Search Engine Endeavours
Like a librarian puts the best book forward on topic, search engines like to put the most matching answer to the query...and this is their bread and butter. But in case of search engines there is a catch they like to put forward the best answer in a smooth and efficient way. As a matter of fact they put forward more than one matching answer the second one and onward being a near miss.
The first answer nearly always gets the most clicks by virtue of it being seemingly loaded with information the visitor is searching. The response to click on first link is universal and is attributed to human nature curious as always with firm belief in the leader. The others get clicks more on the virtue of their title and meta description which show what the page promises. There are other information pieces on the SERPs nowadays but they are not the matter of discussion here. The browser landscape keeps on changing anyway. On one page the number of results shown is ten and users rarely cross this threshold.
Like the best book creates reputation for the library most apt answer does so for the search engines. Thus there is a die hard quest among the engines to produce the best results and instantly. This is content driven for sure but whence there is competition among the peer plethora metrics come into the picture.
The search companies are always analysing the results that their algorithms produce and keep on with efforts to produce relevancy by analysing intent since one query may be having a different quest hence knowing the intent behind takes the search companies loser to what is being sought.
Algorithmic History
It was just keywords that ruled the SERPs but being easily manipulated the importance of meta information was diluted. The keywords were also manipulated in the website content which resulted in changing algorithms to punish content with keywords beyond normal. Now the stress is on LSI or semantic indexing in which case the relation between the words leads to better understanding of the topic. This also addresses write ups written purely for the engines. Now stress is on writing naturally keeping the visitor in the mind.
The links ruled the roost for some time but soon they were quantified on basis of being genuine and of quality. Thus cheap links which use to pummel an undeserving site up on the ranks were ousted. Use Google Disvow tool to remove bad links else they will diminish ranking.
Links are a valuable for ranking provided they are authoritative, natural or subject to editorial scrutiny. Nofollow links are not that important but of late they are said to deliver hints to the ranking algorithms. Repetition of anchor text is punishable now hence use natural or long tails anchor texts sparsely along with few matching phrases. Anchor text are very informative as keyword updates to algorithms and help draw an accurate picture about the page. Off page optimization thus becomes an imperative for better performance on SERPs and increase traffic. Content wrapped links also create referrals besides increase domain authority and push up ranking .
Speed of download is very important and responsive sites follow this metric, one among the web core vitals the download time of major element is most to impact the sites performance. The other web core vitals are the stability of onsite elements and smooth interactivity besides proper coding, safe browsing without any hindrance especially from malicious elements and scripts.
Features like bounce rate are dependant upon contents, download time, on page attributes like videos, images and info-graphs. But content dominates on page, and if it is a perfect answer to the visitors query low bounce rate will result. Search engines like Google are said to have inculcated over two hundred ranking metrics many of which we will never come to know. Hence the best guesswork is add relevant content, build mobile friendly website for fast download and add attributes.
Read Google Webmaster Guidelines on the company blog or published elsewhere for guidance. The major SE Company is quite vocal about quality buildup and page experience which encompass most of the metrics.
Best way to compete on SERPs is to make your website or portal better and better. On page experience counts so fine tune the vital elements of your website. Do not spam or find short cuts to success. No black hat Seo Techniques should be used.
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