Is your competition ranking in search engines? Are you even showing up on the first or second page? These are questions that all companies and small businesses need to ask themselves. Google loves websites that are up-to-date with design, content and optimization. These are five Google SEO strategies that all companies should be aware of to rank this year! 

Answering search intentions  

Answering search intentions is a large part of the Google SEO strategy because the content that is optimized for each search intention shows Google that your site is credible and trustworthy. At the same time, it shows that it is providing consumers with the final destination of their search query. 

Think about it, if you were to Google something and ten random sites came up, you would immediately leave. You would try other ways to search for these items or services, and for this reason alone, it is important to answer those questions thoroughly. 

What does all of this mean? Answering search intentions means that if a consumer is searching for “cute spring dresses” the websites that populate provide this information. 

The assumption of this search query is that the consumer is searching for the best dress for their event, office attire or for casual wear which means they will need to purchase the products! 

On-page optimization

On-page optimization regards a number of factors, but the biggest factor is for search engines to be able to easily crawl the site, read said optimized content, and properly rank it based on said content. 

While SEO is not an exact science and depending on the industry and target audience, each strategy will be optimized a bit differently, there is a science behind it. 

These are the top strategies for on-page optimization factors that Google loves because it provides them with an easy understanding of the content and tells them exactly what the content is about. 

Having keywords placed in the title, URLs, body of content, in meta descriptions and other places alerts Google that your pages are the highest quality with the right amount of Google SEO strategy in place! 

Loading speeds 

Why does your site load slower than others? This could be due to clunky code, old plugins, and the size of images, all of these factors will slow a website down over time. The best part about the changes that are necessary to help with slow loading speed is that they are easier to implement. 

HostGator provides companies with everything they need to know and work on to ensure their site loads in one millisecond!  

Don’t forget about security when working on your loading speed. Kill two birds with one stone. 

Secure socket layer (SSL)

A secure socket layer, most commonly known as a SSL, is a certificate that ensures all information is secure, safe and encrypted between your website and the customer’s browser connection. This protects your company and consumers from hackers and information being shared across the internet! 

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Google loves websites with an updated SSL certificate, and without one, it immediately flags users to head back to safety. 

What does this show to consumers about their information? That the information they enter, review or anything else during their search query could be compromised. 

If they were to shop on a site with this error, their credit card information could be compromised because it can travel across the internet unconcealed. 

Not having an SSL hurts your website in several ways because users will more than likely go back to “safety” and find a different website that fulfills their search intentions, and when this continuously happens over time, a company will notice their ranking drop. 

Our website developers and SEO Dallas TX experts work together to ensure that all sites have an SSL in place when the site launches and that it stays up-to-date. 

Along with this, don’t let other technical errors hurt your company’s digital reputation. 

No technical errors

A sign of a well maintained website is one that generates minimal errors as the consumers and search engines navigate through said website. This means redirecting old pages to the proper new ones and ensuring that all links are working properly. 

While these errors can seem very minimal, they are just as important as the other four strategies above. 

While there are over 200 ranking factors that Google takes into consideration, no company can optimize for all 200, but these five can help with your SEO strategies and ranking.