When you enter a search query on Google, say, for example, “web design cost”, which website link do you usually click? Do you commonly visit the ones on the second or third search results pages?
Forbes has cited that Google’s first page catches 71% of search traffic clicks, while clicks on the second page only receive 6%. The data shows how getting your content to rank on the first page is crucial. A properly executed optimisation effort, with top SEO ranking factors in mind, helps do so.
SEO or Search engine optimisation needs to constantly evolve and update combination strategies that help online businesses keep up with website ranking. Search engines have a clear-cut goal. They aim to provide users with the most relevant answers or information.
Search engines’ algorithms choose pages that are the most relevant to users’ intent and query to find the most relevant, authoritative, and credible ones, ranking them in deserving order.
And what do we mean by deserving? Search engines consider these two website-ranking factors to serve the correct information to users.
- Relevancy: They rate the relevance between a search query and the content on a page through topics or keywords.
- Authority: It is a website’s credibility on the Internet. Google assumes that the more well-appraised a page or resource is, the more valuable its content is to readers.
Search engines keep their complex algorithms a secret. But here’s how they generally work:
Furthermore, SEOs have identified some factors they consider when ranking a page. We recognise these factors and combine them into an SEO ranking strategy.
At iFoundries, our SEO experts are on their toes, constantly keeping their Google rank factors’ knowledge up-to-date to help clients optimise and achieve their campaign goals successfully.
Here are the top SEO ranking factors we have identified that businesses in Singapore need to follow for a better ranking on Google in 2024.
What are the Top SEO ranking factors?
- Optimised Content
- Mobile Friendliness
- User Experience
- Page Speed
- Domain Authority, Age and URL
- Backlinks
- Focused Keywords
- Social Signals
- Technical SEO
- Schema Markup
Optimised Content
Optimised content is one of the top SEO ranking factors for 2024.
When it comes to ranking in SEO, the optimisation and quality of the content come in a pair and still rise as the most critical factors.
Suppose your content has the right keywords and headings and covers a broad spectrum of highly related subject clusters. In that case, Google will see it as credible and informative, bringing your content up in SEO rankings. Additionally, you can add visuals to explain and index them to add credibility.
More so, although content length is essential, always note that quality is more important than quantity. There are no hard and fast rules regarding content length; however, having a fair length according to the points you cover has a better chance of bringing your content up in ranking. Some marketing gurus argue that long-form content does better. But for us, relevancy is key.
Also, it’s good for content writers to note that new and interesting topics make everything better. The goal: cut through today’s noise.
Google is always alert on picking fresh content for a higher SEO rank, as newer articles generally contain the latest information updates. Google Freshness Algorithm was rolled out in 2010 and has constantly favoured new content over older ones, and Google has yet to look back.
Mobile Friendliness
92.3% of internet users use their mobile phones to access the internet, with 55% of website traffic coming from mobile devices. These numbers make mobile-friendliness one of the top SEO ranking factors in 2024.
The statistics vehemently show how brands and businesses should optimise their site for mobile devices to achieve better user experience. But what are the characteristics of a well-optimised website for mobiles?
- Fast loading time. If your load time is slow, it may affect bounce rates, revenue, and search performance.
- Convenient navigation. Your website should be responsive and automatically resized to adjust and fit every mobile screen. Also, ensure that ads and other elements do not hide important content.
- High-readablity. You can use larger fonts for better readability on a small screen.
User Experience
User experience is vital for websites and is one of the top SEO ranking factors in 2024.
An important tip about search engines is that they want to give their users the best website experience, so it is essential to have intuitive navigation features and a functional design interface for users to enjoy.
Google can notice if poor user experience causes increased bounce rates on your website and may drop your search engine rankings. It is because Google wants to put content that users are heavily engaging with. Giving visitors an excellent user experience and ensuring that your website has high engagement is important.
Page Speed
Have you experienced visiting a website with slow page speed and just ended up leaving instead without taking any action inside? We understand how frustrating it can be.
For businesses and brands, page speed has been one of the top SEO ranking factors for a long time now. A slow website page can hurt their search engine ranking, and some of the things you can do to aid this are compressing images, using a fast web hosting provider, and code modification.
Domain Authority, Age and URL
Your domain’s history, age and URL are some of the top SEO ranking factors you must consider in boosting your SEO game in 2024.
A domain that has existed for a long time with a good reputation and credibility will have a higher ranking than a new, untested one. Improving your authority takes time, and the key is to be patient and check on your domain status regularly to see whether a specific action is needed.
Meanwhile, URL is also a vital SEO ranking factor as Google uses the keywords in the URL to determine your website topic when it crawls on your page the first time. That’s why it is crucial to incorporate your main keyword in your URL.
Backlinks
Links are connectors between web pages. When a website connects to yours, the link is called a backlink.
The more backlinks your website has, the higher it will rank on Google due to increased brand authority which is the backbone of any SEO ranking strategy.
However, because there is a lot of spam and unreliable information online, Google has a way to credit different links differently e.g. if they are credible or sponsored.
When looking for link-building opportunities on your website, always look for high-authority websites to improve your ranking, credibility, and traffic.
Here are some link-building tips:
You can use Ahref’s Backlink Checker to see all the pages that link to a top-ranking page on Google and propose your content as a better alternative to link to.
You can also link up pages within your website and create internal links. Internal links can help you boost the SEO rankings of a particular page if many pages on your site link to it.
Remove dead links no longer active and return error messages when you click on them. Having these on your site can cause your site to be penalised.
Other great link-building options include mentions of your website or joining a thought leadership group. Providing an opportunity to network with like-minded peers and entering a professional community can be part of a regular SEO campaign and link-building budget.
(Forbes, 2022)
Focused Keywords
Incorporating relevant, focused keywords in your content continues to be one of the top SEO ranking factors for 2024. Just remember to use keywords naturally in your content.
SEO ranking starts with discovering what phrases potential buyers enter into search engines. When doing keyword research, ensure you have identified your target market, their motivations and needs, and ways they’d communicate those needs.
Understanding search intent more intelligently will elevate keyword research to a modern, successful search ranking strategy.
Google works hard to identify the right intent behind a user’s search, irrespective of the query type.
Hence, identifying keywords is an evolved process. They are no longer just words and phrases relevant to a customer’s search query.
Social Signals
Social media plays a part in the top SEO ranking factors for 2024.
Getting ahead in search rankings doesn’t only mean making necessary adjustments and improvements to your website.
Engagement and activities on your social media accounts may also affect your rankings, including likes, shares, comments, and followers you have on your socials.
The thing is, when people share your content on social media platforms, it may be a sign that what you have is highly valuable content. Then, when users share it, it can generate more traffic back to your page and increase the chances for your content to build backlinks.
Definitely, it is an indirect ranking factor.
Technical SEO
Optimising the technical aspects of your website is also one of the top SEO ranking factors in 2024.
Technical SEO involves improving website speed, making a website more accessible to crawl and creating a more digestible site for search engines.
Things you can do to perform your technical SEO efforts are:
- Creating a short and catchy meta description that includes your main keyword for the content
- Add keywords in page titles
- Use headers in your content (H1, H2, H3…)
- Apply keyword phrases in image alt tags to establish the photos’ relevance to the content’s topic
- Use scheme markup
Schema Markup
Schema markup is the language search engines leverage to characterise, categorise, and understand the content of your web pages.
Undoubtedly, search engines are powerful tools; however, they don’t have the human intuition and visual capability to read and identify content. With schema markup, search engines can locate the meaning of your pages, their author, type, and date it was published, wrestling in higher rankings in search results.
Conclusion
Search engines are powerful technologies to play around with. It is vital for your brand to navigate it strategically using Search Engine Optimisation while partnering it with top SEO ranking factors to emerge as credible website pages and get your content to rank higher.
From content optimisation to schema markup, a digital marketing agency like iFoundries can help you increase your content’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).
We are expert strategists and implementers of marketing technology and data who provide top-notch SEO services in Singapore to drive growth for your brands.
Learn about what we do and connect with us!
