Top SEO Scoring Factors for Your Website

How can you use Google’s search engine algorithm to rank highly on search results? There is no easy solution for this inquiry, as Google keeps its algorithm a highly protected secret. Luckily, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts have researched and tested multiple methods of improving visibility through search engine optimization through the years. They have come to a general understanding of what Google’s algorithm values and ranks highly over other factors. With this understanding, SEO professionals point out the 3 most important factors that affect a website’s overall SEO score: Google’s E-E-A-T scoring, user-experience and trust, and off-site authority. Each of these factors are impacted by multiple on-page, off-page, and technical components.

E-E-A-T Scoring

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is a structure used to assess the quality of a website's content, as highlighted in Google's Search Quality Rater Guideline. This rating criteria is more strict for pages in the "Your Money or Your Life" (YMYL) category—sites writing about topics that have the potential to affect a user's health, finance, safety, or quality of life.

• Experience: Does the author of a page or website have relevant experience in the topic of the page?
• Expertise: How knowledgeable or skillful is the author?
• Authoritativeness: How sought-out is the author's voice in the niche?
• Trustworthiness: Is the content honest and correct?

Now that we've laid the groundwork for how our content will be scored, let's look into some ways to receive a high score.

• Use of correct grammar and spelling, paired with an authoritative "voice" using industry terminology establishes professionalism and expertise on a subject.
• Well-researched, well-written content provides accurate and relevant information for users.
• Detailed, comprehensive posts with multiple sections show in-depth knowledge of a topic.
• Content freshness using trending topics or updated posts prove relevancy through time.
• Use of high-quality images or videos sets you apart from other websites to show a unique but relevant perspective.
• Content age is indirectly a factor, as older content is more likely to have accrued backlinks and shares over time, showing authoritativeness of the content.

To summarize, following Google's E-E-A-T scoring criteria simply requires high-quality, helpful content. By uploading and updating accurate, useful content regularly, your website and pages will begin seeing improvement in SEO rankings.

User Experience and Trust

User experience and trust are a factor Google looks into when scoring a page on your website. This category is directly tied to your website's bounce rate—the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing a single page. By improving user experience and building trust, you will see a decline in bounce rate. So what affects this crucial criteria?

• A fast-loading website indicates technical competence for a smooth user experience.
• A website's responsiveness across multiple devices and screen sizes affects a user's ability to have an equal experience on any device of their choosing.
• Easy site navigation with an easy-to-use navigation bar at the top of a page or a sitemap/breadcrumbs at the bottom of the page help users understand where they are on a website and how to navigate it easily.
• Readable content, accentuated by a compelling design, lead to a helpful and unique user experience.
• Logical structuring allows simple navigation through pages.
• Internal links from related pages to one another signal relevance and importance.
• Short but descriptive URLs help understand what a user is looking at on their screen.
• HTML validation and cleanup lead to faster load times for users.
• Secure browsing through the use of HTTPS encrypts data to protect the communication between a user's browser and a website.

User experience and trust are built through the ability to securely browse a page that is pleasant and easy for a user to navigate. To achieve these, consider planning out your structure, design, and security.

Off-Site Authority

Building authority of your business takes time. With ample time, you will acquire the trust and overall positive views of your brand from users and consumers. Off-site authority is shown through brand sentiment and backlinks—links that lead from one website to another.

• Positive brand sentiment through high reviews on business listing platforms indirectly affect SEO by showing competence and building trust.
• Brand mentions and sentiment through forums, blogs, articles, or other platforms also indirectly affect SEO.
• Social media activity leads to more views and impressions, leading to a higher likelihood of being cited or shared, which can lead to possible backlinks or mentions from other sites.

Backlinks are very important in showing an author's credibility. If an author is their work is mentioned in multiple relevant platforms, it shows that the author or the author's work is worth sharing or talking about. Let's look into the specifics that Google approaches backlinks.

• Backlinks from pages that center around a relevant or similar topic score higher than backlinks from pages about different topics.
• Backlinks from high-authority pages are more valuable than backlinks from low-authority pages.
• High backlinks suggest authority, but farming links is counterproductive and will lower your overall score.
• Reciprocal links are helpful if relevant, but penalized if excessive or irrelevant to the topic of a page.
• A highly diverse set of backlinks from directories, articles, blogs, and forums will earn your page a higher score.
• Anchor texts with specific keywords linking to a backlink improves rankings.
• Older links generally have more time to accumulate trust and authority.
• Links from different websites should appear natural and not manipulated in an attempt to simply achieve a higher score.

A page's off-site authority is determined by trust, recognition, and backlinks. By building up a diverse and relevant set of backlinks, a page will score highly in its authority.

Common SEO Misconceptions

It is important to fully grasp how Google's algorithm rewards or punishes certain SEO tactics. Without an understanding of generally good practices, SEO tactics may actually be counterproductive and harm a website's ranking. Here are some common misconceptions that either lower a website's ranking or are not as impactful for SEO score as believed.

• Keywords in Title: Keywords are absolutely crucial in showing a user the relevance of a page to their search query, but including keywords should only be done when done naturally in a relevant area.
• Title Length: Titles of top ranking pages on most search queries contain around 7 or 8 words on average, suggesting you should avoid long or unnatural titles.
• Keywords in URL: Placing target keywords in URLs have no correlation with higher rankings, so they should only be placed in URLs if they are relevant and necessary.
• Keywords in meta description: Unnatural keyword stuffing in meta descriptions and meta tags—HTML markup elements—negatively impacts your rankings, as Google penalizes such behavior.
• Meta Description Length: Top ranking pages average between 23-35 words in their meta descriptions.
• Undervaluing Outside Channels: Business listing platforms, social media, forums, and other platforms are important in building your brand image to gain trust and credibility.

Understanding these misconceptions will help you maintain tactics that will boost your website's ranking. Keep these in mind when you plan an SEO strategy for your website!

Conclusion

Although Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may seem complicated, it is actually based on simple principles. Make your page accurate and informative, provide good user experience and security, and build your reputation as a trustworthy source. By following these generally good practices, your website will rise in rankings.