All About SEO

WHY YOU WANT TO RANK HIGH ON GOOGLE

Google is the main way that we find information today. It’s no surprise that it’s the most popular website in the world, with an average 3.5 billion searches per day. Check out these live internet stats which states Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average. That’s a lot of searches!

With that many searches per day, it makes sense that you want your website to be first. Think of your own search habits. How often do you scroll down on Google and push “More results”? If you’re like most people, not very often. 

In fact, the Top 10 results on Google get more than 90% of clicks. About 1/3 of total clicks goes to the number 1 spot. So if you want people to find your website, the best way is for them to find you on Google.

If you’re in that coveted top spot, you’re practically guaranteed to see the amount of good leads start to increase. And the best part? They’ll come to you. You might get someone stopping by your site at 3:00AM on a Tuesday who fills out a contact form. 

A good website can be your hardest working salesperson, working 24 hours per day 365 days a year. All the better if you have a solid website that people can find easily on Google.

People are using Google. Don’t you want them to use it to find you instead of the competition?

But where do you even start? Is there even a point to try when there are over 1 billion websites? Fortunately, you’re not competing with every single website in existence. This is where keywords come into play.

WHAT ARE KEYWORDS?

Keywords are what you type into Google. If you search “best pizza NYC,” Google looks for those words on websites.

To appear in search results, use keywords naturally on your site. For example, a Brooklyn pizzeria might include “best pizza in NYC” on their page, but not like this:

“Our best pizza in NYC is the best pizza in NYC. Try the best pizza in NYC now!”

This keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore. Instead, write naturally:

“At Slice of Heaven, we craft what locals call the best pizza in NYC using fresh, local ingredients.”

Google considers many factors beyond keywords, including location. A Manhattan search for “best pizza” will likely show New York results, not pizzerias in Italy.

The Periodic Table of SEO helps explain these various ranking factors, guiding website owners to create effective SEO strategies beyond just keyword use.

CHEMISTRY OF SEO

No one besides Google Engineers know for sure what all of the things are that Google looks for when deciding what page to show. But it’s estimated to be around 200 “ranking factors” that pages and websites give. 

A ranking factor is anything Google checks to decide where a page ranks. If you think that 200 of these sounds absurd and nobody will ever do them all, you’d be right. But some are more important than others. Below is Search Engine Land’s “Periodic Table of SEO Factors”, last updated for 2024 (If you click the link, the table is now interactive).

If you remember the periodic table from Chemistry, this is setup in a similar fashion. The items with the same colour code are related to one aspect of SEO. No single element or group matters more than any other element or group in this table.

There are seven main sections of this SEO table: 

• Content
• Architecture
• Code (formally HTML)
• Credibility (formally reputation)
• Links
• User
• Performance (a recent addition)

These are the primary things that get you ranked in Google.

THE PERIODIC TABLE OF SEO - 2024

Click here to enlarge the image below

CONTENT

The SEO Periodic Table’s Content section focuses on written materials like articles and blogs. Each element contributes equally to the overall SEO effectiveness. When all elements are optimized, they collectively enhance your SEO performance.

Quality is paramount. Ensure your writing is accurate and well-researched within your chosen topic. Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the most effective terms and scatter the keywords naturally throughout your content.

Create content that provides Answers to your audience’s questions. Relevance is achieved by meeting your users’ information needs. Use Depth to comprehensively address the topic, and employ the Language your target audience uses (e.g., “pants” vs. “trousers” or “top” vs. “jumper”).

Strive for Uniqueness by producing original content that hasn’t been published elsewhere.

Once you’ve identified appropriate keywords, incorporate them and their synonyms naturally throughout your content.

Freshness refers to how recent your content is. Newer articles are considered “fresher” than older ones. Update existing content with new information to maintain its relevance.

Incorporate relevant Multimedia elements like videos and images to break up text and enhance engagement.

Align your content with the Consensus of high-quality sources. Avoid clickbait and deliver on the Accuracy of the topic promised to the reader.

Regarding Value, your material should offer clear benefits or insights to your audience.

By focusing on these elements, you can create SEO-friendly content that resonates with your audience and performs well in search rankings.

ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is the way that the site is built. Crawl refers to a web crawler, a “robot” that comes through the internet and adds pages to Google’s database. This is where the search results come from. If your website can’t be crawled due to some settings, you won’t be able to find it in Google!

Being optimised for Mobile-first where the mobile experience is the first priority (then other versions) is a great idea and is extremely important in 2024. Most people search using their phones these days so this means your site needs to work well on mobile devices. It can be a little tricky to do this when websites are almost always built on desktops. Many website platforms have tabs when you’re previewing a page to show what it looks like on different devices. Don’t ignore these or you may not show up on Google.

Site speed is another factor that is only gaining in importance. Most users expect a site to load in no more than 2 seconds. After that, users tend to backtrack and see what else they can find. Google’s noticed this and has made it an important ranking factor.

Other architecture ranking factors include HTTPS, Canonicalise, Pagination, Page structure, Taxonomy and URLs.

HTTPS is making sure your site has an SSL certificate and starts with https instead of http so that the information is safe from hackers. Canonicalise is putting canonicals and redirects on pages with similar content so Google knows which pages to prioritise. Pagination is splitting a large amount of content across several pages. An example of this would be an e-commerce website splitting products over several pages to enhance user experience.

Page Structure is getting the right balance between your main content, supplement content and advertising. A search engine and a user should both be able to tell the different sections of a page.

Taxonomy refers to the way content is organised on a website, often using categories, tags, or other hierarchical structures. For example, on an e-commerce site, you might have a main category like “Clothing,” with subcategories like “Men’s Clothing” and “Women’s Clothing,” and then further subcategories such as “Shirts” and “Pants.” This structure helps users quickly find what they are looking for, while also signaling to search engines how the site is organised, improving crawlability and ranking potential for related topics​​.

URLs is the actual web address of your page. Best practice is to keep it simple and descriptive. Ideally, it should match your Page Title and your target keyword. In this one it’s back9.co.nz/all-about-seo which is a good choice because SEO is our target keyword for this article.

Code

Code (HTML) is like Architecture, but for a specific page instead of the entire website. Title is most important and carries the most weight; you should always include your keyword in the page title. Meta tags and Meta descriptions come next. 

A Meta Description (under ‘descriptions’ in the periodic table) is the paragraph beneath the clickable link in a Google search. You can specify this manually on your page and include your target keyword. If you don’t, Google will pick what it thinks is the most relevant part of the page – and it’s still learning so often gets it wrong. It is always best to add your own description and customise the wording. Often what Google picks out isn’t as convincing as some crafted copy. 

Headings are making sure the page is structured in a way that makes sense. Headings in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are like the chapter titles of a book – they organise content and help both readers and search engines understand what a page is about. They range from H1 to H6, with H1 being the most important, often used for the main title of the page, and H2 through H6 used for subheadings.

These headings make your content easier to read and navigate, but they also tell search engines like Google what the key topics are (so be sure to sprinkle your keywords into headings). When you use headings effectively, it can improve your chances of ranking higher in search results, which means more people can find your website.

Schema in SEO refers to Schema Markup, a type of code you add to your website to help search engines better understand the content on your pages. It provides additional context, such as identifying specific elements as a recipe, event, product, or review, which can enhance how your site appears in search results. This structured data can lead to rich snippets, like star ratings or event dates, which can improve your visibility and click-through rates by making your search result stand out.

Alt Text, short for “alternative text,” is a brief description added to images on a website to help search engines understand what the image is about. It’s also used to describe images for people who can’t see them, like those using screen readers. In SEO, using clear and relevant alt text can improve your website’s accessibility and help your images show up in search results.

PERFORMANCE

Speed refers to how quickly your website loads on any device, whether it’s a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Fast-loading websites enhance user experience by reducing the wait time, which decreases the likelihood of users abandoning the page. Google considers site speed as a ranking factor, especially since it affects the Core Web Vitals metrics. If a site is slow, not only do users leave quickly, but search engines may also rank it lower due to poor user experience.

Responsiveness deals with how fast the website reacts to user inputs and interactions. This could include how quickly the site responds to a click or how fast it updates the content following user interactions. Delays in responsiveness, especially during crucial interactions like form submissions or navigation clicks, can frustrate users, leading to a higher bounce rate and negatively affecting your search rankings.

This term Stickiness refers to how well your site retains visitors and encourages them to spend more time engaging with your content. A sticky site keeps users coming back and exploring more of your pages, which signals to search engines that your site offers value. Sites that are engaging, easy to navigate, and rich in quality content tend to perform better in SEO rankings as user satisfaction correlates with higher ranking positions.

Together, speed, responsiveness, and stickiness contribute to both better SEO performance and enhanced user satisfaction, directly impacting metrics like bounce rates, engagement, and conversions​​.

LINKS

Anchor text is the clickable part of a link that usually appears as underlined or highlighted words. It’s important because it tells both search engines and users what the linked page is about. For example, if you link to a page about “SEO tips,” it’s helpful to use those words in the anchor text. This helps search engines understand that the page you’re linking to is relevant to SEO tips. Just be sure to use natural, relevant words and avoid stuffing too many keywords, as that can hurt your rankings.

Inbound links, or backlinks, are links from other websites that point to your site. These are crucial for SEO because search engines see them as a vote of confidence in your content. If trusted websites link to you, it tells Google that your site is authoritative and reliable. However, it’s not just about getting lots of links; they need to come from reputable, high-quality sites. The better the sites linking to you, the more it can help your rankings.

Internal links are links that connect different pages within your own website. They help guide users to important content on your site and make it easier for search engines to understand how your pages are related. For example, if you have a blog post about “SEO basics,” you might link to related articles like “keyword research” or “on-page SEO” within the post. This helps visitors find more relevant content and keeps them on your site longer, which can boost your SEO.

External links are links on your website that point to other websites. Some people worry that linking to other sites might hurt their rankings, but that’s not true if done right. Linking to trusted, high-quality sources can actually improve your content’s credibility. For example, if you mention a study or article, linking to it shows your readers (and search engines) that your content is well-researched and reliable.

By understanding these link elements, even beginners can start building an SEO-friendly website that’s easy to navigate and valuable to both users and search engines​​.

USER

The User section of SEO emphasises creating a seamless and meaningful experience for visitors. When you design your website and keep in mind the need for it be  accessible, you’re ensuring that all users, including those with disabilities, can easily navigate and engage with your content. Features like image descriptions, or alt text, help visually impaired users understand your visuals, while a clean design benefits those using screen readers. By making your site accessible to everyone, you not only expand your audience but also signal to search engines that your site provides an inclusive user experience, which can positively influence your rankings.

Understanding search intent is another crucial part of optimising for users. When someone searches for a term, they have a specific goal in mind – whether it’s finding information, making a purchase, or locating a service. Tailoring your content to match the user’s intent helps search engines recognize that your site delivers exactly what the user is looking for. For instance, someone searching for “best Italian restaurant near me” is likely looking for recommendations, not a recipe. By aligning your content with user intent, you increase the chances of your pages being ranked higher for relevant searches.

Interactions on your website, such as clicks, page views, and navigation, also play a significant role in SEO. Search engines track how users engage with your content to assess its quality. If users spend more time exploring different pages, it signals that your site is valuable and engaging. Positive interactions, such as low bounce rates and higher page engagement, improve your site’s credibility in the eyes of search engines, leading to better rankings.

For local businesses, optimizing for locality is essential. By focusing on local SEO, you can ensure that your website appears in search results for users searching for services or products in specific locations. For instance, including your business address, city, and location-specific keywords helps your site rank for searches like “coffee shop in Austin.” This focus on locality ensures you attract the right audience – those who are nearby and likely to visit or engage with your business.

Finally, user satisfaction is at the heart of SEO success. When visitors find what they need on your site and feel their search has been fulfilled, it boosts your overall site performance. Satisfied users are more likely to stay on your site longer and engage with more content, which search engines see as a positive signal. The more effectively your site satisfies user queries, the more search engines will reward you with better visibility in search results.

WHAT ARE TOXINS?

The Toxins section is works in the same way as the Periodic Table, only with opposite results. 

With toxins, the ones at the top with the highest negative value do the most harm for your SEO. Doing a few of these tactics on your website can get you a massive drop on Google fast–but only if you get caught. 

So why would anyone bother using these Toxins? What benefit do they give you? 

Toxins are tricks to dupe search engines or users. In the early days of SEO, these methods were used to go around Google’s algorithm. It wasn’t smart enough to detect the tactics yet, so thought that these sites were high-quality; even though they were full of spam or even prompted users to download malware. 

As Google caught on to these tricks, instead of rewarding websites that used them with high rankins, it began to punish them instead. Overnight, they’d fall from the top of the search results into nothingness. Sometimes, Google will even remove sites from search results completely. 

Instead of focusing on tricks and shortcuts, it’s better to focus on evergreen content and making the best user experience possible.

CLOAKING, STUFFING, AND HIDING

Half of the toxins have to do with trying to directly trick the search engines. Now that they’ve been discovered, these tricks will only harm your SEO. 

Cloaking is showing search engines something different than users. If you’ve come across a site that seems like it will be helpful and then you click it and it’s a completely different topic, that’s because of Cloaking.

Stuffing is putting the keyword in there way too many times. It’s that bolded burger paragraph from Chapter 1. Websites use to bold the keyword too, assuming bold meant it was more important and Google would care more. But how did it help the user? 

The opposite of Stuffing is Hiding. This is putting the keyword somewhere people can’t see it, like the same colour of the background or stacking other elements on top of it. Technically, the keywords are “there” but not part of the content. This is one way that some sites do Cloaking.

SCHEMES, PIRACY, AND INTRUSIVE

The toxins that don’t have as much to do about directly manipulating search results are about the kind of content they have and poor user experience. And some of the content is straight-up illegal.

Piracy is just that and exactly what it sounds like; putting stolen content on your site. Free video downloaders and cracked software are good examples. There’s a good reason why these sites change their name so often. They have illegal or stolen content and once Google flags them they have to restart.

Schemes are things like using link buying services or low-quality spam blogs. They’re shortcuts to making high-quality, valuable content yourself. When sites sell contact lists, these are the people who buying them–and likely send you spam emails too. 

And finally, Intrusive is intruding on the user by getting in their way and ruining the experience. Ad-heavy pages are a good example of this. In 2021, ads are the lifeblood of the internet. Even reputable news sites can be filled with them. But Intrusive takes that to the next level. It’s opening multiple pop-up ads in a row, automatically creating tabs, or having full-screen ads show up several times in the middle of the page.

If you’re thinking this might be a lucrative way to make money from advertisers, you’re more likely to put users off instead–as well as Google.

“EMERGING” VERTICALS

When the Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors 2019 was released, the table makers had their eye on a few things they expected to be big ranking factors in the future. 

At the time, they were starting to see trends in sites that optimised for these factors that seemed to perform slightly better in their SEO efforts. They hadn’t yet been confirmed as significant ranking factors. 

Fast-forward a few years, and that prediction has come true. All four of sections of the Emerging verticals can be a big help for SEO. Since they’re still relatively new, not everyone is doing them yet; meaning you might get the jump on your competition if you optimise your website with them in mind. 

In a similar vein, a new series of ranking factors are just starting to come into play. These are called Core Web Vitals and are the most significant change to ranking factors in several years. Optimising for these isn’t as straightforward as using the keyword less often, however; some of them could require completely rebuilding a website. We go over these Core Web Vitals in a later section of this chapter.

VOICE SEARCH

While there was an upward trend in Voice searches, there wasn’t a guarantee that it would take off as a primary form of search. In the early days, voice search was clunky, hard to use, and produced substandard results. Many people who had trouble in the early days were resistant to using adopting it.

Google introduced voice search in the late 2000s as a free update and used the information it gathered from searches to improve the process. At first, only specific accents and clearly-enunciated words in a certain way would be recognized. In the 2020s, voice search is more likely to be accurate than not. So how does this affect SEO? 

Nowadays, voice searches are one of the most popular ways to search. Backlinko reports that in 2021, voice searches are second only to mobile searches. This means voice has now surpassed desktop searches. 

So why does this matter? People search with Voice with different phrasing than typing in the search bar. While you might type in “quaint meaning” you’re more likely to say “What does quaint mean?” after activating your voice assistant. Questions tend to be fully-formed.

Highlighting these common questions in your content as headings can increase the chances you’ll be found in a voice search. For instance, in this eBook we had the section “What are keywords?” This is a short question followed by an answer to the question, and is optimised for voice search.

By optimising certain pages (or even all of them!) for voice search, you’re more likely to be the result that pops up when the voice assistant. And often for these searches, it’s only the top result that gets traffic!

LOCAL

Local is an extension of the Locality metric from above. For some kinds of searches, Google knows that people only care about something that’s nearby. A search for “Best Cafe” is likely to bring up something close by because Google’s assuming you’re looking for somewhere to stop by soon. 

This means that local listings are even more important than they used to be, and Google is putting a lot more emphasis on them. Google My Business has become a much bigger deal as a result. In fact, Google’s pushing these so hard now thatsome SEO experts believe it’s the single most important ranking factor for local SEO results.

Not sure what a Google Business Listing is? A Google My Business listing is the listing when you type in a business name and it shows the map and information about the business like opening hours and links to the website or to call or get directions. It shows up on the side of the search results in a separate sidebar. 

If you haven’t made a listing, Google may have made one for you based on what it can figure out about your business. Sometimes that information is wrong. Even if it seems accurate, you’ll want to claim and verify your listing so you can update it and respond to reviews. 

Since these are such an important part of SEO, we go into it in more detail about these Google My Business listings and how to make, claim, and verify them in our article Why should you have a Google My Business listing?

IMAGE

Multimedia plays a big part in keeping users engaged. When possible, it’s a good idea to include these on your web pages. The two main ways to do this are by adding images and video, which is why Image and Video are now they’re own dedicated ranking factors. 

Images are more engaging than text alone. HubSpot does a deep dive into some fascinating stats about visual content that might be worth a read. The gist is that liberal use of images keeps people interested and helps them remember your message better.

Where does SEO play into all of this? Well, images have metadata you can update for SEO purpose. The most important element to update is the Alt Text. 

Alt Text is a text description of the image that displays when the image doesn’t load properly. If you’ve seen a blank square with an x and a couple of words where an image should be, that’s the Alt Text. It’s also read aloud by accessibility readers for visually impaired people. By using your target keyword or a good synonym as part of the Alt Text, your SEO will improve.

Images should also be made for the web. What this means is that they use the minimal amount of memory to load in the proper size. Compressing and resizing images properly makes them smaller, which increases page speed, a significant SEO factor. Sometimes this involves creating multiple versions of the same image for different screen sizes, but the results can pay off both for the user and for SEO.

VIDEO

Video is everywhere these days. And it’s easier than ever to make them. 

Video is praised as being the most engaging form of content, and is only slated to keep growing more popular. While it can take some practice and an early investment of time, resources, and education to learn video, it’s worth the effort. We have some tips on How to prepare to be on video that can help you start out too.

Like images, video also has SEO metadata that you can include. Subtitles are also helpful both for user experience and SEO. Some SEO ranking factors for videos include adding a proper title and description, optimising the size and serving multiple resolutions depending on user devices.

Adding subtitles is a huge help these days too. Subtitles give you a boost not only in Google, but on social media platforms too. Verizon Media even claims that nearly 70% of users watch video with sound off, especially in public places. Without subtitles, you could be missing out on a significant part of your audience, especially if your video is educational or relies on a spoken message.

Video SEO is a little more complicated than images, so our videographer Dakota touched up on these in the article How do videos help you SEO you can read if you’re interested in more details.

WHAT ARE CORE WEB VITALS?

There a lot of bad websites out there. Websites can be bad for a number of different reasons, but when a website is “bad”, most people can agree on a few reasons why it’s not quite right, even if they don’t know the technical terms for the issues. 

Some of them have useful information but are hard to use. The words can get pushed down the page while you’re reading when an ad loads. The menu might not work right or some of the links on it may be broken. The images might be the wrong size, or look pixelated.

But the core problems tend to come down to functionality.  Some part of the page loads too slow (If at all),  something doesn’t work as expected, or interruptions throw off the look and feel of the page and are distracting. 

Google’s noticed that people complain about the same things often so decided to do something about it. In the past, UX was a single segment of the User part of the Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors. Now it’s become a whole new column called Core Web Vitals.

Core web vitals are split into three main sections: Site Speed, Interactivity, and Stability. If one of these isn’t quite right, it can be a nuisance to the user. But when there are issues in multiple areas? That’s when visitors tend to give up and look elsewhere. 

Since this behaviour was happening all over the world, Google decided it was time to address it. Over time, sites that were optimised for SEO but have a poor experience will start to drop in the rankings. So how can you make sure your site is ready? 

We’ll go over each of the three factors in this section, and you can also read more about Core Web Vitals in our article, Google’s May Algorithm is a Game Changer!

LARGEST CONTENTFUL PAINT

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is basically a fancy way of saying “fast load times”. But instead of the entire page loading, LCP is talking about a specific part of it. 

As the name suggests, largest contentful paint is referring to how long it takes for the largest visible image or text block to load. Since this is the “Main” part of the page where the bulk of a user’s attention will go, Google thought it was important to focus on this part of the page.

Full videos aren’t yet considered, but this is likely to change sometime in the future. So be careful about loading full-size videos directly on the web page and consider embedding them instead. Video posters, however, are considered for LCP. 

Google has decided to standardise the speed across all their websites, so it’s easy to tell if you’re on track. A good LCP score is 2.5 seconds or less. Between 2.5 and 4 seconds is in the “Needs Improvement” category. And anything beyond 4 seconds is considered Poor. 

You might think measuring this can be extremely difficult. And you’d be right. The best way to measure how you’re doing on LCP and any other Core Web Vitals is to go directly to the source. Google has a Core Web Vitals Report that you can run if you have a Search Console account to see how you’re doing. If you don’t have one yet and still want to measure these, there are other options available, but you should probably have your website in Search Console to measure performance, so signing up is a good idea!

FIRST INPUT DELAY

The next Core Web Vital metric is First Input Delay (FID), which measures interactivity. Unlike the LCP metric which starts immediately, FID relies on a user to do something first such as click a link or a button. 

The First Input Delay value measures the time between how long it takes after someone interacts with the page and for the event to happen. If you’ve ever been to a very slow site, you’ve likely seen poor FID in action. 

Have you ever visited a page and clicked something and nothing seems to happen? So then you decide to click on something else and suddenly the thing you clicked on before finally activates. This is because of a delay between you interacting and the website reacting to your action. 

Long delays are incredibly frustrating for visitors. Because of this frustration, Google isn’t very lenient when it comes to delays. While LCP was measures in seconds, FID is in milliseconds. A Good FID score is under 100 ms. Between 100 and 300 ms Needs Improvement. Anything longer than 300 ms is Poor. 

Many sites that seem to have agonisingly long wait times may be only a second or more in FID. Still, with Google counting a Good score as < 100 ms, if it takes a site 1 second, it needs to be 10x faster!

Cumulative Layout Shift

The final Core Web Vital metric is Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). It’s also the most difficult to measure. In fact, it underwent a major change on how it was measured in June 2021 and is expected to evolve more over time. 

If you’ve been on the internet, you’re practically guaranteed to have come across why this metric exists. Have you been in the middle of reading an article when the text your reading suddenly shifts? And then you scroll down and it moves again? 

Or when a page loads and you see a button you want to click and right before you click it suddenly moves and you hit something else? It’s annoying. Then you go back and try to hit the right one and it seems like it won’t happen this time and… Yep. Moved again. It’s incredibly frustrating. You could even confirm an order on accident when you meant to go back to a previous page!

This is easily one of the most distracting issues that users regularly encounter. Even some well known and popular news sites had problems with these jarring shifts. So Google decided to do something about it. 

There are a lot of things that could cause this, but Google has noticed the trend and is pushing for developers to find better ways to load elements that don’t shift the layout much. Sometimes, a slight shift is impossible to avoid–but it needs to be small. 

CLS scores are hard to explain, but know that less layout shifts equals better. But if you’re looking at metrics for your website, know that less than 0.1 is Good, 0.1 – 0.25 Needs improvement, and above 0.25 is Poor. You’ll notice there are no units there. CLS is the most technical of the Core Web Vitals and is still evolving. To find out what these scores need in detail and how they are measured, take a look at this CLS article from web.dev.