Here’s a study recently published by Semrush, a well-known, reputable digital marketing tool. It reveals the 12 factors that, according to the tool, are most relevant for a website’s organic ranking.
What’s the most important SEO factor in 2017?
I’m sharing this study because it confirms something rarely discussed but that we at TLG Commerce always keep in mind and pass on to our clients. After analyzing more than 600,000 keywords, the factor that, according to this tool, matters most in SEO today is direct traffic.
Yes. Getting visits, lots of direct visits to your site.
“ Direct traffic: a visit that provides no information about where it came from ”
Google Analytics
They always say money makes money. Today we can say that visits bring visits!
Now you’re wondering: if I’m just starting out, how do I tackle this? The answer is simple: lots of work, lots of investment and lots of patience. To achieve this, it’s essential to work on visibility and branding so that, in the long run, people come straight to your site. No SEO, social media or other channels needed: they just type mydomain.com. It won’t be easy; in fact, I’d say it’s only within reach of big, established brands with strong market penetration that have been building their brand for a long time.
Don’t despair: there are many other factors within your reach that also matter a lot. So focus on them. For example, user experience, also known as UX.
User experience: the second SEO trend of 2017
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What is user experience?
Basically, it refers to how users interact with the site. Google wants to deliver quality search results. It wants sites that satisfy users: usable, intuitive, easy to navigate and, above all, offering content that’s relevant to users.
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How does Google measure your site’s UX?
If you look at the “audience overview” Google provides in its analytics page, by default it shows the following data: sessions, users, pages per session, average session duration, bounce rate and % new sessions.
We’ll pay special attention to 3 of them:
- Pages per session
- Average session duration
- Bounce rate
These 3 elements tell Google whether the user experience on your site is satisfactory or not.
Clearly, if users generally spend a good while on a site and view several pages, they’re finding what they’re looking for. In other words, the site is giving them answers and navigation is usable and intuitive.
On the other hand, a high bounce rate signals dissatisfaction: the user experience isn’t good.
What values could serve as a benchmark for good UX on a site?
- An average of 3 or more page views per session.
- An average visit duration of more than 3 minutes.
- A bounce rate below 50%.
At this point you may be wondering: what about loading speed?
Ultimately, loading speed directly affects user experience. Slow loading increases bounce rate and reduces session time and page views. Result: a worse user experience.
The third factor: referring domains
It’s no secret today that earning quality links to your website / online store is an important SEO factor. This study places it among the Top 5 relevant factors. We won’t go into backlinking strategies today; that would take a whole post.
Better 2 links from different domains than 4 links from the same domain.
Other relevant factors to consider
- Content: do a good job with content. Original, relevant and high-quality. But above all, while meeting those criteria, in quantity.
- SSL certificate: it seems to have gone from carrying minimal weight to being relevant. According to this study, it now ranks ahead of factors such as keyword density or keyword use in the body, title or meta tags.
Less relevant factors
Finally, the study reveals a number of factors that have traditionally been very important but are gradually losing weight:
- Keywords in content
- Keyword density
- Keywords in the title
- Keywords in meta tags
- Videos on the site
Of course, this doesn’t mean you don’t need to define a good keyword selection strategy or do good work with them. In fact, keywords and their context indicate how you want to rank.
On the other hand, videos don’t rank by themselves, but keep in mind that watching videos on a site increases visit time. This has a direct impact on session time and therefore on UX.
Conclusions from the Semrush study
Looking at the study in detail confirms the SEO trends discussed over the past year. Google focuses on delivering quality results to users and relies on their experience to decide which websites/stores to show at the top and which fall behind.
Along these lines, we’ve seen that the most important factor relates to the site’s history and the good experience it has offered users over time. This leads users to visit it directly without needing other channels. As we said, this can only be achieved with time, consistency and doing things very well.
If you look at the other relevant factors, they all point to the same thing: UX.
Some aim to achieve:
- Good session times.
- A high number of page views per session.
- A low bounce rate.
Others aim to offer:
- Relevant, quality content in quantity.
- SSL certificate.
As mentioned earlier, backlinks from referring domains slip in among all this. This is perhaps the only factor not directly linked to user experience, but based on the authority third parties give you.
To wrap up, here’s the chart from the Semrush study I’ve based this post on.
