This is because Google considers freshness when ranking content in search results. Google defines quality content as material that’s both helpful and reliable. The search engine also cautions content marketers and SEO experts to SEO Anomaly publish content for readers, not for the algorithm. As SEO has evolved, so have the ideas and practices (and at times, misconceptions) related to it. What was considered best practice or top priority in the past may no longer be relevant or effective due to the way search engines (and the internet) have developed over time.

Monitor Your Google SEO Performance

For example, after completing our audit of 2,000 Google Ads accounts, we were able to use those findings to get tons of backlinks via guest posting. It was content that people wanted to know about, so editors were happy to let us link to it in our articles. As a result, content that ranks well tends to get more backlinks. Content that doesn’t rank well tends to fall further and further into obscurity. Almost any website that is host to at least some quality content can usually get to at least a domain authority of 10. Sitting on top of the Google SERP ensures that you’ll get clicks—lots of clicks.

You can either manually input the URLs and specify the keywords you want to target for each page. Or import them from Google Analytics 4 (GA4),Google Search Console (GSC), or Semrush’s Organic Research tool. And with its project tools, you can keep an eye on ranking changes, run site audits, and check out what your competitors are up to with their SEO strategies. The primary objective of both Google SEO and SEO in general is to generate organic (non-paid) traffic to your site from the search engine results.

Top 10 SEO Ranking Factors: How to Increase Google Ranking

Largest Contentful Paint or LCP measures loading performance from a user’s perspective. Though there are many page speed load metric, this one is unique because of the shift to the user’s perspective. So, whether you want to call it LLMO, GEO, or the name of the week, it’s no different from SEO. Even if you manage to create the most comprehensive guide ever, you’ll still fail if your content looks and feels like everything else out there. You want to prioritize keywords that score at least a 2 and above. Sometimes a keyword is merely a subtopic under a broader, main topic.

That finding spurred a redesign of their mobile site, which ultimately improved their rankings. Their Rank Tracker tool requires a login and a subscription, but it is well-known for strong backlink analysis and competitive research features. It comes with a suite of SEO tools from site audits to keyword research.

If you’re already ranking accidentally for it, then you’re sure to rank when you intentionally target that keyword. Also it creates a poor user experience because people can’t find what they’re looking for. Keywords are the same thing as search terms (also called search queries). To rank higher on Google, it’s crucial to optimize your website’s on-page SEO.

• Sometimes, Google may replace the text it display in this section in their SERP from your page’s content that is more relevant to the search result.
• By looking at what your competitors are doing, you can find holes in your strategy and make changes to fix them.
• The quality and readability of your content is often considered to be one of the top SEO ranking factors.
• Using a Chrome Extension like GMB Everywhere allows you to see the categories they’re using on their business profile.
• Break up text with headings (H1, H2, etc.) to improve readability and keyword targeting.

If you click on one of the pages, you can see all of the keywords that page already ranks for. As you can see, I also added lots of high-quality content underneath my infographic. Google’s Hummingbird update allows Google to go beyond simple keywords. When your content is easy to read, people will spend more time on your site. But where you use your keywords is just as important as how many times you use them.