The Most Important SEO Ranking Factors to Consider for 2017

SEO ranking factors continually change as the major search engines, such as Google and Bing continue to develop their ranking algorithms. The living nature of search engine algorithms continues; here we take a look at the top SEO ranking factors that need consideration for 2017.

1. Endorsements Count

Endorsements from other websites continue to have the strongest positive effect on search engine rankings and these endorsements come in the form of backlinks. The number of domains that link to a page have a direct ranking impact and correlation that holds true, and more so than any other ranking factor.

The domain diversity of backlinks is still key, while multiple links from the same domain have little or no effect on search result placement. In short, backlinks are an endorsement and the more domains that endorse a website; the better it will perform in terms of search engine ranking.

Just as in previous years, the authority of backlinks is just as important as the quantity of backlinks. Exact match anchor text still correlates closely with search placement. While the approach of acquiring exact match anchor text links was seen as the go-to tactic in previous years, this approach is no longer a recommended SEO practice. Too many backlinks that use the same anchor text look false and will ultimately have a negative impact on search ranking.

 

2. Expert Comprehensive Content

 

Topically relevant content outranks content which is not focused on one topic. In addition, the more comprehensive and complete the content, the better it will rank in search engine results. Content that was 500 words long was once considered to be optimised for search engines. In 2017 longer content ranks higher, with the average first page Google results having an average content length of 1,900 words.

 

2017 has seen Google learn how to understand the on-page content better and its methods employed look further than just the number of times a keyword is used within the content of a page. Content that goes into more in-depth analysis and detail will rank better. It is now apparent that a webpage can have much lower target search term frequencies but still obtain decent ranking positions.

 

It isn’t fully understood why longer content improves search engine rankings. It is possible that longer content indicates to search engines that the publisher cares about creating quality content. That longer content allows search engines to understand the topic of the page better in order to rank it more accurately. Crucially, longer content can also tend to be more relevant to the users search query.

 In late 2015, Google also confirmed that it was using RankBrain - an artificial learning intelligence system, to interpret and understand conversational ‘long-tail’ search queries better.

3. Domain Authority

Overall domain authority has a larger impact on search placement, than the authority of the actual page itself. This closely links back to the number of endorsements from different domains. A website’s domain authority undoubtedly improve the ranking of it’s homepage as well as all of its sub-pages providing it has good navigation and robust internal linking between the homepage, service pages, category pages and so on.

 

4. Site Speed

Google announced in 2010 that its search engine algorithm considered site speed as a ranking factor. Fast-loading pages outrank those that have slow load speeds and for SEO the average page load speed of the domain should be reviewed and considered. Developers and Webmasters can use Google’s own PageSpeed Insights tool to assess the speed of individual pages and the website speed as a whole.

 

5. Mobile Search

Mobile friendly webpages rank higher with Google and this isn’t surprising with over fifty billion mobile device searches are made each month. This means that mobile searches now exceeds those searches made on desktop devices made each month. Mobile friendliness, which is closely linked to site speed, is a ranking factor that is set to become important in the latter half of 2017. Around this time, Google is also set to make a change to its algorithm, in order to rank Accelerated Mobile Pages.

 

AMPs will be shown on the first page of Google search results and are essentially light versions of a webpage. These are designed to load almost instantly and have slow loading elements removed, including ads, third party JavaScript and cookies.

 

Google has already made AMPs visible in the ‘Top Stories’ news section of its search results and these are highlighted with a lightening flash and an AMP tag. Non-news websites will be listed later in 2017 and it is already possible to see the results by making a search at g.co/ampdemo, from a mobile phone.

 

AMPs are considered so important by Google that an AMP page will always be shown in search engine results instead of the corresponding mobile friendly or desktop pages. However, for now the desktop page will be used to rank AMPs. For SEO it is still important that websites do not stop creating desktop webpages altogether.

 

6. URL Length

Short URLs perform better than long URLs and websites should limit the number of words in the URL to five. Google’s algorithm only puts weight on these first five words and using more may mean that Google misunderstands the topic of the webpage.

 

Long URLs also indicate to search engines that the page in question is several layers down from the homepage and thus is not an authoritative page and one that gets less link authority flowing to it, from the homepage. For SEO purposes, website owners should not go back and change URLs but simply ensure that future URLs are created with URL length in mind.

 

Title tag keyword optimisation is still a ranking factor but one that in 2017 is delivering diminishing returns. This is a reflection of the fact that Google is moving towards semantic search but title tags should still include an exact match keyword.

 

7. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is still a ranking factor in 2017 and a low bounce rate is an indicator of the user experience, along with time spent on site. Low bounce rate is a by-product of good content and once again highlights that using misleading content titles or incomplete titles in order to attract website traffic is a bad practice.

 

8. Image Rich Content

Content with a minimum of one image ranks better than content created without associated images. This could be linked to the fact that image rich content generates more social shares and hence generates a larger number of total views. There is however no additional benefit to using more than one image, at least in terms of search engine ranking.

 

9. Schema Markup

The use of Schema markup (Schema.org) does not appear to directly correlate with a page’s search result placement. Schema markup is placed in the HTML code of a website and is not visible to the viewer. The markup is designed to allow search engines to understand a webpage better and can be used to clearly indicate important information, such as opening times, address locality, customer ratings of products and the price range of products on ecommerce sites.

 

There is no harm in using Schema markup but in 2017, its use does not appear to effect search engine rankings.

 

10. Site Security

The use of HTTPS and SSL Certificates are a weaker ranking factor at present, but still a factor nonetheless. These have been used since 2014 and make it almost impossible for a site to be cloned. In order to use HTTPS and SSL Certificates, a website needs a dedicated IP address or a static IP address, which will in turn improve the speed of the website, as the IP address is not shared by other websites.

 

Sites that use SSL Certificates and HTTPS are more secure and the protection they offer to visitors can be seen visually in the user’s web browser. These sites indicate trust to visitors and are highlighted with a green block in the URL bar or by a green-coloured lock that is shown before the website’s URL.

 

New websites and ecommerce websites should consider launching their sites with HTTPS and SSL Certificates but, due to their complex nature, existing websites should not swap to this, purely for the terms of SEO.

 

These are the major SEO ranking factors that should be considered in 2017 and it is very apparent at how closely and interlinked these factors are.