You know that you need to optimize your site for search engines, but what exactly are the search engines looking for? Companies like bluehatmarketing will tell you that, by and large, the search engines are looking for the following things from a properly optimized site. These criteria help search engines to do their jobs by helping to refer users to different websites containing content that is the most relevant to their search. But how do the search engines determine what is relevant? It is through a combination of the following factors.
Good content
A site’s content is determined by the theme, the actual text that appears on the page, and the titles/descriptions contained on the page.
Good performance
Does your site load quickly? Is it responsive? A site that performs well will be looked upon favourably by the search engine over those that contain broken links, that take too long to load, or that otherwise don’t perform well.
High authority
Authority basically refers to how well respected your website is among your peer in your niche. That respect is shown through backlinks and references to your site from other high-authority sites in your niche. The more of these links you can achieve, the more authority your site will have and the more weight it will carry with the search engines.
Good user experience
The experience your users have on your site is very important to the success of your website. Think about it like a restaurant. If a restaurant opens up, customers flood in, and then they spend the evening enduring bad service, a lousy atmosphere, and bad food, they aren’t likely to a) stay very long, or b) come back. Right? Your website is like that restaurant. Even if you are successful in driving traffic to your site (think of it like a well-advertised grand opening) if the experience you users have when they get there isn’t favourable, they won’t stick around. That will contribute to a high bounce rate for your site, which is bad news. Make sure your site is well designed, easy to navigate, looks credible, and provides something of value to your users. All of these things together with ensure not only that your users have a good experience, but also that you benefit from their word-of-mouth recommendations, too.
What search engines don’t like
Equally as important as knowing what searching engines are looking for is know what they are not looking for, those things that will deter a search engine spider from ranking your site highly. Steer clear of the following if you want the search engines to take positive notice of your site.
Keyword stuffing
If you are optimizing your site for certain keywords, it can be very tempting to use those keywords as often as possible in an effort to maximize their impact. The truth is, taking part in this “keyword stuffing” practice will actually work against you. Search engines can detect a stuffed website a mile away, and they don’t like it.
Purchased links
You can buy links for your website, but that doesn’t mean you should. Doing so will not help you gain ground with the search engines, so don’t waste your time or money.
Excessive use of ads
Not only are lots of ads annoying to users, they will increase your bounce rate. Sites with a high bounce rate will not get highly ranked by the search engines.
