Outreach Times

SEO Ranking: What is Search Ranking?

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.com function largely by returning webpages and/or websites that best respond to a searcher's query. When you type a question into a search engine, these results will be displayed one at a time in a certain order. This ordering of results is what determines the ranking of a page, and where a given result ranks among the other results is determined by a number of factors.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an array of methods and techniques used to help a given page organically appear higher in the search engine results pages (SERP) of Google or other search engines. This does not include promoted results, or paid results at the top of a page that have an “ad” box next to the URL.

What Is SEO Ranking?

Rankings refer to where a website or webpage falls positionally on a SERP. For example, if your webpage is about insurance and you appear third in line on a SERP, you are ranked third. Effective SEO is important for ranking, because nearly 92% of internet traffic is generated by sites listed on page one of the SERP, and almost 33% of traffic is received by the first search result (excluding paid traffic).

SEO occurs on two levels; for human searchers, and for search engine bots. In order to optimize web pages best for bots, you need to take technical SEO and keyword placement into consideration. For any given search, Google’s ranking results could incorporate features such as image results, video, smart snippets (a piece of the page being displayed directly on the SERP), as well as answer boxes (where information from multiple pages is automatically cobbled together to create a quick, easy resource for searchers). It becomes increasingly necessary to think like a bot, because any of the items listed above can account for high or low ranking.

Page rankings are updated in real-time. In order for a website to maintain a particular ranking, or improve in ranking, the web page must be a constant work in progress that is adapted to new search queries in order to display notably higher in the SERPs. What ranks well today, may rank terribly tomorrow if you’re not invested in good SEO.

Most Important Google Ranking Factors A Beginner Should Know

Google uses about 200 various factors to rank a site. Apparently.

It doesn’t matter how accurate this number is. The sheer magnitude of it is still intimidating.

Especially for someone only starting to rank their site.

But here is the catch.

Not all those factors are equally important. Some are true must-haves, but others might not make much of a difference in your market.

Many you don’t even have much direct influence on. If you just launched your site and are trying to find out what aspects of SEO you should focus on first, here’s a treat for you.

A list of the most important Google ranking factors a beginner should know.

THE 2021 GOOGLE ALGORITHM PAGE EXPERIENCE UPDATE

Page speed is nothing new and has long been a Google ranking factor. But in 2021, Google will be doubling down with the introduction of Core Web Vitals (CWVs) in this upcoming Core Algorithm Update. The new Core Web Vitals are a list of technical SEO metrics created to help business owners, marketers, and developers improve user page experience. Among this list, are three new ways to think about and measure page speed.

IN THIS ARTICLE YOU’LL LEARN:

*What page speed looks like as a ranking factor in 2020
*How the page speed ranking factor will change in 2021
*What are the 2021 Core Web Vitals
*How to measure Core Web Vitals & page speed
*Largest contentful paint (LCP)
*First input delay (FID)
*Cumulative layout shift
*What the algorithm update means for SEO
*What the update means for conversions and revenue
*Solutions: How to improve Core Web Vitals score.

THE PAGE SPEED RANKING FACTOR IN 2020

Google has a history of algorithm updates focused on improving the page loading experience for users. Operation “speed up the internet” has been underway since 2010 when Google first announced site speed would be a new ranking factor in search results. In 2018 they doubled-down, announcing their ranking algorithm would weigh mobile page speed as a factor.

Since these announcements, page, and site speed have only become more important. Users increasingly expect faster pages and the internet continues to expand and become more complex.

In 2020, page speed is directly related to both how your website ranks in Google and how well your website converts visitors into customers. If you’re not ranking right now or your website has a low conversion rate, you should check your page speed score.

HOW THE PAGE SPEED RANKING FACTOR WILL CHANGE IN 2021

In May 2020, Google announced the new algorithm update that will be focused on measuring how users experience the performance of web pages, and that it is set to deploy in 2021.

Google explained that they wanted to give webmasters plenty of time to update their websites before it would be made an official new ranking factor, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

On Nov 10, 2020, Google announced the new update will deploy in May 2021, nearly a full year after their original announcement.

If you haven’t considered what these new CWVs will mean for your business, consider this your official call-to-action.

Take action on the page experience + site speed of your website.