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What Search Engines Want
What search engines want—and don't want—from websites and webmasters is no mystery. Your content is essentially their content, and they want their content to satisfy the folks who use their search engine.You’ve probably heard that content is king. That is true not only for human consumption, but also for search engine ranking. High quality, original content is rewarded at the search engines. Search engines aim to deliver the most relevant, valuable, and trustworthy results to their users. Consequently, they look for certain qualities and practices from websites and webmasters. Here's what search engines generally want to see:
User-friendly website design and structure: Search engines favor websites with intuitive navigation, clear site architecture, and responsive design that provides a positive user experience across various screen sizes. Fast loading times and easy accessibility contribute to a better user experience.
Relevant and authoritative backlinks: Search engines consider the number and quality of external websites linking to a site as a signal of its credibility and relevance. Natural, organic backlinks from reputable sources are highly valued.
Proper on-page optimization: Websites should have well-structured, descriptive meta tags, including title tags and meta descriptions that accurately reflect the content of each page. Optimized headings, URLs, and keyword usage (in a natural manner) are also important. See the individual SEO tutorials for more detail.
Mobile-friendliness: With the growing use of mobile devices, search engines prioritize websites that are mobile-friendly and provide a seamless experience for mobile users. Responsive design and mobile optimization have become important ranking factors.
Positive user engagement signals: Metrics such as click-through rates, time on site, bounce rates, and social signals can indicate user engagement and satisfaction. Websites that offer valuable content and engage users tend to rank higher.
Accurate and consistent business information: For local businesses, providing accurate and consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) information across online directories and platforms helps search engines verify the credibility and legitimacy of the business.
Technical SEO best practices: Ensuring proper website indexing, implementing structured data markup, optimizing page load speed, using secure HTTPS protocols, and having clean URL structures all contribute to a website's technical health and search engine visibility.
Transparency and trustworthiness: Search engines value websites that are transparent about their purpose, provide accurate and reliable information, and maintain a high level of trust with users. Building credibility through reviews, testimonials, and authorship can be beneficial.
Regular updates and freshness: Websites that frequently update their content, add new pages, or publish fresh information demonstrate active engagement and relevance. Freshness can be a positive ranking factor for certain types of content.
Local relevance: For businesses targeting specific geographic locations, optimizing for local search is crucial. This includes obtaining local citations and garnering positive reviews.
It's important to note that search engine algorithms are complex and constantly evolving, aiming to deliver the best user experience. Webmasters should focus on creating user-centric, high-quality websites that provide value, relevance, and a positive experience to users while adhering to search engine guidelines and best practices.
What the search engines don't want to see are tactics that are intended to manipulate search results artificially.
That’s one reason search engines employ human raters, to catch the cheaters. By the way, with one click of a button the raters can disable JavaScript and CSS in their browser and bust you if things don’t look right!
See the what is SEO article for a full list of practices search engines don't want to see.
