June 14th, 2019 | Updated on July 3rd, 2023
Many SEO experts still say that the primary search engine optimisation elements are all the same for ten years now.
Although, we definitely can see the impact of the new Google updates, algorithms and the fast-developing digital era as well. According to a survey made by Brandlab.Company, one of the most notable rankings factors are listed and noted below.
We can see people all around staring in their phones, purchasing goods and following brands.
That’s why we believe that one of the essential work for every SEO expert or webmaster is focusing on the mobile-friendly websites, as well as voice optimisation.
1. Mobile First Index
More than a year ago, since Google announced it’s mobile-first index, the results could be seen. Not so far, many webmasters interrupted problems with their organic traffic. Furthermore, websites with bad mobile index ruin their daily searches and entries. Speed is essential. Nobody wants to wait a lot to open a website, especially when you don’t know this domain.
Optimise your website according to the final trends – if your domain has “m.domain.com” – remove it. Make your website responsive according to the device. Web developers know best how to fix this. If you are not sure yet if your website is responsive – use Google’s free tool named “Mobile-Friendly Test”.
2. Voice Search Optimisation
“Siri, I would like to know…” – Does this sound familiar? I believe so. People start searching for everything via voice input instead of typing. We use it for searching in Google (Google Assistant), asking Siri, Amazon’s Alexa. We send voice messages to each other. And it’s not bad, is it?
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology becomes more accurate. Its impact behind voice search is significant. They are able to handle more search queries and gets smarter quickly. You have to adapt to that change as soon as possible. Keep it up on the surface!
3. Featured Snippets
Those snippets display the most accurate information to our question. If you “win” a snippet, your website will show up twice – one of the top and another one at a lower position. Featured snippets can be seen as “People also ask”, quotes, tables, bullet points, etc.
Aim to answer the main question at the beginning of your content as simple and accurate as possible. This way, Google may decide to feature your answer to the topic. Your traffic will increase significantly.
4. Structured Data
Nowadays, Google is able to create a meta description from existing content. The search engines use structured data for generating rich snippets. Everyone can not see structured data because it’s hidden in the code of our website.
Rich snippets can increase your website’s CTR with significant percentages. Gold stars (rating) come from properly implementing structured data. Knowledge Panel (or Graph) is another example of such data. It powers the panel called the Knowledge Graph Card which can be found on the right of a search query. For example, google for a specific name of a person, place or even cook receipt.
Schema.org gives us a wide variety of snippets which could be used for our sites.
5. Content Creation
Content is king – said by Bill Gates and followed by many. Great SEO specialist knows that content matter and tries to improve its quality all the time. Try to outstand your competition with stunning information, incredible images and infographics along with perfect written titles, meta descriptions and alt texts. Study your demographics, research your competitors and your specific niche, and think. Think big, and your dreams will follow.
6. Links, Links, Links
Do you still think you don’t need links? You do need them – both internal and external links. Use pyramid hierarchy starting with your home page (domain level), continue with your main categories, follow with subcategories and finish with the exact pages.
No matter links, brand links or link baits, you have to use them all. Use quality links over quantity. Link farms are no longer good business, and so, you don’t need such links. They will harm your whole website in long term. Using brand links will give you also excellent brand awareness, your UR and DR will raise as well. Just use anchor texts properly. Adding keywords as anchor text will increase your benefits.
7. Rankbrain
Rankbrain is Google’s artificial intelligence based on machine learning. The algorithm scales how customers interact with the search queries and rank the queries according to them.
For example, imagine that number 5 has catchy title and description, the readers click more on it, and after that doesn’t come back to all results, that means to Google that this result satisfies your needs more than the others.
In other words, for Google, your result deserves a better ranking and no wonder if it moves your competitors on that keyword.
8. AMP And PWA
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open source project by Google that allows developers to build up pages that load more quickly, almost instant. They are based on a unique coding language. Speed is essential, and that’s why AMP support only lightweight content, which gives us quicker load time. Also, they improve SEO and keyword ranking in mobile searches.
Progressive Web Apps (PWA) look like native mobile apps. Some of the main pros: you don’t have to download the app or update it frequently; can be used offline; maximised reach and engagement thanks to features like push notifications.
