Google’s Ranking Factors
Changes are being made to Google’s SEO best practices on an almost daily basis, which makes getting your site to the top of their rankings a constant challenge.
This makes it hugely important to ensure that you’re up to date with the latest SEO trends, patterns and have good knowledge of Google’s ranking factors.
Here are four key ways in which Google is influencing the sector and how you can potentially take advantage of them.
1. The Importance Of Adopting HTTPS
HTTPS is the secure version of standard HTTP functionality which encrypts your data and is often implemented for sites that deal with financial transactions, such as Stripe, Realex and PayPal.
Google has pushed for the addition of HTTPS across its range of Chromium products, highlighting them as a ranking signal. This means that early adoption can prove useful in pushing your website up Google’s search priority and providing security and reassurance to site visitors.
2. Interstitial Pop-up Ads Are Penalised On Mobile Devices
At the start of the year, Google enforced its decision not to rank sites that deployed interstitial ads due to their habit of disrupting the experience of mobile and tablet users.
To avoid falling foul of this, you can make mobile users exempt from your notifications or deploy WordPress plugins that can help you to circumvent the process.
3. Being ‘Mobile Friendly’ Is More Important Than Ever
Most of the population has access to a smart device and searches by phones and tablets have ballooned as result. Google publicly announced the importance of mobile friendliness as a ranking signal in 2015 and has firmly committed to it since.
You review the status of your site through their free online test https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly. Responsive web design is vital in order to allow for an uninterrupted browsing experience as we do here.
4. Adding AMP Is A Huge Client & SEO Draw
The addition of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) also proves to be a key draw, optimising content that loads quickly everywhere.
Google’s March AMP Conference highlighted the degree of focus they are placing on it. This means early adoption can pay dividends when it comes to attracting mobile users, as we discuss further here https://www.baldwindigital.ie/accelerated-mobile-pages-amp.
