1. Rich answer optimization
Getting top ranking on Google is without doubt still among the primary SEO objectives for you and other businesses. At the same, you also need to optimize your site for rich answers, the results that feature near the top of organic results.
While the percentage of rich answers in search engine result pages has not reached its peak, it continues to increase. There is good reason to believe that the percentage will continue to grow in years to come. Following Google’s decision to provide clear value to searchers, rich answers provide users with highly relevant information on search engine result pages.
In order to rank for rich answers, you need to optimize with your target keywords in mind. In other words, you have a higher chance of getting ranked for rich answers when you get your page ranked on the first page of the search engine.
However, keep in mind that you’re dealing with a Google algorithm, so simply getting on the first page of results is not a definitive, sure-fire way of getting ranked on rich answers. It is not possible to make an exact prediction of what page will be ranked by the algorithm. After all, optimization is all about improving your chances of getting ranked.
2. Other content featuring on result pages
Keenly review other types of content that appear on Google’s result pages. Rich answers fall under the category of ‘featured snippets’. Other features to review include ‘related question’. Think about the answers your articles can provide for these questions. Videos and images are also effective at cutting through the search engine result pages.
3. User engagement
For a long time, SEO professionals such as Tangible Vagaries SEO have believed that user engagement is among the factors that affect your ranking on search engine result pages. User engagement covers aspects such as bounce rate and the average time spent on the site.
When it comes to conversion, user engagement is a factor that determines how certain page elements influence visitors’ responses to your calls-to-action. Measuring this factor is, however, difficult because search engines do not have analytics to support it. This is probably because the influence of user engagement on search engine rankings is not direct.
All the same, as a website owner, it is imperative that you optimize for user engagement to get the most value out of your SEO efforts. Experts believe that in the current online marketing environment, user engagement is as important as any other on-site aspect.
When someone visits your site, the longer they stay and the more pages they visit, the lower your site’s bounce rate will be. And it is highly likely that Google will notice that because these positive interactions work together to make your site one that Google is interested in featuring on the first page of search results.
Tools such as Heatmapping can be useful for gaining insights on how visitors interact with your site. These insights on user engagement will, in the long run, assist in improving the performance of your site.