Website Ranking

Search Engines

Websites are becoming more critical to business, government, and individual use. Online advertising through the likes of Google Adwords and ensuring that a well-ranked website is a crucial factor in attracting customers. Perhaps the most important single component of the communication network is the Search Engine.

According to the data of “Worldwide Website Ranking,” Google has always been on the top of the list. As the most well-known search engine globally, “Google.com” has done the most searches compared to any other SE. They also have their way of deciding their sequence to display websites. Such decision processes can be separated into three steps: Crawling, Indexing, and Serving. When a keyword is entered, Google first uses a huge set of computers to fetch pages on the web. Then, they compile a massive index of words and see their location on each page. Lastly, they look at the matching pages and display what’s most relevant to the user. This whole process done by Google is almost the same as any other Search Engine. 

Relevancy based on incoming links

So, what does knowing how the search engine works relate to a website’s ranking? Well, almost 95% of the websites are made from the point of view of the user. The more often your website shows up in SE, the more visitor you have. As mentioned in the relevant website, Google has also explained it. “Relevancy is determined by over 200 factors, one of which is the PageRank for a given page”. Google then states: “PageRank is the measure of the importance of a page based on the incoming links from other pages. Each link to a page on your site from another site adds to your site’s PageRank”. As we can see from such quotes, a website’s ranking depends on how informative your website is. The use of citing relative to other links directly improved the rank of your site.

Bounce Rate

While checking website ranking, different websites are separated into different categories. Aside from the amount of relevant content, websites are also ranked by other data. Its categories often determine data that are used to rank a website. For example, a business-based company website’s ranking will be relative to its bounce rate. You won’t wish to have a high bounce rate on the company site because you don’t want visitors not to be interested. Even though the bounce rate is sometimes not accurate (according to spamming programs), keeping a good first impression is necessary for successful development.

Likewise, pages per visit and average visit time are mainly used to rank informative and entertainment websites. A great example would be YouTube, keeping an average visit duration of 21 minutes and 22 seconds. Such data allows YouTube to sustain its 3^rd place in worldwide website ranking.

“The key to keeping your audience interested is to deliver them the right thing at the right time.”

Chad Hurley, Co-Founder of YouTube

Security and Trust

The security level will affect its rank regardless of how much online marketing the website has. After all, the users must trust the site enough before they provide any of their banking information. Imagine you go to a website and are ready to purchase a service or product but realize it’s not HTTPS. You will likely close the browser window and search for another site. The result of this will push the bounce rate up, thus affecting its website ranking. Also, the need for web security cannot be ignored. You may also want to read a blog on what you can do to keep your website out of trouble.

Improving Website Ranking

Ways of improving the ranking of a website include: The first step in developing a high-rank website is to give the user an excellent first impression. This can effectively decrease the bounce rate only if the user is interested the first time they visit. To do this, ensure the site’s main page has a warm, friendly background color. A short and straightforward introduction to the site should be displayed relevant to its purpose. Use pictures, animations, or videos to make the page look high-quality. For the most part, don’t use loud and fast background music, if possible. Landing pages are another way to target specific geographical areas. For example, “Blue lamp shades Bellevue” will provide a page for this keyword instead of “Blue lampshades.” This online marketing strategy has proven to be very effective for long-tail searches.

Content is King for Website Ranking

Furthermore, a website’s content plays a significant role in attracting visitors. A website with relevant content keeps visitors on the site and increases their chance to re-visit. The message you try to deliver on the site must be kept short and simple to read. In fact, the content should not be built around SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but the other way around. Create the content, text, and web design graphics and then optimize. Subsequently, the content should be updated so that it meets SEO needs. This will allow search engines to locate your website and generate a better ranking. After all, this is how famous informative sites such as Wikipedia stack up their billions of visits. In addition to updating your website and content frequently, users rarely get bored during a frequent visits.

Site Structure

Moreover, a good site structure is critical to making visitors comfortable visiting. Using different tags to separate different sections on your site helps visitors locate the information they want. Structure your site to make it look more organized, and use graphs and tables to display extensive data. If possible, use cookies to track what users often click and show them topics according to their habits. A simple structure on the main page can also lessen the page’s loading time. Saving time for your visitor, in this case, ironically, does not minimize your website’s average visit time. It’s time they visit your site. You’re saving for them to click on more parts of your site.

Tags

Lastly, <alt> tags and links to other relative pages help search engines direct your site. While developing the webpage in HTML, the alt tag describes the image while an error is displayed. The word within the alt tags is also seemed as a keyword by search engines. If you’re not spamming alt tags, your website will appear earlier than other sites in your area. As mentioned before, Google admits that the more relevant links on your site, the higher PageRank is your site. Being the first link users see will effectively increase your chance of getting loyal visitors.

As can be seen, the ranking of a website is reflected through effective online marketing. The visibility and prominence of a website will no doubt drive more traffic. You can continually improve your website’s ranking by publishing relevant content, organizing your webpage, and optimizing it via SEO. In addition to frequently updating, your site should be at the top of your to-do list.

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