Key SEO ranking factors of 2020

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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is constantly changing, which means it’s important to stay up to date with the latest requirements for your website. SEO refers to your website’s ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). Appearing in the top three search results is a great achievement, almost half of the clicks on a search result page go to these positions. In today’s blog, we will be looking at the key SEO ranking factors for 2020. 

Key SEO Ranking Factors

1. Accessibility & Security

Accessibility regards your website’s URL. Google uses bots to reach your URL so that it can understand your website and therefore it can be placed in the most relevant position on the search engine. Your website will have to be well-coded, and it’ll need a sitemap, which is created for every website that we design. It’s important to ensure that your website has a secure connection, in order to reduce the risks of a security breach. Find out about our hosting and security service.

2. Page Speed

Page speed has been a huge factor of SEO for years. There’s no denying that a fast-loading website will give users a better experience. Back in 2018, Google released a search engine algorithm update which focused on ensuring that websites worked quickly and efficiently on mobile devices. If your website doesn’t load fast enough on mobiles, it could be penalised. At Complete, we ensure that all of our websites work quickly on both desktop and mobile devices.

3. Mobile Friendly 

Websites must be mobile-friendly, as more people are using mobiles than desktops to access the web. Google has a mobile-first index, meaning that websites that are optimised for mobile phone use are more likely to appear first on the SERP. Here, we use responsive frameworks to ensure that our websites resize based on the screen that they are displayed on.

4. Domain Age 

According to Google, URLs that are three or more years old are more likely to appear at the top of the SERP, so it’s a good idea to keep your website optimised to retain its high position on the search engine. Domain authority also plays a key part in a high position, it’s important to ensure you have quality content and keep up to date with social shares. 

5. Optimised Content

Optimised content is directly related to using specific keywords to comply with Google’s search algorithm. These are words and phrases that people search for when they are looking for information. You’ll need to look into common phrases and queries that are relevant to your industry. SEO favours fresh and original content, which means it’s important to be aware of duplicate content and avoid it where possible. It’s important to understand that Google wants in-depth, quality content.

6. Signals

Google uses artificial intelligence to rate websites. The signal they use is referred to as ‘RankBrain’. This refers to different signals, such as – 

  • Clickthrough rate – the percentage of people who click your website on a SERP and visit it. 
  • Bounce rate – the number of people who visit your website and then leave it – meaning your site may not have given them what they wanted.
  • Dwell time – the amount of time that people spend on your website. 

Google uses this data to determine how relevant your website is to the keywords that have been searched.

7. Social Shares 

Social shares are a good way to show Google that your website is valuable. While social shares won’t directly influence your website’s position on the SERP, more shares means more people are likely to visit your website, which could lead to a higher ranking on Google.

8. Linking

The web is built on links, which means they’re a great signal for SEO. Google can use these specific links to decide how relevant your website is based on the keywords searched. It’s important to have links from another website that Google deems authoritative, in order to get more visits on your own. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s blog on key SEO ranking factors. If you’re interested in our SEO services then please get in touch.