If you feel that something is wrong with how your website ranks on Google, there are three technical aspects that might be the culprit.
If you are missing these three things, you can be hurting your chances of ranking well in Google search results:
Your website is not responsive, or mobile friendly.
Your website is not secure, or using HTTPS.
Your website is slow, or it takes too long to load.
These three technical aspects have a big impact on a search engine being able to access, review, and rank your site. They have a lot of impact and are easy to fix!
Responsive, Mobile Friendly Website
If you check your Google Analytics (or server stats), I bet the majority of visits to your website are from a mobile device. That means your website has to be responsive to welcome mobile users.
If we still have to pinch and zoom to view your content on mobile, your website is not mobile friendly.
From the perspective of SEO, Google’s focus is mobile first when indexing your website. If your website does not offer a mobile friendly experience, Google will be less likely to show your site in a person’s mobile search.
Since Google prefers responsive design, this is now a much bigger variable in your search rankings than ever before. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s less likely to get found.
The fix? A new responsive website.
Read my blog post, Ready for Mobile-First Indexing?
Secure Website
It used to be that only e-commerce sites and sites that captured secure information needed to be encrypted with https.
Then, in July 2018, Google warned us that if your site is not secure, website visitors will see a “Not Secure” message. If site visitors see this message in their browser, they may not trust your site and won’t venture any further.
Now Google has told us that sites that are not secure are a ranking factor. It’s a minor search engine ranking factor today, but it will increase in importance over time.
The fix? A secure certificate.
A secure certificate will also help cut down on instances of cyber crime that can pass through security loopholes in web browsers.
Read my blog post, Time to Upgrade to SSL
Slow Loading Website
If your website is not optimized, the speed of your website can be affected which can cause users to leave, or bounce.
Things that slow down a website are:
- Bloated code
- Unnecessary WordPress plugins
- Images that are not reduced or optimized
- Video players
The fix? Minify the code. Remove WordPress plugins you don’t need. Reduce and compress your images into JPGs. Embed videos from YouTube instead of uploading to your website.
These easy fixes will help speed up your website.
Once you fix these three technical aspects of your website, you should see an improvement in your Google search engine ranking!
Does social media play a role in my SEO?
Yes, businesses whose websites rank well are also active on their social media channels. Social media posts that link back to your website will impact and improve rankings. The more links that are found on social media to your website, the more people you will draw to it. If you want better rankings, spend time building up your social media profiles.
