SEO // Factors
The coveted first page search engine results placement doesn’t have a magic formula, but it does have logic. Here are four factors that influence your search engine ranking.
Keywords
Meta keywords won’t influence page ranking, but keywords in the title, headers and content, as well as density, will. Bear keywords in mind when writing your copy and make sure the keywords make sense within the copy (i.e. they’re not just a string of keywords).
The three main areas for keywords are:
- Title element/tag
- Anchor text of internal-pointing link (stop using ‘click here’ as the anchor text for a link and start being descriptive)
- In the URL string
Content
Now that you’re using keywords as the anchor text for links, start linking your pages together through more than a navigation menu. If you’re mentioning another service or article, link to it so the visitor is aware they can find more information and doesn’t have to search for it. Find out more aboutwebsite content strategy.
The top three factors for your content:
- Uniqueness
- Internal linking
- Frequency of updates
Links
It’s always mattered that your website has other websites linking to it. Just being linked to isn’t good enough anymore though - link authority (links on pages with a high page rank) and the anchor text used to link to your website matter.
Top three factors for links:
- Quantity of unique linking domains
- Links containing keywords as anchor text
- Importance / authority of the website linking to you
Noise
It’s not just linked mentions that count, any mention counts, including how often people are searching for you. So get involved in a conversation and make some noise about your website.
Top three noise factors:
- Search volume
- Mentions on news sites
- Mentions on social sites
- Written by Maureen Young
- 22 July 2011