Semrush Ranking Factors: What You Need to Know to Improve Your SEO

Understanding Semrush Ranking Factors is crucial for improving your website's SEO.

Semrush uses over 200 ranking factors to analyze your website's performance.

To improve your website's SEO, you need to focus on the most important factors.

Semrush's algorithm takes into account the number of backlinks your website has, with a minimum of 10 backlinks required for a decent ranking.

Ahrefs, a popular SEO tool, recommends focusing on acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way to improve your webpage's visibility in search engine results. This is done by optimizing your content to match what people are searching for.

The goal of SEO is to get your page to rank higher in search results, which means more people will see it and visit your site. If your page is higher in search results, you'll likely get more traffic.

For example, if you search for "best gaming chairs" on Google, the top two results are paid ads. But one of PC Gamer's pages holds the No. 1 organic result, meaning it has the No. 1 SEO rank on that search engine results page.

Google's ranking algorithms are a set of complex internal processes used to rank pages in search results. They're constantly being updated, with smaller updates happening daily and bigger updates several times a year.

Google calls these algorithms "ranking systems", and many of them apply to all search queries. Some systems are only used for specific types of queries, like product reviews.

The algorithms take into consideration a huge number of ranking factors and signals. Content relevance and quality are two of the most important factors, as Google determines whether a page is relevant to a search query and ranks the most relevant pages.

Backlinks from reputable sites also play a significant role, acting as endorsements for your content and boosting your credibility. Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to backlinks.

Google's algorithms also consider physical proximity, mobile-friendliness, page performance, and HTTPS usage when ranking pages. In fact, pages optimized for mobile devices may rank better in Google's mobile search results.

On the other hand, some factors can negatively impact your rankings, such as intrusive pop-ups, keyword stuffing, and unnatural links.

Here are some confirmed ranking factors:

These are just a few examples of the many ranking factors that Google considers. By understanding how these factors work, you can improve your website's visibility and rankings in search results.

Improving SEO is a holistic approach that requires attention to various aspects of your website. To rank better, take a comprehensive look at your website's SEO and try to improve in all the main areas.

Improving technical SEO is crucial, as it ensures Google and other search engines can crawl and index your website correctly. Conduct a complete technical SEO audit to identify the most serious issues, and use Semrush's Site Audit tool to get a complete overview of your website's overall health.

Here are some key areas to focus on: improving site architecture and navigation, speeding up your website, ensuring mobile-friendliness, using correct on-page SEO elements, and fixing common issues like duplicate content, HTTP issues, and redirect errors.

To see where you currently stand in terms of SEO rankings, you need to know your starting point. There are two main ways to check your current search engine rankings in Google.

To create a baseline to measure progress against, start by identifying the keywords that matter most to your business. This will help you understand where you presently rank for important keywords.

Knowing your current rankings is crucial because without it, you can't set proper goals or quantify the impact of optimizations. This is why it's essential to regularly monitor your rankings.

To get started, you can use tools like Google Search Console to see how your website is performing in search results.

Conducting research is a crucial step in improving your SEO. It's essential to understand what your audience is searching for and what they want to find.

To start, you need to conduct keyword research. This involves finding and analyzing keywords you want to rank for. You can use a keyword research tool like Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool to get started.

Keyword research will help you pick the most effective keywords based on search volume, keyword difficulty, and search intent. Search volume tells you how many times people are searching for the keyword each month, on average. Keyword difficulty shows you how fierce the competition is ranking for the keyword.

Understanding search intent is particularly crucial. Google pays a lot of attention to the search intent behind each query and tries to serve the most relevant results. For example, if someone searches for "best flowers for Valentine's Day", they're doing research and want to learn what kind of flowers they should purchase.

Here are the three key metrics to consider when conducting keyword research:

By understanding your audience's search intent and using the right keywords, you can create content that is relevant to the search queries and improve your SEO.

Website loading speed is a critical aspect of user experience. Google recognizes its importance and places a high value on it as a critical ranking factor.

A slow-loading site can lead to increased bounce rates, as users typically have little patience for delays. This can negatively impact your website's performance.

Websites that load quickly, on the other hand, provide a smoother experience, encouraging users to stay longer and engage more with the content. This positive user behavior signals to Google that your site is user-friendly and worthy of a higher ranking.

Google's mobile-first indexing underscores the importance of optimizing your site's loading speed for mobile devices. Mobile users often access content on the go with varying internet speeds.

To improve your website's loading speed, start by compressing images and using next-gen formats like WebP. Large images can drastically slow down page speed, especially on mobile devices.

Here are some effective strategies to improve your website's loading speed:

Note that Google's algorithm appears to downrank extremely slow pages vs. benefit fast ones. The average page loading speed for a first-page result is 1.65 seconds.

Search intent is the reason behind a user's search query. It's crucial to align your content with search intent to meet user expectations and improve your chances of ranking higher on Google.

Google's algorithms have become increasingly adept at discerning the intent behind a user's search query. This means that content relevancy is no longer just about keyword matching, but about ensuring that your content fulfills the needs and expectations of users.

For instance, if a user searches for "how to make spaghetti bolognese", they're likely looking for a step-by-step recipe, not a sales page for a pasta maker. Google will favour content that best matches this instructional intent.

To determine the intent behind a user's search query, you can use a keyword research tool like Semrush. The "Intent" metric shows the type(s) of search intent behind the keyword, which can be informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional.

Here's a breakdown of the different types of search intent:

Understanding and meeting search intent is key to ranking highly, because Google tries to give its users the most satisfactory results. It can also boost clicks and conversions by aligning with what users expect to find.

Improving SEO requires a comprehensive approach, so let's break it down into manageable steps. Here are the 5 steps to improve your SEO:

1. Conduct a technical SEO audit to identify and fix common issues like duplicate content, HTTP issues, and redirect errors. Semrush's Site Audit tool can help with that.

2. Improve your website's loading speed by compressing images, using lazy loading, minimizing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files, reducing redirects, and utilizing a content delivery network (CDN).

3. Focus on creating high-quality content that keeps users engaged and on your site for at least 2.5 minutes, which is the average time on site for a Google first page result.

4. Build a strong backlink profile by getting quality backlinks from reputable, high-authority sites, which can act as endorsements for your content and boost your credibility.

5. Analyze search intent and meet the purpose behind a user's query, whether it's informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional, to provide satisfactory results and increase clicks and conversions.

By following these steps, you'll be well on your way to improving your SEO and increasing your online visibility.

Technical SEO Optimization is crucial for ensuring Google and other search engines can crawl and index your website correctly. This includes improving site architecture and navigation, speeding up your website, and ensuring mobile-friendliness.

To improve your website's loading speed, start by compressing images and using next-gen formats like WebP. Large images can drastically slow down page speed, especially on mobile devices. Implementing lazy loading, where images and videos load only when they're in the viewer's screen, can also improve load speed.

Use tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights to identify specific areas for improvement. This might include minimising the size of your CSS, JavaScript and HTML files, reducing redirects and improving server response times. Another effective strategy is to use a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which can distribute the load, saving bandwidth and speeding up access for users across different geographical locations.

Here are some key areas to focus on for technical SEO optimization:

Conducting a complete technical SEO audit can help identify the most serious issues. Semrush's Site Audit tool can help with that, providing a complete overview of your website's overall health and listing issues in order of their severity.

Optimizing for Faster Loading is a crucial aspect of Technical SEO Optimization. Google places a high value on website loading speed as a critical ranking factor.

A slow-loading site can lead to increased bounce rates, as users typically have little patience for delays. This positive user behavior signals to Google that your site is user-friendly and worthy of a higher ranking.

Faster loading times are crucial for mobile users, who often access content on the go with varying internet speeds. Google's mobile-first indexing prioritises the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking.

To improve website loading speed, start by compressing images and using next-gen formats like WebP. Large images can drastically slow down page speed, especially on mobile devices.

Implementing lazy loading, where images and videos load only when they're in the viewer's screen, can also improve load speed. This can be done using tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights.

Here are some key strategies to improve website loading speed:

Using a CDN can distribute the load, saving bandwidth and speeding up access for users across different geographical locations.

Optimizing website structure is a crucial aspect of technical SEO. A well-structured website makes it easier for users to navigate and for search engines to crawl and index your content.

Organizing your content into clearly defined categories is a good starting point. This helps users navigate your site more efficiently and enables search engines to better understand the hierarchy and relationship between different pages.

A logical and intuitive navigation menu is essential. This should be accessible and easy to use, with a layout that flows logically.

A consistent and clean URL structure is also vital. URLs should be simple, descriptive, and include relevant keywords where appropriate. This enhances the usability and findability of your pages, both for users and for search engines.

Implementing a sitemap can significantly improve your site's SEO. A website sitemap is a blueprint of your website that helps search engines navigate and index your content more efficiently.

Here are the main categories of technical SEO related to website structure:

Fixing common issues like duplicate content, HTTP issues, redirect errors, etc. is also important. Conducting a complete technical SEO audit can help identify these issues and provide a clear plan for improvement.

Link building is a crucial aspect of SEO, and it's essential to understand how it affects your website's ranking. Backlinks have been a ranking factor since Google's early days, and they continue to play a significant role in determining your site's credibility and reliability.

To get quality backlinks, you need to focus on building genuine connections with high-authority sites. This can be achieved by creating high-quality content that stands out in your industry. Monitor your backlink profile regularly using tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Semrush to ensure the links are from reputable sources.

A good way to start is to look at your competitors' backlinks using the Backlink Gap tool. This will help you identify domains that link to your competitors but not to you. You can then explore specific pages that contain backlinks to your competitors and save them for email outreach.

Here are some tactics you can use to build high-quality backlinks:

Remember, quality is more important than quantity when it comes to backlinks. Google favors high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant domains, which can significantly boost your site's search rankings.

Domain diversity also plays a crucial role in link building. Getting multiple backlinks from the same domain has diminishing returns, and it's better to get 10 links from 10 different sites than 10 links from the same domain.

Optimizing your website is crucial for improving your search engine rankings. Technical SEO is a key aspect of this, focusing on ensuring Google and other search engines can crawl and index your website correctly.

To achieve this, start by improving your site's architecture and navigation, making it easier for search engines to understand your website's structure. This includes organizing your content into clearly defined categories and ensuring your navigation menu is intuitive and accessible.

A slow-loading site can lead to increased bounce rates, so it's essential to improve your website's loading speed. Compressing images, using lazy loading, and minimizing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files can help achieve this. Additionally, using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can distribute the load and save bandwidth.

Here are some confirmed ranking factors related to website optimization:

Mobile friendliness is a critical factor for Google's ranking system, with nearly 60% of global website traffic coming from smartphones.

This means your site must be optimized for smaller screens, with text that's readable without zooming and links that are easy to click.

Google's focus on mobile-first indexing highlights the importance of this: the mobile version of your website is now the primary basis for indexing and ranking.

A website that's not mobile-friendly can lead to a poor user experience, causing users to bounce off your site quickly.

Here are some key takeaways to keep in mind:

By prioritizing mobile friendliness, you'll not only improve your search engine rankings but also provide a better experience for your users.

On-Page Experience is a crucial aspect of optimizing your website. It encompasses various factors that contribute to how users interact with your website and how enjoyable that interaction is. Google's recent updates place a significant emphasis on this aspect, considering it a key component in ranking websites.

A positive on-page experience is achieved when users find a website easy to navigate, informative, and interactive without any hindrances or frustrations. This includes ensuring your site is mobile-friendly, with text that's readable without zooming and links that are easy to click.

Google's focus on mobile-first indexing highlights the importance of mobile-friendliness. With nearly 60% of global website traffic coming from smartphones, websites must be optimized for smaller screens. This means ensuring your site is easy to navigate on mobile devices.

Intrusive pop-ups can hinder a positive on-page experience. Google penalizes sites with pop-ups that prevent users from accessing the content on mobile devices. This is just one of the negative ranking factors that can negatively impact your website's rankings.

Here are some key takeaways for improving your on-page experience:

By focusing on these key factors, you can create a positive on-page experience that will improve your website's rankings and user engagement.

Google's algorithm is designed to show the most relevant results to users, which is why getting better rankings is one of the main goals of SEO. This is because higher search rankings result in more organic traffic to your website.

The higher your keyword ranking position, the more likely users are to see and click your results. This can lead to more visitors who might become customers. In fact, the average click-through rate (CTR) for the top result on Google is about 22%.

To put it simply, better rankings equal more visitors. And more visitors can lead to increased brand awareness, more sales, and lower customer acquisition costs. Organic traffic is essentially free, especially compared to other paid advertising channels.

Better search rankings are crucial for any business, as they lead to more organic traffic and visibility. This, in turn, increases brand awareness, which boosts recognition and trust over time.

Having higher search rankings is extremely important today, as it results in more sales and conversions. Organic traffic is essentially free, which lowers your overall cost of acquiring customers.

The higher your keyword ranking position, the more likely users are to see and click your results. This can lead to more visitors who might become customers.

A high keyword ranking isn't very useful if the query doesn't get many searches or generate conversions on your website. In fact, the average click-through rate (CTR) for the top result on Google is about 22%. The result in 10th gets fewer impressions and has a CTR under 3%.

Here are some key benefits of higher search rankings:

A high correlation between a certain SEO factor and higher rankings does not necessarily imply causation. For example, a study found that pages with more words tend to rank higher, but it doesn't mean Google uses word count as a direct ranking factor.

Long-form content can still help you get better rankings, mainly because it covers the topic more comprehensively and can attract more backlinks. In fact, a study found that increasing Content Grade by 1 approximates to increasing rankings by one position.

It's essential to distinguish between correlation and causation in the context of SEO factors. A correlation study can't determine the underlying reason behind a relationship, but it can still provide valuable insights.

Here are some key takeaways:

Brand Signals are a key factor in determining how well your website ranks on Google's search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, having a strong brand presence can give you a significant advantage in the SERPs.

A simple yet effective brand signal is using your brand name as anchor text in links to your website. This shows Google that your site is a real brand.

People search for brands in Google, and if they do, it's a strong indication that your site is a real brand. This is why branded searches are a valuable brand signal.

If people search for a specific keyword along with your brand, it can give you a rankings boost when they search for the non-branded version of that keyword in Google.

Having a Facebook page with lots of likes and a Twitter profile with a lot of followers are common indicators of a popular brand.

Most real businesses have an official LinkedIn company page, which is another brand signal that Google looks for.

Having a social media account with a large number of followers and lots of interaction is a stronger brand signal than one with a large number of followers but very little interaction.

Really big brands often get mentioned on Top Stories sites, and Google likely takes note of this as a brand signal.

Brands also get mentioned without getting linked to, and Google likely looks at these non-hyperlinked brand mentions as a brand signal.

SERP features are enhancements made to your standard result in the search engine results page. They can drive organic traffic to your website and are worth understanding.

The Positions report in the Organic Research tool shows which SERP features your website ranks for. If you see an icon in the "Position" column, it means your website ranks for a SERP feature.

Hovering on each icon reveals what it represents, and clicking the blue link provides more information. For example, the crown icon represents a featured snippet, which is a special kind of organic result that contains a larger excerpt from your page.

Featured snippets almost always appear in the #1 position, making them a valuable ranking to aim for.

Some SERP features don't have keyword ranking positions because they're extra elements that aren't based on standard ranking factors. Examples include reviews, sitelinks, and images.

Here are some common SERP features you might encounter:

These features can still drive traffic to your website, so it's worth optimizing your content to take advantage of them.

Google's algorithms have become increasingly adept at discerning the intent behind a user's search query. This means that aligning your content with search intent is now a critical ranking factor.

To understand search intent, you can analyze the "Intent" metric when you do keyword research in tools like Semrush. This metric shows the type(s) of search intent behind the keyword, which can be informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional.

For example, people who search "best running shoes" generally want an article with information and recommendations, rather than an ecommerce page. Understanding and meeting search intent is key to ranking highly, because Google tries to give its users the most satisfactory results.

Here's a breakdown of the different types of search intent:

By understanding and meeting search intent, you can boost clicks and conversions by aligning with what users expect to find.

Page size has no relationship with Google rankings. In fact, our analysis found that page size can’t be tied to rankings.

Most people in the SEO community have speculated that larger pages with bloated HTML are at a disadvantage. However, this isn't the case.

We discovered that page size doesn't appear to have an impact on Google rankings. This is a crucial finding for web developers and content creators.

The pages in our analysis showed no correlation between page size and rankings. This means that you don't need to worry about optimizing your page size to improve your Google rankings.

In other words, you can focus on creating high-quality content and optimizing your title tags and H1s without worrying about the size of your page.