We do know search engines both measure and reward satisfaction in very significant ways. In fact, I highly suspect BHS Links satisfaction is one of Google’s most important metrics used to judge the performance of its own search results. On top of that, a slow-loading, bloated landing page will significantly impact your SEO health. Google considers users’ bounce rates and dwell times when factoring in “domain rank” or, basically, how visible your site is for relevant keywords. The more thought and effort you put into users’ experience, the more your SEO score will improve.

x Codes: When search engine crawlers can’t access your content due to a client error

• You can also improve the user experience by creating a sleek and modern design and utilizing simple navigation.
• Regularly monitor changes in keyword rankings to see if your efforts translate into improved visibility.
• So, if you were to create content on either of these example topics, it’s important to match the search intent and create the right type of content.
• While having some outbound links helps you to build trust and show expertise around a topic, don’t overdo it.
• I have seen teams put resources into keyword battles that did not pay off financially.

Back when search engines lacked a lot of the sophistication they have today, the term “10 blue links” was coined to describe the flat structure of the SERP. Any time a search was performed, Google would return a page with 10 organic results, each in the same format. In terms of ranking web pages, engagement metrics act like a fact-checker. Objective factors such as links and content first rank the page, then engagement metrics help Google adjust if they didn’t get it right. How do search engines ensure that when someone types a query into the search bar, they get relevant results in return? That process is known as ranking, or the ordering of search results by most relevant to least relevant to a particular query.

Strategies for Optimizing for Bing

And if your site has a reputation for publishing useful, trusted content, that’s going to help your rankings in a major way. If so, you’re going to find yourself with a massive rankings boost. But these links also help boost your site’s overall Domain Authority, which is your site’s authority as a whole. And if they can’t access certain parts of your page, that’s going to hurt your search engine visibility too.

These statistics give us a good idea of where SEO is headed in the coming months and years. The specter looming over most SEO-related conversations in 2025 is AI. When ChatGPT and other generative AI tools burst on the scene in late 2023, many predicted that the death of SEO was imminent. Search engines would wither away, with people turning to AI answer engines like Perplexity and Gemini to answer all their queries. Lucky for all the SEO pros out there, that prediction has not yet proved correct.

However, if I have to choose one, I will say that internal linking is still one of the most important ranking factors. Internal links help search engines index and understand your site giving information about what pages are more important for your business. An overall seamless user experience (UX), which includes easy navigation, fast loading times, and mobile responsiveness, can boost search rankings.

In March 2024, it evolved and became part of our core ranking systems, as our systems use a variety of signals and systems to present helpful results to users. The Google algorithm uses hundreds of signals to rank content on search engine results pages (SERPs). They range from content and technical factors to user experience and technical signals.