SEO: 3 Hidden Factors That Impact Your Search Ranking

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As a B2B business owner or marketer, you are aware of how important search engine optimization (SEO) is. But according to Hubspot, 75% of web searches never move past the first page of results. If you invested time and resources in SEO, but are still disappointed with your search ranking results, then you are not alone.

In addition to using the right keywords for your meta tags (title tags, H1 tag, or description tags), here are hidden and lesser-known factors that dramatically impact your website ranks.

Hidden Best Practices That Boost Search Ranking

1. Backlinks

Also known as inbound links, backlinks are hyperlinks from a third-party website that link to a page on your website. Search engines like Google see backlinks as a “vote of confidence” or proof that your website is a reputable and valuable source of information. Backlinks are a key ranking factor. According to Backlinko, sites Google ranks as #1 have an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10. Clearly, it’s worth the time and effort needed to build a strong backlink strategy that focuses on websites with higher domain authority ratings. In developing your strategy, though, beware toxic backlinks. Toxic backlinks are low-quality backlinks whose primary purpose is to manipulate and increase search rankings. They don’t have an editorial purpose. Run a website audit to identify toxic backlinks and disavow them using Google Search Console.

2. Duplicate Content and Tags

Duplicate content, duplicate title tags, and H1 tags are common issues that are hard to spot without running a full website audit, especially if your website has hundreds of pages. Duplicate content or meta tags deprive your website of potential traffic. Every web page should be unique and optimized so your target audience finds the answers they are looking for.

How does this happen?

• An SSL certificate without redirection or preferred site versions can create several versions of the same page. This can be fixed with a simple redirect.
• Page duplication: When creating a new page web editors tend to duplicate an existing page to save time and forget to update the all-important meta tags.
• Copy/paste: For similar products many companies copy/paste the same on-page description.hen staff are relaxed and comfortable in their own homes (and our pets often make guest appearances). At HCI, quality relationships are the foundation of our success.

3. Domain Authority

Domain authority doesn’t directly impact search engine results but is indicative of how successful your SEO strategy is. Domain Authority is a metric first developed by Moz.com and now used by other SEO tools. It combines dozens of factors such as organic search, website traffic, and backlink data in its calculations to predict how likely a domain is to appear in the search engine results page (SERPs) compared to its competitors. Domain Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater likelihood of ranking. High-quality content and backlinks are part of a great strategy to increase your domain authority and SERPs.

Overwhelmed?

Got too many things to juggle and need help sorting through the data? Contact us to get started with a full website audit.