Complete Google SEO Ranking Factors [Updated List]

It’s not a surprise that everyone who owns a website wants to rank first on Google, that is something you also want that’s why you’re here and I am going to share with you all key ranking factors that help you to rank your website.

Ranking first organically on Google means a lot for businesses.

According to the statistics of Search Engine Journal, 93 percent of online experiences begin with search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

No business can afford to lose this great opportunity because It has the potential to bring highly relevant traffic to your website that has a high intent of conversion.

According to the research by Hubspot, they found leads captured through SEO have a 14.6% average conversion rate.

Which is far better than traditional strategies like print ads and direct mail that have only a 1.7% average conversion rate.

It’s a win-win situation for both Google and users, by providing quality content for the searched query you solve the user’s problem.

And after recognizing their problem people try to solve their problem with the product or service your business offer.

Before we know about major ranking factors it’s important to note that most search engines don’t provide explicit data about ranking factors.

They think that spammers can misuse it to manipulate the algorithms for rankings.

This list has some confirmed factors and some of them are based on research and analysis of thousands of websites done by various SEO experts and are believed to be true.

If you align your strategy as per these ranking factors then surely it will help you to rank organically higher, So It’s essential for you to know about all Google ranking factors that he evaluates before ranking a website in his result pages.

Let’s examine some of the most commonly used Google ranking factors:

Page Ranking Factors

Page Loading Speed Through HTML

It is an important factor that influences the ranking. Page speed refers to the time of loading the webpage page code and file size.

When the page loads faster, the rank gets better. It will enhance the user experience. Longer load time may result in a higher bounce rate and less time-on-page.

Page Loading Speed Through Chrome

Google announced that the Page Speed Insights tool is upgraded to use data from the Chrome user experience report. Now it will evaluate page loading speed from real-life user interaction with the webpage.

Related: SEO Features You Must Have on Your New Website

Microformat or Structured Data

Pages with microformat or structured data expected to get high ranking compared to the pages without it. It enables Google to understand better the content of the webpage. That makes it easier for Google to show webpages for relevant queries.

Page Age

As we all know Google prefers fresh content, but in some cases, a webpage with quality evergreen content and that often updated can rank higher consistently on Google.

Use of Modifiers in Titles and Keywords

Modifiers are words like “best”, “review”, “guide”, “quickly”, “latest”, and “simple”. This will help Google’s algorithm to better understand what the site is about, modifiers will often appear in voice searches as well.

Title Tag

It is an important factor as it provides information about the content of the webpage. It helps search engines to know what the page is about and can affect the ranking. It is shown as the clickable headline for a given result.

And it can be seen in the user’s browser tab as well.

Number of Internal Links on the Page

Internal links are the hyperlinks from one page to another page on the same website. It helps Google to understand the structure of the website and more internal links ensure relevance relating to other pages.

Thus it results in better ranking. It is a factor that affects the PageRank and more, high quality links ensure good PageRank.

Here is the example of natural internal links on the webpage.

Quality of Internal Links to the Page

A number of links from your pillar page to the other pages on your website give a signal to the Google bots about the relative importance of the pillar page and transfer more link equity and help those pages in better ranking.

Keep in mind that the added links are relevant and natural.

Categorization of the Page

Creating specific categories to the page influences Google ranking. It is easy to find the search post when the page is organized in a proper manner. It helps the visitors to navigate through content in a structured way and thus can enhance the user experience.

WordPress Tags

WordPress tags are used to categorize web pages so that people can easily find out the relevant post on your site, each post can contain multiple tags. They don’t have a big influence on ranking but can play a role in better navigation of your site.

Easily Accessible Website

Easy to access website make things easy for Google bot to crawl and index your site, as a result, it would help you in increasing visibility in the search result page. This can be easily done via using a Robots.txt file and a well-structured sitemap.

Doorway Pages

Doorways pages are created intentionally to rank highly for specific keywords. They are bad for users because they can lead to multiple similar pages in search results that take the user to the same destination.

For example, someone may click different pages in the same search result and get redirected to the same page.

Google doesn’t want to give its user a bad experience, they are very strict about this practice.

Rel=Canonical Tag

Using rel-canonical tags help you to tell search bots about the original page if there is a duplicate page available either on your website or outside your website. It helps Google to recognize and index your original page and show it in their result pages.

Disturbing Ads

The Ads that disturb and deviate the visitors from the content may cause a negative ranking. It makes the user annoyed while reading the content. This is also confirmed by the Google rater guidelines document.

In this example, you can see how annoying these ads for the user who landed on the website to read about something.

They are running autoplay video and banner ad simultaneously that is obstructing their article headline also.

Above the Fold Ads

It’s the part of a Webpage that is visible to the user when they land on your website after clicking the link in result pages and what he sees after reaching without scrolling down.

It’s important to make sure you don’t ruin the user experience by showing ads in the first place, this can result in an increased bounce rate and lower ranking.

DMCA

Digital Millennium Copyright Act secures the copyrighted contents. Many DMCA takedown notices affect the search engine ranking of the website. It will punish the website for which the search engine receives many DMCA takedown requests.

Terms of Services and Privacy Policies

Pages with terms of services and privacy policy assure trust with Google and users. It also ensures the protection of the site.

Compatibility of Browser

Search Engine Optimization is not about building sites for search engines, users should be on top priority when optimizing a site, Test your website for all major browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera Web Browser, and Safari Web Browser.

Here is a great tool that you can use to check the status of your website compatibility on all major browsers.

Here is the result of my website, it is compatible with all the major browsers additionally it is giving optimization suggestion as well with some minor issues on my website.

Page Layout

Google prefers a high-quality layout that is simple to use and user-friendly. The layout has a big impact on a great user experience that results in increased dwell time and affects your ranking.

Page Layout Algorithm

Google downgrades the page containing so many ads at the beginning of the page or had the ads which disturb the visitors. It has a negative effect on user experience. Page layout algorithm never promotes those sites with too many ads disturbing the reader.

YMYL Pages

The pages containing contents that affect the health, economy, or safety of the users are the YMYL (your money your life) pages and if these pages try to deceive the user’s Google will treat them negatively by assigning lower ranking.

Page Proximity

It means keeping your pages near to the homepage these could be those pages that need a little boost in ranking that’s why keeping your articles near to the homepage is a smart strategy.

Citing Sources

Citing source references in the article increases trust. When you add high-quality sources as references it gives a positive impression to the reader that you are doing genuine research to validate your point of view.

It is better to refer to credible and authoritative sources in order to build trust for both reader and Google.

Quantity of Page

Few people think that adding more pages contributes to higher ranking but this is a myth, instead of having multiple low-quality pages, try to add an original, helpful long form of content that will rank for multiple keywords naturally.

It is not the number of pages that Google considers for the ranking, but the quality of the page.

Page Location in Sitemap

Citing page location in the sitemap helps Google to index the page. It also makes the visitors easily access the page and it increases the visibility of the site. It gets indexed quickly and affects the ranking in an indirect manner.

Updating Website With New Content

Updating your website with new content leads to more exposure in SERP and more index pages in Google. Google loves fresh content and may result in a better ranking. Though it is not an official statement from Google most of the experts agree with the correlation of it.

Responsive Design

Responsive design means your website is able to adapt to all different screen device sizes, it can be mobile, PC, or tablet.

Make sure you have a responsive website for all device types it improves user experience there are free tools like Google DevTools that you can use to know whether the website is mobile-friendly or not.

Content Ranking Factors

Duplicate Content

It is an important factor that negatively affects Google’s ranking. Google never ranks copied contents and always attempts to rank original contents. Having duplicate content on a page reduces the chance of getting a higher ranking.

Updating Old Content

If you search on Google with the keyword “SEO guide” you’ll see top results with the recently published date that means articles with new updates tend to rank higher.

It is a good strategy to update your old content with new facts to grab a higher ranking on Google.

It gives freshness to the content and results in better ranking. Updating high-quality old content is better than publishing low-quality new content.

Helpful on-Site Interactives

Supplementary contents that are helpful can enhance the quality of the page and thus improve ranking. For example, social media buttons, a nutritional breakdown on recipe sites, currency convertors, etc.

Table of the Content

It helps in understanding the various topics described on a page and provides an overview of the contents. A table of contents with links is preferred as it provides a direct opening to the topic. It enables the user to reach the content easily.

Spelling and Grammar

Content with better spelling and grammar accuracy is favored in the ranking as it expresses the quality of the content. Page with so many errors in spelling or grammar is a sign of low-quality content and is not promoted.

Hidden Content

When the link or page is hidden to affect the rankings, it may affect the ranking in a negative manner. The webpage with hidden content will no longer be indexed, it is against the guidelines of search engines.

Unique Content

Google requires unique and original content and it is essential in Google ranking. Search engines always provide varied content to ensure the best user experience. The content should be unique in order to get a better ranking.

Related words and synonyms

Use synonyms, LSI keywords instead of repeated use of target keywords, because repeating the target keyword many times may cause keyword stuffing and this is disliked by both users and Google.

Quality of the content

Google looks for the quality of the content rather than quantity. Quality of the content is an influential factor in ranking. A site with good quality content has a huge chance of getting a higher ranking.

Auto-Generated Content

Google never promotes content that is programmatically created and causes negative ranking. Google may take action in the case of automatically generated content.

Topic Coverage

Covering and explaining the topic in a proper manner enhances the page authority. Thus the user gets the complete details they are looking for.

Useful Content

Useful content is the content that offers useful information. This is not similar to the content quality. Visitors always require contents which are useful to them. They neglect contents that never satisfy their query.

Fred

Fred is a Google ranking update and it is said to be Google will penalize the site containing low-quality content, but it isn’t confirmed. The prime factor the Fred update focused on was the quality of the content.

Payday Loan Update

It is an update in the Google ranking algorithm to target “spammy queries”. It was aimed to clean up the search results of such queries as pornographic and several heavily spammed queries.

Insightful Content

Contents that spread thoughts and insight indicate the quality. It will be useful to the visitors and can enhance the ranking.

Holistic Content

This approach to the content helps in covering the entire topic with a similar topic related to the main topic. It will fulfill the need of the user, Users get one resource to solve their challenge about the topic.

Google Easter Eggs

Those are the secrets scattered in Google services. It can be seen on the search result for certain keywords. For example, if the term Pacman is searched, then the game can be found.

Vince Update

It is noticed that with this update, famous brands get boosted in the ranks for keywords with more traffic without any particular reason.

Transactional Queries

Pages with transactional queries such as “best smartphone under 300$” may boost the ranking of the page.

Syndicated content

Syndicating the content means republishing content on another site. If the content is syndicated carefully, it will never be treated as a duplicate content. It is beneficial to both the writer and site owner if the site is being syndicated correctly.

Content Behind the Tabs

If visitors needs to click on tabs to get the contents in the page. Google gives low value to the contents behind the tab or accordions. It leads to poor user experience. In some cases it may lead to deindexation as well.

Reading Level

It is the measure of how simple content is to read and understand. It can determine whether the content attracts visitors or not by analyzing the reading level.

Co-Occurrence

It is the proximity of similar keywords in several websites and it influences the search visibility. It is one of the factors which affects the ranking in SEO. It shows how the keywords are related and how relevant they are in the content.

Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are the information that appears at the top of the search results. It provides the right answer to the user for the search. Google analyses featured snippets content with certain factors like page authority and formatting.

Topic Authority

It helps in attaining page authority and further, ranking. When more content is prepared on the same topic, Google will consider each piece of content while ranking.

Content Length

SEO experts have varying opinions for optimal content length. But most of them are agree with the 2000+ word count. Here is a sweet spot with which you can go, this is validated by various research as well, like Backlinko found in their study, the average word count of a Google top 10 result is 1,447 words.

Content Engagement

It is the action taken by the user on a webpage, that includes clicks on images, videos, and links this gives a signal to Google that people are spending time on the website.

Which is a positive ranking factor analyzing content engagement helps to understand how good the content is and how often it attracts the users.

Reference of the Content

Citing references to the content can boost the ranking by enhancing the trust of the visitors. That shows to Google that You are using credible sources to validate your point.

Keyword Ranking Factors

Keyword in the Title Tag

It plays an important role in Google ranking, it conveys to Google bots and users about what the page is focused on. Using the keyword as close to the starting of the title as possible is effective.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is the percentage of the target keyword compared to the total number of words in the content.

Using the keyword several times at proper intervals increases the importance of the subject matter but overuse of keywords results in keyword stuffing and thus lower ranking.

Keyword Prominence

It refers to how important the keyword is within the page. Using the keyword in the beginning part of the page shows how prominent the keyword is and is related to the ranking.

Keyword in URL

URL is not a direct ranking factor. The search visibility is improved when the keyword is used in the URL and affects the ranking even in a small manner. It allows Google to understand the content of the page.

LSI keyword in Content

Latent Semantic Indexing keywords help in targeting words related to the focused word but are not synonyms. It affects the quality of the content and thus the ranking. It improves the relevance of the content.

LSI Keyword in Title and Meta tag

Using LSI keywords in titles and descriptions helps Google to differentiate the words with multiple meanings. It helps Google and visitors to understand what the page is about.

Order of Keywords

Keeping the keyword and content in the same order enhances the ranking. It’s better to place keywords in the order of importance and it should be checked which variation of the phrase is searched most.

Keyword in Domain

The domain name should be simple and memorable. Using keywords in the domain name is not an important ranking factor but can send a positive signal.

Keyword in the Description Tag

Using the keyword in the meta description tag helps increase visibility. It is not a direct factor influencing the search engine ranking. But plays a key role in improved CTR

Exact Match Keywords

Exact match keywords increase ranking compared to partial match keywords. Exact match keywords match completely with the search query and enhance user experience. It is important in organic as well as paid search.

Organic CTR

Click Through Rate is the percentage of people clicked on the link that appears in SERP, and there exist multiple thoughts regarding CTR as a ranking factor. It is influenced by several factors like title tag and URL. High CTR means more traffic to the website.

Keyword in the Subdomain

Using the keyword in the subdomain is effective as it provides better usage and easy navigation. It also makes the page user friendly.

Keyword in H1 Tag

H1 tag is the first header seen on the page. This provides the topic of the content and using keywords in the H1 tag improves the ranking. They are the “second title tag”. It should be different from the structure of other tags.

Title Tag Starts With Keyword

It is noticed that the title tag with the keyword as the starting performs better than the title tag ends in the keyword.

Google Hummingbird

It enables Google to analyze beyond keywords and recognize the topic of the page. This change was mainly focused on mobile users because of the development of mobile marketing.

Keyword in H2 and H3 Tags

Having keywords in H2 and H3 tags is a weak relevant point in ranking. They help to understand the structure of the page but stuffing the keyword is not a good factor.

Keyword with Brand Search

If a brand is searched with the keyword, it gets a positive impact in the case of ranking.

TF-IDF

It is a text analysis technique. Google uses TF-IDF to understand the term which is relevant by calculating the number of that word used in the content.

Keyword as the First Word of Domain

One of the boosting factors in Google ranking is using the keyword as the first word of the domain. By using the keyword as the first word of the domain, it gets value more than using it in the middle or last.

HTML Errors

Google will check whether the website is following the formatting standards. If it is not followed, it may suffer from errors. Google considers HTML errors as weak quality and it affects the ranking.

Keyword Used in Image Names

It helps the ranking of the webpage as it is important to use the keyword in image file names. It provides information about what the image is about, using the keyword in it improves visibility.

Another great benefit you’ll get by naming images properly is in the Google image search results.

Related: How to Find the Right Keywords for Your Business?

Site Level Ranking Factors

Sitemap

The sitemap includes details of all the URLs in a website and it is an important component. It helps search engines to crawl your website and it increases the page visibility.

Site Usability

Websites that are not easily accessible affect ranking as the user experience may get disturbed. Visitors always require sites that are easy to use.

Website Architecture

Site architecture is the way in which the site is structured. It helps both the search engines and users to navigate the content easily and plays an important role in search engine ranking. It ensures a better user experience.

Reliability Score of the Site

If the site provides unreliable information, it affects the ranking negatively. The reliability score of the website is considered when it comes to the ranking, a site with a good reliability score is given preference.

Secure Sockets Level (SSL)

SSL certification is a ranking factor in the Google algorithm. It assures site security and has an impact on bounce rate and time of visiting the website. Visitors neglect to use sites that are not secure.

Reputation of Website

The reputation of the site had a vital role in the ranking. It shows the quality of the content in the site and in most cases reputed sites are preferred for ranking

Over-Optimization of Website

Making so many improvements to enhance the website may cause the ruin of the site. Over-optimization activities like keyword stuffing and link spamming only add a negative impact on the ranking, so it should be avoided.

Accurate Meta Description

Meta descriptions should be proper as it summarizes the content, it should help the user to tell what they will get after clicking on the result page.

Spammed meta descriptions mislead visitors, sometimes, it may get penalized by Google, accurate meta description attracts the users and increases the CTR.

Duplicate Meta Descriptions

The impact of duplicate meta descriptions can be felt in the way your audience reacts to your website, and it can give the impression to Google that you have duplicate content. So make sure you have a unique meta description for each page.

Spammy Meta Descriptions

The main purpose of meta description is to tell search engine and user about what they’ll get after clicking on the link, but if you try you manipulate both by using spammy meta description then definitely it will hurt your ranking.

Mobile Friendly Websites

Now, most of the users are using a mobile phone to access the internet and it is important to create a mobile-friendly website.

A mobile-friendly site functions the exact same way regardless of the device’s absence of mobile-friendly functionality can affect your ranking negatively.

Breadcrumb Navigation

It helps users to navigate the site and to go back to the previous site if required. It enables Google and users to understand their position on the website. It reduces the bounce rate as it assures user experience.

HTML Sitemap

An HTML sitemap is an HTML page on a website. It is usually added in the footer of a website and is therefore visible to all visitors.

It helps users to navigate your website easily that improves engagement, thus search visibility gets enhanced.

Hacked Site

The safety of the site should be properly checked. If your site is hacked it may cause deindexing of the site for users’ safety purposes.

Contact Us Pages

Websites with contact information are considered to be more trustworthy and thus a factor for ranking. The contact information should be matching with the whois info.

AMP Pages

Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP pages are the HTML version of the original page which increases the page speed and it assures more visibility on search results. It is designed for mobile internet users to get the fast loading pages.

Updated Date

It is important to provide the modification date in the sitemap because freshness is considered relevant in the SEO strategies. It is good to provide updated data to increase search engine traffic.

Readability Score

If the readability of the content is high, it means that the content is easy to understand. Simple and effective contents increase the visitor’s time spent on the page.

It can affect the ranking of the page as it influences other factors that directly affect the ranking. You can use free tools like Hemingway editor to know your readability score.

Reference of the Source

Including the source of the content will help in trust-building and can be considered as a positive signal in ranking. Visitors can go to the reference source for more information on the topic.

Domain History

Google will analyze the past of the domain, how it acted in the previous time. It is considered at the time of ranking.

Exact Match Domain

EMD is the domain name that exactly matches with user’s search query, like if someone searches for cookies recipe and cookies recipe.com site appears, having an EMD can help in ranking.

Whois information

It is up to the site owner whether the whois information should be kept private or public and Google doesn’t consider it in the ranking. But having many websites and all linking to each other keeping whois information private may cause negativity in the ranking.

Penalized Whois Owner

The person who owns a spam website is the penalized Whois owner. If a site owner having many websites is penalized, it also affects the other websites.

Country TLD Extension

Country Code Top Level Domain influences the ranking of the site but affects the ability of the website to rank globally. It helps in local search ranking and the sites which require a global audience should neglect Country TLD extension.

Domain Registration Period

Google credits domains registered for more than one year, but not a factor should be worried about. Creating high-quality content can overcome this.

Parked Domains

Domain parking is the registration of the domain name which is not accessed by E-mail or website. As they offer a poor user experience, Google will never rank it in a better manner.

Word Count of Linking Content

A link from the content of 1000 words gets preference over the link from the content of 50 words. But low-quality content with more number of words can’t help the ranking.

Site Uptime

More number of downtime in the site due to server problems or site maintenance affect the ranking of the site negatively.

Over Optimized Sites

Google doesn’t like sites that are overly optimized with keywords and penalize them for doing so, optimize it naturally otherwise it will start hurting you.

Reviews

Online customer reviews can be a strong signal for search engines that communicates trustworthiness and authority. And Google gives much trust to the feedback of real-life people.

Site Security

Using HTTPS increases the site visibility and also, the ranking. Users may leave the pages which are insecure and the security of the site is important to escape from hacking.

Frequency of site Update

Google prefers unique and fresh content on the site. The frequency of the site update doesn’t guarantee ranking but can help in a wide range. So, it is essential to update the site in a regular way.

Interstitial Pop-ups

The term “interstitial” could mean a variety of things. But mostly it’s used to talk about pop-ups, modals, and overlays.

The site which shows full-page interstitial pop-ups to mobile users may get penalized. These are difficult to remove from the webpage and affect the user experience.

Panda Penalty

Sites will be less visible after getting attacked by the Panda penalty. It was created to penalize sites with copied and low-quality content.

Server Flagged as Spam

If the shared server had spammy sites with it, it will affect the ranking. Google never promotes sites that are spammy in nature.

Domain flagged as Spam

If the domain gets flagged for spam anytime, it is a negative factor in ranking the website. It shows the low quality of the site. Those sites require special consideration to enhance their reputation.

Link Ranking Factors

Linking Domain Age

Backlinks from old domains are given more importance than the links from new domains. It means that it had been indexed for a long time and is a positive component.

Quality of the Linking Content

Links from low-quality content are given no value compared to links from well-written content. It is an important component regarding the links when it comes to the ranking.

Sitewide Backlinks

Google examines the quality of the link, not the quantity. These are the links that are present in the footer, sidebar, or navigation menu. Google pays low attention to those links.

Forum Profile Links

Google ignores links from forum profiles as it paves an easy way to create links to the website. A large number of these links doesn’t matter in the ranking, but a small number of links from high-quality niche forums are beneficial.

Trustrank of Linking Site

The higher the TrustRank, the better is the ranking. The trustworthiness of the linking site determines the TrustRank and thus ranking of the website. Google examines the quality of the linking site to rank the website.

DMOZ Listing

It is also termed as the open directory project. Many people believe that sites with DMOZ listing are given more importance, but it is not so. It was considered that the sites which are listed in DMOZ are of high domain value. But Google no longer analyses this factor in ranking.

Reciprocal Ranking

It is the procedure of exchanging links between the sites and is quite common. But over exchanging of links may hurt the SEO ranking. Linking to reputed sites can enhance the ranking, it all depends on how the reciprocal links are used on the website.

Natural Link Profile

It’s a link given by another website to the website without any active effort from the side of the webmaster, that’s why it’s named as a natural link. These are considered the best links in the world of SEO.

It happens when a website link to the content of another site as a useful resource for the readers.

Low Quality Directory

Google considers low-quality directories as unnatural links. Google promotes links from real and independent sites and it helps to rank. Links from low-quality directories are not supported by Google.

Co-Citation

Co-Citation happens when two websites cover the same topic by mentioning each other in their content without linking to each other.

This concept relates to co-occurrence, which talks about the frequency and proximity of keywords on a website and their relationship with one another.

Guest Blog Post

It is the process of writing guest blog posts for another website. It can’t be treated as a ranking factor but helps the website in several ways. It should be evaluated whether it helps increasing domain authority, ranking, and organic traffic.

It also enhances the chance of getting backlinks by adding links of the site within the content of guest blog post.

Temporary Link Scheme

Google’s webspam team can detect the temporary links and will take action against them which carries a negative impact. It happens when a link is removed soon after it is created or creating spammy links.

It had been done to get indexed without penalties. Finding temporary link schemes leads to take strict actions by Google.

Link Velocity

The rate of acquiring the links is link velocity, which means your website should grow its backlink profile consistently over time rather than a quick high spike in your backlink profile, which will make Google suspicious about your site.

Links From Independent Sites

These links help in better ranking as links from blogs are common. Links from independent sites are valued more than links from blogs. It increases the reputation of the website.

Outbound Link Theme

When outbound links of a page have different themes, it may cause degrading the ranking level. For example, a web page about educational institutions gets outbound links from pages about cookies is a negative factor. Because the theme of the linking sites is totally opposite.

Number of Outbound Links

Having more number of outbound links and directing visitors to other sites may hurt PageRank. It diminishes the user experience as they are distracted and guided to other sites. Those sites which have too many outbound links may be considered spam by the search engine.

Links from Ads

These are filtered by Google and it should be nofollowed. Links that come from the ads are not treated in the organic ranking.

Links From Real Sites

Google promotes links from real sites than links from fake blogs. Those links get preference and are treated as genuine links. It improves the domain of the website and enhances the ranking.

URL Path

URL is a major component in the ranking. URLs that are close to the home page is a positive signal in the ranking.

Concise URLs

Simple and descriptive URLs help Google to know the context of the page and help crawlers and users to understand what your page and website are about. it’s not a big influence on ranking but as you know real SEO is about working on all small aspects of the website to rank higher.

Linking From Separate C-Class IP’s

It indicates the wider breadth of sites linked and it helps in ranking. Links from similar sites are filtered by Google and more number of these links may cause a penalty. Links from sites with unique c-class IPs are preferred in the ranking.

Links From .Edu or .Gov Domains

It is considered as a positive ranking factor, but not an essential factor. Links from .edu or .gov domains help in boosting the ranking, but earning those links is a great task. It is not a necessary factor and a site can get a higher ranking without links from .gov or .edu domains.

Sponsored Links

Words like “sponsor” decrease the value of a link and thus the ranking. It relates to the paid links and had no positive sign in the ranking. Google doesn’t want the site to buy or sell the links, it should be earned by the quality of the site.

Links From Hub Page

Links from pages that are treated as a hub or top resources get more value in the ranking. They have a lot of link juice through internal links. They are important as they consist of informative content and also relevant incoming links.

Links From 301

These are less valued compared to direct links. Google will direct the visitor from the old page to the new version by this redirect. It is a way to overcome duplicate content issues as a new URL is created when the page is removed or updated.

Dofollow vs Nofollow Links

Google doesn’t follow any nofollow links and doesn’t pass link equity to the linked page, thus the number of dofollow links are important in ranking.

Dofollow links followed by Google bots and they pass on link equity that help in ranking.

Link title attribution

The link title is considered to have weak relevance in the ranking. It is better to use the title attribute in the link. It helps the user to find where the link will direct them to.

Spam Anchor Text

Factors like matching anchor text which indicates paid links may cause penalties. As anchor text is very important to Google in analyzing the relevance of the site, spam anchor text is not promoted.

When the same anchor text is seen on the website it is a negative factor and is considered spam.

Branded Anchor Text

Using the brand name in the anchor text attracts visitors and enhances search visibility. The brand name has a large impact on visibility and seeing the name of the brand makes the visitor choose the link.

Excessive Nofollow

Using rel= “nofollow” tag in an excessive range has a negative impact in the case of ranking. It was used as a direct factor in the ranking once, now it is not the same.

Links From Article or Press Release

It was used as a positive signal to the ranking, but due to the abuse, excessive links from articles or press releases are treated as link schemes. The links from articles or press releases were a positive factor that enhances the ranking. But now, it is not considered as like because of the overuse of it.

Link Location in the Page

It is a prevalent agreement in the SEO community that links from the content location matter a lot for SEO than any other internal links. The same thing said by Google’s John Mueller as well.

This is the area of the page where you have your primary content, the content that this page is actually about, not the menu, the sidebar, the footer, the header.
Then that is something that we do take into account and we do try to use those links.

John Mueller

Links in the webpage are important but having links within the content gets preference.

High Quantity of Crawl Errors

One of the negative factors affecting ranking is the high number of errors. This shows the lack of quality of the content. It results in poor user experience and Google never promotes pages with so many errors.

Link From Wikipedia Source

Wikipedia is one of the popular websites as everyone knows. Links from Wikipedia can boost the ranking, but many controversies exist regarding this. There was a strong belief that links from Wikipedia get preference in the ranking, but it is not proven.

Excess PageRank Sculpting

More PageRank sculpting may be the sign of gaming. By controlling the link juice flow, the site owner tries to increase the PageRank using the nofollow tag. It is the way of putting more PageRank juice to a specific site which is to be ranked better.

Poison Anchor Text

These are the negative keywords pointed to your site, poison anchor text may be the sign of a site being hacked. It should be removed especially when it is related to pharmacy keywords.

Related: Link Building Guide For Beginners

User Ranking Factors

Comments

A number of comments on a page show the interaction rate and the quality of the page. It may have effects on the ranking. Comments are the reviews of the user regarding the website whether it is satisfying or not. Positive comments enhance the search visibility of the page.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is defined as visits with no referring website. Google analyses the number of people who visited the site.

Sites with more number of visitors are treated as high-quality links compared to sites with fewer visitors. It happens when the visitor arrives directly at the site instead of clicking the link from another site.

Bookmarks in Chrome

Pages with bookmarks in chrome may get boosted in the ranking but is not a strong factor. It helps to analyze the searches and whether it satisfied the visitor. It organizes information and instructions.

Repeat Traffic

It is checked whether the site is being visited again by the user. Websites with repeated visitors enhance the ranking as it is a sign of better user engagement.

Dwell Time

It is the duration of time users spend on the website before returning to the SERPs. Dwell time is considered as a factor for ranking. When a visitor stays on a page for a long time, it means that the content is helpful to them. It assures a good user experience.

Brand Search

Searching the name of a particular brand enables Google to treat it as genuine and can enhance the ranking. A specific search of a brand name indicates the reachability and popularity of the brand. It is a positive factor that affects ranking.

Brand Mentioned in News

News results containing the brand name can boost the ranking of the site. It shows the popularity of the brand and news which is about the positive side of the brand may help in the ranking.

Reconsideration Request

If a site should be re-examined to remove the penalty, a reconsideration request has to be filed. When a site is reported for a penalty, the problem which causes the penalty should be fixed. After that, the reconsideration request is to be filed to remove the penalty.

Manual Penalty

It affects Google’s ranking and it is essential to make sure that the page follows Google’s quality standard. If it is found that a site is not following the quality guidelines of Google, it will lead to a manual penalty.

It includes unnatural links to and from websites, hacked websites, thin content, pure spam, etc. These all lead to a manual penalty.

RankBrain

RankBrain is Google’s algorithm to consider user interaction with the search result and helps to rank. It helps Google to provide the most relevant result for the search.

It is a machine learning-based algorithm that analyses the response of the user. It is used to relate unique queries to the searches existing already.

Pogo-Sticking

It refers to the act of immediately leaving the page after landing on it can send a negative signal to Google. There are several factors that make users go back and forth between the pages.

Google Webmaster Tools Warning

It helps to evaluate and maintain the functioning of the website, This tool gives webmasters notifications about their link profile. Thus the problem can be solved, it helps to maintain the quality of the site.

Disavow Tool

It helps to prevent penalties due to links, specific backlinks can be ignored by counting the number of links. It allows site owners to tell Google that they don’t want to include certain backlinks for the ranking process. It can function as a positive signal in the Google ranking.

Local Search

It helps in ranking for a business owner as a local search has an impact on the format of SERPs. Making accurate details will be helpful so that users will identify the location and other details.

Geo-Targeting

It is preferred when the location of the user is identified and content based on the location is provided. It may be based on country, state, city, metro code, IP address, etc. Different content is given to users according to the place of the website visitor.

Google News Box

Searches regarding news will make the Google news box to give preference to recent updates. Users look for fresh news and it is preferred.

Big Brand Preference

Popular brands may get preference as they are known for quality and reputation. It shows that the brand is trustworthy and popularity is a sign of quality.

Bounce Rate

It is the percentage of people leaving the webpage quickly without further actions on the website. A high bounce rate indicates poor user experience and it affects the search engine ranking. It is better to have a low bounce rate for the better quality of the website.

Multimedia Ranking Factors

Image Optimization

Apart from the text, images should also be included on the page and it should consist of informative alt text, caption, and descriptions. It catches the attraction of users and the content gets easy to understand with the help of images. It enhances the experience of the visitor and improves the ranking of the site.

YouTube Optimization

The second most visited website all over the world is YouTube. Google also ranks videos and YouTube is a preferred platform as it provides an opportunity to upload videos. It may help in a better user experience.

Image Alt Text

Images are the main part of the content and using informative alt text helps in a better result in image search results. ATL tag helps Google to understand what the image is about. It increases the relevance of the topic and accessibility to the users.

Social Ranking Factors

Social Media Verification

Social media verification is important to build trust with your users and Google. Otherwise, spammers can take advantage of your brand name if you don’t have a verified account.

Facebook

It’s not confirmed by Google but in many studies, followers and engagement on the Facebook account found correlated with a higher ranking.

It is one of the best platforms to share ideas as it has a huge reaching audience. It also enables the users to find the reputation of the brand or company.

Authority of Facebook Page

Authority of the Facebook page is considered a factor affecting search results. Facebook with high authority shows the quality of the brand but is not considered as the ranking factor.

Facebook Shares

It is not directly a ranking factor but can enhance the ranking through shares. It increases the visibility of the content as it reaches out to more people through the shares. More links will get if many people share the content and links are very relevant in the ranking.

Social Media Profiles

Though social channels are more personal than webpages, the reputation of the company can be understood through social media profile pages. It should be relevant to the business and helps better brand recognition.

By creating significant content, users get various ways to learn about the business. It increases visibility.

Twitter Account

It is one of the best platforms to increase search visibility, active interaction can help in boosting the rank. Sharing images, videos, and GIFs along with the content that attracts the users and can impact visibility.

Twitter Profile With Followers

Having a Twitter account with a lot of followers indicates brand authority. Twitter has some benefits over other social media platforms, more number of followers indicates the popularity of the site.

Number of Tweets

The number of tweets on a page has an impact on the ranking. Recent tweets may help users to know about the brand and these influence the search visibility. The number of tweets shows the reachability of the website and more tweets have effects on ranking.

Official Linkedin Company

Having company Linkedin pages shows that the business is trustworthy. It allows the sharing of significant content and updates to the followers and it helps to attain the reach. It is useful in the marketing of the brand.

Google Sandbox

Google has never confirmed the existence of such a system, but many SEOs believe that it exists. Sandbox is a filter used by Google to prevent new websites from ranking high in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

People think that Google intentionally restricts new sites because they don’t have the trust and authority to rank higher.

Pinterest Pins

Pinterest is the social media account and Google considers Pinterest pins as a social signal. Sharing pins create backlinks and results in better ranking.

Conclusion

Recent updates in the Google algorithm give preference to content that is useful to visitors. Understanding and applying the factors to a website will result in a better ranking. Optimization of the website will take time and effort as it should promise the best user experience.