Google Ranking Factors – Ultimate List (Updated 2022)
by Andis Klavins
There is a lot of discussion in marketing circles about what factors are most important when it comes to ranking in Google. One needs to consider the user’s search intent, the information they are looking for, and what are all the options they have to find that information.
This post provides an exhaustive list of every single factor that Google considers when ranking search results. This will give you a better understanding of why your site may rank well for one term and not another.
Site Level Google Ranking Factors
1. Your site content should have value.
When you create content for your website, ask yourself what value that content adds to your site’s visitors. Does the content answer their questions? Does it solve their problems? Is it entertaining? If you’re not confident in your answer, then maybe the content isn’t worth publishing, to begin with.
It’s not hard to come up with content when you know your goal. What are you trying to do when you blog or create pages on your site?
In Search Console Help Google it’s explained that they are against thin affiliate sites and are ready to penalize websites which don’t give unique content to their visitors or have too many affiliate links in their posts.
2. It’s important that you have a contact page with right amount or information where people can contact your company.
Having a contact page on your website is not just a simple thing to do, but it can provide your website’s visitors with the ability to communicate with you. Different contact forms may be used depending on what messaging you want to convey about your company or product. There must be a suitable amount of information and a professional tone for the contacts to avoid confusion or questions from those inquiring about your products and services.
Google also has written that they will preference sites with an “appropriate amount of contact information.”
3. Your site’s Trust Rank (TF).
Trust Rank is a ranking factor measured by MOZ. Many well-known SEO experts believe that this is one of the most crucial ranking factors. Google doesn’t point directly to MOZ, but they have said “Search result ranking based on trust” in their guidelines.
4. Use proper site architecture.
5. Update your site regularly with fresh content.
6. Make your website Sitemap.
A sitemap helps search engine bot to discover where all your content is located in your site. You should create a sitemap and upload it to Google Search console or Bing Webmaster tools. If you use WordPress there are plenty plugins that will create and update sitemap for you, but if you use the self-made site, you will need to use any of the free sitemap creator tools over the internet, you can simply Google them.
7. Keep your website up and working.
If you experience plenty of moments where your site is down, you might get de-indexed from search engines. Even short periods for two days or more can cause loss of your rankings if search engines bot will try to visit your page in this time.
8. Base your server close to your audience location.
Your server location has a big impact on your site speed for a current visitor. If your audience is in the USA for example, but your server stays in Europe, users will expect slower site speed. This is especially important to geo-targeted sites.
Luckily there is a brilliant solution called CDN that can solve your problem with ease. CDN is a particular service that will cache your page, send copies to their servers around the world and will deliver your site to visit not from your original server, but from the closest available CDN server.
9. Use Site Security Certificate (SSL).
SSL certificate is a very important factor in Google eyes and Google has officially confirmed that having https is a ranking factor.
10. Create Privacy Policy and Teams of Service pages.
Google looks to Privacy Policy and Teams of Service pages as an additional factor that confirm that your site is legal and it deserves trust.
11. Avoid duplicating meta information.
Search engines at the first look compare your sites by reading meta descriptions, page titles and meta keywords. If they are the same for two different pages, in Google eyes it seems you have a duplicated content and most likely Google will index only one page and will leave all other pages with the same metadata unindexed.
12. Use proper Breadcrumb Navigation.
Google has written: “Google Search uses breadcrumb markup in the body of a web page to categorize the information from the page in search results.”. So keep in mind to keep it simple. User-friendly page architecture is recommended.
13. Optimize your site for mobile devices.
Nowadays more than 50% of all searches have been done from mobile devices. In that case, Google now penalizes sites that are not mobile friendly.
14. Have a user-friendly site.
Search engines try to make their bots act more and more as regular visitors does. In that fact making site user-friendly is a good idea not only to give a better experience to your visitors but also to look better in search engines eyes.
15. Build the reputation of your site.
Site reputation is very important. Search engines can try to check if your site has customer reviews or testimonials and decide then if you can have another point for shoving the value of your site to visitors.
16. Bounce rate factor.
The term “bounce rate” is the percentage of single-page visits to a site. This metric has been used for years to determine how engaged your audience is with your website, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Several factors can affect bounce rates, such as where your visitors are coming from and what content they are looking for. A reasonable bounce rate is considered between 26 and 40%.
17. Domain authority factor.
Domain Authority is one measure of an online site’s popularity and is calculated by Moz. The higher the DA, the more likely a website will rank high in search engine results.
18. Have a decent amount of User reviews.
There are many benefits to having a decent number of reviews, including increased traffic and a lower bounce rate. These reviews also serve as social proof that your product is high quality and worth buying.
Domain Level Google Ranking Factors
1. Domain age factor.
There isn’t too much you can do with that, but domain age matters. The older your domain will be the better it will rank.
2. Relevant keyword in the top level domain.
It is a good idea to think about your blog main keyword before you have gone to register a domain. You can read more about it in my post “Let’s choose the right domain name for your blog.”
3. Start your Domain with the main keyword.
Well it is a proven that domain which starts with the main keyword , have far more benefits comparing with domains where keyword isn’t the first word. For example for my main keyword “webmaster”, domain webmastereasy.com will have bigger potential then domain easywebmaster.com.
4. Domain length factor.
Short domains rank better. I know one-word domains nearly aren’t possible to get anymore especially on .com TLD, but try to find right two words domain and try avoiding three or more words in a domain name.
5. Domain name history factor.
If you bought a domain which was previously penalized, you are risking to take Google penalties over you. Also, domains that have been dropped multiple times in Google eyes seems potentially untrustful.
6. TLD extension factor.
Country-based TLD like co.uk or .fr will help you to rank better traffic in a particular country, but you will rank poorly in whole other countries. Also by using extension .de for a page to be ranked in Russia for example, will look suspicious in Google eyes.
7. Use keywords in your site subdomains
It’s not enough to have a firm domain name and keywords in the title tags and meta descriptions. To provide an excellent user experience, you should also include keywords in your site subdomains. This can be done through the use of keyword-rich URLs and directory structures.
Page Level Google Ranking Factors
Page level Google ranking factors are the hidden tools used in the formula to determine where a website will rank in Google’s search engine results pages.
Page Level Google Rankings are simple to understand, but difficult to implement. A page level ranking is where you rank for the keyword on the page. For example, if you have a page about how to play basketball, you’ll want to target keywords that are relevant to that subject matter. So, if someone is searching “How do I jump higher in basketball?” then your page will show up when they search that phrase because it’s related to what your page is about.
Here are following factors find by Google recommendations:
1. You should include keywords in the title of the article.
2. Your article should start with the main keyword.
3. Include the main keyword in your post description.
4. Your primary keyword should appear in H1 or H2 tags.
Google use H1, H2 and even H3 tags as an additional ranking factor to decide what particular article is all about. So it is a great idea to include your main keyword into H1 or H2 tag as well as adding it into the title tag.
5. Main keyword should be frequently used in the content.
As a good practice you should consider to placing your keyword once for the each 200 words in your article.
6. Try writing longer posts when possible.
7. Word count ranking factor.
Since 2020 also word count in your content peace become a ranking factor. According Rebecca Berbel case study, the best results get articles which have 800 and more words.
8. Include a table of content.
If you include a table of contents, it will help search engines bots index each part of your post better and can result with better rankings.
The more detailed the table of contents, the more accessible your content will be to search engines. A well-designed table of contents is not only a good way to introduce your content and create a sense of hierarchy, but it also improves on page level Google rankings.
9. Keyword destiny factor.
10. Multiple keyword ranking factor.
If your page ranks for more than one keyword in Google, it becomes an additional signal that your page has quality content and that boosts its value.
11. Use related keyword in your page meta title and description.
It is necessary to use at least one related to your main keyword term in your page meta tittle and meta description. As related keyword we understand a word or words, what help to describe the main topic of your article. For example, if you place a word “table” in a search, Google don’t understand what exactly you are looking about. You can search where to buy table, or maybe how to make table. In that case semantic related keywords will help search engines understand the exact topic your article are written about.
12. Write in-depth quality content.
Content depth are an expertise about the topic of your article. It has been a main ranking factor of Google since 2010, when Google start penalize sites for the thin content.
13. Write useful content .
Since mainly search engines looking for a content what are help to solve user search query, it is necessary to try answer the exact question what your site may visitor have, when he visit your article.
14. Increase page loading speed.
Search engines can quickly determine your sites speed.
It is proven that all search engines use page speed as a ranking factor.
15. Page loading speed in Chrome browser.
Google owns Chrome browser and wisely collects browsing data from Chrome browser to determine user experience by visiting a particular site.
16. Core Web Vitals ranking factor.
Core Web Vitals (CWV) are several metrics used by Google to measure page performance. CWV performance reports are included in Google Search Console so that everyone can check them by themselves. The excellent score is that if you are <=100 ms, between 100 and 300 ms, your page should be improved, and if you have more than 300 ms, your page has poor CWV.
17. Avoid duplicate content.
Duplicated content can hurt your site’s rankings badly, so better make sure you don’t have any duplicate content on your website.
18. Your images should be optimized.
Google also uses image weight, title, and alt tags as ranking signals.
19. Update your content regulary.
Google uses the same fresh content factor, even when you update your old post. So in Google’s eyes, due to revision data, it comes fresh, and it can give some ranking boost.
20. External links are ranking factor.
Search Engines Journal has written a case study where they claim that linking out to high authority sites also positively impacts your site rankings. Many factors could cause a page to rank well on Google. The most crucial factor is the title of the page and its content. Look at how many keywords you can fit in your headline and headings.
21. Page age Google ranking factor.
The age of your web page plays a considerable role in your Google ranking. Older web pages, which have more content and are maintained regularly, will rank higher than new ones with infrequent updates. In addition, the longer Google crawls your site, the more backlinks you’ll acquire, which can make your site rank higher or drop lower. Older sites seem to rank better because there is increased trust for established brands, increased engagement with visitors, and better social media interaction opportunities.
22. A factor in the count of edits, you made the article during updates.
One of the many indicators that Google uses to rank pages is how often your article was edited after publication. The more edits an article has, the higher the ranking. For instance, if you wrote an article and it had two edits after it was published on your site, this would be reflected in your Google rankings.
23. It would help if you used rel=canonical in a proper way.
This is important for SEO purposes because your rankings will drop if a crawler or a search engine sees more than one URL with the same content. When a site has a multi-page version of its content, this can lead to confusion, so it’s essential to use rel=canonical properly.
24. Place your main keyword in the first 100 words of your article.
It is necessary to use your primary keyword once in the first part of your article. However, many SEO experts advise, then it should be placed into the first 100 words.
25. Use proper grammar in your content.
When quality becomes most important, proper grammar gives a strong signal of your content quality.
26. Your site content should be original.
What you write on your site should be original. Copy and pasting information from other sites, while tempting, is a bad idea. You are not only violating the copyright law but are also risking being penalized by the Google algorithm for having low-quality content. Instead, get your content from reliable sources, or spend time researching to provide your readers with high-quality content.
27. Entity match importance in SEO.
There are many reasons it is important to match entities, but one of the most prominent is making it easier for search engine bots to index content. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use PageRank, which assigns a numeric value to each web page. This ranking system works because web pages with similar content appear in their algorithm results pages.
28. The number of outbound links influences your page.
Outbound links are a great way to increase the website’s potential with search engines. However, it is essential to know that there is a limit to how many links can be reached on one page.
29. Have a mobile-friendly site.
Google uses its “mobile-first” policy to prioritize mobile-friendly sites and have proper mobile-friendly navigation for different mobile devices from tablets to phones.
30. Don't use hidden content on the mobile version.
Many websites use hidden content on their web pages for aesthetic purposes, but these tricks can cause issues with indexing content by Googlebot. When a page is viewed on the mobile version of the site, this hidden content will not be visible and will not be indexed by Googlebot.
31. Use multimedia - images and videos in your content.
It can be complicated to hold your audience’s attention in today’s digital age. With so many options available, the ability to use multimedia is a great way to add some variation and keep your audience long enough for them to get the information they need. In particular, visuals such as images and videos are a great way to break up text sections and make the article more engaging. The use of multimedia in your content will also let a visitor stay longer on your site, and what is a signal to Google, then your content is more valuable.
32. Amount of outbound links from your website.
Too many do-follow links from your site can hurt your page authority, so the good practice is to use a mix of do-follow links and no-follow links not only for your incoming links portfolio but also for links from your site.
33. The quality of outbound links matters for Google ranking.
The quality of outbound links matters for Google ranking. It is vital to have an arsenal of quality websites you link to from your website, as this will boost your Google ranking. Quality doesn’t just mean quantity, the more sites linking back to you, but also variety.
34. Use outbound links only for a related continent.
The only time an outbound link would be appropriate is if there is a connection between the continent being referenced. If there isn’t, linking to unrelated content may confuse readers.
35. Including helpful content, like free tools in your article, can help rank your website.
Some people are scared to post content to their websites because they are afraid that it will not be good enough. However, there are several free tools that you can use on your website that can help make your posts better with minimal effort. These tools will also help keep your visitors on your site for a more extended period and increase your site bounce rate.
36. Internal links are a ranking factor.
The more internal links pointing to your page, the more relevant your content looks in Google’s eyes. Google also measures the quality of pages linking to you. The pages with higher authority have a more significant impact on your results competed with low authority sites.
37. Broken links factor.
Many broken links in your site give Google the idea that your website isn’t well maintained and probably outdated, so I suggest monitoring your links regularly and changing every broken link with a working one.
38. Too many affiliate links can lower your site ranking in Search Engines.
If you are trying to rank in search engine results, it’s important to avoid using too many affiliate links. While affiliate links may be suitable for advertisers, they can also harm your website rankings in search engines. Not only will the number of visitors from affiliate sites be lower, but overusing affiliate links can result in a penalty from Google and other popular search engines.
39. Solve all HTML errors on your site.
As the website owner, you are responsible for removing errors in your site to rank higher in Google. HTML errors can affect your rankings and lead your potential customers to find other sites instead. These errors typically appear due to improper code or outdated browsers, so regularly update any plugins or browsers.
40. Domain authority (DA) factor.
Sites with higher domain authority will rank higher than low domain authority sites.
41. Trust level or page authority factor.
One way is to increase the trust level of their pages, which can be done with the help of page authority. Page authority is a rating that can be increased by acquiring backlinks from high-authority sites. Improving your site’s page authority rating shows Google how trustworthy it is, resulting in higher rankings on SERPs, so any company needs to build its reputation online.
42. Length of URL as a Google ranking factor.
Some search engine optimization (SEO) professionals believe that Google uses URL length as a ranking factor. However, several of the criteria that Google uses for ranking websites question the significance of the URL (http://www.longurl.com/this-is-a-very-long-url) in determining where sites are ranked on search results pages.
43. Page URL path factor.
Pages closer to the home page rank better than pages far away from the home page. In that case, it is essential to build low-level site architecture with no more than 3-4 levels in depth.
44. Opinions of human editors matter.
Experts have speculated that Google cares about user-generated content and has been making an initiative for human editors to control what shows up in search results. It’s been noted that many of the articles found on Google are from spammy sites with very few visitors.
45. Use relevant site category to your content page.
To rank well on Google, you must use relevant categories for your content page. Since last time Google mostly looked for content quality, it is essential to use a category that points to other pages with content similar to your published content.
46. Use user-friendly and readable content formatting.
Many people find it difficult to read content that is formatted poorly. For a user to have a positive experience, you have to ensure they can read and understand the message you are trying to convey. Whether you’re a freelance writer or a blogger, it’s vital to use user-friendly formatting and readable content. I suggest breaking up text into smaller paragraphs for easier reading.
47. Priority of the page in the sitemap.xml as a ranking factor.
Much discussion has been discussed on the importance of the page’s priority in the sitemap.xml as a ranking factor on Google’s search engine. Priorities are set in the URL of the web page and provide insight on how important it is relative to other pages that can be found on that particular website. As search engines crawl websites, they order them according to their importance, so higher priority pages will rank higher than lower priority pages when searched for.
48. Use references and links to sources in your content.
Use references and links to sources in your content so that readers can easily verify your findings.
49. Internal link anchor text can be vital for your site ranking.
Internal link anchor text can be essential for your site’s ranking. Knowing how to best use anchor text will help you create a robust and natural link structure that will maximize search engine optimization results. When adding internal links to your site, it is essential to use anchor text relevant to the content on the page. This can help improve your site’s ranking on search engines.
50. Use structured data on your site.
Structured data is the markup that helps search engines interpret and display the content. It has been said to be one of the most effective methods for improving your site’s ranking in SERPS, as it provides a richer experience for both humans and machines.
Backlink related Google Ranking Factors
Many website owners focus on backlinks to drive organic search engine traffic. In addition, website owners strive to get links from high-authority websites because links serve as votes of confidence in their sites. However, Google has made it more difficult for sites with copious amounts of quality backlinks to rank higher because there are other factors that they take into account when determining the ranking of a site’s pages.
1. Linking domains amount ranking factor.
Following the Google algorithm, one of the most essential ranking factors depends on the number of domains linked to your site. Just bear in mind, your link portfolio should be built slowly and from relevant websites. For example, suppose your blog is about recipes, and you will have a lot of backlinks from sites about car repair. In that case, Google can take it as a sight that your link portfolio isn’t natural, and they can even penalize your site as they might think you’re buying links, which is against Google TOS.
2. Linking domains age factor.
Obviously, linking domains that have aged have a more significant impact than new ones. However, new domains commonly have lover domain authority, which will also impact your domain authority.
3. Try getting backlinks from domains that are related to different IP classes.
Backlinks from sites in the same IP C-class have less power than links from different classes.
4. Impact of referring pages count to your site rankings.
For many SEO’s the referring pages count is a good indicator of how much authority your site has. Having a high number of referring pages can send rankings upwards and put you better positioned to rank on Google.
5. Try to get a keyword in the backlink anchor text.
The keywords in links that are found in the anchor text still impact sites rankings. You should use different anchor texts (as much as possible) as over-optimized anchor texts can cause penalization from Google.
6. Use Alt text for image backlinks.
The Alt text for images works the same way as anchor text for links, and you should never forget to put relevant alt text attribute to images on your site.
7. Try to get links from .edu and .gov domains.
Higher quality backlinks can have a positive impact on business websites. For example, SEO agencies often look for .edu and .gov domains in their link-building strategies because those links are considered authoritative and trusted backlinks.
8. The trust factor of the linking page.
Trust is the most important factor in ranking a website in search engines. The more backlinks a site has, the more trustworthy it appears. Google prefers authoritative sites with many quality links because it deems them to be high quality and relevant. This trust factor is essential when linking pages from other sites because they can be seen as a vote of confidence and a link that adds credibility to another site.
9. Linking domain authority (DA) factor.
The domain authority of the linking domain has a powerful impact not only on your page ranks but can improve your domain authority as well. Each website is different and has its own set of metrics. All you need to know is how much each metric varies from each other and how that may influence your rankings in Google. You can check out this guide by Moz for more details: https://moz.com.
10. Links from the same domain as your competitors.
Do you want a competitive advantage? If your competitor has a backlink from the same domain, it becomes a vital link relevancy factor. To get a backlink from the same domain as your competitor, all you need is to add another page with relevant content to their site. Once that’s done, start reaching out to potential linking sites and ask them if they would be willing to provide a link on their website on an informative article on your site.
11. Backlinks from guest posts.
Backlinks from guests’ posts in high authority pages also bring value to your ranking. But, like many other SEO technologies these days, if you’re getting too many backlinks from guest posts, it could hurt your site rankings too.
12. Get links from well-known sites in your industry.
Everyone who wants to be on the top of Google should consider getting links from well-known sites in your industry and use them for your google ranking. This can be done in various ways by talking up their work on social media, third-party testimonials, and more.
13. Avoid links from bad neighborhoods since they can ruin your rankings.
It’s essential to keep your website and blog free from links that could damage your rankings. Many websites out there cater to bad neighborhoods, such as those with pornographic content, drugs, and other unlawful items. Links from these sites can reduce search engine rankings or even a complete ban by the Google index. Make sure you avoid any links that could be associated with a “bad neighborhood” for your website.
14. No - follow link ranking factor.
Google used to say that they don’t follow no-follow links. But having part of no-follow links in your portfolio still shows Google that your link portfolio is natural.
15. Link diversity factor.
Having a too significant percentage of one type of links only, for example, signature links, guest post links, comment links, and so on, is a sign that you use spammy technologies to build your webpage link portfolio.
You should build your link portfolio with diversity in mind, using different technologies, different link sources, and getting both dofollow and nofollow links to get your page ranked high.
16. Contextual links are ranking factors.
The links included in page text have much more value than links at the end of the article or stand-alone links.
17. Use relevant anchor text in your site's internal links.
You should also use relevant anchor texts in your site’s internal links because internal linking becomes much more important in SEO. The keywords you find in internal links, which are part of anchor text, signal the page content where the link is pointing to.
18. Country-based TDL factor.
Getting links from a certain country can help you rank better into a particular country. For example, backlinks from domains co.uk can help you rank better in the United Kingdom.
19. Use more do-follow links that are sponsored or UGC (user-generated content).
A search engine’s algorithm is typically ranked by the number of do-follow links and other factors. To improve rankings, webmasters may want to start using more do-follow links that are sponsored or UGC. By doing so, they can attract more traffic, and you’ll see a higher rank.
20. 301 redirect impact to your site SEO.
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. It is a safe way to guide search engines and visitors to the updated page without updating old links. Before 2016 the case studies pointed that a 301 redirect on your site’s SEO can make around a 15% loss of the page ranking weight, but after Google’s 2019 year update, it is no more a case. So now, you will not face any loss in rankings by using 301 redirects. Instead of redirecting an old or non-existing page to a new version will help search engines find freshly updated content on your site.
21. Try to get links from relevant domains.
The most important thing is to get links from relevant domains. High PR, high DA, and inbound linking will help you a lot. You can find such sites by researching SEO and search engine optimization (SEO) backlinks.
22. Try to get links from relevant pages.
Linking to other relevant pages is one of the best ways to improve a site’s credibility. There are a few ways to do this without being too obvious about it, but the easiest way is to find sites that have content similar to what you’re trying to provide and send them a message kindly asking for a link back to your site. This small amount of work can lead to major benefits for your site.
23. Use natural rate of growth in the number of links.
A site should have a natural growth rate in the number of links from other sites linking to it, as there will be fewer chances of being penalized by Google. Additionally, if multiple sites link to the same site, those sites appear relevant and more trustworthy both on Google and Bing.
24. Backlinks from sites that are considered authority sites will improve your Google ranking position.
Do you want to improve your Google ranking position? Backlinks from sites that are considered authority sites will help. The more backlinks you have, the higher your Google ranking position.
25. Try to get a link as a source in a Wikipedia article.
Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia, is one of the most highly accessed websites on the internet. If you can get one, the source link to your site will show a high value of content on a page where the link puts to.
26. Backlink age factor.
Search engines place a lot of emphasis on backlinks, especially on the age of the backlinks. Having aged backlinks gives your website more power than newly created links. There are many reasons why aged backlinks are valued more by search engines. For instance, old links have had time to accumulate Page Rank, one metric used by Google to rank websites.
27. Build a natural backlink profile.
Google announced that it plans to penalize websites that have unnatural backlink profiles. What does this mean for your business? The new algorithm will look at the number of links pointing to your site and the quality of those links. The more low-quality sites link to you, the greater the risk for penalties in search engine ranking.
28. Links from 301 redirects.
Of course, direct links that lead to your site have a more significant impact, but 301 redirects from different domains still boost your ranking.
29. Impact of TrustRank of linking site.
The Impact of TrustRank on linking sites on SEO in 2018 is a controversial topic in the SEO sector. On one side, some people argue that the rank and influence are not tied to its TrustRank; on the other hand, others claim that websites with higher TrustRanks are more secure and thus rank higher than their lower-ranked counterparts.
30.Word count in an article from where the link is coming..
Content amount into linking page has almost the same rules as your page content size. So if your link comes from an article with 2000 words, it will be more powerful than a link coming from 500 words article.
31. Content quality in linking page.
The same comes with the page’s quality where the link comes from. Links from quality written articles have more value than links from poorly written articles with many spelling mistakes.
User related Google Ranking Factors
1. Organic Click Trough rate factor.
2. Bounce Rate factor.
3. Importance of direct traffic to your website.
Direct traffic means your visitors have remembered your site. In this case if you get more direct traffic to your website, Google thinks that your content and brand is worth to remember.
As I have written before Google collects data through their-owned Chrome browser, and if the site has a lot of direct traffic, it’s a signal that the people who visit the page are interested in the content of the site and this is helping to rank the page higher.
4. Returning visitor ranking factor.
5. Chrome browser bookmark factor.
Google owns Chrome browser. And they collect bookmarking data from Chrome users and then use them as site quality factor.
6. Dwell time factor.
7. Amount of comments.
8. The time the visitor spends on your page.
Google Algorithms impact to ranking
Google has been heavily evolving its search algorithms in the last few years. This algorithmic evolution aims to ensure that more relevant results are surfaced to searchers. These changes have impacted several aspects of a firm’s organic search visibility and rankings.
1. Diversity in the SERP
Nowadays, diversity is a hot topic of discussion and concern. With Google’s algorithm update, one of its goals is to diversify the SERP by highlighting pages that provide different perspectives on the same topic. However, this change can affect website rankings and traffic if not properly implemented or understood.
2. Content freshness in the SERP
Over the past few years, Google has been paying more and more attention to the freshness of content on pages. However, Google’s algorithm is notoriously secretive, and it isn’t clear how they rank a page or how much it impacts a site’s ranking in the SERP. Based on what we know about the freshness factor, you need to be publishing new content at least once a week to stay relevant.
3. User search history factor
With the rise of big data, many factors are taken into account when determining the rankings of websites on Google. Recently, Google has used data about user search history to provide more accurate results for web users. The first step is to determine which websites the user has visited through their Google accounts or Chrome browser. This data is then used to boost sites with which the user had positively interacted.
4. Succinct answers, formatting, page authority, and HTTPS for featured snippets
Google is now giving prominence to results that are formatted properly, with authoritative pages appearing first. The importance of HTTPS as a ranking factor is also increasing for snippets that Google deems “important.”
5. Geo-targeting factor
Several studies have shown that Google tends to rank higher sites closer to the searcher’s geolocation. This is due to the fact that Google ranks pages based on their quality as well as how relevant they are to the searcher’s query. In order to be ranked higher in Google’s search results, it’s important for a site to have a local address and other local references.
6. Adult content or curse words (excluded from safe search results)
The new algorithm update from Google will affect websites that have adult content or curse words. If a website has a lot of these elements, it will be ranked lower on search engines. In addition, this algorithm update will ensure that safe search results exclude adult content and curse words. The changes to this update were made in part to Google’s responsibility for the growing amount of misinformation on the internet, as well as videos containing violence or derogatory content.
7. High content quality standards for YMYL keywords
In the past few years, Google has been making changes to its search algorithm and quality guidelines. The company announced that it would like to serve users better and provide more accurate information. This means that higher content quality standards for YMYL keywords will be a ranking factor in the near future.
8. Avoid any DMCA complaints to your site
If you are an owner of a site that has been complained about by any DMCA, Google will start to rank your site lower because it may be seen as not being reliable. If you are an owner of a site that gets DMCA complaint, try to contact the site owner where you have received a complaint and ask him to take their request off of your website. This usually solves the problem.
9. Need for domain diversity in SERP
One factor of the Google ranking algorithm gaining traction is domain diversity. Domain diversity considers all of the domains that link back to your site. These links, or backlinks, indicate how popular your website or page is and can be a major factor in determining Google rankings.
10. Transactional searches
A new study by Brightedge revealed that transactional searches, such as flight and hotel queries, can influence rankings on Google. The study found that these search terms correlate with ranking positions in the top three spots of Google’s search results page for more than 20 percent of queries examined.
11. Local Search ranking factor
The importance of local search is ever-growing as people look for businesses that are closer to them. In March 2018, Google announced that it would prioritize the ranking of websites from where a person is searching over those from other areas. They changed this because they wanted to give users “the best result, rather than the result based on a formula”. This announcement has been met with mixed reviews as some believe it will simply shift local search power from one company to another.
12. Presence of news stories related to keyword for Top Stories box
Google wants to show that it’s giving users what they want, which includes news stories. The company is considering changing the algorithm behind its highly successful search engine to include the number of recent news stories related to a given keyword in order to help predict demand.
13. Search intent factor
Search intent is a factor that Google does take into account when determining a website’s ranking. The vast majority of Google searches are to find information, so the more people who search for “information on lower back pain,” the more weight Google will assign to this search intent when determining the site to return in the top-ranked positions.
14. Presence of results optimized for Google Shopping
As more and more people turn to the internet for information, they are also taking advantage of buying products online. The most popular platform for this is Google Shopping. Recently it was discovered that Google is now using the presence or absence of an item in their shopping results as a ranking factor for sites listing items. This will greatly affect the way companies view SEO, as now there are many factors that can affect your site’s ranking and not just search engine optimization tactics used on the site.
15. Brands ranking factor
Google tends to give well-known brands a ranking boost for particular keywords.
16. Images Search factor
Often Google tends to put image search results also in main search results. That’s a good feature of the search engine and rapidly increases the importance of image optimization for SEO. This is particularly important because nowadays, most users come from images or videos when they are searching for something online.
17. Spammy queries
Many SEO experts and bloggers have debated whether spammy queries could be a Google ranking factor. However, there is still no conclusive evidence to prove or disprove whether these queries could be a factor. Some experts believe spammy queries could be affecting organic rankings because Google’s algorithm can detect and penalize spam and that these spammy queries are the same as low-quality sites.