Pursuing a viable search engine optimization strategy isn’t easy. Besides the sheer amount of time it can take to break into the top results, copious amounts of work and technical consideration must also be made for each page and piece of content. Search engines are constantly tweaking the process of ranking content as well, spending time improving what are known as ranking factors.

Many are familiar with a few key ranking factors, but there are many that can impact just how well your website does in a given niche or SERP. What are some important ranking factors you absolutely cannot ignore? Let’s take a look at a few today and explain why they’re so important.

Page Speed

How quickly do your pages load? If you didn’t know that page speed can impact how many people view your website via search results – let alone stay on it once there – consider yourself informed. Estimates suggest that websites lose between 5 to 10 percent of their potential traffic from search results for every second beyond 3 seconds it takes for a page to load, which has serious ramifications on bounce rate and other ranking factors. In short: make sure you’re pinging search engines with pages that are optimized for speed.

Content Freshness

How new is your content? We all know that SEO often requires tons of time to get select pages and posts to rank, but some forms of content quickly ascend. If you’re creating content relevant to late-breaking news, then how old the content is can play a huge role in whether or not you rank prominently in search results.

Additionally, how often your website is producing new content in general can be an important, semi-related ranking factor. You don’t want to be the website that hasn’t published new content in months in most niches.

Mobile Responsiveness

Can mobile users effectively navigate and interact with your website? If the answer is no, then you’re losing valuable amounts of traffic. Mobile responsiveness matters immensely – now more than ever – when pinging search engines with content. Your website must have a design that is dynamic and provides optimal conditions navigationally and otherwise for mobile users of all backgrounds. Without embracing this ranking factor, a majority of your potential traffic won’t even see your pages in search results.

Security

Site security is an integral ranking factor in today’s world of search. Ultimately, websites that are seen as being insecure by search engines will not feature prominently in search results in most cases. Those that do will likely be intercepted by warning messages whenever users click on links, making it nearly impossible to generate a steady stream of traffic.

There are many security measures that can be taken to ensure your website is safe, but also don’t forget about HTTPS: a huge security-based ranking factor today that can make or break your prominence in SERPs.

With so many ranking factors to consider, focusing on all of them can feel impossible. However and given their importance, it is vital to at least pick several key ones that may easily be ignored otherwise. Speed, security, mobile usability and freshness are content are 4 critical examples that brands must prioritize for optimal SEO outcomes.