{"id":17,"date":"2021-10-15T20:30:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T20:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/?p=17"},"modified":"2021-10-13T20:35:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T20:35:23","slug":"factors-that-affect-blog-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/factors-that-affect-blog-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Factors That Affect Blog SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Dwell Time<\/span><\/h3>\n

Although dwell time is an indirect ranking factor for Google, it’s a critical factor in the user experience \u2014 and we know that user experience is king when it comes to SEO. Dwell time is the length of a time a reader spends on a page on your blog site. From the moment a visitor clicks on your site in the SERP, to the moment they exit the page is considered dwell time. This metric indirectly tells search engines like Google how valuable your content is to the reader. It makes sense that the longer they spend on the page, the more relevant it is to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s a reason this metric is an indirect indicator for SEO \u2014 it\u2019s completely subjective. The search engine algorithms don\u2019t know your content strategy. Your blog could be focused on short-form content that takes just a minute or two to read. You might also include pertinent information at the beginning of your blog posts to give the best reader experience, which means less time spent on the page. So yes, dwell time can affect SEO, but don\u2019t manipulate your content to change this metric if it doesn\u2019t make sense for your content strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Page Speed<\/span><\/h3>\n

We mentioned earlier that visual elements on your blog can affect page speed, but that isn\u2019t the only thing that can move this needle. Unnecessary code and overuse of plugins can also contribute to a sluggish blog site. Removing junk code can help your pages load faster, thus improving page speed. If you\u2019re not sure how to find and remove junk code, check out <\/span>HTML-Cleaner<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s an easy-to-use tool that doesn’t require coding knowledge. It simply shows you the unnecessary code and lets you remove it with the click of a button.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also recommend taking an inventory of your blog site plugins. Decide which ones you need to keep your blog running day-to-day and which ones were installed as a fix for a temporary issue. Plugins that affect the front-end of your site are a threat to page speed, and odds are, you can uninstall more of these plugins than you think to increase your overall site speed.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Mobile Responsiveness<\/span><\/h3>\n

More than half of Google\u2019s search traffic in the United States comes from mobile devices. On an individual level, your blog site might follow that same trend. There\u2019s no way around it \u2014 optimizing your blog site for mobile is a factor that will affect your SEO metrics. But what exactly does it mean to optimize a website for mobile? The industry rule-of-thumb is to keep things simple. Most pre-made site themes these days are already mobile-friendly, so all you\u2019ll need to do is tweak a CTA button here and enlarge a font size there. Then, keep an eye on how your site is performing on mobile by taking a look at your <\/span>Google Analytics dashboard<\/span><\/a> and running a <\/span>mobile site speed test<\/span><\/a> regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Index Date<\/span><\/h3>\n

Search engines aim to provide the most relevant and accurate information available. A factor search engines use when determining what\u2019s relevant and accurate is the date a search engine indexes the content. Indexing means a search engine finds content and adds it to its index. Later, the page can be retrieved and displayed in the SERP when a user searches for keywords related to the indexed page.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might be wondering: <\/span>Is the date the content was indexed the same as the date it was published?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The answer: yes and no. If a blog post is published for the first time, it\u2019s likely that say, a Google crawler, will index that post the same day you publish it. But content can be backdated for several legitimate reasons, too, like archiving information or updating a sentence or two.<\/span><\/p>\n

One way to positively affect this SEO factor is to implement a historical optimization strategy. This strategy works well on blogs that have been established for a few years and have a fair amount of content already. By updating these older posts with new perspectives and data, you\u2019ll be able to significantly impact your blog SEO without creating a lot of net new content. Site crawlers will reindex the page \u2014 taking into account the updated content \u2014 and give it another opportunity to compete in the SERP. It\u2019s truly a win-win.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Recent Data<\/span><\/h3>\n

Recent data, another indirect ranking factor of SEO, should be included in blog posts. Recent data gives visitors relevant and accurate information which makes for a positive reader experience. When you include a link to a credible site that has original, up-to-date data, you\u2019re telling the search engine that this site is helpful and relevant to your readers (which is a plus for that other site). You\u2019re also telling the search engine that this type of data is in some way related to the content you publish. Over time, your readers will come to appreciate the content which can be confirmed using other metrics like increased time on page or lower bounce rate.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Dwell Time Although dwell time is an indirect ranking factor for Google, it’s a critical factor in the user experience \u2014 and we know that user experience is king when it comes to SEO. Dwell time is the length of a time a reader...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/25"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesiterank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}