Unlocking the most potential from any search engine optimization requires understanding many different aspects of your website and of search engines. As the algorithms and processes continue to become more complex, so must the efforts and strategies of those brands seeking exposure in search results.

Search engines actually inspect dozens of different metrics and elements on every page of your website, as well as analyze what others are doing while on it. Understanding which metrics matter most can help better inform your future efforts and ensure you’re focusing on the right things.

Today, we’ll look at some elements that search engines analyze most about your website.

Content Age

Above all else, the visibility of your content in search engines determines success. We all understand just how important it is to be pinging search engines with content regularly, but how long do we have to wait for results? As it turns out, the age of your content has a direct relationship with how visible it is in search. In most cases, content – whether it be pages or blog posts – takes months to achieve its full potential. In knowing this, you won’t become discouraged because your great new content isn’t driving much traffic after just a couple of weeks.

Link Prevalence

Another big factor that search engines analyze is how many links are pointing back to each piece of content you have. Link building still remains a viable and important aspect of SEO, and this is why. Ultimately, the strength of your website’s performance will be affected by how many links each piece of content has. As such, reaching out to build links – in an effective way – is a crucial aspect of any SEO endeavor.

Content Length

While we are years removed from the time in which you could craft long-winded blog posts and rank highly due to word count, there is still some correlation between search engine success and content length. While there are both upper and lower limits in terms of how successful content tends to be in ranking based on word count, the sweet spot appears to be between 1000 and 2000 words. While some think a constant stream of new, shorter posts is a good idea, most highly-ranking websites have fewer posts (but that are long and well-written).

Keyword Density

Last but definitely not least, pages that are pinging search engines with the right combination and quantity of keywords and phrases tend to do better than their competitors. Much like link building, the shady and simple tactics of the past (like keyword stuffing) are no longer viable, but search engines ultimately assess content intent through the words and phrases that are present throughout the content. Rather than cramming words and phrases into content that doesn’t fit, write organically: this is the best strategy and will ensure that the intent of each piece of content is discernible.

These factors are just a few of the many elements that search engines analyze when reading your content and pages, but they are among the most important. Keep these elements in mind when creating new content and pages, and your long-term SEO efforts will benefit from it.