With more than 200 ranking factors, you'll have difficulty determining what works for your business. Google relies on these factors to analyze your site and decide how well it matches a specific online search.
In an ideal world, you'd wish your website satisfies all those ranking factors, but that's not always possible for newer sites. On top of that, those factors change over time, with Google putting more emphasis on some of them. And that's why you need to learn about top Google ranking factors to make your business work in 2024.
If you've been following Google closely, you might already know that 2023 was full of surprises with back-to-back core updates, especially the Helpful Content Update (HCU) that changed SERPs forever – at least, that's how it looks at the moment. But you can still survive if you know what does or doesn't work in 2024. Using popular SEO services and tools is an excellent way to judge that.
The problem is that not all those tools are designed to satisfy every business need. And that's why you may have to look for alternatives. A quick way to find the best one is to compare the tools at https://top10seosoftware.com/alternatives. It helps you find different options to replace popular SEO services that fit every budget.
But, even with the right software, you still need to know how to prioritize ranking factors to get more traffic from Google. Let's find out more about it now!
Relevance of Content
Google dominates other search engines, like Yahoo and Bing, as it processes around 8.5 billion searches daily. To take advantage of that, you need to ensure that your website stays in Google's good books. And that's possible only when you provide users with engaging, highly informative, and valuable content.
In fact, the relevance of content is now so crucial that if you generally have "helpful" content on your site, but there are few pieces that qualify as "unhelpful," your site may still fail to perform well in Google search. Therefore, the focus should not just be on creating relevant, helpful content but also removing "unhelpful" content to boost your rankings. Google just release a new post on how they tackling spammy, low quality content on search.
How Google Prioritizes Content Relevance
To make your content relevant, you need to pay attention to what Google considers when judging the relevance. Here are some factors Google algorithms assess:
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
Topical Authority
User Engagement Metrics
However, many other aspects also influence content relevance. For instance, the strategic use of keywords is essential to boost topical relevance and authority. And it's also vital to understand and align with user intent to create valuable content.
User Experience (UX) Signals
Providing a better user experience has always been one of the most important SEO factors. In 2024, user experience (UX) will be essential and significantly determine your rankings.
Exploration of UX Signals that Impact Google Rankings
UX is how quickly and easily a user can navigate your website to find the required information. Several UX signals require your attention to provide the best experience to your visitors. For instance:
Aspect | Importance for Rankings |
Core Web Vitals (page load speed, interactivity, visual stability) | Key ranking factors measuring user experience. |
Other UX signals (time on site, bounce rates, click-through rates) | May indirectly influence rankings by indicating content relevance and quality. |
Mobile Friendliness & Responsive Design | User experience needs to provide a consistent experience across devices. Flexible layouts, mobile-first strategy, optimized images, and touch-friendly interfaces matter greatly. |
Ease of Navigation & Intuitive Interfaces | Enhance user experience and potentially influence rankings. |
Compelling Content & Clear Calls-to-Action | Enhance user experience and potentially influence rankings. |
Google's 2020 Metrics (LCP, FID, CLS) | These old ranking factors are still relevant. Quick Google Pagespeed Insight test provides insight. |
Backlink Profile
Having a robust backlink profile is also an important SEO ranking factor. Every backlink is a vote of confidence for your site, which Google can't ignore.
Overview of the Role of Backlinks in Google Ranking Factors Algorithm
User experience, content quality, and site speed have definitely grown in importance, but backlinks still carry significant weight as an external signal of authority and credibility.
Data shows that a site that ranks first in SERPs has 3.8 times more backlinks as compared to sites ranking in positions 2 to 10. This clearly indicates that Google still gives importance to your backlink profile.
The Importance of Quality Backlinks
While backlinks are vital, Google now prioritizes quality over quantity for backlinks. Only the most diverse backlinks are likely to perform in 2024. They should be coming from unique referring domains with high authority.
What's more, about 85% of SEO experts believe link building will have a massive impact on brand authority in 2024, indirectly boosting rankings. Remember to resort to ethical, relevant backlinking to get the desired results.
Technical SEO Factors
Ignoring technical SEO has never been good, but it can break your business in 2024.
Technical Aspects Influencing Website Rankings
Speaking of technical SEO, you actually need to pay attention to a collection of on-site factors, including, but not limited to, the following:
On-Site Factors | Description |
Keyword in Page Titles | Use focus keywords early in the title for context and relevance. |
Natural META Description | Short, attractive description, including target keywords for human readers. |
Header Tags | Structure content with H1, H2, and H3 tags for Google indexing and readability. |
Keyword in Image Alt Tags | Use target keywords in alt tags for image relevance to content and accessibility for visually impaired users. |
Other Important Factors to Consider
To make technical SEO work for you, you also need to pay attention to other advanced factors. For instance:
Site Structure: Be sure to have a hierarchical site architecture because it directly impacts traffic, user engagement, and conversion.
Site Crawlability: Focus on various aspects for improved site crawlability, including breadcrumbs, internal linking, structured data, etc.
HTTPS Security: A part of ranking signals within "Page Experience" measures, HTTPS security is vital for better rankings, especially for sites handling user data or transactions.
Schema Markup: Implement schema markup, as it tells search engines more about your website content and helps Google tell how to display your site's content in search engines.
Emerging Trends and Predictions
While we already know some ranking factors that will be important in 2024, remember that new trends will likely appear in the coming months. Here's a bit more about some emerging trends and predictions for SEO and Google ranking factors in 2024:
Optimizing for voice search: Voice search queries will grow substantially, so optimizing content for conversational tone and natural language will be critical.
Increased emphasis on video content: Video is expected to play a more prominent role in rankings and search results, so be prepared to create informative, optimized videos.
Leveraging AI for optimization: Expect an increased use of AI tools, which will likely help generate optimized content tailored for voice search and provide SEO recommendations.
Social media marketing with voice search: Voice search initiatives should integrate with broader efforts like social media marketing and local SEO.
Final Thoughts
The world of SEO is changing, and it is hard to keep up with all the changes happening at Google. But, the truth is that the fundamentals of SEO – user experience, content quality, backlinks, and technical SEO – will continue to play a role in 2024. However, the integration of AI and the growing importance of voice search optimization represent significant trends that SEO professionals must adapt to. Staying informed about these developments and incorporating them into SEO strategies will be vital in achieving and maintaining high rankings in Google's search results.
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