Positioning of websites - what it is and how it affects your position in Google

Hmm ... What did you start your day with? Your phone probably landed in your hand and you checked the weather for today and some latest news, maybe you opened Google and entered "winter tires 16", because the season is high and you have not ordered new tires yet? A list of companies offering the assortment you are interested in appeared before your eyes. And here, as entrepreneurs, you lit a light in your head: "How did they do it, that they found themselves in the top 10?" Positioning! What is website positioning and how does it affect your position on Google? Read our article.

What is website positioning?

Website positioning (SEO - Search Engine Optimization) is a deliberate action aimed at achieving the highest possible position in the Google ranking by a website. These activities can be divided into on-site and off-site. On-site works are all "manipulations" carried out within a website. They include optimization of the code and content of the website according to Google's guidelines. Off-site activities are acquiring links leading to a positioned website (backlinks), strengthening the position of the website and generating traffic.

So much. Only that, or maybe rather that much? The recipe for success seems simple - a bit of on-site work, a bit of commitment to obtaining good links and the site will be in the TOP 10 search results. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Search engine optimization is a complex and time-consuming process. Following the growing expectations and changes in user behavior, Google is constantly modifying its guidelines, thus raising the bar for SEO experts. Why is the eternal "fight" going on between the Mountain View giant and positioners? We have to go back a few years.

How did SEO in the past?

A dozen years ago, clever specialists thought they had outsmarted Google. By carrying out various tests, they discovered how the world's largest search engine works ... The recipe was simple. Enter as many keywords as possible on the client's website, in the content and source code of the website, and then generate / obtain as many backlinks as possible. We didn't have to wait long for the spectacular TOP 1. As a result, users using Google did not always find pages whose content corresponded to their query in the first positions. Top quality websites were not awarded with the leading positions ...

Google decided to wage war ... The 2011 update of the Panda algorithm meant that websites that clearly distinguished themselves in quality began to gain importance in the ranking - especially with a large amount of unique content. Another update, this time of the Penguin algorithm, from April 2012, shuffled a lot in the search results ... This time Google took a closer look at the backlinks profile and began punishing them with a "ban" - losing the ranking - for using dishonest, spammer tricks.

Google regularly introduces changes to the algorithm aimed at providing users with results that answer their questions in the most reliable and complete way.

How to position your website - guidelines for 2020

We will not be original when we say that you should focus on content. One of the latest Google updates, gracefully named E-A-T, clearly emphasized what Google puts in: Expertise, i.e. knowledge, Authoritativeness, i.e. authority, Trustworthiness, i.e. credibility. The giant will look at not only the content itself, but also its author and the credibility of the website itself. This is how Google is waging war on fake news and low-quality content.

It is definitely worth paying attention to the BERT update, the purpose of which is the best possible understanding of the natural language by the search engine. BERT was introduced in the USA in October 2019, and then is to be implemented in other countries. We will have to wait for the effect of these changes in our home yard. Nevertheless, the predictions are that it will mainly apply to long-tail phrases. We already know today that you should not overdo it with the number of key phrases in the content, they can negatively affect the position. Google "learns" to read the context. So let's focus on creating content that responds to a specific question.

Another element worth of interest is the appropriate use of feature snippets and fighting for the "zero position" in the search results. For ambitious SEO specialists, Google's extended elements may be a tasty morsel.

Is it worth positioning a website?

The question is obvious. Since the website positioning process is so complex, time-consuming, inexpensive, and the result is not always certain, is it worth investing in it? Suffice it to quote Bill Gates' opinion: "Who does not exist on the Internet, this does not exist." There are not only our potential customers on the Internet, but also our competitors. As indicated in the "Report on the condition of the small and medium-sized enterprise sector in Poland", prepared in June 2019 by PARP, in 2018 67% of enterprises had their own website. Large companies were the leaders in this respect - the percentage here reached 91.1%. Therefore, if we want to win a client, the mere presence of our company in the network is not enough, we have to fight for this contractor. Google is still the undisputed leader among search engines. In Poland, 97.99% of users use this search engine (data for December 2019 from gs.statcounter.com). The data speaks for itself. There are other ways to advertise your website, such as Google AdWords or even social media, but many users still see organic results as the most credible, ad-free source of information. It is worth mentioning that some users have applications installed in their browsers that effectively block ads - thus, spending even the biggest money on ppc advertising, we may not reach potential customers.