Boost Your Website’s SEO | 7 Essential Google Ranking Factors

If you’re not prioritising SEO then your website could be missing out on valuable traffic, leads, and sales. That’s because SEO is one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies that your business can implement, and this makes it essential for online success.

It’s understandable that you might feel completely overwhelmed and unsure where to start with SEO – we don’t blame you. With Google using over 200 ranking factors in its ever-changing algorithm, the task of dealing with each factor can seem incredibly daunting. Where should you focus your efforts for the best results?

Understanding the key components to SEO and why the most important SEO ranking factors are essential to your online success will play a crucial role in helping your brand to stay ahead of the competition. In this blog, we will explore the four main components of SEO, why ranking as high as possible on Google is pivotal, and look at seven of the most important SEO ranking factors that you should be optimising to help your website rank higher.

What’s in this article:

What is SEO?
Why is it important for your website to rank highly on Google?
What are the most important SEO ranking factors?
Key takeaways

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of optimising your website in order to improve its visibility in search engine result pages (SERP). And while SEO doesn’t just apply to Google, you should be making Google your primary focus.

Why? Because Google has an overwhelming market dominance when it comes to search engines - holding an impressive 90.01% share of the global search engine market. Its nearest competitor, Bing, doesn’t even come close, holding just 3.95%. Google processes approximately 8.5 billion searches daily, which translates to 99,000 searches per second – so prioritising Google really is vital for your website.

But you should know that SEO isn’t an overnight fix. SEO is a long-term strategy that will require consistent effort and ongoing optimisation. It can typically take three to six months before you start to see noticeable results, so it’s essential to remain patient.

The ultimate goal of SEO is to attract more organic (unpaid) traffic to your website by making it more relevant, authoritative and user-friendly. To simplify SEO, experts break it down into four key pillars, and understanding these will help you to navigate SEO with confidence.

Here’s a brief summary of the four key SEO components that you should understand:

1. On-page SEO

On-page SEO focuses on optimising individual web pages to improve rankings and user experience. You can do this by making sure that your web pages are user-friendly and your website is keyword-optimised. The elements of on-page SEO include using keywords in content such as titles and meta descriptions, mobile friendliness, page speed, and structured data (schema markup) for better search visibility.

2. Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO strengthens your website’s credibility through external factors like backlinks from reputable sites, social signals, and brand mentions. Backlinks act as "votes of confidence" in Google's eyes, making Digital PR and link-building strategies crucial for success.

3. Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to optimising your website’s backend. This is so that search engines are able to crawl, index, and rank your content efficiently. This element focuses on the performance of your website, its structure and technical factors, and includes key elements such as page speed optimisation and website security.

4. Content SEO

“Content is king”, and Google prioritises high-quality content that is well-structured, informative, and engaging. Strong content not only improves search engine rankings and organic traffic, it also helps to build authority and trust in your brand. Key elements of quality content can include blog posts, guides, and FAQs.

Why is it important for your website to rank highly on Google?

There’s a popular SEO meme that asks, “Where is the best place to hide a dead body?” The answer? “On page two of the Google search results”. Because almost no one looks there. In fact, a Backlinko study analysing 4 million Google searches found that only 0.63% of Google searchers clicked on something from the second page. With such miniscule returns, ranking highly is critical for visibility and traffic.

But sometimes making it to page one isn’t enough, with click-through rate (CTR) playing a huge role in how much traffic you actually get. CTR refers to the percentage of people who are clicking on your website after seeing it in the Google search results. The formula for CTR is the number of clicks (the number of times users are actually clicking on your website link) divided by the number of impressions (the number of times your website is being shown to users in the search results), and then multiplying that number by 100. So if your website appears 100 times (impressions) and gets clicked five times, your CTR is 5%.

The higher your CTR, the better. Analysis from FirstPageSage found that the CTR for first position on Google was 39.8%, dropping to 18.7% for second position, and dropping again to 10.2% for third position. By the time you get to position ten (if present on the first page) the CTR is only 1.6%. So think of it like the Premier League. No one remembers the team who finishes 10th place every season. If you want those clicks, you need to be aiming high.

What are the most important SEO ranking factors?

Now you have an understanding of SEO and why it’s important for your website to rank highly on Google, let’s look at seven of the most important Google ranking factors that you will need to optimise in order to improve your websites ranking in Google search results.

1. Search intent and content relevancy

Search intent refers to the reason behind a search query. What is it that the user actually wants to find out when they type a keyword into Google?

Well, 99% of all search terms fall under four different intent categories:

1. Informational intent (looking for answers)

The user wants to learn something
Example: “What are the most important SEO ranking factors?”
Best content: Blog posts, guides, tutorials, FAQs

2. Navigational intent (looking for a specific site/brand)

The user wants to go to a particular website
Example: “Motive PR homepage”
Best content: Homepage, branded landing pages

3. Transactional intent (ready to buy)

The user wants to make a purchase or take an action
Example: “Digital PR services near me”
Best content: Product pages, service pages, landing pages with a CTA (call to action)

4. Commercial intent (comparing options)

The user wants to research before making a decision or purchase
Example: “What is the best SEO tool to use in 2025?”
Best content: Comparison posts, reviews, case studies

‍Aligning your content with user search intent is critical for improving your SEO performance, and there are several key factors that can help to make your content more relevant such as keyword optimisation, up-to-date information, and a well-structured website.

Google’s goal is to deliver the most relevant results for every query, and if your content doesn’t match what users are looking for, then it won’t rank - no matter how optimised your page is.

2. Quality content

Quality content is a crucial ranking factor, with Google prioritising pages that are relevant, engaging and high-quality. If you can produce content for your website that is unique, valuable, and relevant to users’ search intent, then it will help you to rank higher in search results.

You should also understand E-E-A-T when it comes to content, with it being a key guideline that Google uses to evaluate content quality. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. So high E-E-A-T content is more likely to rank well because Google wants to ensure trustworthy and expert-driven content gets priority.

Providing high quality content can also lead to increased user engagement, keeping users on your page longer, reducing bounce rates, and signifying to Google that your page is useful. It will also help to improve other key ranking factors such as backlinks and social signals. Well-researched and original content is more likely to attract backlinks from authoritative websites, while high-quality content is more likely to be shared on social media, driving traffic and improving your website's visibility.

3. Backlinks

Backlinks are one of the most important aspects of SEO as they act like a ‘vote of confidence’ for your website. With Google following E-E-A-T when ranking content, receiving high-quality backlinks from relevant and reputable websites can help to boost your own website's expertise and credibility.

What we mean by backlinks is essentially a link from one website to another. When a website links to your site, it signals to Google that your content is valuable and helps to improve your search rankings. But it’s important to focus on high-quality backlinks, as low-quality backlinks from spammy and irrelevant sites, or links that have been paid for or manipulated can be penalised by Google. Collecting backlinks that go against Google's rules can affect your entire SEO strategy, causing your rankings to decrease.

There are two types of backlinks; ‘follow’ and ‘nofollow’. A follow link is a type of link that tells search engines to pass SEO value, and therefore directly impacts your search engine rankings. While a nofollow link instructs search engines not to pass SEO value. Although nofollow links won’t directly affect your search rankings, they aren’t harmful and can still provide value to your site and help to increase traffic and visibility.

Research found that websites that rank first on Google search results have 3.8x more backlinks than the rest of the top ten sites. Investing time and money into earning natural backlinks from high-quality sites can be incredibly beneficial for SEO.

4. User experience

User experience (UX) is an increasingly important factor in SEO. Google wants to provide users with the best possible experience, so it looks to proritise sites that provide a smooth, fast, and engaging UX. A good UX means users will spend more time on your site, interact more, and ultimately find what they are looking for - all of which will contribute to improving your search rankings.

The importance of UX has been highlighted by research that found that improving the UX design of a website can enable a business to achieve a conversion rate as high as 400%, while 66% of customers are willing to pay more for a great experience.

There are particular UX metrics that will have a significant impact on your SEO, and some of the most important include; dwell time (how long users stay on your page), bounce rate (how many users leave quickly), conversion rate (percentage of users who take action on your site), and task completion rate (success rate of users completing certain tasks on your site).

One of the key factors that Google uses to measure a page’s user experience, and one which holds a lot of importance, is through its Core Web Vitals; a set of metrics that measure a page’s load speed and performance, interactivity, and visual stability.

5. Page speed

Another ranking factor that ties in with user experience, and is also measured through Google’s Core Web Vitals, is the page speed of your site.

Faster-loading websites are rewarded by Google with higher rankings, but that’s not to say fast websites will automatically rank highly - your content still needs to be relevant.

Slower websites will negatively affect your bounce rate and dwell time, which in turn contributes towards a poor user experience. So, by optimising your page speed, you will be improving both your SEO and conversions.

You can check Google PageSpeed Insights to analyse your web page’s performance and look at suggestions for improvement.

6. Mobile friendliness

Although not a requirement, it’s strongly recommended to have a mobile version of your website pages in order to have your content included in Google’s search results. That’s because since 2023, after years of transitioning, Google has completely switched to mobile-first indexing, which means it now prioritises mobile versions of sites when crawling and indexing.

Google would previously use the desktop version of your website for indexing, but with 92.3% of internet users accessing the internet using a mobile phone, and approximately 4.32 billion active mobile internet users around the world, Google made the shift to mobile-first indexing.

It takes about 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion about your website, and 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile. Making sure your website is mobile-friendly is going to be critical for your SEO and it can help to increase your site’s conversions.

7. Keyword optimisation

Keyword optimisation is crucial for SEO because it helps Google to understand the relevance of your content and ensures that your website appears for the right search queries. If your content isn’t optimised with the right keywords, then search engines - and users - won’t be able to find it.

It’s important to think like your customers when it comes to keywords. What is it that they are likely to search for? How are they likely to word their search? Understanding user intent will help you to optimise your content effectively.

By strategically placing keywords in key areas of your website, you can help search engines to understand your content and rank your site higher. Some of the ways you can optimise your website includes conducting keyword research using tools such as Google Keyword Planner, and placing keywords in titles, headings, URLs, images, and internal links.

Understanding the advantages of long tail keywords can also be highly beneficial for SEO, with over 70% of search queries made using long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that usually contain three to five words, and sometimes even more. While these keywords are less competitive, they are highly targeted, meaning they attract users who are closer to making a decision or purchase, and therefore increasing your conversion rates.

Key takeaways

SEO is critical for business success. SEO is a powerful digital marketing tool that can help your website attract valuable traffic, leads, and sales. Ranking highly on Google increases visibility and attracts organic traffic.
SEO is a long-term strategy. SEO takes time to show results, typically 3-6 months. It requires consistent optimisation and effort.
Four key components of SEO. On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, Technical SEO, and Content SEO
Ranking high on Google is essential. Being on the first page of Google is critical for attracting traffic. Click-through rates drop significantly after the first position.
There are seven key ways to improve your SEO rankings. Focus on aligning content with search intent, creating high-quality content, building backlinks, enhancing user experience, optimising page speed and mobile-friendliness, and strategically using targeted keywords.

Need help with your SEO strategy? Get in touch today to find out more about our digital PR and SEO services.