Google Ranking Factors SEO 2023

so what the Google ranking factors for
SEO in 2023 Daniel
so it's an interesting one because those
things that we know because basically
Google tells us so they have their
webmaster guides that kind of tell us
these are the things that you should be
doing these are things you shouldn't be
doing and then we've got the stuff that
everyone's learning by experimentation
but there are some core areas okay so if
we went into the core areas we're going
to do on-page optimization and we'll
look at these step by step in a second
we've still got links so links pointing
at your website social signals people
talking about your stuff you've then got
the user experience itself people like
people staying on your web pages and
then kind of connected to that but
slightly technical as well as core web
vitals
if you get those things right you will
rank is the key thing and and they're
not easy to do that it's not comp
obviously it's not complicated it's not
rocket science but neither is it easy
and only because most websites don't
cover all of those bases that's the
thing so you're not necessarily
guaranteed to rank if everybody anything
else in your space has that was doing a
good job doing a good job of it then
it's going to get get a little bit
harder but in my experience and a lot of
keyword I call them keyword Landscapes
actually if you get these things right
you rise above and that's the key to it
like there are there are thousands of no
you know known SEO factors and a number
of unknown ones right but as long as
you're doing a little bit more than the
other competitors in your space then you
get the opportunity for your time in the
sunshine so the thing is that everyone
will argue no there's this factor and
there's that factor and the algorithms
of this and it's like it doesn't matter
because if you get those fundamentals
right and your content is exceptional
the smarter the algorithm gets the more
that can content is going to stand out
because just bear in mind what the
algorithm is trying to do is trying to
when somebody searches give them the
best answer to that question the the
best piece of content if we just focus
on that more than anything else and you
tick these boxes so let's just go
through those those things first of all
on page optimization is the right words
on the page in the right place the right
words are those words that people are
searching for and the right place is
basically now the page title the URL the
heading
tick those get the right phrase in there
and then the copy you should be writing
for your audience now there's all sorts
we could get into about optimizing
bringing extra words in but you know you
can you can delve into that a bit more
deeply but tick the box to get the right
words on the page in the right place
that's your on-page Optimizer so give me
that in context Daniel so like let's
pick a phrase and let's just talk people
through like how would you use that
because it is quite prescriptive in a
way isn't it it is so if I were to say
um how to get Google analytics certified
yeah okay I would go into my probably
content management system and the name
of the page or the The Heading of the
page I'm going to put in how to get
Google and tick certified I'm probably
going to add a hook as well which is
what's that the hook is the whole thing
of how do I encourage you to to want to
read this how do I encourage you want to
click on it so it might be your
um and five free resources because that
like it tells me it is what I wanted to
get and it kind of hooks me in I put
that that's going to be in the heading
on the page normally the content
management system is then going to make
that the title the thing that shows up
in a tab on the page and the URL the
actual website address as well that
normally automatically happens if it
doesn't you can adjust it accordingly
but that's it and then you write the
content and you may be going to put
subheadings in itself but that's your
own page optimization get that right
next signal links this has been around
for forever
but it's that thing of why would another
website link through to your website
because you've got something useful
interesting entertaining education or
whatever it might be so you need to
create content that is worth bothering
to link through to rather than going
here's a 500 worth blog post No One's
Gonna bother who cares right so it's got
to be really exceptional interesting
engaging funding or something else or
here's a blog post that we've over
optimized to try and game and search
algorithm but it reads terribly well
that's not going to work nobody lean
through to it so it's that whole thing I
need to create something that's link
worthy those links need to come from
trusted websites so we can go off and we
can use numerous tools that allow us to
look at domain Authority it's normally
square of 100 do you trust this website
if I get links from high domain
Authority websites it improves my domain
Authority and it's going to basically
make that website better trust it now
all of these things there's a lot more
complexity under the surface but at a
higher level links are going to be
important a small part of the algorithm
is the social signals piece how many
people are talking about our stuff
they're tweeting it they're you they're
discussing your social media they're
linking back to our website there's
evidence that Google's looking at that
the extent to which they care is is kind
of challenging to work out but it's
definitely going to help with lots of
people are showing your stuff because
and I think that what I was just going
to say like I think baking in that it's
if it's good content and you've done it
in a way that it's share worthy you know
what do I mean by that so actually if I
can encourage more people to share it
that's clearly a user signal that you
know Google or any of the search engines
could potentially pick up on because
remember they're not just spidering your
content despiteing everybody's content
and they're looking at all those links
links coming through and they're looking
at when when things share and like also
they can see when something's shared and
it's popular so it's not about just
getting social shares like you want to
get like a lot of social shares so that
that signal goes through that this is
really really popular content and you
can do that by for example having an
interest testing and unique star for
example because people share stats why
would I share a stat on social media
because it makes me look more
intelligent if I do do that and makes me
look knowledgeable and you know people
like that so baking in nuts to share an
aspect but it's got to be good content
right that's the key it's going to come
to that point which is that actually
even if Google isn't even looking at
Social shares by the fact that people
are sharing it people are going to find
it and they're going to link to it from
their website or they're going to link
to it from somewhere so they kind of
have a knock-on impact on each other
then we get into user experience this is
a really growing part of the of the kind
of signals through to the search engines
and this is
when someone clicks on your result in
this the web page and the search engine
results page do they stay on that page
for a period of time and engage the
content or do they bounce back to the
search engine bouncing back that's a
negative signal staying on the page
dwell time is a positive signal so you
won't be able to get your content and
stay there you don't want to bouncing
straight back to the search engines you
know Chrome is telling Google how you're
engaging in acting with content so
therefore it means that we want to make
sure that people are really enjoying our
content again what does it come back to
building great content that people want
to engage with the last signal is what
we saw as core web vitals and actually
core web vitals is a technical
bit of the algorithm but it's basically
actually looking user experience again
so it's just it's a bit we know about
their looking user experience how
quickly does your page load it needs to
load quicker than four seconds on a
desktop
um you can go and look at this in Google
search console you'll be able to see how
you're doing against these metrics so
does it load quickly then does it move
around it's called cumulative layout
shift and and you don't want when
someone goes through the web page for
you to go to click on something and it
suddenly moves
I click an ad surprisingly yeah I've
seen some e-commerce sites and one of
the recent Trends is turning on infinite
scroll
it's a problem because every time you
get so everything loads in it and it
jumps slightly and that can create all
sorts of problems actually I've seen
examples of websites that since they
launched that their their organic
traffic has dropped quite significantly
it's a signal yeah it is definitely a
signal and it's definitely quite a
significant one and then the last one is
the the how quickly you can interact and
that's basically when you get to a web
page and it loads can you click on the
menu to get the page you want really
quickly and and Google and that's
happening less than 100 milliseconds so
you need to look at what Google thinks
they are in a hurry yeah right that's it
and users are right we all know oh this
website's a bit slow yeah well we don't
get that we just go bye I'm leaving so
so those are the core signals and if you
get those signals right and you do a
really good job with your content that's
the real caveat here you will start to
rank better so go through look at those
and those are things that are going to
make a difference just that example that
you gave of just even optimizing for the
title and the URL and the heading like
that very example we we played around
with that didn't we and actually that
that page I have to check see if it
still does not above Google's own answer
yeah Google's number two that's number
one so these do work yeah you don't need
huge teams you don't need lots of money
to do this you need to understand your
user focus on those signals and you will
get good rankings
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