With well over 200-plus ranking factors it can be difficult to decide which ones are important and which ones can be overlooked when it comes to developing your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. Google even has several ranking factors specific at the site-level, so it is equally important to consider these and remember to incorporate them into your website and page design.

1. The site’s architecture and structure. Google does place some importance on the structure of a site. Both inverted tree and silo structures help make it easier for Google to crawl, index, and rank your pages.
2. The value of the content on the pages. Google does crawl pages and compares the content to other sites to see if it is plagiarized and whether it is unique and original, as well as the relevancy of the content.
3. The content on the “Contact Us” page. These types of pages should include the same contact information you used for your Google+ account, and other sites. It also helps to have a few short sentences, like directions to your location or other information, as well as an embedded Google Map, where applicable.
4. The frequency of site updates. Web pages should be updated with new content on a regular basis. You could add new pages, update content on existing pages, or post blog articles.
5. How many pages the site has. Sites with a few pages or just one big “homepage” are ranked lower than sites with multiple, individual pages.
6. A link to a sitemap. Google does give some priority to sites that have a sitemap, as it makes it easier for the pages to be indexed, crawled, and ranked.
7. The use of SSL page certificates. Google has recently started ranking sites higher that use HTTPS pages.
8. The ease of navigation from one page to the next. The user-friendliness of navigation is an important site-level ranking factor.
9. Whether the site has a privacy policy and/or terms of service page. Google uses these pages to establish the trustworthiness of a site.
10. Original and unique Meta descriptions. Each page should have its own Meta description, which is the short introduction displayed in search results, under the link to the site. Sites that use duplicated descriptions hurt their rankings.
11. Embedded YouTube videos. Google owns YouTube, so it does give preference to sites that use videos when they are from YouTube.
12. The mobile-friendliness of the pages. Google took a stance on mobile friendly sites quite a while ago and does give higher rankings to sites that are compatible with mobile devices.
13. The site’s uptime and accessibility. Sites do need to be taken down for maintenance from time to time, but aside from that your site should be up and running 24/7 and accessible.

Hopefully, you can see the importance of these site-level ranking factors and remember to incorporate them into your website and page designs. For assistance with web design, website updates, and other effect SEO strategies, call the SEO and web design experts at Logik Digital by phoning 1-866-307-0086 today!