This article lists what I believe the Google’s ranking factors. Feel free to challenge and critique any of my thoughts.
The Google Algorithm is constantly changing, so factors we class as vital may not be soon, and new factors come into play, etc. The algorithm is liquid.
Please note I have not ordered these in terms of importance or criticality.
On-page In Google Ranking Factors
- Keyword in URL
- Supporting keywords in URL
- Keyword in domain
- Keyword in the title tag
- Supporting keywords in the title tag
- Keyword in H1
- Supporting keywords in H2 tags
- Related terms in H3 – H6 tags
- Keywords in alt text
- Related terms in additional images
- Keyword in breadcrumb
- Keywords in the copy
- The text surrounding the keyword
- Keyword in first 100 words
- Number of times keyword appears in a copy
- Supporting keywords in the copy
- Bolded keywords
- Related terms and synonyms in the copy
- Keyword order
- Key content above the centerfold
- Image to text ratio
- Code to text ratio
- Ad to content ratio
- Length of copy
- Lines of codes until key content reached
- Spelling, grammar, and readability
- Keywords in meta descriptions (indirect ranking factor)
- Schema.org used in meta descriptions
- Keywords in user-generated content such as reviews and comments
- Keywords in navigation and order
- Type of separators in URL and titles
- URL length
Link Factors: Google Ranking Factors
- The raw number of links to the homepage
- The raw number of links to deeper level pages
- Home page deep link ratio
- Amount of 1 way links
- Amount of 2 way links
- Number of exact anchor text matches
- Number of partial anchor matches
- Number of brand (and variations) anchor text matches
- Number of linking root domains with exact anchor text
- Number of linking root domains with partial anchor text
- Number of links from deep pages
- PageRank of linking pages and domains
- Trust Rank of linking pages and domains
- Diversity of types of links
- Diversity of types of linking sites (forums/blogs etc)
- The velocity of gaining new links
- Sentiment of link
- Surrounding text of a link
- Keywords and related terms on linking page
- Number of other links on the page
- Placement of the link on the page
- Section link placed (body, blogroll, footer etc)
- The theme of site and page
- Keyword in title of linking page
- Linking domain site size
- Number of followed links
- Number of no-follow links
- Links from general authorities
- Links from experts in their niche
- Linkage/stability of link
- The rate at which links are lost (negative)
- Paid for links (negative)
- Location of linking sites
- Age of linking page
- Age of linking domain
- The popularity of linking page (+1s, tweets, traffic)
- The popularity of the linking site (+1s, tweets, traffic)
- Frequency anchor text changes
- Quantity and quality of links to the linking site
- Total outbound links of the linking site
- Number of outbound links
- Anchor text used in outbound links
- Outbound links set as no-follow or follow
- Internal link flow
- Broken internal links
- Anchor text used on internal links
- Use of human sitemap which links to key pages
- Listings in authoritative directories (DMOZ/Yelp/Yahoo!)
Role Of Content In Google Ranking Factors
- Percentage of duplicate content (across site and web)
- Percentage of unique content
- Fresh content update frequency
- Google Panda (interesting, unique content)
- Obvious points of contact on the site
- Types of content (videos, images, text) and split
- The freshness of pages (page updates)
- Percentage of user-generated content
- Amount of indexable content
- Percentage of pages indexed
- Split of indexed content (text/images/video)
- Authorship markup
Google Ranking Factors Usage statistics
- Overall site bounce rate
- Page bounce rate
- CTR
- Clicks
- Impressions
- Traffic
- Time spent on the page
- Time spent on the site
- The number of pages visited on the site.
- Clicks and the page and direction
- Times site blocked
- Times site/page bookmarked.
- Times site/page removed from bookmarks.
- Times page printed
- Where mouse positioned and moved on the page
- Times user clicks back.
- Times user closes the tab/browser.
- Inactive periods on page
- Amount of loss from the G–bounce i.e. a user bounces off your site and clicks on a competitor.
- Amount of loss on fast clicks
- Percentage of unique queries captured.
- Percentage of fresh queries captured.
- Percentage of established queries captured.
- Time of the day/week/month/year your site captures most of its traffic
- Amount of links purposely opened in new tabs/windows
- How user scrolls on the page
- Types of clicks on the page i.e. logical/lost
- Number of other sites visited after leaving your site.
- Number of sites visited before entering your site
- Number of search queries made after leaving your site
- Number of search queries made before entering your site
- Number of times your site/page clicked on during the same search session i.e. going back and forth and exploring results.
- Amount of time the mouse is rested on your result in the results page
- Number of times the preview is selected
- Experience of the searcher clicking your results i.e. novice/savvy/expert
- Age of the user – different age groups attracted to different kinds of snippets etc. and indicator of the quality of a site
- Level of reading of the user
- Dwell time – the time between when a user clicks on a search result and when they come back your website
Site statistics In Google Ranking Factor
- Overall site load time
- Page load times
- PageRank
- Trust Rank
- Domain age
- Page age
- Domain registration age
- Domain age
- Domain hosting country
- 4 clicks to all content
- Top-level domain used
- Page size
- Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools profiles (shows you are an active webmaster)
- Site usability
- Code validation
- Number of broken links
- Number of 404 pages
- Rate of search query clicks
Social Media In Google Ranking Factors
- Times content Liked
- Times content Tweeted
- Number and authority of shares on Facebook
- Number and authority of retweets on Twitter
- Number and authority of Likes on Facebook
- Number and authority of followers on Twitter
- Times brand mentioned in social space and sentiment
- Times brand mentioned on forums and sentiment
- Times brand mentioned on blog comments
- Authorship tag used on company articles
- Aggregated social data
The keyword For Google Ranking Factors
- Search volume of keyword
- Competitiveness of keyword
- Average rankings for similar terms (themes)
- Rankings for fresh queries
- Rankings for established queries
- Rankings for unique queries
- Rankings for competitive queries
- Use of keywords and anchor text in email newsletters (maybe), shows site theme consistency
Brand In Google Ranking Factors
- Brand sentiment on the internet
- Number of brand queries
- Number of brand refinements made
Location In Google Ranking Factors
- Language match between search query and language on the page
- Country match between local Google and TLD
- Keyword brand associations in country/city
- Popular queries in country/city and amount captured
- The number of clicks gained from a particular geographical area
We hope you liked our article on the most important Google ranking factors for your website. If you want, you can also check out our other articles. These may help you drive more traffic.
