When most people talk about SEO, they talk about the process of building links. However, link building has been the source of controversy ever since the Penguin update in 2012. Up until then, Google determined a website’s search ranking position based on the number of links directing to the site. However, with many people writing poor quality posts containing links as a way to spam the search engine, things have now changed. And, whilst building high quality links is still a viable strategy when done correctly, there are a number of other factors that can determine where a website ranks. These are described below.
Mobile Optimisation
On April 21st 2015, Google released an update that has been dubbed by the media as Mobilegeddon. The update changed the way that sites are ranked on Google when a search is performed on a mobile device. Now, any website that isn’t mobile friendly will not rank for any keywords other than its brand name. Therefore, it is vital that your website is optimised for mobile devices. Not only will it help your search engine ranking, but it will also be beneficial to your mobile visitors as well.
Informative Content
Every page on your website needs to have accurate, descriptive content. Your ‘home page’ should clearly tell the visitor what your business is offering them, your ‘about us’ page should contain the most important facts about your business, and your ‘contact us’ page should contain your address, email address, and phone number. The more informative your content is, the higher you will rank in the search engines.
Regular Content
In addition to having informative content on all of your website’s pages, you also need to publish regular content to show Google that your website is continually updated. It’s a good idea to set up a blog, and publish at least one article per week. The articles you write should be informative, original, and of interest to your target audience. Failing to publish content on a regular basis will lead to your site losing its ranking.
Social Media
Every business should have social media profiles on the biggest sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. However, it’s not enough just to have profiles – they need to be updated regularly with fresh content. You can share links to your blog posts, share photos and videos, and also answer any questions that your customers may have. Work on building up a community with syndicated content, and you’ll find that Google starts to think more highly of your brand.
Brand Mentions
Google likes to include popular brands at the top of their search results, so you need to build your brand authority. If your brand is spoken about in a positive light, or is seen as a knowledgeable source, you will start to see your search ranking position increase. You can do this through guest posting, which Click Intelligence can help with, but you can also make sure that your blog, website, and social media platforms further enforce this message. The more often you are considered to be an authority source, the higher your search position will rise.
It’s wise to focus on the above SEO fundamentals before partaking in a link building strategy. Once you have the basics sorted, you will be ready to take things a step further.
Photograph by Leo Hidalgo