4 website mistakes affecting your Google ranking

A key goal for any organization is to rank high in Google. In order to achieve that your website must be in order. And although SEO includes a tonne of influencing factors, here are a few website-related mistakes likely affecting your ranking:

1) SEO: common search engine optimization (SEO) culprits you should fix now:

1. No SEO: if your website doesn’t allow you to add metadata, page titles, description tags, alt tags, content (reflecting your keywords), then you need a website that does. Quite simply you won’t get ranked without it. Choose a website CMS that gives you the ability to manage this data and keep it updated often.
2. Proper title tag: the title tag is a web page’s second most important piece of content (aside from actual page content) and sends a strong on-page SEO signal. Your website needs one.
3. Site structure: improper use of H1/H2/H3 tags affect your ranking. Specifically, H1 tags are seen as a “second title tag” that sends relevancy to Google. Using keywords in H2, H3 tags is another relevancy signal, so make sure you use them.
4. Excessively long URLs: are proven to hurt visibility with Google ranking. With today’s best practices and accepted conventions, there is no need for excessively long url strings with odd symbols. Upgrade your website / CMS that uses search engine friendly urls.
5. Content: use established keywords in the content on your website. Re-write your content to do this if you have to. Additionally, Google favours recently updated content, so keeping your site content up-to-date is important for many reasons, including Google ranking.
6. Alt tags: images are considered content. Use alt tags on your images and put your keywords in them where appropriate.

Tighten up your website structure. If you can’t update any of the above, invest in a website that can.

2) Your site isn’t responsive (mobile optimized)

It’s 2018 and users expect an optimized mobile experience. Additionally, Google has expanded its use of mobile responsiveness as a ranking signal and now adds “mobile friendly” tags to websites that display well on mobile devices. Meaning any company without a mobile responsive website will see a negative effect in their Google rankings.

3) Poor Performance

Not only is it frustrating for users to wait for website pages to load, Google uses page loading speed as a ranking factor; meaning poor performance affects your Google ranking. Review your site to find deficiencies and correct them. This can include the improper use of large file sizes as well as your hosting environment.

Starting in July 2018 speed with also be a ranking factor for mobile searches; called “Speed Update” it will affect pages that offer the slowest experience to users.

4) SSL

Google indexes SSL certificates and uses HTTPS as a ranking signal. If your website isn’t SSL compliant you are not ranked as high as sites that are. SSL is now considered the baseline acceptance criteria for websites. Investing in a SSL certificate is quick and easy.

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If you aren’t sure whether your website is equipped to give you positive SEO rankings we can help. Contact us for a free consultation.

Jennifer MacKinnon
CEO | Fenix Solutions
www.fenix-solutions.com