WordPress Tips

Our last post gave you some ideas on optimizing your SEO strategies for 2020. This week, we continue with some more tips to ensure that your website ranks well. Consider these ideas.

HTTPS Encryption Matters

We have noted before that Google likes to keep its algorithm secrets. The company rarely releases any specific information about its ranking factors. However, several years ago they announced that website security matters and will increasingly impact rankings.

While we always recommend robust security for your website for the safety of your data, we now recommend it as well for improving SEO. Make sure your site has HTTPS encryption.

You acquire HTTPS encryption with an SSL certificate, which helps authenticate websites and ensures hackers cannot see or intercept data your users share on your site. It’s an easy way to keep your user data and content safe, and it can help generate more organic traffic.

To add an SSL certification to your site, you can purchase one. Or, you may have a free option as well. It depends on the website and business applications. Once you have the certification, it is installed on your server and set up for your website.

Understand the Algorithms

The electronic marketplace has more than one search engine. Still, Google holds 88% of that marketplace. In 2015, Google added Google Rank Brain to its Hummingbird algorithm.

Rank Brain is an artificial intelligence technology that enables Hummingbird to provide accurate search results to more complex queries. In short, it uses AI to constantly adjust ranking algorithms for specific keywords by taking into consideration user satisfaction.

The result is that Google takes into account a user’s post-click actions in addition to their pre-click actions. For instance, one of the primary elements that Rank Brain considers is the click-through rate of your search results. If you prioritize useful, quality content that provides real value for readers (as evidenced by their click-throughs your content and time on page) Google will recognize that value and offer it in their results more often.

Last year, Google introduced BERT, which uses natural language processing (NLP) to better understand the nuances of searches. Approximately, 10% of all queries have been impacted by this update. We suggest checking your site’s search engine traffic to determine if you’re part of the 10%. While we don’t know everything about what BERT wants, the basics remain – create good content that provides value for the reader and satisfies the parameters of the search query.

Understand Your Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Personalization is growing. As a result, no SERP is ever the same.

In this day and age of growing personalization, no search engine results page (SERP) is the same. Google wants to keep users within its ecosystem for as long as possible and has come up with innovative ways of presenting information on search results pages to do just that. Studies show that 34% of search engine users don’t even click out of the SERP to the links presented. This means they found what they were looking for on the results page.

Getting in front of your target audience via SEO hinges upon knowing what kind of search results your keywords will most likely create. Once you know the SERP, you can create content optimized for it.

Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

We repeat ourselves a lot on this issue. We cannot overstate the importance of making your site mobile friendly. Today, ensuring your site is mobile friendly is more important than ever. The statistics speak for themselves: 71% of digital time is spent on mobile, 50% of Google searches on mobile and Gen Z are 2x more likely to shop on mobile compared to Millennials.

If those percentages don’t convince you, several years ago, Google released an algorithm update that now favors mobile-friendly sites. Not making your site mobile-friendly will detract from your rankings.

Give us a call at NOYO Web Development and let us optimize your site for SEO. It’s a competitive marketplace in the digital world. Stay up-to-date and remain ahead of the game.