This of course does not apply to all search results – Google can distinguish content that needs new information constantly as opposed to “evergreen” content. Apart from the flow of PageRank, one of the reasons that links are important is that Google typically finds pages by crawling, and it traverses pages via links. Google wants to deliver the best product on the market, and this is a critical part of SEO that has been overlooked. Focusing on Google’s motivation and working with this will get you better results for ranking than anything else. The concept is important for all niches, but especially for anyone in YMYL niches, such as finance or health, where the results can really impact the user’s life in a significant way.

This means that future videos on this topic will be ranked even higher. Learn more about targeting this AI experience with our guide to Bing’s generative search. For more tips, check out our walkthrough on how to improve your visibility in Meta AI. As Google’s dedicated AI chatbot, it’s no surprise there is a correlation between Gemini responses and Google search results.

• Read about how to maximize your content architecture and other on-page SEO factors, check out our resource page.
• The goal of this change was to ensure that users weren’t just getting the highest quality content but also getting the right information from that content.
• Second, organizing your content into sections helps Google understand what your content is all about.
• SEO professionals are becoming fixated on the semantic differences between factors, systems, and signals.
• Remember, while you may not have control over one of the most important ranking factors, i.e., physical proximity, you do have the tools to make your local business prominent in local searches.

If you are selling or buying links, make sure you are using a nofollow attribute. Google stated they had received numerous complaints from frustrated users claiming that they had to scroll down past a slew of ads to see the content. While in context backlinks have the most SEO value, it’s best to have a variety of backlinks.

The Top 15 Individual Local Search Ranking Factors

UX can indirectly help with SEO because people are more likely to share and link to user-friendly site. Instead, I optimized my page (and title) around ONE important keyword. It’s no secret that you want to use your keyword a handful of times on your page. Even after the AI-powered snapshot, it’s possible to use this strategy. You can create effective content targeting a user’s journey with the above information.

Driving Organic Traffic Through Keywords

However, when combined with other on-page elements (like the ones discussed here), title tags can help you provide context and demonstrate your site’s relevancy. On its own, this snippet of code probably isn’t going to have you shooting up SERP SEO Anomaly rankings. This is one of those areas where it’s essential to focus on the details. Optimizing images can also help you to gain more visibility through image search and in the SERP image carousel. Adding pictures, videos, charts, and other eye-catching visuals makes it more attractive for visitors and improves its appearance in search results.

That also means you want to have very few inbound links from low-quality domains. Open a Google search in your in-private browser and type in your keyword. See which results are currently ranking and determine whether or not your content would be a good fit. If so, take this opportunity to see why certain pages are ranking.

You can employ several tools, including Google PageSpeed Insights to test page speed. It shows them which pages are related to one another and helps crawlers discover new pages. They can also pass on link juice to underperforming pages, helping them rank higher in SERPs. Google wants evidence that your website represents a real organization or business and that you have real people with whom visitors can get in touch.

Links in the main content might be more relevant for the search engine as opposed to the links at the sidebar or the footer – this can be applied to the internal as well as to the external links. By having backlinks from sites that are topically similar to yours, the search engine might consider your pages as valuable results for the given topic or niche. Backlinks are the most well-known ranking signal in SEO – that was confirmed many many times by Google representatives. We can’t mention content and keywords without talking about entities, which Google is using to better understand topics. This article explains in depth why it’s essential to understand entities in SEO. Content is key not just for ranking, but also for user experience and conversion.