🌐Top 5 SEO Ranking Factors For 2024 | Insights from James Dooley & Karl Hudson🌐

James Dooley: Everybody, 2024 is coming up and today I’ve got Mr Hudson here who is going to run through his top five SEO ranking factors for 2024. Go. Karl Hudson: So number one, semantic SEO. Covering topical authority properly. Number two, silo structure. Make sure the website is structured properly and internal linking is done correctly. Number three, backlinks. I would definitely say backlinks. Number four, traffic. Number five, website performance. Mobile speed, load times, indexability. All of that. James Dooley: Website performance covers technical factors. If a technical person accidentally sets a site to no index, that becomes number one instantly. Karl Hudson: As an SEO you should never allow your tech team to set a site to no index. When I say website performance, I mean speed, indexability, all the core technical signals. James Dooley: Let’s go through number one. Semantic SEO. Explain what you mean by it. You said topical authority but called it semantic SEO. Karl Hudson: A lot of people misunderstand topical authority. It’s topical coverage plus historical data. If your site covers everything about gardening but has no ranking history for gardening, Google will not treat you as an authority. Semantic SEO goes deeper than topical authority. It looks at micro semantics. Where content is placed, where internal links are placed, entity coverage, sentence structure. It’s far more than just creating a cluster. James Dooley: Here’s a statement. You don’t internal link in the macro content in the introduction. You generally only link in the micro content. You try to get as many entities on the page as possible. You aim for the lowest word count you can while still covering the topic. Agree? Karl Hudson: Yes. Maximum entities with minimum unnecessary words. James Dooley: So you don’t believe in content optimisation tools that force an average word count? Karl Hudson: No. James Dooley: Number two, silo structure. Internal linking. Can you over-optimise internal anchor text? Karl Hudson: I have never seen it. Google expects keyword-rich internal anchors. People don’t internal link enough. They rely on navigation links, which Google often ignores compared to in-body links. James Dooley: Do you ever use generic or naked URLs? Karl Hudson: I avoid them except for branded homepage anchors. Homepage intent often causes volatility in updates because it rarely matches search intent. James Dooley: Number three, backlinks. That surprises me because you’ve always been the link man. You’ve ranked in the biggest niches using aggressive link strategies. Why are backlinks now number three and not number one? Karl Hudson: Because without semantic SEO and content you cannot rank. Links alone cannot rank you. But yes, links are becoming more important as AI makes content cheaper. All five factors matter. You can rank with backlinks and navigation links alone, but long term you need structure and semantics. It’s like building a car. If you forget the wheels, it won’t drive. James Dooley: I disagree. I think backlinks should be number two. Internal links maybe number four or five. But yes, all five are needed. Karl Hudson: For people wanting clarity on internal linking, look at what keywords your page already ranks for in Search Console. Use those as internal anchors. If you have no ranking data, use competitor keywords. People overthink this. James Dooley: Backlinks include guest posts, niche edits, citations, press releases and a mixed profile. Number four is traffic. Explain that. Karl Hudson: Any real traffic is good traffic. Email traffic, social traffic, push notifications, paid ads. You must avoid bot traffic. Email campaigns work well. Free ebooks, lead magnets. Social campaigns are strong. Paid ads work but if you have no experience, use an agency. James Dooley: Our own testing shows Gmail clicks rank extremely well. Traffic from Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit. It all moves the needle. Brand search spikes lift the entire site. When Rick runs ads, brand searches increase and rankings increase. When ads stop, branded searches drop and rankings drop. It’s crazy to watch. You could argue traffic is number one. Karl Hudson: In gambling we ran TV ads. You could see direct increases in traffic and brand searches. Even hard-to-track ads still showed clear ranking effects. James Dooley: Number five. Website performance. Not the prettiest topic but vital. Speed, uptime, servers, caching. People tick the box once and never revisit it. Karl Hudson: Exactly. Servers degrade. People overload servers with too many sites. Sites get DOS attacks. Use uptime monitoring. Most SEOs are not watching their sites closely. James Dooley: If I analyse your list for 2024, the plan is more semantic SEO, more internal linking, more brand and naked URL links to the homepage, more disavows to clear toxic links, more traffic sources and ensuring technical is maintained. Anything else you would add? Karl Hudson: Don’t rely solely on ChatGPT. Everyone will end up with the same entities and the same content. Use Reddit, Quora and real user discussions. Information gain is essential. Google’s knowledge graph is not the same as AI training data. James Dooley: So what is your final top five for 2024? Karl Hudson: Semantic SEO number one. Traffic number two. Backlinks number three. Website performance number four. Internal links number five. All five are essential. James Dooley: Noted. Hopefully that wraps it up. If anyone thinks we’ve missed something important for 2024, drop a comment. We test everything so we will happily review anything new. SEO has many ways to win. Whoever ranks, ranks. If someone has a better method, share it. Karl Hudson: Exactly. Drop a comment. If we missed something, we’ll test it and follow up. James Dooley: Peace.