SEO Blog

With the revelation that Google is likely to adopt page load time as a ranking factor, it begs the question: what else are they measuring on your site? Search engine algorithms are a closely guarded secret and very few are privy to the most intimate of details, especially not the ranking factors, of which there are reputed to be hundreds.

For anybody looking to optimise a website, a basic understanding of ranking factors is essential. What is known of these algorithmic determiners has been discovered through various messages from the search engines or decoded through extensive research and shared amongst the SEO community. So what do we know?

1.    (Most) Links are Good
Avoid all of those horrible toxic links, the ones that come from link farms or known link salesmen and you should be fine. But the more relevant links you have, the more relevant your site will appear. Directories and articles can help boost your profile, but ultimately it is inbound links from other websites – your peers and associates – that provide the best results.

2.    Content is Essential
The effectiveness of H1 headings may well be up for debate, but having decent on-page content is, has and always will provide search engine spiders plenty of relevant information to gorge on. Once they have feasted on a website’s text they can then go about ranking it in terms of the keywords discovered, thus making content an integral ranking factor.

3.    Site Navigation that can be Navigated
Search engines want relevance and they want quality for their SERPs. If they can’t navigate through your site, then there’s a fair chance that visitors might well suffer the same fate; which all means that you could wave goodbye to any aspirations of topping Google any time soon. A clean website architecture, with or without optimised internal links, will help you rank.

4.    Brand Recognisability
This is a tricky one to gain. If you aren’t an official stockist of some top products, the likelihood is that you will end up outranked by somebody who is. Google in particular have been developing their algorithm to benefit the brands, so whilst you might be top for your company name, you may struggle to compete with the manufacturer sites for the products you sell.

5.    Page Load Time
An unusual one this, but at some point in 2010 Google will be adding page load time as a ranking factor. It has only recently been announced, but it appears Google are serious about ensuring that their users’ online experience is as smooth and enjoyable as possible. Websites that take an age to load are infuriating and can ruin customer satisfaction; now they’ll also be punished in the search engine rankings too. This hasn’t been implemented yet, but once Google Caffeine is up and running you need to start looking into all areas of usability and customer satisfaction along with traditional forms of SEO.

Of the hundreds of ranking factors, SEOs may have uncovered the most pertinent but clearly a few remain a complete mystery. Whilst you would ideally match all off the algorithm’s criteria, there needs to be a degree of control surrounding your work. SEO takes time to implement and the goalposts are regularly being adjusted to line up with the latest search engine updates; so whilst optimising you always have to be aware that there is always plenty more to do moving forwards.