Everything You Need To Know About SEO Ranking

Businesses publish their newly drafted pages and see if Google is crawling through them. Even if that happens, many of them fail to get traffic on the website page despite the pages appearing in Google search results.

The primary reason for this is the low ranking of pages, as Google just doesn’t list search results; it ranks them. 

If your page does not have a high ranking, it won’t appear at the top of search results, which impacts your page’s visibility. 

The process that enhances search engine rankings is called search engine optimization. In the guide below, we’ll explore what is SEO ranking, how it works and the factors that influence and improve SEO ranking. 

What is SEO Ranking? 

Search engine optimization ranking is a webpage’s organic, unpaid position evaluated by Google’s complex algorithm. 

It considers various factors to rank results and the ranking continues to fluctuate as Google strives to display the top content on search. 

When you type a topic in a search bar and the website suggestions that appear on the 1st page, or rather in the 1st five results, are considered to have good ranking in SERPs. 

In the example below, our webpage holds the #1 SEO ranking for the query “NJ search engine optimization services”. 

Ranking changes as Google continuously strives to display the best results for searched queries. 

Why SEO Search Ranking Matters? 

SEO search ranking matters because the better your business website ranks in search engine results, the more exposure and visibility it receives online, which leads to more clicks. 

On average, the page that ranks at the top of organic results has a 10x higher click-through rate than one in the 10th position of organic results. 

It’s not just about ranking; it’s ranking for the relevant queries with the right set of SEO keywords to deliver better results for your business. 

How does SEO Ranking Work? 

A wide variety of factors affect your web ranking SEO. Google’s algorithm analyzes page information, formatting, technical performance, and overall usability to decide where your website should appear. 

Ranking is a step-by-step process, starting from crawling and indexing, moving through relevance and quality, and finally weighing signals like backlinks and user experience.

But here’s the challenge: Google’s main priority isn’t helping businesses climb the rankings; it’s about serving searchers’ needs. 

For example, let’s say you optimize for a popular keyword like “marketing services.”

Your page may get crawled and indexed, but so do millions of others targeting the same keyword. That means your page is just one among countless results, making it harder to stand out.

And since more than 95% of searchers never go past page one, visibility matters. To truly drive results, your strategy needs more than just aiming for rankings. 

It requires creating content that’s relevant, authoritative, and engaging enough to earn a top spot.

How To Analyze SEO Ranking? 

Analyzing SEO ranking involves a three-step approach: 

1. Review KPIs

The first step is to review KPIs to analyze SEO ranking. Indicators like website traffic, search engine ranking, conversion rate and bounce rate provide measurable data of your website’s performance. 

Website traffic is the number of visitors to your website. The more, the merrier, but you need to distinguish between organic and paid, as organic traffic is more valuable in driving results. 

Search engine ranking is when your website appears in the SERPs for a specific keyword search. The higher your website ranks, the better visibility and traffic it attracts. 

A conversion rate refers to visitors completing their desired actions on your website, like proceeding through checkout and making a purchase. A high CTR suggests your website can persuade visitors effectively. 

Bounce rates refer to the number of visitors skipping after viewing only one page, which suggests that users are not engaging much with the website. 

2. Use Free SEO Tools for Tracking Metrics

Several SEO tools help you identify issues, analyze performance, and improve your website’s presence online. 

These tools provide actionable insights to resolve technical glitches and optimize content for better SEO ranking. Popular free tools include:

• Google Search Console – Tracks search performance, indexing, and technical issues.

• Google Analytics – Measures website traffic, user behavior, and conversions.

• Bing Webmaster Tools – Monitors site performance and SEO on Bing.

• Ubersuggest – Analyzes keywords, backlinks, and competitor strategies.

• SEO SiteCheckup – Identifies technical issues and provides optimization suggestions.

Tip: Use these tools regularly to monitor metrics like organic traffic, keyword rankings, bounce rates, and conversion rates, and take data-driven actions to improve SEO ranking.

3. Interpreting SEO Analysis Results

This is a step where you analyze the SEO ranking results by interpretation. It’s where you comprehend the implications of the data obtained from KPIs and SEO tools, which reflects your site’s score. 

A score is the result of analyzing your website content, user experience, technical SEO and mobile usability. 

The score indicates whether your site is meeting the SEO standards or not; a score between 80 and 100 is considered good SEO. 

How to check your SEO score:

• Semrush Site Audit – Crawls your site, identifies errors, and gives a detailed SEO score for each page and overall domain.
  
  

• Ahrefs Site Audit – Checks technical SEO, performance, and provides an overall health score.
  
  

• Moz Pro Site Crawl – Highlights critical issues and provides a domain/page authority score.
  
  

• Google PageSpeed Insights – Scores page speed and Core Web Vitals, which affect SEO ranking.
  
  

• SEO SiteCheckup – Gives a comprehensive score based on multiple SEO factors, including mobile usability and security.

Tip: Regularly monitoring your SEO score helps you prioritize fixes, track improvements over time, and ensure your website meets SEO standards for better rankings.

How SERP Features Improve SEO Ranking? 

SERP features improve SEO ranking by increasing visibility, driving higher click-through rates, and signaling content relevance to Google.

Ranking high isn’t just about appearing in search results; it’s also about how your listing looks.

Google often rewards websites that use structured data (schema markup) with enhanced features, such as star ratings, FAQs, product availability, and event snippets.

By implementing JSON-LD format, you make your content machine-readable, which helps Google understand context better.

This not only supports rich results but also boosts CTR (click-through rate), since enhanced listings stand out from plain links.

Common SERP features that boost SEO visibility include:

• Featured snippets (direct answers at the top of results)

• Review stars for products or services

• FAQ dropdowns under your listing

• Event or recipe cards with images

Pro Tip: Use Google’s Rich Results Test and Search Console Enhancements Report to check if your structured data is working properly.

Factors that Influence SEO Ranking

With the above content, it should be clear how vital it is to strengthen your website’s SEO search ranking to increase traffic. 

Herein are some factors that are analyzed by Google’s algorithm to rank your website on search engine results:

1. Content Quality 

Beyond relevance, Google reflects content that’s high-quality and trustworthy, especially for topics that could affect your health, money, or safety, think “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) topics. 

They use a framework called E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) to gauge quality. This means they identify whether the content creator and information are reliable, and if it’s presented honestly.

While E-E-A-T itself isn’t a direct ranking factor, it guides creators to make content Google loves. One clear way Google assesses quality is through backlinks, when other trustworthy websites link to a page. 

Our study found that eight of the top 20 ranking factors are tied to backlinks, showing they matter. That said, Google’s Gary Illyes has downplayed their importance, so they’re not the whole story.

Other signs of quality Google might look at include:

• Originality: Does the content bring fresh ideas or insights?

• Topical authority: Does the website consistently publish great stuff on the topic?

• Author credentials: Is the creator qualified to speak on this subject?

• Citations and references: Are the claims backed by credible sources?

• Accuracy: Does the info seem correct and reliable?

• Readability: Is the content easy for its audience to understand?

Pro Tip: Want to see how your website stacks up? Use our free website authority checker to get a sense of your site’s trustworthiness.

2. Content Usability

Google also cares about how easy and safe it is to use a website. They look at user experience factors like:

• Core Web Vitals: How fast, stable, and interactive a page is

• Mobile-friendliness: Does the site work well on your phone?

• HTTPS: Is the site secure?

• Intrusive interstitials: Are annoying pop-ups getting in the way?

Google says these factors don’t always directly impact rankings, but they’re still important for success.

Our research suggests user experience signals have a weak or even negative link to high rankings, so while they matter, they’re not the main drivers.

In short, to rank well, focus on creating relevant, high-quality content that’s easy to use and trustworthy. Google’s systems are designed to reward exactly that.

3. Content Relevance

When you search for something on Google, it’s all about getting you the most relevant results that actually answer your question.

That’s because Google’s top priority is matching what you’re looking for with content that hits the mark. 

Our research backs this up, showing that text relevance and how well the words on a page align with your search are the major factors tied to high rankings.

So, how does Google figure out what’s relevant? It looks at things like:

• How do people engage with a page after clicking on it? (Do they stick around or bounce?)

• The people, places, or things mentioned in the content.

• When the content was published or last updated.

• How often and prominently do keywords show up on the page?

At its core, if a page uses the same keywords as your search, that’s a strong signal that it’s relevant. 

Google also uses natural language processing (NLP) to dig deeper, understanding the context and meaning behind words to ensure the results really fit what you’re asking.

4. Keywords

Keywords are a critical ranking factor for appearing on search engines as users type what they want to know about to get exact results of their query. 

Include keywords in your content to get your page ranked. Eliminate or avoid keyword stuffing; ensure subtle inclusion wherever needed. So that Google makes the connection. 

Additionally, include primary keywords in your meta titles and descriptions to enhance ranking and attract more clicks. 

5. User Search Intent

It’s not merely about including the keywords; your page information should mention what the keyword states. 

If your page doesn’t address users' queries, then Google analyzes that and ranks your page lower.

Ensure your page includes information related to the search and the implemented keyword in the content. 

6. Internal Links

Google responds positively to pages that produce a lot of traffic. When users in large numbers flock to a particular page, Google considers it valuable. 

Interlinking with such pages is a valuable factor. Adding your content link to other pages’ content engages visitors for a longer period. 

Once the reader finishes reading, they move on to the next page, which drives traffic for the other pages too, rather than the one they initially visited. 

This builds link equity, which spreads the ranking power across. 

7. Backlinks

Earning backlinks for your content from a third-party site that links to your page. 

Getting backlinks from reputable sources or authoritative sites increases your chance of Google considering your website reputable. 

If you find broken links on third-party sites, contact them and do a friendly negotiation, asking them to replace those links with your site link, as it will benefit both parties. 

8. Responsive Design 

The majority of the visitors use mobile devices. Hence, you need to ensure your website is mobile-friendly and optimized for multiple devices to reach a wider audience with a proactive responsive design. 

9. Page Speed

Page speed is yet another factor that impacts your user experience and Google ranking. 

If it takes more than two seconds, it increases the bounce rate, which largely impacts your visitors.

Here are a few things you can do to improve your page speed: 

• Caching web pages 

• Limited redirects

• Compressing images

• Minifying code

A quick page load time decreases your bounce rate, which not only keeps your existing traffic but also attracts more. 

Local SEO Ranking Signals

Local SEO signals impact your SEO ranking by helping Google determine the relevance and authority of your business for location-specific searches. 

Optimizing these signals ensures your website appears in the local pack and top results for nearby users.

Key local SEO ranking factors include:

• Google Business Profile (GBP): A complete, accurate profile with services, images, and hours strengthens your local ranking.

• NAP Consistency: Consistent Name, Address, and Phone across your website and directories signals reliability to Google.

• Local Citations: Listings on trusted platforms like Yelp, Bing Places, and Yellow Pages validate your business location.

• Reviews & Ratings: Positive customer reviews on Google and third-party sites boost credibility and local SEO ranking.

• Proximity & Relevance: Google prioritizes businesses near the searcher while matching their query intent.

What this means: Businesses targeting a city or region must focus on these signals to increase visibility, attract local traffic, and improve overall SEO ranking.

How AI Impacts SEO Ranking?

AI impacts SEO ranking by reshaping how Google evaluates content, displays results, and matches user intent. With Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI-driven algorithms leading search in 2025, SEO strategies must adapt.

Key trends influencing rankings include:

• AI Overviews – Summarized answers appear at the top of results, favoring authoritative sources.

• Voice Search Optimization – Conversational, “near me,” and long-tail queries matter more than ever.

• Semantic Search – Google uses NLP to understand context and intent, not just exact keywords.

• Personalized Search – Results adapt to search history, device, and location.

What this means: Businesses must publish intent-driven, conversational, and authoritative content. 

Optimizing for natural questions and phrasing will secure visibility in AI-generated results and featured snippets

How To Improve Your Website’s SEO Ranking?

Google employs several algorithms to rank your website. Herein are some techniques that have proven helpful to achieve and improve your website’s SEO ranking: 

1. Low-Competiton Keywords

Implement those keywords in your content that don’t attract much competition by gauging other websites for the same content. 

You can use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Keyword Planner to know the engagement of each. 

Enter a term to base your search around, with the domain and target country. 

These tools help you understand users’ search intent by showing the traffic a word attracts. 

Also, ensure you gauge the competition and relevancy of the keyword before using it for your content.

2. Curating Search-Oriented Content

Before including any keyword, analyze its search intent and curate an effective content plan. 

Look for the keyword in the search engine results page (SERP) and understand what type of content performs. Consider the following aspects of the search: 

• Topics that rank  

• Websites that rank

• Subtopics the top-ranking pages cover

• SERP features that appear

For example, when you search for “best mobile”, the SERP is dominated by listicle blogs. 

3. Fix Technical Website Glitches

Fixing technical errors of your website is like considering the following: 

• Page indexing: Check which pages of your website are indexed by Google and work on the ones that are not by taking the appropriate action.

• Sitemaps: Ensure you have an updated XML sitemap submitted to Google to get your webpage indexed.

• Core Web Vitals: Understand the scoring criteria of a website’s URLs.

• HTTPS: Ensure that all website URLs are HTTPS URLs. If not, make the required changes to improve your website’s security.

• Manual actions: Ensure your website hasn’t received any Google penalty, as it harms your SEO rankings. 

You can use tools to manage your technical issues. 

If you are struggling to manage your website’s technical issues, use an AI tool like Ahrefs. 

The tool crawls your website like a search engine does, checking over 140 issues with filter categories of pages, resources, content, links, redirects, indexability, sitemaps, and metrics to prioritize what you want to fix.

Site Audits make it easy to create tasks for your team. 

Regularly track your progress through audits and report monitoring.

4. Build Quality Backlinks 

Building high-quality backlinks improves your website’s domain authority and SEO rankings. Here are a few ways to improve your website’s SEO ranking: 

• Email Outreach: Be proactive in sharing your content with creators who may be interested in linking. 

• Digital PR: Generate newsworthy and informational content for reputable publications to notice and publish on their platforms.

• Broken link building: Find broken links to your competitor's website or your own and then fix them with working backlinks to your website.

• Media interaction: Check whether you can receive backlinks as attribution.

• Approach unlinked brand mentions: Search for unlinked references to your brand online and persuade creators to replace them with a relevant link to your website. 

There are tools to manage your link-building campaigns. 

Conclusion

Improve your website’s SEO ranking and visibility on the SERPs by implementing the above shared factors. 

SEO is no longer a one-time game; it’s a process of continuous monitoring and evolution to stay ahead. 

It’s a need for businesses more than a luxury. The major motive of having SEO on point is to provide a user-friendly, informative and engaging website to your audience.