In this article published a few days ago over at business.com, the author highlighted some of the reasons why we need to do due diligence and track SEO KPIs. The article was very good. We recommend reading it. But what we particularly loved was this snapshot from MOZ on nine factors that can influence Google’s algorithm. We’ve quoted the highlights below…
Inbound Links
Inbound linking is at the top of what Google looks at when they decide where to put your page in the rankings. Is it a real site? Are there real and quality inbound links linking to your domain?
Google wants inbound links to be directed from quality sites that have a good domain authority. We use the Moz bar when we’re looking at sites and if they’ve got a killer domain authority, they make the list for us to go after and ask for links.
Page Level Links
Since page level linking makes up the second highest of the ranking factor according to Moz, it’s time to take a look at your website and blog. You might find that you’re not doing enough linking from page to page on your site or from your site to your blog. You might also not want to link single words, but phrases that make sense to link as well. Don’t just link your company name to your website, link other keywords or phrases as well. And it’s OK to link visitors off of your site, especially if it’s contextual and makes sense to your reader.
Page Level Keywords & Content
Keywords and content at the page level are the third (and still quite a large part) of the Google ranking factor. Assess your site, you might find that on specific pages you would rank higher for one of your “long tail” keywords so go ahead and optimize your URL, Title, Description and content on that page for that specific keyword. Now you can track from that page how you’re performing.
For example, we have an integration with Google Sheets where you can take your Sheets data and create great-looking dashboards … We put the keyword right in the URL and use the keywords in the description and the content. We now rank #8 on the first page for that keyword.
If you haven’t focused on your own SEO, it could be time and it could be the big opportunity you need to move the traffic needle for your own website.