8 Important SEO Ranking Factors in 2023 Businesses Should Know

It’s important for businesses to optimize their websites for Google search results in 2023 and beyond. To help you improve your website’s SEO search ranking, here are top 8 SEO ranking factors you should know and optimize!

1. Anchor Text

   Google uses the text that’s used to hyperlink a webpage to gain textual understanding of the hyperlinked webpage. For example, if an anchor text of a hyperlinked webpage says “Vancouver Audi dealership”, Google will understand that the webpage is related to Vancouver dealerships and will display the webpage when search terms related to the anchor text are used.

2. H1 and H2 Headings

   Headings – including H1 and H2 – can absolutely be a ranking factor, as they help Google understand the content within the page. While they aren’t the only ranking factor, they do matter, so have them clearly written and keyword-friendly.

3. Content

   It’s abundantly clear that content is used as a search ranking signal, and the quality of the content, including how directly it answers a question, can be vital to performance in the Search Engine Results Pages, or SERPs. The content on its own (and not just headings) is assessed by Google.

4. Backlinks

   The number of quality backlinks coming to your site from other sites have long been a general SEO best practice. That’s because Google has established backlinks as “votes”. The more backlinks or “votes” your website has, the more credible it appears in the eyes of Google and, therefore, more likely your website will appear higher on Google search results.

5. Page Speed

   We know that page loading speed is a confirmed factor for Google’s SERPs (and has been since 2010) because pagespeed directly impacts the user’s experience. Make sure that your site loading times remain as low as possible.

6. Title Tags

   Keywords in title tags are used by Google to gain textual understanding of a webpage, and display this webpage for search terms related to the keywords in these title tags. If a webpage’s title tags read “2023 Audi S4”, Google will understand that the webpage is related to the 2023 Audi S4 and it will show the webpage for search queries related to “2023 Audi S4”.

7. Relevance, distance and prominence

   The geographical proximity of a business and the relevance of the business to a specific search query are also ranking factors. For example, if you’re in Downtown Vancouver and you’re searching for “Vancouver ramen”, a ramen shop that’s located in Vancouver and close to you will likely appear higher on search results compared to ramen shops that are further away. To optimize for these search factors, specify your company’s location in your Google Business Profile and schema markup so that Google has a better idea of where your business is located, and can display your website according to a searcher’s geographic location.

If you have any questions about the above tips or want help with SEO for your website, please feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to help!