SEO (Search engine optimisation) is, without a doubt, one of the most effective online marketing techniques. Google handles an estimated 3.5 billion searches every 24 hours. That’s right – 110 billion per month or 1.3 trillion queries a year! Furthermore, a 2014 study revealed that over 50% of all traffic driven to business websites (both B2B and B2C) comes directly from search engine results. So we don’t need to tell you that learning and implementing effective SEO practices should be a top priority for your online marketing campaign. As with most things in life, understanding the fundamentals is the best place to start on SEO.

Why Do Search Engines Rank Web Pages?
Google has a clear goal – to instantly provide the most fitting result for every search prompt. Although this goal seems practically impossible to achieve, the search giant is getting closer to it each year. Updates are released more often, content quality is being measured more accurately and user experiences are affecting website ranking more than ever. Search engines are relentlessly working to deliver increasingly relevant, accessible and high-quality results. Which is why Google ranks sites according to their definition of these qualities.

What Influences Search Engine Ranking?
Over 10,000 signals influence a web page’s Google ranking, though a few of them outweigh the rest. Here are some of the deciding factors:

• Quality
  High-quality web content provides value to visitors. You need to offer information that isn’t available elsewhere and present it in a concise, easy-to-read format. Quality is measured by session length (how long visitors stay on your page) and bounce rate (percentage of users who go back to the search results after viewing your content), among a few other signals.

• Research
  Using well-researched keywords is the key to targeting the right audience. For example, if you use “antique cowhide sofas” as your keyword, someone searching for “vintage leather couches” will not find your website. You can use one of the many available online research tools to find keywords that are likely to be used to search for your content.

• Freshness
  Google prefers recent information. Updating pages or creating many new ones, without adding new content, doesn’t qualify.
  However, when there is a very sudden increase of a certain search prompt, Google applies ‘Query Deserved Freshness’ and the freshest results top the rest, though only for that specific query.

• Engagement
  Pages that have social ‘shares’, comments and reviews are ranked higher by both Google and Bing. Likewise, negative testimonies are detrimental.

• Identity
  This is where social media marketing meets content marketing. Search engines trust information submitted by people with online authority. Social media accounts are simply the best way for them to identify content authors. Adding your websites to your Google Search Console account or linking them with Google+ is the best way to start building “authority”.

Of course, there are many other aspects to consider and techniques to learn before starting a content marketing campaign. Here at Papersky, we implement all of them, while constantly adjusting to Google’s ever-changing algorithms. Our professional team of SEO specialists is part of what makes us the best online marketing and web design agency London has to offer. If you want to find out how we can increase your site’s page rank or if you’d like to learn more about content marketing, feel free to contact us anytime.