What is SEO? Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Along with site architecture, your site’s security is now a key Google ranking factor. One of the biggest requirements is to ensure your site is using HTTPS protocol, as this encrypts the data between your website and a user’s browser. Among the hundreds of Google ranking factors, page speeds are another top priority.

The researchers found that 19% of YouTube channels have more than one video ranking in the top three positions for the exact keywords. We believe that enabling this change will trigger a fundamental shift in the way that search engines, such as Bing, retrieve and are notified of new and updated content across the web. But this search engine has a much stronger reliance on social signals than Google. For small businesses, this might sound overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Many SEO tools, like SEMrush or Ahrefs, integrate AI-powered features that simplify the process.

Content is key not just for ranking, but also for user experience and conversion. In fact, it’s smart to include variations of your main keyword in your content. Here are the most important ranking signals in Google’s algorithm right now (in 2022). In fact, webpages with fewer backlinks get much less organic traffic because they’re buried deep in the search results. No matter how optimized your webpage is, if your content is not valuable, then you can’t expect higher rankings. Some website owners may be tempted to optimize for every ranking factor when it comes to getting higher rankings.

• Instead, you can focus on essential factors and use an SEO plugin to optimize your pages before publishing.
• Google has indicated that page speed is one of the signals it uses in its page ranking algorithm.
• Most people think about making sure Google can find their important pages, but it’s easy to forget that there are likely pages you don’t want Googlebot to find.
• Our Link Intersect tool lets you find websites that link to multiple competitors.
• These users are buying a specific product or service but need more information.

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Rank Math PRO’s Search SEO Anomaly Intent feature simplifies intent-based optimization, helping your content rank better. Clicking the Show Intent button beside your keyword reveals its intent instantly. Optimized content begins with understanding and addressing search intent.

Syndicating content is fine, but make sure you are linking back to the original source and pray the syndicated content doesn’t outrank you. This will prompt Google to re-crawl your content and reevaluate its rankings in the SERPs. Having unique images and videos to support your main content is a quality signal. I recommend investing in a good graphics design team who will produce unique images. You should take advantage of this and ensure you include your target keyword.

While you can’t change your physical location, you can focus on targeting keywords that include your city or neighborhood to improve local rankings. As we wrap up our exploration of the top SEO ranking factors for 2025, it’s clear that all these SEO ranking factors play a crucial role in determining your online visibility and success. The goal of ensuring your website is mobile-friendly should not be limited to ranking well in search engines. Mobile friendliness is also about making the website more flexible and accessible, to provide a positive user experience, reach a wider audience, and keep visitors engaged to reduce bounce rates. Recognizing and catering to the search intent behind target keywords is fundamental to connecting with your audience and enhancing your website’s visibility and relevance.

Knowing your SEO ranking helps you identify high-traffic keywords that can improve your online strategy. By leveraging tools that provide real-time data, you can make informed decisions and adjust your content and marketing strategies accordingly. Investing your time in understanding how to check your rankings can transform your approach to digital marketing.

– Negative Domain Ranking Factors

Topical authority is a website’s established expertise and credibility within a specific subject or niche. It achieves this by consistently offering high-quality, relevant content. Google aims to serve users the most helpful, up-to-date content in search results. Startups must update their content regularly to provide relevant and accurate information. When someone searches for a phrase relevant to your business, you want them to find you.

The better you optimize these elements, the higher your chance of being seen by potential visitors when they search for information related to what you offer. And you don’t need to remember 200+ ranking factors to grow your startup. Intrusive interstitials are pop-ups or other page elements obstructing a user’s view of the content. They make accessing the content hard for a mobile and desktop user. Linking to relevant content enhances user experience by providing deeper insights or complementary information.

All things remaining the same, Google prefers to rank sites that can be easily accessed from all kinds of devices. Mobile-friendly sites are rewarded with higher rankings and sites that don’t render well on mobile devices are punished. Keyword optimization is probably the second-most important on-page SEO ranking factor after content. This would create unnecessarily long URLs, which are not good for SEO and neither for social media sharing. Each page should be optimized and contain a description of your content.