Aim for under 2.5 seconds for your largest content element to load (Largest Contentful Paint) — anything past 3 seconds starts costing you visitors and search rankings. Speed is both a ranking factor and a conversion factor — every extra second of load time measurably increases bounce rate. Heavy images, unoptimized code, and bloated third-party scripts are the usual culprits. A well-built site loads fast by default.

If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile, requires pinching to zoom, or has buttons too small to tap accurately, it's not mobile-friendly enough — and it's likely losing you both rankings and conversions. Over half of web traffic is mobile, and Google indexes your mobile version first. Test your actual site on a phone, not just a desktop preview. Small friction adds up fast on mobile.

AEO (answer engine optimization) is optimizing your content so AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity can find, understand, and cite it directly in their answers — not just rank it in a search results page. This means writing clear, self-contained answers to real questions, using structured formatting (headings, lists), and building topical authority. Traditional SEO gets you clicks; AEO gets you cited as the source, which is increasingly where buyers start their research.

Start with clean technical SEO — fast load times, proper heading structure, mobile responsiveness — then build content around what your actual customers are searching for. Most sites over-invest in keywords and under-invest in structure. Google needs to crawl and understand your site before content quality even matters. Fix the technical foundation first, then focus content on answering real customer questions clearly.

The biggest factors are content relevance, page speed, mobile usability, backlink quality, and technical SEO — like clean site structure and proper metadata. Google now also weighs experience and trust signals (E-E-A-T) — real expertise behind the content, not just keyword-stuffed pages. A technically solid site with genuinely useful content will consistently outrank a flashier site with thin, generic pages.

Yes, if your Google Business Profile is fully optimized, your website has consistent NAP (name, address, phone) data, and you have enough relevant local reviews and citations. The 3-pack weighs proximity, relevance, and prominence. Website quality matters, but Google Business Profile signals matter more locally. Fix your profile first — categories, hours, photos, reviews — then make sure your site reinforces the same information.