There is no “one way” to gain the number one spot in search results. Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, which means companies have to continuously adapt their search engine optimization strategy to meet the needs of both search engines and their customers. Before diving into the ever evolving world of SEO, here is a quick and simple breakdown of the basic factors that influence search results.
URL Factors
- Keyword rich URLs – Descriptive words separated by hyphens
- Keep URLs short and to the point
- Clearly show hierarchy of information on the page (website.com/color/primary-colors/red/)
- Site structure (i.e. information architecture)
On-page Factors
- Unique and relevant content
- Internal linking
- Meta descriptions
- Title tags
- Header tags
- Alt tags
- Keyword density
- Frequent content updates
Off-page Factors
- Inbound links from directories and other websites
- Google Places pages
- Online press releases
- Blogs and RSS feeds
- XML Sitemap
Social Factors
- Likes, retweets, pins, shares, etc.
- Ratings
- Reviews