SEO ranking factors
Endeavouring to 'control the controllables' is (in my opinion) a great philosophy for any 
aspect of life; including the world of online marketing. Our dental website SEO team work day-to-day within the bounds of search engines and invest time towards researching, gaining knowledge, testing, and experiencing first-hand what is working and what is not in getting our dental practice websites to perform to their best ability.
Thankfully in addition to this there is a huge support network of SEO professionals out there who contribute their knowledge, affirm our results and generally help us to draw consensus as to what the search engines are thinking when they determine a site worth ranking higher than another for a particular search term.
We know that Google and the other major search engines are in the business of producing user friendly, healthy, relevant sites to their users. In that respect, we know that if we produce user friendly, healthy, relevant sites for chosen keywords, we are getting off on the right start.
However we also know that Google claims they use over 200 signals in its search algorithm. Whilst there are no specifics as to what these exact signals are, Moz – a respected and valuable SEO marketing resource team based in Seattle-, have (since 2005), been producing their own ranking factors list utilising their powerful Mozscape software, by crawling the entire web, gathering data, comparing and reporting to give us insight into the makeup of the major search engine algorithms.
Our dental practice SEO and marketing skills at Dental Design are focussed on return on investment, and working with our dental practices in achieving their objectives.
So with all the above taken into account, Moz, have just released their biennial search engine ranking factors in full (an earlier release was blogged about by my colleague Marcus back in July). I thought I'd share the key takeaways and how we use this knowledge. This full version now includes feedback from 100 SEO professionals about the future trends of SEO.
The study compares correlations of sites that rank well against their performance for a factor. With a side note of the relationship between correlation and causation and a hint of none-committal to these being set in stone – Moz have produced a list of factors and their correlating data. The higher the decimal point number, the higher the correlation is between the factor influence and the ranking. click on the link below to check out the correlation study results.
Search Engine Correlation Data
Whilst the correlation and search data alludes to trends within rankings factors, and they no doubt offer us evidence of what is felt within the industry, I feel the biggest takeaway is the information gathered from other SEO professionals and their predictions for the future of search.
The chart below shows what these experts in SEO think about the future of SEO.
In the last year we have seen positive effects from quality, unique content, social signals which include Google + activity, reviews (Google and third party- Dentist Finder) and Authorship. This does not mean that we have forgotten our cornerstones of SEO – link building, page rank, and on-page optimisation – but have adapted these to follow the well-informed progressions in best practice. Thank you Moz.
We continue to keep our ears to the ground of the SEO industry and combine this knowledge with what we see across our dental websites to deliver the highest standards of SEO. To find out more about how SEO can help your dental website call 01202 677277 for a no obligation chat.
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