Every SEO professional is aware of Google’s continuous process of modifying its algorithms and introducing new ranking signals for websites. With more than 200 ranking signals, it is almost impossible for any SEO professional to be an expert of each of them. However, if you work a little intelligently, you can easily master the most popular ranking signals for optimizing your page. Yet, the ranking signals for page optimization changes every year and to ease your job, here you can find 14 ranking signals for the year 2019.

Relevance – A comprehensive knowledge of keywords and search algorithms is not enough for increasing the ranking of your webpage. To impress Google and improve your search engine ranking, providing relevant result is important. The relevance of your page also needs to be in accordance with time, location, and search history and search pattern of the users. Two ranking signals related to page relevance are:

Search intent – To gain higher SERPs you need to understand the intent of the visitors and provide relevant results. Google prefers pages, which can offer better information to visitors and rank them higher. To understand the search intent, you need to dedicate some time and experiment with different keywords. Browse through the first page of the result to understand the search intent. In case, your pages do not provide similar information, get it fixed.
CTR – This is undoubtedly one of the crucial relevance signal used by Google and using it properly will give a significant boost to the ranking of your page. To understand the CTR of your webpage, use the Search Analytics report provided by Google Search Console. Read the summary carefully and make changes in meta-descriptions or title tags, if required.

Content – Writing an informative and grammatically correct is undoubtedly important for the survival of your page. However, that is not enough. You also need to follow the below-listed ranking factors when laying out the page.

Keywords – Keep your keyword close to the page title; use the main keywords in the H1 tag, alt texts, and body of your page. Google still considers keyword to be an important signal yet you should not overuse it as stuffing unnecessary keywords may make you pay penalty. However, you can always use some related term with the main keyword.
Comprehensiveness – Keyword is important but it should be used in a comprehensive piece as Google is striving hard to improve the search quality. For improving the comprehensiveness of your page, you can always use TF-IDF analysis. Know the frequency of important keywords on competing pages and select relevant terms on your page.
Grammar – Proofread your content carefully and make sure to fix all grammatical issues before uploading it. Also, you can use tools like Grammarly and avoid mistakes as it may be detrimental for your ranking.
Structuring the HTML – Organize your HTML tags in an appropriate manner so that Google can understand the content of your page without any difficulty. A mistake in framing the semantic markup and HTML structure can make a negative impact on your website. For a well-framed HTML consider using schema markup or Structured Data Markup Helper.
Create Unique content – Duplicate content can get your site blacklisted by Google, so make sure that you produce unique In case, you are not sure about the plagiarism issue of your page content, use Copyscape and get it checked.

Backlinks- Even though several additions and alterations have been made by Google in terms of algorithms, so far nothing has substituted the need of backlinks. Therefore, like the previous years, backlinks will be a determinant factor in the year 2019 as well. The best way to increase your backlinks is to check the linking profiles of your competitors and compare. Also, know the intersection points and get yourself equipped. A few ranking factors related to backlinks are as follows:

Linking domains and backlinks count – The quantity of backlinks plays a significant role in determining the success of your optimization. More the number of backlinks better is the page to Google. However, for a stronger boost, it is better to have backlinks from different domains and not get restricted to only a few.
Link authority – Quantity of links is important yet the quality is even more crucial. The links that you get should be of good quality else it may affect your rankings in an adverse manner. To ensure quality links, make sure to get backlink audits regularly. In case, you get some spammy links to your website, ask the domain owner to remove it.
Link anchor text – Even though the importance of anchor text has dropped significantly in the recent days, keyword enriched anchor texts are still preferred by search engines. Yet, the anchor text should have semantic relevance to the content of your page.

User feedback- SEO professionals and website owners are facing a constant pressure of maintaining the quality of their content, as Google is giving huge importance to user feedback. Your page should not only be informative but also it should be convenient and super fast on every device as well as the browser. Therefore, to excel in this field, you need to concentrate on the ranking signals listed below:

Page speed – User experience is highly dependent on page speed as visitors do not want to wait patiently for your site to be opened. Already Google has made Speed Update official ranking factor for any mobile devices. Also, changes have been made on the PageSpeed Insights tool of Google and it considers both Optimization and Speed important criteria for ranking. Now, optimization scores are dependent on several factors like minification, compression, redirects etc. Therefore, to improve the ranking of your page, give due importance to the technical factors and make the necessary changes without any delay.
Bounce rate and dwell time – Apart from page speed, you also need to give importance to bounce rate and dwell time of your page. The success of this signal is highly dependent on the queries made. Your site will be considered worthier if the user completes their search just by visiting your page. However, if the user visits multiple sites, it does not undermine the quality of your page. Google also notices the bounce rate of the visitors and consider your page to be better only when the visitor stays in the site for more than 5 seconds to get his queries resolved. Therefore, just making your content informative is not all; you also need to make it engaging and attractive for the user.
Page authority of the site – Page ranking is crucial. However, it is never wise to hide your underperforming page deep into the website. Work on the pages as Google prefers websites which have all the pages accessible in three clicks or less. Each and every page should have internal links for the ease of your visitor. In case, you are not quite certain about your site structure, use Visualization feature of Website Auditor for your clarification.
HTTPs sites – HTTPs have been a ranking signal for the past few years, starting from 2014. As user safety is a concern of Google, Chrome browser warns users about the sites, which do not follow this norm. Therefore, for a better ranking, get your site migrated from HTTP to HTTPs.

Conclusion- To make your site rank on the top, concentrate on the quality of your articles, backlinks and user experience. Also, keep a watch on your competitors and make the necessary changes to stay ahead in the competition.