Your website ranking is how high and where your site appears in the SERP for relevant keywords. This positioning impacts your site visibility and your click-through rate and thus your brand growth and success. One recent study indicated that as many as 71.33 percent of searches are answered by clicking on results on the first page of an SERP, with only 5.59 percent of searches having clicks on page 2 or page 3. Even within the first page, the top five results are able to capture 67.60 percent of the clicks. Add this information to BrightEdge research, which has shown that as much as 51 percent of the traffic that arrives on your site comes from organic sources, and it is clear how the position of your website on the SERP can impact your brand growth and the success of the website. Although many people like to talk about web optimization, it is common for many to not understand how web ranking works and what exactly site owners have control over. Here is what all brands should know about the key types of factors that impact your site position in the search engine results pages.

What impacts website ranking?

To understand website ranking, you must first consider Google’s main goal: to provide results that answer the user’s needs so that they are willing to return to the major search engine. Google wants to please its users; it does not have a vested interest in making businesses themselves happy. The search engine instead wants to uncover the sites that are authoritative, provide value, and will offer thorough and complete answers for the user. There are over a billion websites available on the web, and that is a lot of information for the search algorithm to sort through. For websites to rank highly, they must be able to stand out from this massive crowd and show the search engines that they have what it takes to provide the best possible answer for the user. Although the exact Google algorithm is unknown, that does not mean that search professionals cannot derive search engine optimization tips based upon what they have uncovered as factors impacting rank through experiments. Google has also offered occasional insights into algorithm changes they have made, shedding even more light on how to succeed in search optimization.

• Domain authority
• Relevance
• Location

1. Domain authority. Google looks at the reputation of the entire domain as a whole as part of determining the website ranking for a specific page. For example, news stories originating from CNN.com will automatically have a higher domain authority than a local blogger. If everything CNN.com published had to compete with the local bloggers on equal footing, then users would likely not receive the best information about major news topics in a timely way.  

Domain authority also explains why certain websites are able to publish new content and see the material rank on the first page within just a day or two - or sometimes even just hours - of hitting publish. At the same time, other sites must wait several weeks for their content to earn the authority to move up to the top page. To interpret domain authority, Google wants to see how reputable the site is and how much people trust its information.

To cultivate more domain authority around your site, therefore, you want to:

1. Focus on building backlinks. Backlinks to your domain show the major search engines that others regard your material as helpful and valuable, which is important in a website ranking. They are vouching for you to a degree by linking to your page and promoting your material to their own readers. You want to focus on building backlinks from reputable sites by distributing your content. Any backlinks from spam or poor-quality sites should be disavowed with Google.
2. Publish a regular stream of quality content and build social media communities around your brand. To build brand trust you want to have a steady audience who knows they can rely your material and thus come back to your website regularly for answers to their questions. Blogs and public social media communities provide excellent ground for sharing your material and starting to cultivate these regularly returning visitors.
3. Build internal links. Internal links will guide both your site visitors and search engine robots around your site so they can see how your material is connected. This helps to build links between the content showing your depth of knowledge and your relevance in the semantic web.
4. Make sure your technical SEO has been optimized. This means that your site navigation should be clear and easy to use. Your site should also load quickly and provide a positive user experience for all who land on your website.

2. Relevance. Google also wants to display pages that are highly relevant to the query at hand. This means that it will be looking at the keywords you use in a particular piece of content as well as the topics covered in your site as a whole. You want to show your depth of knowledge for a particular subject by creating content silos. These silos should link relevant content together in particular categories that start with broad topics at the top and get increasingly more specific as they progress further down. This type of structure will help you to cover the different aspects of a specific subject, which will help your content stand out in the semantic web. You also want to make sure that you use keywords related to important topics throughout your material. You should be identifying keywords through research that will help you understand the topics that matter the most to your target audience. Use the keywords naturally throughout the content. Not only does this include the body of the material, but also the alt tags for your images, your meta description, the URL, title, and your headings.

3. Location. When it comes to local searches, location itself is also highly relevant. This means that the results displayed for the user are dependent upon where the search is made - just a few miles in one direction could impact the results. Ninety three percent of searches with local intent are also answered by Google’s local 3-pack. Therefore, attracting the attention necessary to appear in this section can have a big impact on the success of your brand. To succeed in local search you need to:

• Claim your Google+ business and fill out the entire profile. This includes using important local keywords and adding high-quality images.
• Cultivating reviews on Google through customer satisfaction, reminding customers of the option after a transaction, and including a link to your profile in emails and other correspondence.
• Ensuring that your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) are correct and consistent across all of your listings.

There is no one search optimization tip that will automatically take your website to the top, but the better you understand website ranking and the factors that influence it, the easier it will be to improve your positioning and grow your business.  

Your Google ranking is your starting point at the top of the funnel that drives your business outcomes farther down the funnel. Where your page appears in the SERPs will impact how many people click on your link and visit your site. According to BrightEdge research, an estimated 63 percent of clicks will go to the organic results on the first page of the SERPs, and 56 percent of clicks will go to the top 5 results alone with even higher concentration in mobile. This means that where you rank on the SERPs will impact your traffic and revenue.

Google creates their ranking system with the intention of showing sites that are the most relevant and helpful for users. They want to provide an optimal user experience every step of the way. Improving your ranking, therefore, revolves around proving to the Google algorithm that your page provides that superior quality content for its users. No one outside of Google themselves actually knows how the algorithm has been written, but we do know that hundreds of factors go into determining Google ranking.

The significance of various criteria have been speculated on by SEOs through tests and experimentation. BrightEdge does not recommend guessing at factor weights, but instead guides customers to create content that works best for humans but is also optimized for search crawlers. Here is what you should know about improving your position on the SERPs.

The factors that impact your site Google ranking

Content quality

Google wants to provide users with quality information. They want to return sites that will not just provide a shallow answer that offers little value, but rather authoritative sites that explore a topic in-depth and can help people fully answer their questions. To improve within these content-dependent Google ranking factors, you need to make sure that your material offers this value. The first step to accomplishing this is aligning your content with your ideal customer personas and their buyer journeys. You need to know who you are writing for, what drove them to your website, and what they want to see that will encourage them to move closer towards a purchase. This level of personalization will help you produce content that is written specifically for a person, rather than just a generic customer.

You will be able to provide more value and greater content insight. Produce a variety of different types of content, including visual content - such as videos and infographics, in addition to textual content - blog posts, whitepapers and case studies. This variety will help you provide value for different visitors within the persona type depending upon their preferences. You also want to make sure that the content is engaging and addresses the topic thoroughly. Do not just repeat everything else that is available on the web, but rather spend time developing original material and exploring your own expert opinion. When you follow these guidelines, your content will attract more readers to your page and they will spend more time on your site. Bounce rate and time to return are factors Google uses to determine engagement and content quality. Feel free to test your knowledge of the most important aspects with BrightEdge Digital Marketing Quiz or SEO Quiz.

Site navigation

Google ranking is also dependent upon how well your site provides an optimal navigational experience for the user. Sites that are confusing, crowded or difficult to navigate will be frustrating for users. This will increase your bounce rate and you will be ranked lower by Google. Your site should be designed with the end user in mind. Make sure that navigation is intuitive and clearly marked. Any site errors should be eliminated. Use the BrightEdge platform to check for problems and monitor your site activity so you know if any visitors encounter challenges as they move around the page. Your site should also be completely mobile-optimized. Google has already mandated that sites be mobile-friendly or risk taking a hit to their rankings. Mobile optimization, however, goes much deeper than responsive design. You also want to make sure that your site has been organized with a mobile user in mind, taking into account the types of content they most frequently seek on your site and the challenges of using a small touch screen.

Position in the digital ecosystem

Site Google ranking is also influenced by how the site fits into the greater digital ecosystem. Google trusts that quality sites generally link to other positive sites, so building a strong backlink profile from a number of high-quality sites can be very beneficial. When you have a variety well-regarded sites linking to your page, it will help show the search engines that your content is regularly regarded as authoritative by users. Building a quality backlink profile requires first having valuable content in place that will attract other positive sites. Your content should be the same caliber as the sites that you want linking to you. You then need to distribute this content liberally to expose more people to your material and show them that your page provides them with value. Use social media, newsletters, email messages and other systems at your disposal to provide your followers with access to your content. You can also use BrightEdge to uncover potential backlink opportunities. BrightEdge will look at your competitor pages and analyze a variety of web pages to find potentially applicable instances where a link to your page would make sense. You can be proactive about backlinks by publishing content others will link to and cultivating influencer relationships. This will help you build backlinks from sites that are highly regarded within your industry and topical niche. Be sure you're building quality backlinks without error like orphan pages.

Communication with the site algorithm

Although the Google algorithm is now far more focused on context and understanding user intention, that does not mean that the word choices you use are disregarded. Keywords still provide value because they clearly communicate the topics that your content covers. You want to make your ideas clear to the search algorithms by using occasional keywords. The important thing to remember, however, is that keywords must be used naturally and occasionally sprinkled throughout a page. More is not always better when it comes to communicating with the search engine spiders. Using keywords in your H1, H2, URL, alt text and occasionally in the content, however, can be valuable. They make it easier for Google to match your content to the intentions of the user.

How do I improve my Google ranking?

1. Develop your buyer personas and map them to their buyer’s journey. Use this to develop high-quality content that is worthy of the top Google ranking.
2. Run a BrightEdge site audit to search for potential problems and correct any errors that are uncovered.
3. Review your BrightEdge recommendations to find areas where optimization could be improved that will help your site better communicate with the search engine spiders.
4. Build a strong distribution plan based around your intended audience and the type of content you want to promote.
5. Monitor your backlink profile and use BrightEdge to find potential opportunities to gain more quality inbound links.
6. Regularly use metrics, like those available through StoryBuilder to see progress and make adjustments as needed.

Improving your site’s ranking can seem like a daunting task when you first draft a fresh piece of content. When you understand what Google wants to see, you can begin to build the content and reputation you need to make your content perform better. By creating your content to answer the needs of users and properly communicating with the algorithm about your content, you can start to see improvements in your site Google ranking.

The BrightEdge 2014 Search Marketer Survey report is here! This year, we surveyed SEO practitioners from 8,500+ global brands in December 2013 and January 2014 to compile research in the areas of content and content budgets; rank and ranking variables; data integration and technology providers; and much more. We’ve compiled a few of the highlights here.

To download the full report, check out this link.

Search Marketer Survey Data: Top 10 Takeaways

The world of SEO was rocked in 2013, with more Google Panda and Penguin updates; a release of “Hummingbird,” the Google search engine's updated infrastructure; the Google Knowledge Graph expanding to include “Carousel” results; and, of course, Google's secure search announcement.

In light of the changes we saw in 2013, this year’s research highlighted the following takeaways:

1. Connecting your content efforts to ROI is at the top of the agenda
2. The Web page is the center of the new content and SEO universe
3. Rank still matters, and is the stepping stone for page-level success
4. Tracking and measuring mobile rank across all devices is a must
5. Data and analytics are the key source of truth
6. All data is relevant and connected
7. Integrated SEO and content starts with optimizing at the author level
8. To be successful, you need to innovate ahead of the curve
9. Focusing on content accelerates career growth
10. SEO is now embedded in the content marketing process

These takeaways are aligned with the SEO industry’s new creed, the “Secure Search Manifesto,” which outlines the principles that the SEO community need today. You can get a copy of that here.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the survey data.

Content

Seventy-eight percent of SEOs say connecting content efforts to ROI will be “more” or “much more” important in 2014. The next step then, is for those marketers to make this goal tangible, and our search marketer survey respondents agreed.

In fact, 93 percent of SEOs said they would increase content budgets by at least 10 percent this year if they could identify what content is the most effective for engaging their audience.  If content is a priority for you in 2014, you’re in good hands with BrightEdge!

Our content-centric data allow you to understand how your content is driving business value.

Rank

Tracking where pages rank in the search results is ever more complex when so many factors are at play, including rank in various areas like Universal Search results, Google’s Knowledge Graph and Carousel results.

That’s likely why 95 percent of search marketer survey respondents said gaining access to accurate rank data in 2014 is important.  

Speaking of Carousel results, are you part of the 44 percent of SEOs who reported that Carousel results were served for keywords in their industry? If so, you may also side with the 72 percent who reported that measuring rank on those results will be more important for them in 2014.

Good news: BrightEdge is committed to giving our customers real insight into their true rank across all types of search results. With our blended rank technology, our platform is the first and only of its kind to provide this level of information.

Technology Providers

In order for brands to succeed today online, it’s vital they have access to reliable data that provides actionable insight. Marketers agree. Of the search marketer survey responders, the majority said that when choosing a technology provider, key aspects included a provider that had a global customer base, a provider that was led by accomplished software veterans, and a provider backed by reputable investors.  

Marketers also wanted their technology providers to innovate on a regular basis according to Brightedge's search marketer survey. Sixty-four percent said monthly product innovations that kept up with the changes in search was going to be important in 2014.  

Here at BrightEdge, we work hard to stay ahead of the curve. In fact, every five weeks, BrightEdge releases a slew of new functionality, improving on our software on a quarterly basis by understanding the trends on the horizon, listening to what our customers want and studying the intricacies of the search and social channels through search marketer surveys, and how they impact a brand’s visibility online.

What Will 2014 Bring?

As SEOs embrace the change that occurred in 2013, they brace for the impact 2014 may bring.

Our industry is never a dull one, and marketers continue to be resilient with chameleon-like adaptation in the ever-changing world of Web marketing. But one thing will remain constant: tying SEO to business value is essential. This is, and will continue to be, the driver of successful marketing campaigns in 2014.

In order to make the connection between SEO and business value, brands need to invest in accurate and actionable data. Each step of the way, BrightEdge is that data solution, and your partner for success.

Here's to a great year!