Google Ranking Factors you Need to Know About for 2022

2022 You heard it right! It's true! It's difficult to believe that we are already halfway through the second half year. It's time to look ahead to next year and consider new strategies for content marketing as we bid farewell to summer. The most important factor to remember? Google ranking factors.

SEO best practices change over time just as web design trends change. Google is always evaluating what factors are indicative of a high-quality site for their users. If you want to be at the top of search engine rankings pages (SERPs), it's crucial to keep up to date with these ranking factors.

Except for Google, nobody can predict what the ranking factors of 2022 will look like. We can still assess available data, examine current trends, and follow official advice from Google.

Google uses approximately 200 ranking signals to rank websites. Publishing content optimized for each of the 200 signals is impossible. It's impossible. It is impossible.

Let's take a look at the top 10 ranking signals that SEO experts agree with content marketers should focus on.

Quick Takeaways

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  Google values high-quality, high value content.
  

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  Although SEO best practices for keywords have changed, they are still important.
  

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  A great user experience is key to organic search ranking.
  

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  Mobile optimization is becoming more important as more people use voice and mobile search.
  

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  Quality backlinks remain a key component of Google's ranking algorithm.
  

High-Value, Relevant Content

Google has recently confirmed that RankBrain, its AI-powered algorithm, is the third most important factor in determining where a web page appears in search results. RankBrain analyses user activity and compares it to search results in order to determine their quality and relevance. If a user clicks on informational pages and remains on them for a long time, it is more likely that they will rank higher than pages that are not helpful or have a high bounce rate.

Keywords are still very important. You need to ensure that your content includes relevant keywords to be able to rank high in search results for that keyword. Google's algorithms are much more sophisticated and can tell if your content covers a topic in an appropriate way or just stuffed in a few keywords.

RankBrain's most valuable feature is its ability to remove keyword-stuffed content in the SERP top results. It instead ranks the content that is most relevant to the query and provides high-quality, high value content. There is no proven way to optimize for RankBrian. This video will explain this further:

It's not about optimizing for RankBrain in one way. It's not about finding the best way to optimize for RankBrain. Instead, it's about understanding your audience and creating high-quality content that addresses their needs. Although keywords and other ranking factors are still important, RankBrain will not push your content to number one on any SERP.

High-Quality Backlinks

Your rankings are directly affected by backlinks. They are at the heart of Google's ranking algorithm, PageRank. Although PageRank hasn't been updated for several years, Google confirmed that they still use the site.

Google backlinks are used to determine your authority. They also aid other users in finding your content. You should have a plan for building links.

Quality is still more important than quantity. Although it is true that more links are better, you should still be building links to high-quality sites with high authority.

Keywords

Many conversations are centered on why brands should stop keyword stuffing. It's easy for people to believe that keywords don't matter anymore.

It is impossible to be more wrong. While keywords are not the only thing that matters in SEO, it is true that they aren't as important as they used to be. The most important thing has not changed in terms of keyword importance, but how to use them.

Google's messaging about RankBrain, as well as other factors (that will be discussed soon), shows that the AI behind Google’s algorithms is becoming smarter and expects more from content creators. They don't want keywords-laden content without real value.

Keyword analysis can be used to help you develop your content plan. It will also help you find topics that are most relevant to your audience. To help improve your rankings, you can position keywords in your titles and headings as well as the text body. Keywords alone are not enough.

You may feel that you are forcing keywords into certain places in your content. Keyword placement is important, but quality should always be first. Both must be in sync to achieve better rankings.

Site Authority

Google uses human agents to evaluate the quality of SERPs as well as the pages that appear on the first page for different searches. These guidelines are made public by Google and can be accessed publicly.

These guidelines verify that you have the expertise, authority and trustworthiness (also known as your EAT rating) are important factors in ranking pages. This is especially true for sites that fall under “your money or life” category. Sites that provide legal or health advice, or that process financial transactions, are generally considered to be in this category.

It is important to show your authority in your niche and your audience to Google. You can start by publishing author bios that include relevant experience and qualifications. Or, you may need to build this reputation over time through excellent content and building a strong authority.

Site Structure and UX

If your website is difficult to navigate for users or Google site crawlers, you won't be able to publish high-quality content. You must ensure that your site has a clear hierarchy and focuses on the user experience.

Good user experience will encourage searchers to stay longer on your site. Google should reward this positive sign with a high ranking site.

SEO-friendly sites can be achieved by starting from the basics. Keep your URLs concise and include your keywords. Implement intuitive navigation and eliminate duplicate content pages. Include a sitemap.

Mobile Optimization

Google now implements mobile-first indexing. This means that many websites are considered more valuable and useful on mobile devices than their desktop counterparts. This is logical, as more than half of web traffic comes from mobile devices. Google also has 96% of all search engine queries.

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This means that we need to go beyond mobile-friendly strategies and concentrate on responsive design and mobile optimization. This is it:

• Mobile-friendlysites are designed for desktop users, but work well for mobile users
• Mobile-optimizedsites have been designed to be mobile-optimized and can be restructured accordingly
• Mobile-responsive adapt to the device of the user, reformatting and restructuring based upon screen size and device

Responsive design remains the standard. Google's mobile usability tool can help you assess how your website compares to mobile design standards.

Site Speed

Did you ever click on a Google search result and wait for it to load? Then, go back to another Google result that loads immediately. This isn't a common occurrence. The web user of today is impatient.

The changing way we use search engines is partly responsible for this. People are increasingly using search engines to quickly find answers to their questions, regardless of whether they are on the move or mobile. Voice and mobile search rates have increased dramatically.

It is therefore important to optimize your website for speed. Your ranking could be affected by a mere microsecond delay in site loading.

When you plan to refresh your site in 2022, speed should be a top priority. There are other ways to speed up an existing website. These include compressing images or using a CDN.

Google PageSpeed Insights can be used to check the speed of your site and to find ways to improve it.

Domain Security

Now is the best time to make the switch from http to https. Your domain security is a key contributor to your trustworthiness, which is one of the top factors Google uses when ranking your content. Google does not want its users to go to sites that might not protect their data, or could be harmful.

An SSL certificate is essential for all e-commerce websites. However, it's no longer optional for general sites that collect any type of user data. At least for those who want to rank.

While we are on the topic, consider adding additional domain security to your domain provider. It's a good idea to use tools that check for SMTP anomalies and DDoS protection.

Metadata

We have already discussed RankBrain, which uses the time spent on a page to determine its relevance and quality for each searcher. RankBrain also considers clickthrough rates.

The clickthrough rate is the percentage of searchers who click through to your site from the search results. As they haven’t yet seen your site, this factor doesn’t reflect the quality of your website. It is dependent on the relevancy of your content to their search and how attractive your link is.

What does this all mean? It is crucial to create compelling headlines and captivating meta descriptions. You can have the best content on the internet, but no one will see it.

Listings for Businesses

Over the past few years, local SEO has gained in importance. Mobile search continues to be the dominant method of searching for businesses. Businesses with a physical presence in a city must concentrate on their local SEO to improve their results at both a national or global level.

SEO strategies can have many aspects, but the most important is optimizing your Google My Business listing and making sure that your business information is correctly listed in local directories.

This information is used by Google to determine which local businesses will be featured in the Google 3 Pack. Your site will be more popular through business directories, which will increase traffic and increase the number of incoming hyperlinks.

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Featured Snippets

Featured Snippets are short excerpts that appear at top of Google SERPs to answer users' queries quickly. They receive about 8% percent of clicks related to a search query.

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Although there is no single way to get the featured snippet, it is possible to increase your chances by making sure that your content is relevant and high-quality. Also, Google Search Console will allow you to check your content and ensure consistency in your content publishing. As your brand grows in authority and rises up the search rankings, patience is sometimes necessary.

You can expect to see an increase in brand authority and visibility when you earn a featuredsnippet.

Optimize your Content for Google Ranking Factors

It's not easy to optimize your content for Google Ranking Factors. There is a lot of information available, and it changes frequently. Marketing Insider Group's writers and SEO teams can produce optimized content on a weekly basis for you for one year or more. You can find out more at

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