Over the years, another new factor in ranking on search engines like Google has popped up. In 2014, it was HTTPS. In 2015, mobile usability was a factor. In 2016, it was content development. In 2017, the focus was back on HTTPS. Last year, in 2018, the focus was on page speed, particularly for mobile.

So what will the factor be in 2019? Better yet, what factors, in general, are more important when it comes to ranking? There is so much to consider and some of these ranking factors may go hand in hand and have direct connections you may not notice.

Today, Genius eCommerce will talk ranking factors on Google and what goes into improving your rankings in 2019, the factors that will really move you forward this year. This is who we are and what we do, staying up to date and providing updates, trends, news and more in the eCommerce world.

High-Quality Content

Through the years, content remains king of your marketing efforts. The quality of your website writing and blog content is just as important now as ever before. Content needs to provide valuable information and add value to the customer. If there is no value, it will hurt your overall rankings with Google.

But, how do you do this?

Be mindful of what your customers want to know. Writing content that is geared toward your customers’ search queries goes a long way. Search intent provides great research on what your customers want to know from you or find from you. An analytics report can give you the insight you need to see what search results people are clicking and using to get to your website. You can then set up your content based on what you find.

Keyword research is not needed to rank with search engines, but it does serve as a basis for creating quality content. This can be an easy roadmap to regularly producing content that stays focused on topics and draws in visitors.

Your snippets on search engines can be just as important as the content itself. Rich snippets mark text and data using schema for better visibility on Google’s search results, which can lead to a better click-through rate, a lower bounce rate, and more conversions.

Finally, remember the importance of voice search and how many people have voice-activated devices such as Siri, Google Assistant or Amazon Echo. Voice search has been a growing trend for several years and with so many devices out there that respond to vocal cues, you want to optimize your search queries to respond to how people speak.

Be Mobile Friendly

Years ago, the way to be “mobile friendly” was to create a mobile version of the website. Instead of creating a mobile website that is hosted elsewhere, creating responsive websites is the way to go to achieve great rankings today.

There is no preference over mobile websites on Google, but having a responsive website is the recommended format that works best with their algorithms. In a time when mobile-first indexing is the thing, the mobile version of your website becomes crucial.

Website Security

In 2017, 30 percent of results on page one of Google were using HTTPS. Creating a secure website has become more important because some browsers will flag websites as not secure, most notably Google Chrome. With 45 percent of internet users using Chrome as their browser, this can pose a problem if your website is not secure.

HTTPS becomes essential, then, to show that your website is secure and can be trusted.

User Experience

User experiences is another important factor when it comes to SEO. You have to see it through your customers’ eyes and have an understanding of what they expect to see and want to see.

For many people, that has as much to do with appearance as anything. If a website looks good — has good graphics, images, content, and layout — it will keep the customer engaged and interested.

The way a website is laid out is another factor in this. It should be easy to navigate to and from different categories and headings with a proper site architecture.

The layout should be as simple as possible so that navigation remains easy and it shouldn’t take the customer much effort to find the product they are looking for.

Optimization

Part of the user experience is the waiting or lack thereof. People don’t like to wait for webpages to load, so having the website optimized to have a great page loading speed for all platforms, desktop and mobile included, is important. Slower websites tend to struggle because they are so often clicked by the customer and that visitor returns to the results because nothing happens.

In addition to page speed, having your on-page optimization completed will go a long way as well. Your technical SEO holds a stake in your position on search engines too, so taking care of these little behind the scenes aspects of optimization will also help.

Finally, don’t forget about link structure and metadata when planning your optimization. Little things like having title tags prepared and polished, having meta descriptions completed and having strong backlinks to boost your SEO are all important and help you build your results.

With these tips on the factors that can help you rank with search engines the way you want, you will see that, with time, the results will be there as well. That’s how Genius eCommerce is helping you, providing the latest updates, tips, trends and more on the eCommerce space.

Be sure to continue reading the Genius eCommerce blog for more on how we can help you stay up to date on everything you need to help stay informed during your eCommerce efforts.