What is the best way to get a high ranking on Google? If you want your site to be seen, you need to understand what Google looks for when ranking websites. They have an algorithm that determines how good a website is based on specific factors, and we will discuss some of these in this article.

Let’s get started!

The Domain Factors

All ranking variables associated with your domain are referred to as domain factors.

• Domain Age

Many SEOs feel that Google “trusts” older domains by default. Google’s John Mueller, on the other hand, has stated that “domain age helps nothing.”

• The Keyword That Appears in The Top Level Domain

Having a keyword in your domain name no longer provides the SEO benefit it once did. However, it still serves as a signal of relevance.

• The Duration of Domain Registration

The date when a domain expires can be used to indicate its legitimacy.

The Google patent states that valuable domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway websites rarely last more than one year.” “Therefore,” they continue on page two with this hint being pointed out by many pillarists today–the soonest possible timeframes should determine whether or not your website might have something worthwhile behind it.

• Subdomain Keywords

The expert panel at Moz says that a keyword appearing in the subdomain can increase ranks.

• The Domain History

Google penalizes websites that have shaky ownership or multiple drops, resulting in the site’s history being reset. In some situations, this means transferring an owner’s penalty from one domain to another – but not always.

• An Exact Match Domain 

Exact Match Domains have no direct SEO benefit. But if your EMD happens to be a low-quality site, it could end up on the wrong side of an update and cause you some problems (not that we would ever suggest doing this).

• Public vs. Private WhoIs

According to Google’s Matt Cutts, private WhoIs information could indicate anything to hide. He goes on to say:

“When I checked the whois for them, they all had ‘who is privacy protection service’ on them.” That’s unusual, and having this turned off isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Still, when you combine several factors – we’re often talking about webmasters with single sites rather than fellow entrepreneurs like ourselves looking at a variety of websites – it can make it more difficult to understand what these people want or need from our search engine results pages (SERPs).

• Penalized WhoIs Owner

If you’re a spammer and Google flags your sites, it’s only natural that people will look into other websites owned by the same individual.

•  Country TLD extension

Having a Country Code Top Level Domain (.cn,.pt,.ca) can help a site rank in that country, but it can also hamper its potential to rank globally.

The Page-Level Factors

Page-level factors are variables that can be optimized on each page.

• The Title Tag Keywords

Your title tag is still a crucial on-page SEO indicator, even if it isn’t as important as it once was.

• Keyword Comes First in The Title Tag

The Moz blog reports that title tags with the keyword at their start tend to perform better than those where it appears last.

• Keyword in Description Tag

The meta description tag is often overlooked when designing SEO strategies, but it’s one of the most important factors determining how well your webpage will rank. Google doesn’t use this field as a direct ranking signal; however, if you have good content that can help people click on links, their attention may be captured by what they see in these tags.

• Keyword That Appears in H1 Tag

H1 tags are sometimes known as “second title tags.” According to the findings of one correlation study, Google uses your H1 tag as a supplementary relevancy signal alongside your title tag.

• TF-IDF

“How often does a given word occur in a document?” is a fancy way of asking, “How often does a certain word appear in a document?” ”. The more frequently a word occurs on a page, the more probable the page is about that word. Google is most likely using a more advanced version of TF-IDF.

• The Length of Content

Your content must be well-written and engaging to rank higher in search engine results. The more words you use per paragraph or article, the better! For example, one recent study found on average 1400 word lengths for the first pages of Google searches.

• The Table of Contents

Linking your content with a table of contents makes it easier for Google to understand the information on each page and results in site links that can help readers find what they’re looking for.

• Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords in Content (LSI)

The presence of LSI keywords in your content is an easy way to signal that you’re trying, and supplementing with these terms can help search engines better extract meaning from words that have more than one meaning. It’s also likely this technique acts as a quality signal for sites who lack diversity when it comes down to their text structure or topic addressable space– making them stand out online.

• Title and Description Tags with LSI Keywords

LSI keywords in page meta tags are a great way to help Google identify words with multiple possible meanings. They may also serve as an interesting signal that your site’s content might be relevant or important enough for users on the search engine result pages (SERPs).

• Page Covers Topic In-Depth

The depth of topic coverage and Google rankings are inextricably linked. As a result, web pages that cover all angles have an advantage over sites covering only a portion of a topic.

• Page Loading Speed via HTML

Page speed is a ranking factor for both Google and Bing. Google now evaluates loading speed using actual Chrome user data.

• Utilization of AMP

AMP may be a need to rank in the mobile version of the Google News Carousel while not being a direct Google ranking criteria.

• Matching Entities

Does the content of a page match the “entity” that a user is looking for? If that’s the case, the page’s ranking for that term could improve.

• Google Hummingbird

Thanks to Hummingbird, Google can now better understand the topic of a webpage. This “algorithm change” helped them go beyond keywords and into more complex territory with deeper insights for their search results.

• Duplicate Content

The search engine visibility can be harmed by identical material on the same site (even if significantly updated).

• Rel=Canonical

When used properly, the ” duplicate content” tag can help prevent Google from penalizing your site.

• Image Optimization

The file name, alt text, title, description, and caption transmit essential relevancy signals to search engines.

• Content Reliability

The Google Caffeine update promotes material that has been recently published or updated, particularly for time-sensitive searches. Google displays the date of a page’s latest update for select pages to emphasize the relevance of this factor: 

• The Size of the Content Updates

The importance of editing and revisions also serves as a determinant of freshness. For example, changing the arrangement of a few words or correcting a typo is less important than adding or eliminating large sections.

• Updates to the Historical Pages

The frequency of page updates also plays a role in freshness. How often does the website release new content daily, weekly or annual basis? This will affect how quickly your visitors can expect new information and relevant sites since many people like having things frequently updated rather than waiting years between update cycles.

The kind of data you put into something affects its value as well-that’s why it pays off to do some research beforehand.

• Keyword Prominence

The presence of a term in the first 100 words of a page’s content is linked to first-page Google results.

• Keyword in H2, H3 Tags

This is important for SEO because headings with appropriate keywords in the H2 or H3 formats often helps improve relevancy signals. In fact, Google engineer John Mueller says these heading tags help “us understand [the] page structure.”

• Outbound Link Quality

Many SEOs believe that linking to authoritative sites helps Google deliver trust signals. And recent industry research backs this up.

• Outbound Link Theme

According to The Hilltop Algorithm, Google may use the content of the pages you link to as a relevancy indication. For example, if you have a page on automobiles that links to movie-related pages, Google may assume that your page is about the movie Cars rather than the automotive.

• Grammar and Spelling

Proper grammar and spelling are a quality indication, however, Cutts was ambiguous about whether or not this was significant a few years ago.

• Content That Has Been Syndicated

If you want your content to rank on Google, the language used in each piece of text must be original. Copying and pasting from other sources won’t help ranks improve-in some cases, they could even hurt.

• Mobile-Friendly Update

Many people have referred to the mobile-friendly update as “Mobilegeddon”. This change in how Google ranks websites rewards those who make their sites accessible from any device, including tablets or smartphones.

• Mobile Usability

Websites that are easy to use on mobile devices may have an advantage in Google’s “Mobile-first Index.”

• “Hidden” Content on Mobile

Search engines may not index hidden content on mobile devices, but a Googler recently stated it’s OK. But also said that if its critical to have the information included in your website then make sure this is visible as well so people can find what they are looking for.

• “Supplementary Content” that is Helpful

According to the now-public Google Rater Guidelines Document, helpful additional content is an indicator of a page’s quality (and therefore, Google ranking). Currency converters, loan interest calculators, and interactive recipes are examples of this software type.

• Content Hidden Behind Tabs

Is it necessary for people to click on a tab to see part of the content on your page? If that’s the case, Google warns that this information “may not be indexed.”

• The Number of Outbound Links

The problem with too many dofollow OBLs is that they can “leak” Page Rank, which will hurt the rankings on your page.

• Multimedia

Images, videos, and other multimedia assets can be used to indicate the quality of a piece of content.

• Number of Internal Links Pointing to Page

Internal links are one-way websites that show their importance to the rest of the site. The more internal linkages on a particular page, then that page likely holds an important position in relation with other similar pages within your website’s architecture.

• Quality of Internal Links Pointing to Page

One of the best ways to improve your site’s search engine rankings is internal linking. Pages on a domain with high PageRank will have more authority and weight than those without it, so this should be considered when creating links between different sections or content within a webpage.

• Broken Links

A page with too many broken links may indicate that the site has been neglected or abandoned. Broken links are used in the Google Rater Guidelines Document to assess a homepage’s quality.

• Reading Level

There’s no denying that Google calculates a webpage’s reading level. Indeed, Google used to provide reading-level statistics. 

What they do with the knowledge, though, is debatable. Some argue that having a basic reading level will help you rank higher because it appeals to the general public. On the other hand, others equate content mills with a rudimentary reading level.

• Affiliate Links

Affiliate links are a great way to make money from your blog, but too many of them could harm rankings. That’s because Google looks at other quality signals to determine if an affiliate site has been created with the sole purpose of listing products and getting paid commission on every sale made through these referral sites instead of focusing primarily or even completely upon content production itself – which would be considered legitimate activity according their algorithm (as long as it doesn’t happen very often).

• HTML errors/W3C validation

Many HTML errors or shoddy coding could indicate a low-quality site. On the other hand, many SEO experts believe that a well-coded page is employed as a quality signal, which is contentious.

• Domain Authority

When all other factors are equal, a page on an authoritative domain will rank higher than a page on a less authoritative domain.

• Page’s PageRank

The correlation isn’t perfect. Pages with a lot of authority, on the other hand, tend to outrank pages with a lot of link authority.

• URL Length

Too long URLs may harm the visibility of a page. In reality, according to various industry surveys, short URLs have a modest advantage in Google’s search results.

• URL Path

Compared to pages buried deep within a site’s architecture, sites closer to the homepage may receive a tiny authority increase.

• Human Editors

Google has submitted a patent for a system that allows human editors to affect the SERPs, however, this has never been proven.

• Page Category

A relevance signal is a category in which a page appears. A page filed under an unrelated category may receive a relevancy boost compared to a page filed under a closely connected category.

• Keyword in URL

Another indicator of relevance. This is “a very modest ranking factor,” according to a Google representative. Nonetheless, it is a ranking factor.

• URL String

Google reads the categories in the URL string and uses them to determine what a page is about:

• References and Sources

Citing sources and references is an important sign of quality. The Google Quality Guidelines states that reviewers should keep an eye out for these when looking at certain pages: “This topic deals with expertise or authoritative information which needs to be included in the review.” 

Google has denied using external links as part if their ranking signal but there’s still plenty we can learn from them about how it impacts our online presence.

• Bullets and Numbered Lists 

The use of bullets and numbers can make your content easier for readers. Google likely agrees as they’ve been known to prefer this type of formatting in their search results pages.

• Priority of Page in Sitemap

The priority assigned to a page via the sitemap.xml file may impact ranking.

• Excessive Outbound Links 

The following is taken directly from the Quality rater document:

“Some pages have an excessive number of links, which obscures the page and detracts from the main content.”

• UX Signals From Other Keywords Page Ranks For

If the page ranks for several different keywords, Google may see this as a sign of quality. But, in reality, according to Google’s recent “How Search Works” report:

“For similar search queries, we look for sites that many users seem to value.”

• Page Age

Although Google favors new material, an older updated page may outperform a newer page.

• User-Friendly Layout

Again, citing the Google Quality Guidelines Document:

“On high-quality pages, the page layout makes the Main Content immediately obvious.”

• Parked Domains

The Google update in December of 2011 has been causing a stir among website owners. The new ranking system ranks websites based on their relevance, which means that parked domains will no longer appear as highly ranked when someone does an online search for information about you or your company name – even though those sites might be just as applicable.

• Useful Content

Google is always looking for the best possible content, but it doesn’t just want to include anything. Therefore, your website must be useful and not “quality” material if you’re going up against Google in an SEO campaign.

The Site-Level Factors

Site-level factors look at everything on the site rather than just the pages.

• Content Adds Value and Offers Unique Perspectives

Google has come out strongly against websites that do not provide any new or useful content. This includes thin affiliate sites, which they encourage you to avoid if possible.

• Contact Page For Inquiry

According to the Google mentioned above Quality Document, they prefer sites that provide an “enough amount of contact information.” Make sure your contact information corresponds to your whois information.

• Domain Trust or TrustRank

Many SEO specialists believe that “TrustRank” is a critical ranking element. This is supported by a Google Patent titled “Search result ranking based on trust.”

• Website Architecture

Having a site architecture that is thematically organized can make it easier for Google to index your content. It may also allow the bot on their server, which spiders all pages of an internet domain name based off how they’re told by rules set in software programs such as “Google,” access and read everything you have going there.

• Site Updates

Website updates, including when new content is added to a site, can impact how Google ranks your Website. They deny using publishing frequency as part of their algorithm. Still, many SEOs believe this because it’s common knowledge that fresh material brings more visitors and improves ranking in search engines like google who want what you’ve got.

• Presence of Sitemap

A sitemap makes it easier for search engines to index your pages and makes them more visible. On the other hand, HTML sitemaps are no longer “helpful” for SEO, according to Google.

• Uptime of the Website

Your rankings may be harmed if you have a lot of downtime due to site maintenance or server troubles (and can even result in deindexing if not corrected).

• Location of the Server

The server location you choose will affect where your site ranks in different geographical regions. Especially for geo-specific searches, so make sure it’s close enough to the people who need what they’re looking for.

• SSL Certificate

Google has confirmed the usage of HTTPS as a ranking indication.

On the other hand, HTTPS simply serves as a “tiebreaker,” according to Google.

• E-A-T

E-A-T are abbreviated as “Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.” Sites having a lot of E-A-T might get a boost from Google (especially sites that publish health-related content).

• On-Site Duplication of Metadata

It is important to avoid duplicate meta information across your site because this can lower the visibility of all pages on that particular web page.

• Breadcrumb Navigation

This is a type of user-friendly site layout that makes it easier for visitors (and search engines) to figure out where they are on a website:

We all know how important it is to make our pages as efficiently optimized for search engines like Google, but did you also realize that breadcrumb markup in the body of a web page can help them categorize information from those online resources?

• Mobile-Optimized

With mobile devices accounting for more than half of all searches, Google wants to check that your site is mobile-friendly. So websites that aren’t mobile-friendly are now penalized by Google.

• YouTube

YouTube videos are undeniably given preferential consideration in the SERPs:

Indeed, according to Search Engine Land, after Google Panda, traffic to YouTube.com soared dramatically.

• Usability of the Website

When a website is difficult to use or navigate, people will spend less time on the site. This hurts rankings because Rankbrain considers this as an indication that users find it annoying and bounce away from your pages without viewing all of them – reducing their rank in Google search results accordingly.

• Use of Google Analytics and Google Search Console

Some people think that installing these two programs on your site can help improve our ranking. They may also directly influence how we’re ranked by giving Google more data to work with (ie., accurate bounce rate and referral traffic). That said, they’ve denied this as a myth altogether.

• User feedback/reputation of the Website

A website’s reputation on sites like Yelp.com is likely to play a significant part in Google’s algorithm. After one site was exposed, ripping off customers to gain headlines and links, Google released an unusually transparent overview of using online reviews.

• Core Web Vitals

In terms of their impact on rankings, Core Web Vitals are “more than a tiebreaker.”

The Backlink Factors

The quality of backlinks is a major factor in how high you rank on Google. The stronger the links from other sites, the tendency to be ranked higher than those with fewer or no connection points behind them.

• The Linking Domain Age

Backlinks from older domains could be more effective than those from newer ones.

• The Number of Linking Root Domains

As our industry analysis of 11.8 million Google Search results shows, the quantity of referring domains is one of the most critical ranking criteria in Google’s algorithm.

• Number of Links from Different C-Class IPs

Having separate IP addresses for your blog and website can help boost rankings, as it suggests that you’re a legitimate business with many sites linking to the content on these pages.

• The Number of Pages That Link to Each Other

Rankings may be influenced by the overall number of connecting pages (even from the same domain).

• Anchor Text for Backlinks

When you type in a search engine like Google to find something, an anchor link will likely appear as one of your options. These links provide more information about the page than what is actually on that particular webpage itself – which can be helpful if there are problems with accessibility or topical coverage for whatever reason.

Anchor text is less important now than previously (and, when over-optimized, it works as a webspam signal). However, in modest doses, keyword-rich anchor text conveys a strong relevancy signal.

• Alternate Tag for Image Links

Alt-text is important for SEO and can be used as anchor text to improve ranking on Google.

• Links from .edu or .gov Domains

Many SEOs believe a special place in the algorithm for .gov and Edu TLD’s, but this belief isn’t founded on fact. Matt Cutts has denied reports of Google weighting these domains more heavily than others when ranking sites online; however he did mention they “ignored” lots regarding links from Edu pages which could suggest otherwise as far as how powerful or relevant those specific types may be within their system.

• Linking Page Authority

The importance and authority of the PageRank have been one factor that Google uses to rank websites. This ranking system is still in use today, making it an extremely important ranking signal for any site looking at climbing higher on SERPs (search engine results pages).

• Linking Domain Authority

Many factors contribute to the value of a link, but one thing is certain: The referring domain’s authority may play an independent role in this process.

• Competitor Links

You may want to consider incorporating links from other pages ranking in the same SERP when it comes time for your page’s SEO strategy. These external sources can be a great way of boosting the relevance and ensuring that Google finds all relevant content on-site, which will result in higher rankings than if there were no such cooperation between websites sharing overlapping keywords.

• Links from “Expected” Websites

You might have heard that Google won’t fully trust your website until it’s linked to from a set of “expected” authority sites in the industry you’re trying break into. This is believed by some SEOs, but we wouldn’t put too much faith behind such reports since they can change at any time.

• Bad Neighborhoods’ Links

You don’t want your website to be found in places where it may cause trouble for you. Links from so-called “bad neighborhoods” can hurt the search engine rankings of a site, and that would make people question its credibility or integrity which could lead them away from buying whatever product they were looking at before clicking on those links.

• Visitor’s Posts

Guest posts are still an effective way to build your authority and pass value, but it’s important not rely on them as much in the future. True editorial links will always be more powerful because they come from respected sites that have standards you need to meet for credibility before being published.

• Advertisement Links

Google suggests that links from ads should be nofollowed or have the rel=sponsored attribute. However, it’s likely Google can identify and filter out followed advertisements in order for them not to appear unnatural when someone is searching online with their browser settings turned on.

• Authority of the Home Page

The homepage of a referring page is often the most important link on that site. It’s also one you should be able to find easily, which means it has some weight in your evaluation.

• Nofollow Links

The topic of whether or not Google nofollow links is one that has generated much controversy within the SEO community. The official stance from Google’s side on this issue appears to be “in general, we don’t.” However there are cases where they might do so- for instance if a website contains both natural and unnatural backlinks (i.e. bought rather than earned).

• Diversity of Link Types

General indicators of webspam are when a site has too many links coming from one source, such as forum profiles or blog comments. However it’s also possible for this type spamming behavior to occur naturally through the use in natural backlinks with diverse sources that can boost your ranking on search engines like Google without compromising its integrity.

• “Sponsored” or “UGC” Tags

Links that have been tagged as sponsored or whose source is identified with UGC (the algorithmically determined “trust” indicators) will be treated differently than normal followed links.

• Links in Context

The power of a link is not just in what it does, but also where you put them. Embedded links inside content are considered more powerful than those found on an empty page or elsewhere and can lead visitors down the desired path with ease.

• Excessive 301 Redirects to Page

The more backlinks a website has, the higher its rank on Google’s SERP page rankings. However it is important not to have too many 301 redirects or else those links could dilute your Page Rank and hurt your site’s SEO performance rating with Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

• Anchor Text for Internal Links

Internal link anchor text is another way to bring attention towards the specific page you want your visitor’s eyes on. While this may seem like less weight than what we’ve seen with external links, keep in mind that internal links can still help rank well for certain keywords if they’re strategically placed and relevant enough.

• Attribution of Link Title

The text that shows when you hover over a link (the link title) can potentially be utilized as a weak relevancy indication.

• Country TLD of Referring Domain

If you want to rank better in a certain country, then getting links from top level domain extensions for that specific place can help.

• Link Location In Content

The value of a link is dependent on where it’s placed in content. Links at the beginning carry slightly more weight than those that come towards its end, but both have an equal amount importance when considering what will make someone click through and read your entire post or page.

• Link Location on Page

It’s important where a link appears on the page. Generally, an embedded link is more powerful than one in some other part of your website like footer or sidebar area because it’s right there with all its power for people who visit that specific spot within their browsing session – which could end up being just about anyone nowadays.

• Linking Domain Relevancy

It is often said that a link from another site in your niche will have more impact than one coming straight to yours. This may be because people are looking for specific information and frameworks, so when they find it on another blog or website with similar topics as theirs then this helps increase their trustworthiness of the source overall which can lead them down useful paths forward.

• Page-Level Relevancy

The more links there are on a page, the better.

• Keyword in Title

Google is getting smarter about how they rank websites. They now give extra love and attention to pages that contain your keyword in the title (“Expert linking with experts.”)

• Positive Link Velocity

A high level of link velocity can help increase search engine rankings because it shows that sites are growing in popularity which means they’ll be easier for people who don’t know much about SEO (or want an excuse) find than others with less activity across social media platforms and blogs online.

• Negative Link Velocity

One of the major factors that can affect your website’s ranking is link velocity. A low number may indicate a decline in popularity and could lead to lower rankings for you or any site linked from yours, so it’s important not only maintain but also increase this structural measurement over time.

• Links from “Hub” Pages

The Hilltop Algorithm is a powerful tool that can be used to find pages with great content on any given topic. The algorithm suggests getting links from these top resources will give your website an edge over others in the industry, so it’s important not only for SEO purposes but also because there could potentially BE money involved.

• Link from Authority Sites

A connection from a large, well-known site is likely to have more weight than a link from a tiny, unknown one.

• Linked to as Wikipedia Source

Many people believe that getting a link from Wikipedia gives you some added trust and authority in the eyes of search engines, but Google has denied this.

• Co-Occurrences

The words that surround your backlinks can help Google figure out what page you’re trying to rank for.

• Age of Backlinks

This means that the older your website, the more ranking power it will have. So if you want to make sure people are visiting YOUR site and not someone else’s blog or article on their site then be prepared with some great content.

• Splogs vs. Links from Real Sites

Google probably gives more weight to links coming from “real sites” than fake blogs due in large part because of their increasing popularity and ability for content creators. They use both brand interactions as well as user-based signals when distinguishing between them, so it’s important not just include any old link on your page if you want better SEO results.

• Natural Link Profile

The way you rank your website is important because it will determine how many users arrive at the site and stay there. A “natural” link profile means that these backlinks were acquired without using black hat strategies like spam orpaid placement, so they’re more durable than ones with those kinds of links pointing towards them.

• Reciprocal Links

Google has a list of common link schemes that you should avoid on their page. One such scheme is excessive exchanging, and they say it can hurt your site’s quality score because search engines see this type of activity as an attempt to create natural links using recycled content – which isn’t really what Google wants its users doing.

• User Generated Content Links

Google knows the difference between UGC and content published by an actual site owner like WordPress.com, because they have a special algorithm to detect these similarities in written words or images across different websites.

•  Links from 301

The difference between a direct link and one that uses the 301 redirect technique can be subtle. However, according to Google’s Matt Cutts both types of links will have similar juice in terms or ranking power.

• Use of Schema.org

Microformats can have a big impact on rankings. Pages that implement this technology may rank higher than those without it, but there is also evidence to suggest SERP CTRs are greater when Microformatting exists.

• TrustRank of Linking Site

The more trustworthy the site linking to you, the higher TrustRank will be passed on.

• Number of Outbound Links on Page

The PageRank of a website is finite. The more external links on your page, the lower it will pass through any given link in order to be ranked higher by Google’s algorithm- which means that if you want increased rankings then building up some strong backlinks can help.

• Forum Links

Forum spamming is on the rise, and it may be detrimental to your website’s ranking if you don’t take action.

• Linking Content Word Count

Links from 1000-word posts are typically more valuable than those inside 25 word snippets.

• Quality of Linking Content

The quality of a link is directly related to its worth. If you want your content or blog posts linked-to, then make sure they are well written and not made up with words.

• Sitewide Links

Google’s head SEO, Matt Cutts, acknowledged that sitewide links are compacted into a single link.

User Interaction

In its update releases, Google consistently highlights the importance of providing an outstanding user experience to website visitors.

• The RankBrain

RankBrain is the cutting-edge AI algorithm Google uses to rank its search results. Many believe it was developed so developers could measure how users interact with them (and rank those pages accordingly). Still, we all know there’s more than one thing this supercomputer can do.

• Organic Click Through Rate for a Keyword

Google says that pages with a higher click-through rate may rank better for particular keywords in SERP.

• Organic Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for All Keywords

The CTR for all keywords a site ranks on may be determined by human interaction. This means that there’s some “quality score” associated with organic results. It could potentially change based on your visitor behavior or tailor the website content to target certain searches/keywords more than others.

• Bounce Rate

It is not everyone in SEO who agrees that bounce rate matters. However, it may be a way for Google to use their users as quality testers (after all, pages with high bouncing rates probably aren’t great results). There has been some correlation between this statistic and rank position on SERPers according to SEMRush’s large study, which found an association between both variables – meaning more frequent visits resulting in higher positions.

• Direct Traffic

Google uses data from your browsing history to decide what sites you should be ranked higher for. Suppose a lot of people visit the same pages as them. In that case, those are probably high-quality ones versus if there’s very little traffic coming indirectly through these links or ads on other websites–which means that SEMRush found an impressive correlation between direct visits and rankings by Google.

• Recurring Traffic

Sites with many return visitors may benefit from a Google ranking increase.

• Pogosticking

“Pogosticking” is an interesting way to find what you need on the internet. In this case, by clicking other search results and then trying out queries that might provide more information about your subject matter–it can be quite effective.

People who use Pogostick may experience a severe loss in ranks due to their actions.

• Blocked Sites

Google has retired this feature in Chrome. However, the company may continue to use a variation of it for quality signals like Panda did before them.

• Chrome Bookmarks

We all know that Google loves to squirrel away our browsing data, but it might be time for you and your Chrome browser history. Pages saved in the app get an extra boost when they’re bookmarked by someone else who uses them as well.

• Number of Comments Received

Pages with lots of comments may indicate that the site is engaging and high quality. One Google employee said they’ve seen this help “a lot” in rankings, so it seems likely you’ll see your ranking improve if there are many user interactions on these pages.

• Dwell Time

Google pays close attention to users’ time on your page when coming from a Google search. This is sometimes referred as “long clicks vs short ones,” and it depends whether they stay longer for more information or not before leaving early because of boredom, etcetera. In general, the better dwell time means higher rankings across all categories by Bing/Yahoo.

Special Google Algorithm Rules

Some Google Algorithm guidelines have nothing to do with your website or domain. Instead, they include aspects that look at how to personalize search results for the user or improve overall search results.

• Query Deserves Freshness

For certain queries, Google favors newer sites.

•  Query Deserves Diversity

Google has a history of adding diversity to the SERP for ambiguous keywords, such as “Ted” or “WWF”.

• History of User Browsing

We all know that websites we visit frequently rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

• History of User Searches

When you search for something, Google will rank sites with information on them. For example, if a user searches “reviews,” they should also include keywords like “toaster” to get more results from this particular query and help those looking at these reviews.

• Featured Snippets

Google chooses Featured Snippets based on a combination of content length, formatting, and page authority. The search engine also considers whether or not your site uses HTTPS when ranking it higher in its results.

• Geo-Targeting

Google prefers websites with a local server IP and country-specific domain name extension higher ranking in search engine results pages.

• Safe Search

People who have Safe Search set on will not see search results that contain swear words or explicit content.

• YMYL” Keywords

Google has higher standards for the keywords “Your Money or Your Life”, making it more difficult to rank in search engine results pages.

• Complaints filed under the DMCA

Google ranks sites with legitimate DMCA complaints lower than those who do not file them.

• Domain Variation

New domains were found to be linked with the “Bigfoot Update”, which added more information on each SERP page.

• Transactional Searches

When you search for flights on Google, sometimes the results are different than they would be if someone were looking to buy or book a ticket.

• Local Searches

Google’s local search results are often given priority over organic SERPs.

• Top Stories Box

The Top Stories box is triggered when certain keywords are used.

• Preference for Big Brands

Since the Vince update, Google has been giving big brands an edge for certain keywords.

• Shopping Results

Google sometimes provides shopping results in organic Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

• Image Results

Google images sometimes appear in the normal, organic search results. These will be small thumbnails of various photos related to what you’re searching for and may helpfully provide additional information about them if clicked on.

• Easter Egg Results

Google is full of Easter Eggs, so you never know what kind of results might pop up when searching for something. One such example would be searching “Atari Breakout” in Google image search; instead, it becomes an actual playable game.

• Results for Brands on a Single Website

Keywords that are domain-oriented tend to produce more responses from the same site.

• Update on Payday Loans

This special algorithm is designed to help remove “very spammy queries” from search engine results.

Brand Signals

In terms of SEO, how effective is your branding strategy? You should start now if you haven’t taken care of your brand mentions and brand all over the internet.

• Anchor Text for Brand Name

Brand anchor text is not only easy to use, but it also gives your site an instant credibility boost.

• Branded Searches

It’s important to be found on the internet since people search for brands. If you can get a high ranking in Google, this will show that your site is legitimate and real which means it has more credibility as an online destination of choice.

• Searches Involving a Brand And a Keyword

If your brand has a specific keyword, does it mean that people might search for this term alongside you? If so then there’s no need worry as Google will give the non-branded version of this particular word priority when rankings are concerned.

• Site Has a Facebook Page With a Lot of Likes

The more likes a brand has on its Facebook page, the better chance it has of being popular.

• Site Has a Twitter Account With Lots of Followers

Twitter is a powerful tool for brands to connect with their customers and build trust. Brands who have many followers on the platform stand out as popular, trustworthy businesses in today’s world where word spreads quickly about new products or services offered by these top-tier companies.

• Linkedin Company Page (Official)

Company Linkedin pages are a great way to show off your business’ profile and create an online presence for it.

• Authorship is Well-known

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has made a bold claim about how people will naturally click on the top (largest) results when they search. This is because of their belief that users are more willing to trust information tied with an online profile, which means verified profiles can rank higher than content without verification in search engine rankings.

• Social Media Accounts’ Legitimacy

There are lots of ways to measure the success or failure for your social media account, but one thing that never changes is how important it will be. Whether you have 10 followers on Instagram and post 2 times a week or 100K strong with 20 posts per day – everything counts! And if Google has its way (and patented technology), they’ll know whether an online presence like this really exists in their search engine results pages by looking at different factors such as speed & depth throughout history along side other more subtle indicators too.

• Top Stories with Brand Mentions

It’s no wonder that some of the most famous brands in this world can get their own news feed on Top Stories. After all, it is one way for them to stay up-to date with what people love about themselves and provide even more content tailored just for you.

• Brand Mentions That Aren’t Connected

If you mention a brand on social media and it’s not linked to their website, then Google likely sees this as an indicator that the company is reputable.

• Location (Brick and Mortar)

The office of any real business is its most important asset. Google can tell if you have one by looking at where your website visitors go and what they do on that site, but they won’t know how well-maintained it really gets.

On-Site Webspam Factors

To score well in search engine results, make sure your site isn’t spammy and doesn’t look spammy – like with so many things in life, appearances matter.

• Panda Penalty

The content on low-quality sites is less visible after being hit by a Panda penalty.

• Links to Bad Neighborhoods

Linking out to “bad neighborhoods” is not recommended. This can hurt your search visibility and may lead people down poor quality web paths, which will ultimately disappoint those who are looking for information about the product or service you offer.

• Sneaky Redirects

Don’t get caught using Sneaky Redirects! If you do, not only will your site suffer a penalty and be deindexed from search engines – but penalties like these can also result in an engraved titanium nameplate being placed atop one’s head as punishment (or something along those lines).

• Popups (also known as “distracting ads”)

Some people might think that popups and distracting ads is part of the design, but this behavior can actually be an indication that you’re on a low-quality website. 

The Google Rater Guidelines Document says these types off sites have bad quality because they try too hard to attract visitors with flashy graphics or animations which ruins their user experience as well as air sports content being blocked by AdWords rules meaning those who advertise via this platform will not show up near search results for certain queries – leading many users astray about where products genuinely belong

• Interstitial Popups

Google is increasingly penalizing sites that display full page “interstitial” popups to mobile users. This could be a serious problem for the affected businesses because it will affect their ranking in search engine results and potential customers may leave due lack of interest or worse yet – punish them by blocking access altogether.

• Site Over-Optimization

Google does penalize people for over-optimizing their site. This includes: keyword stuffing, header tag stuffing and excessive decorative language that is designed only to trick search engines into thinking a website contains more information than it actually does.

• Gibberish Content

A new patent filed by Google outlines how they can identify “gibberish” content, which is helpful for filtering out spun or auto-generated article from their index. This will make it much easier to find quality news articles on your search results page instead of being bombarded with low brow garbage sites trying desperately just get attention through gimmicks like flashing video ads at you when all that’s needed are some informative words about.

• Doorway Pages

Google wants to make sure that the user ends up on your desired page. If they are redirected somewhere else, this is called a Doorway Page and Google doesn’t like sites using them because it confuses their algorithm as well as other search engines who may rank websites based off different pages in an individual’s browser history.

• Above the Fold Ads

The page layout algorithm penalizes sites with lots of ads (and not much content) on top of the fold.

• Affiliate Links That Are Hiding

Hiding affiliate links might seem like a good idea at first, but it can lead to problems. For example if you go too far and start hiding your Affiliate Code on pages or images with cloaking software then Google will know what’s up and give you some major shade.

• Fred

Fred, the latest update from Google has been targeting low-value sites that put revenue ahead of user help. The program is said to be doing this in order for these companies and their users get better results with less clicks needed on Fred’s part.

• Affiliate Sites

Google doesn’t seem to be too keen on affiliates. And it’s possible that sites which monetize with their affiliate program may receive additional scrutiny from the search engine giant.

• Autogenerated Content

Google is not an easy company to deal with. They’ll penalize you if they suspect that your site’s pumping out computer-generated content, so it pays off in the end for this strategy.

• Over-sculpting of PageRank

It may be tempting to go too far with PageRank sculpting, but if you start following all outbound links without any purpose other than gaming the system then that would indicate a lack in faith toward Google’s algorithm.

• Spam-Blocked IP Address

Your website’s IP address may be blocked for spam if you have a lot of unwanted visitors. This can affect all sites on that server, so it’s important to clean up your act and make sure only genuine clients are viewing content.

• Spamming Meta Tags

If you are trying to game the algorithm, it might not work in your favor. Keyword stuffing can also happen with meta tags and if Google thinks that there is an effort on behalf of using too many keywords for optimization purposes they may penalize your site by hitting them with penalties like lost ranking or traffic decrease which would ultimately hurt business profitability as well overall.

Off-Site Webspam Factors

Off-site webspam elements influence spam based on what happens outside your website and connects to it.

• Site That Has Been Hacked

Search Engine Land was deindexed by Google after being hacked. If your site gets compromised it can have a negative effect on how well you rank in search results, which is why security matters.

• Links in an Unnatural Influx

Links are the lifeblood of any website and can be difficult to come by. A sudden influx, or even one single link from an unestablished domain could signify that this site is not what it seems.

• Penguin Penalty

Sites that were negatively impacted by Google Penguin are now significantly less visible in search. Although, apparently this is due to the fact it focuses more on filtering out bad links than punishing entire websites for their past sins as opposed what may have previously happened before where everything from one site got penalized if there was just something wrong with them instead of having someone else take responsibility like today’s headlines claim happens sometimes too which makes sense once you think about.

• High-percentage of Low-quality Links in The Link Profile

Black hat SEOs often use lots of links from sources commonly found in blogs and on forums to game the system.

• Unrelated Website Links

If you are looking to avoid a manual penalty, it is best not use backlinks from unrelated sites.

• Warning About Unnatural Links

When Google sends out thousands of messages about unnatural links, it’s usually a sign that something will happen to your ranking soon.

• Links to Low-Quality Directories

In order to avoid penalties from Search Engine penalities, it’s important that you only link with trustworthy sources. Low-quality directories can lead your site and rank lower on Google search results because they may be considered an attempt at spamming or black hat marketing tactics which could result in being banned entirely by the algorithm gods.

• Widget Links

Google has harsh punishments for sites that use “widget” type of tools to generate backlinks. It is because these attract spammy behavior and can damage your website’s ranking in SERPS if not done correctly.

• Links Originating From The Same Class C IP address

Some people may be trying to get around the no-follow rule by getting unnatural amounts of links from sites on their own server IP. This is likely not an effective way since Google can tell when you’re gaming search engine rankings, but it’s still something worth looking into.

• Anchor Text That Are “Poison”

When people point their anchor text (especially keywords) at sites that are not genuine, it can hurt the rankings of those pages. In some cases this may be an indication for spam or even hacked content.

• Spike in an Unnatural Link

The Google Patent describes a system in which they can identify whether or not an influx of links to one page is legitimate. These unnatural backlinks might become devalued over time and lead people away from your website, so it’s important that you keep track.

• Article Directories and Press Releases Provide Useful Links

The use of articles directories and press releases for link building has been a common practice in the past, but now it seems like Google regards these two strategies as “link schemes” due to their abuse.

• Manual Procedures

Black hat link building is a technique used to manufacture high quality backlinks. There are several different types of this, but they all aim at improving your site’s rankings by generating traffic through spammy means like article submissions or guest posts on other blogs without actually creating any content in return for these links.

• Selling Links

Link selling is not an easy way to make money. It’s also against the law, which means that if you get caught it can really hurt your SEO ranking and reputation as well.

• Google Sandbox

Links are important for SEO and can help a site rank higher on search engines like Google. But if you get too many links at once, they may temporarily put your website in their Sandbox which limits how visible it will appear online while this happens.

• Google Dance

Google has a way to shake up rankings and they do it with the Google Dance. This patent explains that, according in their algorithm-building process which is complicated as heck (no pun intended), sometimes things happen by chance or due coincidence so if you’re trying your luck at gaming these systems then there’s no point because everything will work out for ya anyway.

• Disavow Tool

The Disavow Tool can help you if negative SEO has left your site with a manual or algorithm-based penalty.

• Request for Reconsideration

If you want to get your penalty lifted, a successful reconsideration request can do the trick.

• Temporary Link Schemes

Google is catching onto people who create spammy links and quickly remove them. These are called temporary link schemes, or TFN for short in Google terminology.

Conclusion

So, now you know the most important Google ranking factors. What’s your take on that? Do any of them surprise or disappoint you based on where we’re at as an industry with our content strategy and best practices for SEO!