Whether your site will be in the top search results of Google depends on how it meets the features of the search engine. These features are called ranking algorithms – that is, the rules for distributing sites on specific search lines. The main goal of these algorithms is to automatically find out how good a particular site is and whether it will be useful to the visitor.
If the search exactly meets the user’s request, then the latter will always return to it. And the more people use the search engine, the more expensive they sell ads.
The ability to monetize traffic forces search engines to constantly improve and compete with each other. Algorithms are undergoing careful and regular work aimed at improving them. A complete list of ranking factors and the role of each of them is constantly being updated.
How to please the changeable search engines and make the site worthy of traffic? How to solve client problems and make your online resource really useful? And also how to advance in different niches and find competitive advantages?
In this article, VC outlines the answers to all these questions and talks about a strategy that will work regardless of what happens with search algorithms. Those who doesn’t want to dive into SEO world and just let the pros handle this, NIX Solutions suggests the company’s services. And those interested in the topic are recommended to continue reading.
About SEO Approach
SEO-specialists are engaged in bringing the site into the form most satisfying to the algorithms in order to raise the resource to the top lines. The complexity of their work lies in the fact that the ranking rules of all commercial search engines are unknown to anyone except their creators.
However, thanks to the long-term practice of promoting different sites, analyzing the results and conducting various experiments, the optimizers nevertheless selected a list of constant factors that are precisely taken into account by the algorithms. They can be divided into 5 groups:
- domain – age and level of the domain, occurrence of a key request in a name, history;
- commercial – the presence of contact data, information on delivery and payment, the presence of price lists;
- textual – the presence and content of meta tags, the amount of text on the landing page, its uniqueness and quality, key phrases and other factors;
- referential – the number, age, weight and anchor of external links;
- behavioral – the average duration of a visit, the number of views per session, the percentage of refunds, the percentage of refusals, the clickthrough rate CTR in the SERP and other metrics that describe user behavior on the site.
From time to time, the significance of a factor increases or decreases, but they all matter.
However, reliance on volatile search algorithms often leads to skepticism about SEO. Effective search engine promotion methods are becoming obsolete, new and inaccessible to a wide range. Even specialists often do not have time to master them, the quality of services is falling, rumors are circulating that SEO does not help.
What to do for those who are trying to optimize the site without involving specialists? And what is always important to keep in mind for the SEO-specialists so that their actions are expedient in any circumstances?
In other words, is it possible to build a strategy that will not depend on search algorithms?
Unbreakable SEO Principles
Sometimes you have to hear from those who decided to engage in search engine promotion: “Google does not love me. I made a good site, but it is always on very distant search pages.” There is only one thing to be said to this – do not suffer from megalomania. Sites are chosen by users, not the search engine, it only adapts to their preferences.
It’s important to understand that you are struggling with competitors, not a search engine.
Who is worthy of traffic?
- the one who solves the user’s problem better;
- better in comparison with competitors;
- the user selects and the search responds.
All principles of the search are based on the preferences of the person. So, for example, no one in Yandex decided in advance that the number 8-800- … would be a ranking factor. Some companies just started using it. People liked calling a toll free number all over Russia. The search responded to this preference, as a result of which it became some standard and factor influencing the place in the search results.
How to understand which site is better
Both Google and Yandex understand the quality of the search as a solution to the user’s problem. The better you solve it, the higher the site will be in the SERP.
The structure of your site for search is the entry point, door for the user to come to you. Search engines are fighting for a kind of user happiness, which they understand as a successful solution to their problem. In this sense, having got to your site, the user should be happy.
Large sites did not pay for the top lines. They are at the top positions not because they have paid, but because people choose them. These sites solve their problems.
How search engines determine site quality
Many still approach optimization only from the point of view of a search query. This understanding has long been outdated. It is important to understand that a request is just a crutch. Behavioral factors come to the fore.
Search queries with 3D tours are rare, but sites with them have advantages because users like it. You need to be guided by the principle, if people need it, then add it to the page, if possible. Tell in detail about services, cover needs, give maximum benefit to the client.