Behavioral factors in SEO. Presence of keywords in the text

This short article was written specifically for those novice Webmasters who, having set out to promote their site in search engines and not getting the desired effect from their actions, in desperation type (in the same search engines) queries like the following - " how to properly optimize a website", "website success factors" or " with website optimization tips". It seems that an experienced Webmaster is unlikely to be able to find something new here, but for beginners, the information will be very useful. For convenience, we will divide the content into six main tips - and it will be easier to understand and the figure will be good :-)

Here I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in the last many years the picture regarding the factors that are considered the most important has remained virtually unchanged: they remain the key in the Title, the key in the H1-H6 tags, and, of course, the exact occurrence of the keyword in the text. Lately there has been quite a lot of talk about the importance of a keyword in a domain, or at least in Page URL and we can actually notice this directly in search results. The other side of the coin is that, according to Ilya Zyabrev (Goodman), Yandex representatives say that in the near future the importance of this factor will greatly decrease. When working with internal factors, one should not, of course, forget that sites should be primarily for people (and this position in Lately Yandex very actively advocates, introducing behavioral factors into the ranking algorithm) and this should always be taken into account in the work of a SEO specialist. Here I can once again note the fact that SEO should not exist on its own, but only be a way to attract people to a good site, which will encourage them to make a purchase or perform another action useful for the site owner.

The main factors that seriously influence search results are still the location of keys in tags and headings h1, h2, their appearance and content. It is also worth noting that an important condition for successful promotion is highlighting keywords tag . I would like to separately touch on the meta tag . This item mandatory for use if the page does not have text describing its contents, moreover, increases page weight for search engines Google systems. Regarding tags

AND

, then they are usually used to create a logical document structure; their influence on promotion is insignificant. In general, you should try to create documents with a competent and understandable html markup compliant with W3C standards.

The correct HTML code of the page allows search engine robots to correctly index a document published on the web in automatic mode, highlighting significant part document. Browsers display valid (i.e., meeting all the rules) HTML code correctly, allowing users to familiarize themselves with the required and useful information. Web masters should first of all focus their attention on W3C standards, and make the HTML code logical (semantic web, HTML5), understandable (the structure of the document, repeated on the pages of the same group, should be traceable), cross-browser compatible (the code should be displayed correctly in maximum quantity different browsers), high-tech (if possible and necessary, microformats should be used in the code).

Frankly speaking, I was very surprised by certain moments. For example, the fact that so little importance was given to links from pictures, the density of keywords in the anchor list and the presence of the site in Yandex.Addresses, while the impact of abrupt removal of links seemed to me clearly overestimated. In any case, the impact of abrupt removal of links will not be so serious for every site. In general, the results of the study were as expected for me. They will certainly be interesting as a kind of symbiosis of social knowledge of SEO industry leaders, but you shouldn’t take them seriously. Search engine optimization how technical process It has long been impossible to tear oneself away from the company’s business and website, and thanks to MatrixNET, for different sites the same factors can give completely opposite results. And the influence of link factors is greatly exaggerated, thanks to the old link capabilities, when completely irrelevant sites were brought to the TOP. Stories about the websites of Megafon, Putin and others were widely known.

To successfully promote a website, it is necessary not only to write texts correctly, but also to write unique meta tags for each page. The influence of internal factors is constantly increasing and a good informative site that the best way answers the user’s question, can get into good positions in Yandex precisely due to internal factors. Moreover, Yandex has already learned to intellectually distinguish a GS from a site with good usability. There are classic rules internal optimization that help promote the site. The texts on the page must accurately answer the client’s request and be unique. When writing articles, you cannot break up keywords with passage separators; you must take into account the density of keywords and use not only direct occurrences of keywords, but also word forms.

The leading first two points are undoubtedly leaders and will remain so for a long time (title and H1-H6). As for STRONG, to be honest, I'm a little surprised by this result. In my opinion, this point was given too much attention and I am glad that it is no longer there mass use, as it was before. For my part, I would swap Description and strong (in terms of significance). In addition, in my opinion, a significant factor is a good and clear structure of the menu (site) and the nesting of the promoted page(s). It may be debatable, but I would classify them as internal factors. But, unfortunately, little attention is paid to the *cleanliness* of the code. Even for TOP queries, I see the use of styles directly in the code, but the code can be significantly simplified.

At first glance, the picture regarding internal factors has not changed much. Classic rules and techniques that have always worked, still work today. But what has changed then? In my opinion, two aspects have changed. Firstly, all factors have become more interconnected, but there is no exact pattern. In one case, one factor may become fundamental; in the second, a completely different one. This leads to the need to take a more systematic approach to the process, constantly experiment and look for the optimal combination for a particular site. Secondly, companies engaged in search engine promotion began to sharpen sites not only for search engines, but also began to pay attention to optimizing the site for the user. Examples of such optimization include correctly formatted texts (h1-h6, strong, etc.) with the optimal inclusion of keywords, the main focus of which is the selling ability of the text, as well as the creation individual pages for each service or product, so that a user coming from SERP gets to the landing page intended for him, this would undoubtedly simplify his task of choosing or ordering a product/service. There are many such examples, and they all confirm the basic rule of Yandex - sites should be created primarily for people. I would also like to note that Yandex provides enough tools to optimize internal ranking factors. Which, among other things, also help improve the site snippet in SERP.

Overall, a pretty sensible questionnaire. Taking off my hat. But even he does not answer the question of how best to promote the site. All this resembles an attempt to create a universal super-help with which you can make an interesting film. There are a lot of directors who follow a template, do everything right, but in the end their films are boring. And there are always people far from the norm who shoot masterpieces contrary to formal recommendations. In general, away from the high art that is SEO. People who start implementing test results without understanding the situation as a whole are doomed to painful failure. Excruciating because it will be somewhat longer. So write below as pharmacists - contraindications are possible, before using, consultation with a specialist is required.

Ask the following questions, which are actually nothing more than myths and misconceptions:

SEO Myth #1: The more outbound links, the better the site will rank.

Outgoing links to thematically related and non-thematic sites are taken into account by all search engines (SE). You need to understand that outgoing links to resources with the same or similar topics have a good effect. It is important not to overdo it with links, otherwise your site will turn into a “link dump” in the eyes of the dog.

SEO myth No. 2: You don’t need to update your website to maintain your position in the SERPs

By regularly updating the structure and content of your site (for example, replacing outdated material with new material, correcting broken links, code optimization, etc.) search robots will visit your site more often. In order for your site to maintain its position in the search results, update it regularly. Experience shows that sites that are rarely updated lose their positions in search results, unable to compete with frequently updated resources.

SEO Myth #3: All you need for promotion is links

Links have always had a positive effect on website promotion. But recently, due to the active spread of link spam, the situation has begun to change. Moreover, not only the purchase of links, but also the use of link building strategies has become ineffective. The owner of the resource cannot be 100% sure that the link leading to the page is of high quality and will not damage the resource. You should not chase links - this is only a small part of the big picture, on the basis of which the dog forms an opinion about your resource. Undoubtedly, a large number of Relevant links linking to your resource helps in ranking, but these should be natural links.

SEO Myth No. 4: We create great content and our website must be in the TOP of search results.



Search engines recognize only the content that is most in demand among users as high-quality. You need to understand that the content of the site must meet quality standards. For example, when writing unique texts, you should not ignore the rules of grammar and SEO optimization, and you also need to take into account the time intervals for releasing content. And for readers who decide to promote their site by generation quality content, I highly recommend reading a series of wonderful posts about

SEO Myth #5: Adding videos helps promote your website

Fact: Website visitors eagerly consume video content. However, when choosing this strategy, it is important to understand that adding a video to a page can significantly increase its loading time. The result is user dissatisfaction and a decrease in the site’s ranking in search results. When posting a video on a page, you should keep in mind that PS algorithms will not be able to recognize its content, so it is important to use it on a page with a video text descriptions with images.

SEO Myth No. 6: PR and TIC are some of the most important indicators for SEO

PR and TIC are really good indicators, but this moment, alas, have little impact. At one time, these indicators were a kind of measure of the quality of the page in the eyes of the PS, responsible for determining the popularity of the page by specific request and helping the system show the user the most relevant results. Today this is no longer relevant, and here’s why: There are no more PR updates and there won’t be any, and TIC has little direct impact on anything. PR, like TIC, is no longer an indicator that influences the ranking of sites in search results. At the same time, you need to know that these indicators remain relevant when choosing donor sites for placing links.

SEO Myth #7: You only need to set up SEO once

Let's say one day you optimized your resource perfectly, and the site got to the desired position in the search results. But then you notice that he begins to lose them. Why? Here are a few possible reasons: - degradation reference mass; — lack of new content on the site; — updating PS algorithms; — competitors made a better website and did a better job of promoting it; — obsolescence of current content; — accumulation of errors in the operation of the site; — server malfunctions.

SEO Myth #8: You need to add every page to the search engine index via AddURL

This will not speed up indexing and will not affect rankings in any way. If you want to reduce indexing time, improve the structure internal links, use XML and HTML sitemaps and try to exchange links with more authoritative resources. Better yet, “grow up” good account on Twitter.

SEO Myth #9: Meta Keywords Tag Affects Ranking

This meta tag was used by the PS back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth PS servers lacked the performance to analyze entire pages. Since then, PSs have evolved greatly. In addition, these meta tags were no longer used due to the fact that often unscrupulous promoters added descriptions to the content of this meta tag that did not correspond to reality. Google, for example, has openly stated that this tag does not affect rankings at all and there is no point in using it. Despite this, when conducting site analytics, we very often come across even an over-optimized keuwords meta tag. In my opinion, at the moment this is more a rule of good manners than important parameter, influencing ranking.

SEO Myth #10: Nofollow links influence link juice distribution

In the past, you could use this attribute to control the distribution of link juice and thereby influence the promotion of sites. At the moment, as a result of updating the PS algorithms, the weight of such links is not taken into account. And according to some data, it’s even the other way around - a page with such a tag loses some of its weight.

SEO myth No. 11: Title and description meta tags must be present in the snippet

Many people believe that the contents of the title and descriptions tags will definitely appear in the snippet in the search results. It is not always so. The content of tags is often replaced with fragments of page text (usually the first paragraph of page text with a keyword occurrence) that are more relevant to the user's queries. In some cases, PSs use text from external sources, for example, from the anchor text of links.

SEO myth No. 12: A website can only be optimized for Yandex

Despite the fact that Yandex is the leader Russian market search, don't forget about Bing and Google. SEO optimization methods are designed to increase traffic from all search engines and develop sites that are friendly to both visitors and search engines. There are optimization methods that work better for Yandex, but a good SEO campaign should take into account the interests of all major search engines.

SEO myth No. 13: My website is in the TOP and all problems are solved!

For commercial resources, having a website in the TOP does not necessarily mean sales. Quite often, to increase conversion you need to do a lot: work on usability, create landing pages, present the product in an original way and much, much more. Moreover, competitors do not sleep, and in order to remain in the TOP of search results, you need to carry out daily work to improve and fill the resource with original and popular content. You cannot stop website promotion once you have achieved results.

SEO Myth No. 14: Registering your site in directories brings great benefits to your site.

There is absolutely no difference in which directories you will register your resource: “white”, “gray”, “closed”, “paid”, “free” - placement in all these directories does not bring any benefit to the site. The benefits of these manipulations were available in the distant years 2006-2008. Now, alas, other technologies rule the roost. There are two directories that I would welcome site placement in - Yaca and Dmoz. Staying in them indicates enough high quality resource. PSs are more loyal to such sites. In other words, they have a higher level of trust.

SEO Myth #15: Links are no longer important

Links from your site to other (relevant) sites and sites within the same topic will affect the reputation of your site in the eyes of the PS. Effective campaign for search marketing should also contain a program for creating links. At the same time, it is important to understand the difference between a purchased and a natural link, because natural links are the most valuable. I hope this post was useful to you, debunked some myths, made some aspects of modern SEO clearer, and will help you in website promotion.

It's no secret that SEO is changing rapidly. So fast, in fact, that many small business owners have trouble keeping track of what's important in the world of SEO and what's not.

Everything was simpler before. TITLE tag, keywords and backlinks - this was all SEO. Today, a successful SEO campaign must take branding into account, user experience, semantic search, and a lot more.

Not to mention, Google continues to change the rules of the game every day. In fact, Google has confirmed that it makes an average of two algorithm changes every day.

Luckily, a group of SEO professionals led by Brian Dean have come together to shed some light on what's important in the world of SEO in 2016. They recently analyzed 1 million results Google search, in order to determine which ranking factors correlate with Google's first page rankings.

Here are six of the most important research findings.

1. Content is king in SEO

Research has shown that content with two key characteristics significantly outperformed content without those characteristics.

These two characteristics are content length and topic authority.

Researchers have found that long-form content is significantly more likely to rank at the top of Google's first page than short-form content:



Interestingly, they found that, on average, the content material on the first Google page contained 1,890 words, a number that defies the practice of many content marketers writing short blog posts. Yet these results are consistent with other industry studies that have found a correlation between content length, shares, and Google rankings.

The report also found that highly valuable, comprehensive content tended to rank above content that only scratched the surface of the topic. Using software tool called MarketMuse, they analyzed the articles in their sample and rated them for comprehensiveness.



As Google begins to better understand the underlying topic of the content (through semantic search), it can gain insight into the content's ability to cover the topic in detail.

Key insight: Writing long-form content that covers a single topic in depth can be important for Google rankings in 2016.

1. Backlinks are important

So over the past few years there has been a lot of talk about Google moving away from backlinks.

However, according to research, backlinks remain an integral part of how Google evaluates the authority of a page. Of all the factors the study authors looked at, the number of different links pointing to your page from unique domains was found to be the most important.



Does this mean you should go to Fiverr and order 5,000 backlinks from article directories? Of course not. However, this does mean that abandoning link building entirely may be a mistake. Google employees even issued a report to say that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with link building - as long as the links were created using legal means.

Key insight: Getting legitimate backlinks from various sites can have a significant impact on your Google rankings.

1. Don't believe in the power of the Scheme

When Google joined forces with Yahoo and Bing to create standardized structured data code - resulting in Schema.org - many data scientists digital marketing thought this would be the beginning of a new era search engine optimization. Unlike the old days when you told Google about your page by stuffing keywords into your content, now you could use Schema instead. And, in fact, Google has suggested that Schema could become a ranking factor in the near future.

While Schema can be useful in certain circumstances, it doesn't seem to have an impact on SEO. The report states that “despite the hype surrounding Schema, our data shows that use of Schema markups does not correlate with higher rankings.”



One important clarification is that data structuring is not always done correctly. As one of the authors noted in a blog comment, “Another consideration we had is that so many sites (for example) are using the schema incorrectly that they might even cause themselves some damage. The layout also depends heavily on the type of content on your site. For example, B2B sites have no way to use it intelligently at all.”

The study did not differentiate between correct and incorrect data structuring. So it may be that Scheme, when used correctly, helps in ranking.

Key insight: Simply adding Schema.org markup to your pages is unlikely to have a significant impact on your search engine rankings.

1. No more need to stuff your tags with keywordsTITLE

As noted, semantic search allows Google to actually understand the topic of your page (no keyword pumping required). Interestingly, the study found that including your target keyword in the TITLE tag does help rankings, but the correlation was significantly lower than the experts who conducted the study expected.



For those of you who prefer to “write for people, not search engines,” this discovery may bring a sigh of relief. While keyword optimization is still important, this data suggests that Google may not need your exact keyword in your title to rank for that keyword.

For example, if you search Google for “best whey protein powder,” only one of the top four results contains the words “best whey protein powder.”



Key insight: don't worry about including your target keyword in your TITLE tag. Instead, write a headline that encapsulates your page's content and attracts clicks.

1. Don't neglect site speed

When Google first announced that it was going to use page speed as a ranking factor, the entire SEO world rejoiced.

It's not often that Google says outright, "Do this and expect higher rankings." And when is “it” something as simple to implement as site speed? There is nothing to think about here.

According to these new studies, site speed should not be something that remains on the sidelines in your company. Faster sites tend to rank above slower sites:



Despite the proven importance of website loading speed, we still encounter websites that load slower than a snail covered in superglue. And the crazy thing is that (in the case of WordPress sites) increasing your site speed is just a walk in the park.

Even if your site isn't WordPress, there are still a few simple steps things you can do to make your site (literally) speedy. Here are some of the most effective steps which you can do:

• If your site is indeed running on WordPress, install and activate the WP Smush and WP Rocket plugins. These two plugins alone can cut your loading time in half.
• Install and use a CDN such as MaxCDN. This can be difficult if you don't know what to do, so ask a professional to help you.
• When it comes to specialists, it makes sense to hire someone who specializes in website speed. You'll be surprised what a skilled coder can do in two hours of speed optimization. Ask around for references, or use a site like Upwork to find an experienced professional.

Key insight: Site speed is important. Test your site's speed using Google's PageSpeed ​​Insights, and then follow the steps outlined here to measure their impact.

1. Reduce your failure rate

Many of the factors that were mentioned earlier (such as backlinks and optimization TITLE tag) are the basics of old school SEO. However, there are a ton of new ranking factors that Google can use today.

One set of these new ranking factors is known as “behavioral factors,” which include things like bounce rate, time on site, and click-to-impression ratio.

Research has shown that one of these behavioral factors- bounce rate - correlates with Google ranking:



It has been definitively established that sites with lower bounce rates tend to rank above sites with higher high levels refusal.

While this is an interesting finding, it is not clear whether bounce rate has a fundamentally direct impact on rankings. Dean quickly noted that this discovery may be a classic case of correlation not causation because "more low level“Bounce rates are a byproduct of high-quality content, which is what Google measures.”

In other words, sites with superior content may have lower bounce rates simply because people enjoy reading those articles.

The SEO landscape is constantly changing, but using these six ranking factor tips can ensure you're on the right SEO strategy in 2016.

With this post I want to show you what the main (not all) factors influence your position in search results. All of these factors are worth paying more attention to than others.

Although there is a tendency that this factor loses its importance a little every year, however, according to experts, it is the quality, first of all, of links that determines positions in the search results.

I think everyone understands that the number of external links is not important here, the main thing is their authority. It will be great if most of them are natural links from thematic sites. Therefore, buy links on exchanges, exchange them, comment on blogs, leave posts on forums...

And of course, the link anchors themselves play an important role. If there are many links with the same anchors, then this may have a bad effect on your site. Therefore, use different anchors from the same semantic core, and also dilute them with non-anchor links.

And yet, you should not promote only one page of the site, for example, the one that “sells” your product. Sometimes put links to other pages of the resource.

Content and Page Metrics

Quality content comes second. It is worth publishing only unique and natural text on the site, preferably in large volumes, at least 2500 characters.

Based personal experience and from my blog I can say that large texts, namely 10,000 – 15,000 characters, bring more traffic than small ones. But if you really can’t write on a topic like this large volume text, then you should not try to stretch it, “pour water”, etc., this may have a bad effect on the behavioral factor.

Always use at least one image in your article, ideally including 2-3. Break the text into paragraphs, create headings, etc. In general, design texts for PEOPLE, the way you would like to see them yourself.

It is also worth mentioning the frequency of new materials appearing on the site. It will be great if you write every day new article, but 1-2 articles per week will do.

And of course you shouldn’t use machine text or non-unique text, it will have a very bad effect on your site. Although... this is not always the case, often such sites live and do not suffer from the “hands” of search engines.

Page indicators also include the presence of videos in texts and page loading speed. The faster the site works, the better from an SEO point of view.

Behavioral factor

This can be called a traffic indicator, that is, CTR, number of bounces, number of pages viewed per user, time spent on the site, etc.

Let's say if specific request a person moves from the search results to your site and rather returns back to the search, then search engines conclude that the person could not find necessary information on your resource. If there are many such refusals, then you should expect a decrease in the search results.

Social indicators

Being active on social networks also gives you a plus. Number of likes, reposts, mentions of your site in in social networks is tracked by search engines and taken into account when generating results.

Other factors influence the site not so much, so a separate article will be written about them or this one will be updated.