Just as you don’t like calls from unknown and suspicious numbers, Google doesn’t like websites that look untrustworthy. Instead, Google makes sure that users are directed to high-quality and reliable sources of information. And what are the factors that ensure Google the reliability of your site. In this article, we help you with your SEO 2023 strategy.
Google wants to keep low-quality, unreliable websites out of search results and keep high-quality, legitimate sites at the top.
This is how you can imagine how Google distinguishes dubious websites from serious ones. When Google indexes a website, it evaluates various aspects to determine its trustworthiness.
If a website is only two weeks old, the pop-up ads are literally killing you, and users leave the site immediately, then it is probably a very unreliable website. Consequently, Google will rank you lower in future results.
On the other hand, if a website is already ten years old, the domain is registered with contact information, users regularly spend a lot of time there, and it connects various social media channels with thousands of followers, then the website can be trusted. and Google will rank it higher.
But if you’re still not happy with the results you’re appearing in here are some tips to start 2023 strong in your SEO strategy:
SEO Factor #1: Increase your site’s credibility
Contact information: Make sure you have valid contact information on your website, including an email address, phone number, and physical address. This allows users to contact you and gives Google an image of a reputable website. Also, having a clear and easy-to-understand privacy policy and terms of service on your website can help establish trust and transparency with users and Google.
- Website age: The age of the website matters. If you’re starting from scratch, the most obvious way is to wait. But you can also estimate the age of a website using online tools, such as Whois Lookup. The age of a website can affect its authority and reputation in the market. An older website takes longer to establish and gain credibility, but may also be more prone to obsolescence and loss of relevance. Therefore, it is important to balance the age of the website with other relevant factors.
- Social Proof: Although Google claims that social media does not directly contribute to SEO rankings, it can still increase your brand exposure and credibility. Having links to your social media accounts on your website shows Google that your website is trustworthy.
- security: Having a secure website (HTTPS, SSL) is a requirement for Google. Not having a website with SSL will put you at a significant disadvantage. Domain registration: Make sure your domain is registered with the same contact information as listed on your website. This can be verified using a who.is search, which returns registration information for a specific domain.
- Professional design: Avoid using too many invasive pop-ups and ads and make sure the website loads quickly. This will not only increase the reliability of your website, but also the user experience, which we will examine in more detail in the next section.
SEO Factor #2: Improve User Experience
Now we will focus on one of the most important questions. We want our users to have a great experience on our website so they stay as long as possible.
Improving the user experience will naturally increase the trustworthiness of your site, because if many people use the site for a long time, Google will conclude that the site is trustworthy.
page speed. Making sure your website loads quickly is probably the most important thing you can do to improve the user experience on your site. Users are less likely to stay on a website that takes a long time to load. Walmart reported that for every 1 second of improvement in page load time, they saw a 2% increase in conversions.
Also, a Google study showed that 53% of mobile users will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Make sure your website loads quickly by using techniques like code minification, lazy loading, caching, and image optimization.
Navigation and Semantic HTML. Make sure your website is easy to navigate. This is important not only for your users, but also for Google. Using semantically correct HTML elements can be the first step in making your website accessible to Google and people with disabilities who rely on screen readers or other tools. “Semantic elements = elements with meaning”. –w3schools.com. While non-semantic elements like