Today, enterprises around the world compete for search engine rankings. Yet a top SEO company understands this status depends on an impressive array of factors. Gaining the coveted first place listing under your preferred set of keywords often proves challenging indeed. This brief article details how 128 experts weight the factors involved in elevating a website’s search engine optimization position.
Numerous SEO Algorithms
As a preliminary matter, it seems important to mention that different search engines employ varying mathematical formulas (or “algorithms”) when they rank websites. Probably the Google Search Engine algorithm enjoys the most acclaim today. Some search engines rate specific items higher than others, or ignore factors which many other algorithms take into account. In the world of SEO, every search engine possesses the freedom to respond to its own unique search evaluation priorities.
Assisting Online Searches
Yet search engines do share some goals in common. In most cases, their designers hope to direct searchers to the most useful online sites to obtain the information or products described by a set of search parameters. In June, 2013, a group of 128 SEO experts listed the importance of certain factors in search algorithms. Changes may well have occurred since that date, of course (for example, Google updates its search algorithm with some frequency). Yet the breakdown does aptly illustrate the complexity of the process involved in creating most search engine algorithms.
Some Important SEO Factors
Moz provides an informative pie chart detailing the results of the 2013 survey. At that time, leaders in the SEO field believed the authoritativeness of site links at the domain level held the most weight for search engine ranking purposes. Page level link features proved only slightly less important. In third place, page level keywords and content definitely made an impact. So-called “agnostic features” such as the loading of the page contents, the quantity and caliber of material, the uniqueness, and the ease of reading also factored highly in most SEO algorithms. Domain-level branding properties and the quality and volume of traffic counted, too. Three less important, yet still significant factors, related to the quantity and quality of social media link sharing, the exact or partial use of keywords, and so-called “domain agnostic” properties. The latter included the length of the domain name and the responsiveness of the site. Obtaining high SEO rankings requires excellence on many levels!
