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The most ruthless Dictator in the world, and why you should better obey her!

Mar 7, 2017 | SEO, Web Design

Yes, you read that right: Google is a dictator, and I think Google is a “she” because she knows everything!

How to rank on page 1 of Google in 2017

Since the appearance of the Google Search Engine 2 decades ago, a lot has changed and evolved in its search engine algorithms.
From a basic web-spider that would scan websites for keywords and simply store those keywords to produce search results, it has now turned into a highly sophisticated real-time Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that has one single purpose: to give users the Best Possible “User Experience” (UX).

And in order to do that Google is extremely ruthless in the way she decides if you deserve a position on her Page 1 or not.

Google does not spend a lot of effort and money in providing the best UX because they are a philanthropic, not-for profit company. No, they do all this because they wish to remain the most used Search Engine worldwide, so companies are willing to advertise on Google. Advertisements are Google’s main source of revenue.

So, getting back to the subject of this article: what makes Google happy enough to give your website high rankings on Google?

  1. Providing the Best User Experience (UX)
  2. Having Relevance & Trust

PROVIDING BEST USER EXPERIENCE

Let’s break down this UX term into details that are important to Google.

Quality Content that matches the User’s Intent

Google wishes their users to find exactly what they are looking for, in one single search. So it tries to understand the user’s search search intent using it’s real-time AI and then tries to match it with what they think is the best results content matching this intent.
Keep this in mind when writing or reviewing your website’s content. Place yourself into the minds of the customers you would like to have: what are they searching for and how does your website’s content answer their query?

Technical  UX Factors

  1. Perfectly implemented On-page SEO
  2. Responsive Web Design primarily focused on Smartphone users
  3. Ultra-fast Page loading speed, both on Desktops and on Smartphones (<4 seconds)
  4. SSL secured domain (a https://  domain)

HAVING RELEVANCE AND TRUST

  1. High trust backlinks to your website
  2. Publications about your product(s) or services on sites like LinkedIn that then link back to your website
  3. If possible, a valid mention on Wikipedia

One of the ways Google uses to check if your content matches your potential customers search intent, is the Click Through Rate (CTR). the number of pages visited and the average “dwell-time” on your web-site.
So make sure that you have a Google Analytics script inserted in your site, else Google has no way to measure these important factors.

All this might sound like very technical stuff, but it is the reality with respect to your position on Google in 2017.
Oonie SEO and Web Design Agency Cape Town has all this technical knowledge in-house to help your website get that treasured listing on page 1 of Google.

Feel free to contact us for more information, we would be more than happy to help you!