In January, Google released a new update, the January 2020 Core Update. The update has already had a strong effect, especially on ranking factors. We will now give you an A to Z summary of what search engines still find important in this article.
Basic Rules
- Use responsive web design so that your website adapts to different devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop).
- Use the URL checker tool to see if your website is in Google’s mobile index or not.
- Make sure your texts are well-structured so that the reader can have a good overview of the content.
- The load time of mobile web pages must be under 4 seconds, otherwise, there is a risk of high bounce rates.
- User experience over keyword orientation!
More About Keyword Orientation
- Google My Business is more likely to be seen by users than company websites per se. Maintain your GMB account, because it is an important tool for content marketing.
- Keywords don’t have quite as much influence on rankings as they once did. So it is no longer necessary to place the same keyword in a text thirty times. Instead, Google attaches importance to user signals. This refers to the user’s behavior on the website: Do they like the content? Or perhaps not? How do they show you this?
- Remember to think about the point of your texts beforehand. Are users offered a solution to their problems?
- Time. Summarize the content of your texts so that the user has an answer to his problem in the shortest possible time. If possible, avoid long, embellished texts and emphasize precision.
- If you use keywords in the text, it is better to integrate secondary keywords as well, since the search volume is lower here.
- Enhance your content visually, lengthy blocks of text are not appealing to the eye. How about using statistics, infographics, images, quotes, or videos instead?
- Quality content satisfies customers and is the foundation for ranking success.
Relaunches
- Relaunches and especially unstructured relaunches can lead to neither Google nor users finding your site on the web. This leads to a drop in visibility.
- Avoid dead URLs that lead nowhere.
- After a relaunch, the website may take up to a year to recover in the rankings.
- There should be at least six months between major updates.
Backlinks
- You can contact the webmaster and ask for a link, focusing on what your content has to offer to them.
- Thanks to Google Alerts, websites are now notified of mentions.
- Avoid web spamming, this could get you penalized by Google.
- Purchased links and links that are posted multiple times on forums and blogs yourself are also considered web spamming and will be penalized by Google.
- Remove these kinds of links manually and when in doubt, call your webmaster, so s/he can remove the links using Disavow if necessary.
- Penalties have an effect on the ranking, which is even worse after the removal of a penalty.
User Signals
- The most important user signals include the number of page views, as well as how long users stay on your website.
- The reactions to your own content are of course just as important and should be easily visible and accessible to the user.
- User signals skyrocket the most with high-quality content!
Common Mistakes
- One of the most common mistakes is not updating old posts. These no longer serve the user and result in poor user signals.
- Your content does not offer a solution to the user’s problem. You may have content that fits the topic, but it always misses users’ needs and is therefore not directed at them.
- Topic pages do not address all target groups and only partially address the topic. This is another way to ensure poor user signals.
- The content is littered with keywords. Neither Google nor the user attaches much importance to this.
- The presence of too many pages with the same keyword is also a mistake. Normally, it’s enough to dedicate just one single page to each relevant keyword.
- It is important that the user and Google are aware of what the text is about, i.e. the title tag and the description are filled with sufficient information.
