Undoubtedly, you already know the importance of having a website easily found on search engines such as Google and the connections that can be made between that and any increased traffic that a website gets as a result.
For this reason, website owners strive to get to the first page of search engine results because it is well-known that the majority of people searching online rarely go past that page to find what they are looking for.
However, once a website has managed to attain this valuable position, it does not mean to say that they are there to stay.
Be aware of how search engines rank sites
Search engines like Google decide what is ranked where in results according to certain criteria, and this is known as an algorithm. Having some idea of how these work and change is essential to improving or maintaining the position of any website.
Google algorithms and ranking systems have been going through an almost continual process of updating. Knowing what these updates are and how to decipher them is important, and reading about Google’s update history (Click Intelligence has an insightful post on this topic) will go a long way to achieving this.
How Web designers and maintenance teams can affect the outcome
User experience has become very important in how Google search engine ratings. This will include the speed at which a website loads. Slow-loading pages induce a high bounce rate, which is not acceptable to Google and will therefore lower any chances of an improved ranking.
However, as always, content is very important to the placement of a website in the Google rankings for any search term. This content will most certainly have to be relevant to the site and of high quality as well as fresh and unique. Having old, out-of-date information that is likely to be less relevant to whoever is searching can also lower a website’s search rankings, therefore making the website even harder to find.
High-ranking websites can be viewed on different devices
When it comes to user experience, it also has to be taken into account that the majority of website visitors are going to be viewing the website on their cell phones or other type of mobile devices.
Having a website that reacts well to this and is laid out in a fashion where it still behaves in the same way as on a computer or laptop will certainly add to the visitor’s user experience. Those websites that are not updated to look good on mobile devices, with text running off the screen or badly sized images, will find that they will soon have to be compliant or risk a very low Google ranking indeed.
Final thoughts
Having an idea of what is expected of a website by search engines such as Google will certainly give an insight into how some websites achieve higher rankings than others. It is important to know how user experience affects this, along with the quality of content. Most importantly, however, it is vital to understand when and how these criteria alter slightly and where to find the information about this.
