Google uses over 200 ranking signals, updates its algorithm over 500 times a year, and employs thousands of engineers.
But there is one factor that is trumping everything in 2013.
That factor is…satisfy the user.
Let’s go over how Google measures and predicts visitor satisfaction.
Unlike other ranking factors, this one is hard to measure because it’s based almost entirely on search engines’ own internal data — something they don’t share. We do know search engines both measure and reward satisfaction in very significant ways.
In fact, I highly suspect satisfaction is one of Google’s most important metrics used to judge the performance of its own search results.
Satisfaction is very difficult to game; perhaps that’s why search engines place so much emphasis on it.
These are 5 ways you can improve visitor satisfaction:
These are 5 ways you can improve visitor satisfaction:
1. Remove Barriers
This is simple…don’t make it hard for a visitor from search engines to consume your content. This includes forced registration, popup ads, etc.
Remember, people searching are looking for an answer to a question…make it easy for them to get the answer from YOU.
2. Increase speed
Steve Austin was pretty fast…and it sounded really cool when he ran too.
Site speed has been an SEO ranking factor for a long time…so no surprise.
But it is worth noting that site speed also has a HUGE affect on visitor satisfaction.
Personally…that is the #1 thing that can make me ditch a site. I’m not a site speed nazi…but I won’t wait 10 seconds for a page to load either
Here are some steps to boost your site’s speed:
Step 1: Compress Images
Step number one is to compress all images for web-based quality. We can do this by using the default image compressor built into Google’s Page Speed plugin. Save the compressed version of the image into your local folder on your computer and re-upload the image in place of the uncompressed image.
Step 2: Scale Images
After compressing images, we then need to modify our images so that they are scaled properly for the website. This avoids server lag needed to re-size images. You can scale images in a photo editor by adjusting them to the same pixel dimensions that they will be in your HTML code.
Step 3: utilize browser caching
Browser caching stores cached versions of static resources. This speeds up page speed tremendously and reduces server lag. To enable caching, you will want to add the following code to your .htaccess file:
# EXPIRES CACHING #
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType image/jpeg “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType image/gif “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType image/png “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType text/css “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType application/pdf “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType image/x-icon “access 1 year”
ExpiresDefault “access 3 days”
</IfModule>
# EXPIRES CACHING #
(this may or MAY NOT work on your site/server…Im not a programer or server expert. Get advice from your host before attempting to use this code)
Step 4: Minify HTML, CSS, & Java Script
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can all be “minified” or compressed to speed up their loading time. There are a number of resources on the web that minify these types of files, minifier (http://www.willpeavy.com/minifier/) is an excellent example.
3. Show Empathy
You accomplish this by:
- Answering their questions
- Employing intuitive layouts
- Giving them relevant links and resources to click
- Surprising them with extras
While it’s difficult to prove a relationship between improved user experiences and rankings (because we can’t measure user behavior like Google can) there’s strong anecdotal evidence that search engines aggregate these factors into their algorithms.
4. Linking Out
It’s far better for users to click away to another URL from your site than for those same users to return to Google to try again. In the first instance, you are the AUTHORITY hub, in the latter, Google is the authority.
Stop thinking about optimizing your page and think about optimizing the search experience instead.
5. Subtly Show Your Expert Status
I use this EVERYWHERE. Its the most powerful weapon in my arsenal for getting instant credibility.
If people land on your site and instantly see that you are an expert in your niche…they are more apt to give your content a chance.
More at:http://theauthorityexpert.com/blog/
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