While it is true that there are hundreds of ranking signals used by Google, some are more important as others. In fact, there are a handful that are must-haves if you are looking to optimize your SEO content in the New Year.

Mobile Friendliness and Optimization.

Given the fact that Google uses mobile-first indexing, the number one item on the SEO monitoring list should definitely be making certain that your business mobile sites are optimized. Mobile-first indexing means that Google draws its results from mobile-optimized sites first, rather than sites geared to desktop computers. Mobile-friendless matters, especially since people use mobile devices more than desktops to access the web. If your site isn’t mobilized, you are at serious risk for falling behind in the rankings and losing out to your competitors.

Even if you are a beginner looking to learn about mobile friendliness and optimization, there are a few things to get you started.  First, you should be considering whether or not you have a responsive site that automatically resizes to fit the device in use. You should also look at whether or not the fonts you are using induce easy readability on a small screen. Cute and clever is nice, but if the font fails to deliver, you might be better off with something more traditional. It should be easy to tap menus and move through your site with ease, so test your accessibility and navigability, and always ensure that your essential content isn’t hidden or blocked by advertisements.

Content.

The second most important item on the SEO monitoring list is content. Because content is the very reason Instagram followers or Facebook friends visit your business site, you need to be sure you’re posting relevant, well-written, and keyword optimized content that focuses not just on separate keywords but the matching of the query. Make your content as comprehensive and diverse as you can while being as keyword conscious as you are able.

Google appreciates uniqueness, so be certain that content you are posting does not have duplication issues. Your ratings will improve if you are careful to avoid internal and external duplication. Using Copyscape is one way to check that out before your ratings get dinged for it. In some industries, it’s not always easy to publish unique content every time you post. Product descriptions, for example, have a tendency to be constricted, so making those explanations or details as diverse as possible may take some time and effort. One way to resolve this issue is to utilize user-generated content as part of your postings to ensure fresh, original content when possible.

Search intent and relevance.

Google works diligently to provide users with the most relevant search results for every query. Understanding user intent helps Google figure out the meaning behind a certain search query in order to provide the best results, including information such as the users’ search patterns, history, location, and time. For your brand’s purpose, it’s important to understand that the more relevant your page is to a certain query, the higher position, or ranking, it will get in the search engine results page.

The best way to understand what intent lies beyond your keywords, you might want to consult a digital marketing expert or have your marketing team experiment with various searches. After typing them in the search box, look at the first results page. If you see that some of your pages don’t match the designed search intent, it may be possible that these are not the right pages to be optimized for the keywords chosen. Find a corresponding page, add more relevant content to them, or create new ones.

Click-through Rate.

A click-through rate is the ratio of users who click on a specific link compared to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. The Click-through Rate helps to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for your brand’s website, and can also be used to determine the effectiveness of an email campaign. Your site’s click-through rate is a relevant signal for Google. Click-through rates have a high correlation with rankings, so it’s important to understand what your consumers tend to lick on in the search engine results page to reach your site. Using an analytic reporting system like Google Search Consoles can help you devote attention to pages that rank high but have a low Click-through rate.

Authority within your website.

Both page and link authority within your website matters. Page Authority is a score developed by Moz that predicts how well a specific page will rank on the search engine results page.  PageRank is one of the strongest authority signals for Google. Every single page of your website should not be more than three clicks away from your homepage. If a page is not performing well, you can always add links, remembering that no matter how many links you have, they need to be of good quality. Be sure to carry out regular backlink audits to maintain the quality.

What are some other SEO factors you plan to monitor in 2019? Feel free to comment below.