internal. So, if you want to improve the rankings of some sites that are not performing well, it is better not to hide them deep in your site structure. The best practice is that for each page of your site no more than 3 clicks from the homepage.
However, if you need to increase the ranking of a page buried in your site structure, the best thing you can do is to point out some internal links to it. But just before doing that, look at your site structure with the help of WebSite Audit Visualization to see how juice is distributed in your website and which pages need to be processed. first.
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HTTPS for the site
Concerned about user safety is another Google concern these days. Back in 2014, Google turned HTTPS into a ranking signal. Because having an HTTPS website is not a recommendation. It is a must because Chrome browser now marks websites as non-secure on the network in case they are not HTTPS. For you to be safe and provide users with a safe experience, learn How to migrate websites from HTTP to HTTPS.
Use HTTPs immediately for the site if you do not have yet
Conclusion
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are a large number of ranking factors that directly or indirectly affect your position on the SERPs. But in 2020, it is definitely set up to create great content, build quality links, and improve user experience. Besides, it is great to do competitive research to see how your top competitors optimize ranking signals to reference their tactics and reinforce your weaknesses (if have).
Wishing you more success in 2020 and 2021!