SEO Ranking Factors 2021 (Updated August 2021)

Master These Google SEO Ranking Factors 2021 for a Better Search Engine Ranking

Google is the most widely used search engine, so even if other social media sites and search engines like Facebook and Bing have been growing considerably, our SEO techniques focus mostly on Google. For starters, every search engine has a different ranking factor, i.e. different search engines consider different things while ranking sites and when we talk about Google, it has some of the most advanced algorithms for ranking websites. A number of these variables tend to be in common with other search engines, so learning SEO optimisation for Google can also help you with other sites. Today, we talk about the SEO ranking factors in 2021 that Google has been using.

 

Knowing the Basics

There are various things for you to review while doing an SEO for a website. We cannot say anything for sure, but reports estimate that Google uses more than 200 ranking factors in its algorithm. On top of that, Google regularly modifies its algorithms, all to ensure the quality of websites that pop out on the top when we type something in the google search box. The examples of these revisions include “Penguin,” which was used to address the problem of spam links, “Panda” to ensure that only the sites with great content quality occupy the top spot, and “Pigeon,” which is used to better rank local businesses in Google search. All these revisions are being further worked on and make important Google SEO ranking factors 2021.

The SEO done for Google starts from the time the website is made. Google takes every bit of consideration while ranking stuff. For example, recently it urged owners to make their sites compatible with mobile devices because more people are using mobile phones and tablets. With all these facts, what we can say is that the effectiveness of SEO first matters on the quality of the content, and after that, great SEO techniques are to be used to keep up with the fact that the essentiality of SEO in digital marketing has been peaking every day.

 

What is Google Ranking? The Ranking Factors to Look Forward to in 2021

These are the SEO ranking factors 2021 on which Google is expected to rely heavily on this year.

Keywords

One of the principal things we perform while doing an SEO is to check the keywords (we provide SEO services in Singapore). Keywords are the words that you put on your website. They are used to describe the content.

The Focus Keyword

Focus Keyword is the main keyword used in a web page or piece of content. Google uses the focus keyword to find the subject of the material. The focus keyword can appear in the title, meta description, first header, second header (third, fourth, and other headers), domain name, URL and finally, in the body of the content. The keyword is also checked in IMG ALT attributes; however, the IMG ALT attribute is not so important as of now.

Secondary Keywords

Let us say that you are writing about a computer. Then, ‘keyboard’ would be a secondary keyword, as it is related to the primary keyword ‘computer.’ Thus, secondary keywords are the keywords which are associated with the focus keyword, and they are also analysed based on where they appear, just like the main keyword.

The Popularity of Keywords

You can’t use any keywords you like. Google uses keywords to link websites to the audience, so it is a must that you search for the keywords that people are more likely to seek. Hence, you need to research the keywords before using any of them. Also, don’t forget that you must never stack keywords unnecessarily to the point your content become unnatural; google does frequent manual checks on top pages.

Backlinks

Usage of backlinks isn’t only an effective SEO technique, but it also is a ranking factor. Backlinks, in simple terms, are the links on other websites that link to your site. Google analyses the backlinks of various sites and the ones with high-quality backlinks get a boost up in their search ranking. This means you should have backlinks in the most reputed websites for Google to know you deserve results.

Social Sites Links

Google analyses the in-flow of traffic on your website from the most popular social sites. Social networking sites are being used a lot these days. Hence, Google uses data from social sites to find if your website is trustworthy. So, extra attention should be present when putting links on social sites.

Server Speed

It would be surprising for many when we include server speed as one of the SEO ranking factors 2021, but it is. Google SEO is all about giving users the best experience. So, Google analyses the access speed of a website- the faster the server, the more likelihood for people to access the sites.

Age of the Website

The age of the website is one of the SEO ranking factors 2021 has to offer. Take it this way, Google, as we said before, updates SEOs frequently. Only the websites which often update their content make a stable top ranking. Newer sites tend to come and go; consistency plays a vital role in ranking websites.

Top Level Domain

Your website will rank better if you use specific top-level domains (TLD). TLDs are more likely to contain better quality content and first-hand analysis, so Google ranks restricted TLDs (. Edu, .gov, .mil) better than anything else. On the other hand, country code Top Level Domains such as (.sg, .in, .us), etc. will be used to optimise a country-specific search.

 

Using Links as Google SEO Ranking Factors

Inbound Links and Outbound Links: You must create links for different pages of your site to let people access them.

Inbound Links: Inbound links are the links in your site that point to another page in the same site.

Outbound Links: The links in other sites that link to your site are known as outbound links.

These aspects of the links are used to categorise a website.

The text used in the links: Google studies the particular phrase where you have created a link on, and that serves as a ranking factor.

Keywords in the Link Text: Keywords used in the links are also crucial; ascertain you use highly searched keywords in your link.

Keywords in the URL: You should also consider using a high searched keyword on the URL itself that points to another page.

 

Number of Forwarding Slash

If you have noticed, on a website, on the page other than the main page, a forward slash (/) is there. The number of forwarding slashes in each of your web page which you want to optimise should be as minimal as possible; for the Google search engine mistakes the high number of slashes for the page being buried down and unimportant.

 

HTML Validation of Web Page to W3C Standards

A website translates in HTML and CSS. HTML and CSS are the codes of the web page, and you should make sure there are no errors in the codes. Otherwise, the error in the code will affect the ranking.

 

Readability of Content

“Content is King.” This is true for SEO also, and the first thing in the SEO best practices checklist is the quality of your content. A Google employee manually checks your website content. Thus, you must make sure what you do in your site is for the sole purpose of helping people. This also means keeping your content relevant and free of grammatical errors.

 

Hidden Keywords

Many web pages have hidden keywords which are unseen to the user and have been stacked just with the purpose of getting more visitors. Practices such as this are known as black hat SEO practices and not preferred by Google.

These were the SEO ranking factors for 2021 for Google. Here are some things that you should always confirm while implementing SEO using these factors.

 

Things to Make Sure While Using the Google SEO Ranking Factors 2021

The links in your site should come from a similar site. i.e., the sites containing your backlinks should have related content to your site.

There should be more backlinks in a reputed site. And make sure that you don’t have links in a spammy one because if that website is taken down, it will directly negate your site rankings.

You should also have a related keyword (the word or the phrase which can be clicked to access the link).

Keep on updating your site; you must update your content in accordance with time.

It is all about the quality; first, you will need to show Google that you are seriously focusing on providing excellent content to the people, and after that the more you increase pages on your site, the higher you will get in rankings.

Google also measures how much time people spend on your site; the more they do, the better it is. So, one of the SEO tips and tricks to promote the website would be to keep the content interesting and indulging.

 

SEO Ranking Factors: Black Hat SEO Techniques You Should Avoid

There are two ways you can drive traffic into your site; one is by working hard, and another is the dirty method, and it consists of black hat SEO techniques. Black hat technique is the spammy way of getting visitors, a lot of visitors, actually; but don’t get too excited, because no websites using Blackhat SEO techniques survive. Google penalises sites using Blackhat immediately once it finds out and due to this, some might even get banned. Here are the things that you shouldn’t do while using SEO for your site:

• Use Plagiarized or duplicate contents from other sites.
• Link to spammy sites; or creating links for sites which are way below in terms of quality.
• Using the same meta description or titles in many pages.
• Overuse keywords.
• Take part in link schemes (those types of spam schemes where you pay someone to get visitors quickly).
• Sell links to your website.
• Put backlinks in spam sites.
• Use low-quality content; grammar checks might also be necessary in some cases.

What you need to know is that there are companies spending thousands of dollars to do SEO, and when something spammy appears in the Google search results topping sites like those, there are going to be numerous reports. So, forget about easy money that will make you more miserable; there might be various Google SEO ranking factors in 2021 which might take time to master, but do your best, it won’t be tough if you try.

These are the Google SEO ranking factors in 2021. Contact us if you are looking for SEO services in Singapore, we will be more than willing to help you.