Google is still the biggest search engine in the western world, and it has some very strict requirements for what it wants from webmasters. If you want to make sure that your website ranks as well as possible, it is important that you pay close attention to Google’s guidelines. Here is a quick look at what Google wants from webmasters:
High quality, factual content
Google is looking to move away from using link popularity as its main source of ranking emphasis, and to focus on how factually correct pages are instead, and with good reason. Currently, it is possible for websites that contain objectively incorrect information to rank well because rankings are a popularity contest. With this new change, websites that publish accurate, well cited content will outrank popular websites that have lower quality content. Naturally, this cannot apply to every topic – how can one review be more correct than another when reviews are subjective? But it will benefit websites that are focused on science, maths, health, and other fact-heavy topics.
Mobile friendly
Another thing that Google has been putting a lot of emphasis on is mobile friendliness. Earlier this month, Google initiated what many in the web community are calling Mobilegeddon. Mobilegeddon saw Google start to penalise websites that are not mobile friendly by moving them lower in the SERPs for searches that were conducted on a mobile device. Webmasters with an account on Google Webmaster Tools were warned if their websites were not considered to be mobile friendly, but there are still a huge number of websites being affected by the changes. If your website is more than a few years old, then yours could be one of them.
Careful targeting
Google’s guidelines apply both to standard SEO and also to paid search and PPC marketing. If you want to make sure that your campaigns perform well and that the pricing for them remains affordable, then it is a good idea to work with an adwords consultant. Accredited companies are specialists in offering advice about how to run good campaigns, and can help you with keyword research, ad copy, calls to action and more. Equally ensuring the usability is key to targeting the right prospective prospects, utilise software testing services from business such as https://www.bugfinders.com/ to ensure usability is functioning as it should.
Google offers a wealth of information on its own Webmaster Help blogs and in the Webmaster Tools and Analytics panels, and you can use this to find out if there are any problems with your website. If you have a modern responsive design, good hosting and stay away from black hat marketing techniques, then it is likely you have nothing to fear from the search engine, and with some simple tweaks your brand will get the ranking that it deserves.
Now is a good time to re-assess the design of your website and the quality of the content that you publish on it. Instead of worrying about link building, focus on making your website a source of the highest quality content in your niche.
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