The evolution of SEO has pushed business owners and marketers to upskill and employ more sophisticated techniques to rank in search engines. While SEO has changed technically, the fundamentals and concepts of ranking in the SERPs are practically the same.
Bridget Randolph talks about the constant basics of SEO in an article in MOZ. According to the article, these basic principles include crawlability, site structure, keywords, and backlinks.
Crawlability – The likelihood that search engine bots will discover and crawl your site.
Site structure – the way search engines organize and prioritize a site.
Keywords – what your content deals with.
Backlinks – The Latest Mailing Database way search engines determine the authority and relevance of your website and content.
These fundamentals have not changed over time and show no signs of changing anytime soon. They also serve as the foundation for all the techniques you should employ to get your website ranked in the SERPs.
Ranking factors to watch
This year, the SEO landscape hasn't changed much, including the ranking factors you need to focus on. Essentially, the basic requirements for what has always been considered an SEO-friendly site are actually the same—perhaps only slightly refined.
Knowing and understanding these ranking factors can help you develop a 2019 SEO strategy or strengthen your current strategy for greater penetration.
1. Website Security and Accessibility
The point of having a website is that it can be found online, and lacking the necessary features to ensure security and accessibility defeats the purpose. Must have a URL that Google bots can access and crawl. Accessibility means allowing Google to find and investigate your site, and let them know what it's all about based on the content.
To help these bots work more efficiently and for the benefit of your website, you must ensure the following:
Well-coded website
robots.xl file
Sitemap
Sites running on WordPress can use Yoast SEO to create sitemaps. There are also some software that use online SEO generators, such as:
While HTTPS is not a necessary factor for Google to index websites, it is highly recommended. Google's John Mueller hinted that "it's a lightweight factor" and having it is very useful for users.