Half the year has gone and the team here at Jumpfactor has studied the ranking changes across hundreds of websites. Along side other data which has been published from the likes of Searchmetrics shows some similar findings as Jumpfactor’s team.
1. Findings show that Exact Match Anchor text Links are less beneficial and should be used sparingly.
Natural linking contains a broad variation of mixed anchor texts including the website domain name, generic text such as “click here” , “visit this page” and other non keyword related phrases. As such Google looks to ensure that realistic ratios of anchor text are used. Any over usage of exact match anchor text would raise a flag as being spammy.
2. Social links and signals continue to increase in importance.
Shares, likes, follows, tweets, Google +1’s etc all add to the credibility of a site. Including some level of social marketing and ensuring all your online pages and content are shareable are key to enabling social signals to grow over time for your online sites.
Here Matt Cutts of Google talks about Social Signals in Rankings
3. High quality original content which reflects some level of uniqueness is a major factor
In rankings and traffic. This means the content must be well written and not SPUN or regurgitated from other sites. Wherever possible it also should include unique information, perspectives and data that strengthens the value of the content.
4. Contextual quality back-links are now more important than ever.
Lower PR links from unrelated sites are having minimal to no value. Context relevant links are carrying much higher weighting and driving higher rankings and traffic as compared to before. Within the realm of quality contextual back-links, a higher quantity of the same will produce better results and enable your site to overtake the competition.
5. Appropriate and clean coding online remains critical, combined with carefully placed keywords and descriptions
Which are inline with best practices. Ensuring tags are not too long or short and ensuring there is minimal duplication is key.
Here Matt Cutts talks about Geo Server Location impact on Ranking
The above are just some basic high level categories of major ranking factors. For a full and thorough analysis of your site potential, issues, and comparison against your competitors get in touch with our team today.
