200 Web site Ranking Factor
- 1. 200 Ranking Factor What is a ranking factor on google? Ranking factors are the criteria applied by Google (and other search engines)when evaluating pages to decide the best order of relevant results to return for a search query. All 200 (Known) Ranking Factors I'll start with a rundown of all 200 ranking factors, then go in-depth into the top ten ranking factors that, based on my experience as an SEO consultant for B2B and B2C companies, have the most impact. 1. Domain Factors 2. Page-Level Factors 3. Site-Level Factors 4. Backlink Factors 5. User Interaction 6. Special Google Algorithm Rules 7. Brand Signals 8. On-Site Webspam Factors 9. Off-Site Webspam Factors Domain Factors Domain factors are all ranking factors that connect with your domain (the basic example.com version of your website), including: 1. Your domain age 2. Keyword in your domain 3. Keyword is the first word in your domain 4. Domain registration length 5. Keyword in subdomain
- 2. 6. Domain history 7. Penalized Whois owner 8. Public WhoIs instead of private Whois Page-Level Factors Page-level factors are factors on each page that you can optimize, such as: 1. Presence of the keyword in the title tag 2. Having the keyword at the beginning of your title tag 3. Keyword in your meta description tag 4. Presence of the keyword in the H1 tag 5. Keyword is frequently used in the content 6. Content length 7. Word count rankings 8. Presence of a linked table of contents 9. Keyword density 10.Presence of semantically related keywords 11. Semantically related keyword in meta title and description 12.In-depth quality content 13.Useful content 14.Page loading speed via HTML 15.Page loading speed tested on Chrome 16.Core web vitals 17.No duplicate content on the same site 18.Image optimization through ALT, title, and file name 19.Content recency (the newer, the better) 20.Page age 21.How many edits were made to the content during updates 22.Historical data on page updates
- 3. 23.Proper use of rel=canonical 24.Presence of keyword in H2 and H3 tags 25.Presence of keyword in the first 100 words 26.Grammar and spelling 27.Originality of the page's content 28.Entity match 29.Number of outbound links 30.Mobile useability and optimization 31.Hidden content on mobile (may not be indexed) 32.Page optimized for mobile 33.Presence of multimedia, for example, images and videos 34.Number of outbound links 35.The quality of outbound links 36.Theme of outbound links 37.Presence of helpful supplementary content, like free tools and calculators 38.Content hidden behind tabs (it may not be indexed and wouldn't show up in search snippets) 39.Number of internal links pointing to the page 40.Quality of the internal links 41.Presence of too many broken links (could lower ranking capabilities) 42.The reading level of the page 43.Presence of many affiliate links 44.Presence of many HTML errors 45.Authority/trust-level of the domain 46.Authority/trust level of the page 47.PageRank 48.Length of URL 49.Closeness of URL to the homepage 50.Presence of keyword in URL
- 4. 51.Opinion of human editors 52.Relevance of page's category to page 53.Content formatting for user-friendliness and readability 54.Priority of the page in the sitemap.xml 55.UX signal from pages ranking for the same keyword 56.Citing references and sources 57.Use of a user-friendly layout 58.URL string in Google search engine results 59.Internal link anchor text to the page 60.Use of structured data Site-level factors Site-level factors go above the page level and take a look at things on the entire site. They include: 1. Presence of a contact us page or appropriate amount of contact information 2. Content on site provides value or new insights 3. TrustRank (how close your site is to a known and trusted site in terms of linking) 4. Website updates for freshness factor 5. Site architecture 6. Presence of a sitemap 7. Long-term site downtime 8. Location of server 9. HTTPs / use of a valid SSL certificate 10.Presence of legal pages (terms and conditions and privacy policy) 11. Unique metadata 12.Use of breadcrumb markup 13.Site-wide mobile optimization
- 5. 14.Site-wide user-friendliness (usability and interactiveness) 15.Bounce rate 16.Domain authority 17.User reviews 18.Site reputation Backlink factors Backlink factors look at the sites that are linking to you to determine where to rank your page. Sites with better quality sites linking to them tend to be higher in rankings when they have quality content. The backlink factors are as follows: 1. Age of linking domain 2. Number of referring domains 3. Number of links from separate c-class IPs 4. Number of referring pages 5. Anchor text of backlinks 6. ALT tag of image links 7. Number of links from .edu and .gov domains 8. Trust factor of linking page 9. Trust factor of linking domain 10.Presence of links from competitors 11. Number of links from expected sites in your industry 12.Links from bad neighborhoods 13.Number of links that are not from ads 14.Country TLD of referring domains 15.Domain authority 16.Presence of some nofollow links 17.Diversity of link profile 18.Context of content the content of linking page
- 6. 19.Presence of more follow links that sponsored or UGC 20.Lots of backlinks to URL with 301 redirects 21.The text that appears when you hover over a link 22.Link location on page 23.Location of link in content 24.Links from relevant domains 25.Links from relevant pages 26.Presence of your page's keyword in the title of the linking page 27.Natural rate of growth in number of links 28.Spiky and unnatural rate of growth in number of links 29.Links from top resources on a certain topic or hubs 30.Number of links from sites that are considered authority sites 31.Linked as a source in a Wikipedia article 32.Words around your backlinks 33.Backlink age 34.Links from real sites vs fake blogs 35.Natural link profile 36.Excessive reciprocal links 37.Links in real content vs. UGC 38.Backlinks from a page with a 301 redirect 39.TrustRank of linking site 40.Fewer outbound links on linking page 41.Links in real content vs links in forums 42.Word count of linking content 43.Quality of linking content 44.Sitewide links = one link
- 7. User Interaction Google always emphasizes in their update announcements how important it is to provide an excellent user experience to website visitors. These factors measure user interaction to rank your page accordingly, including: 1. Organic click through rate for exact keyword 2. Organic click through rates for all ranking keywords 3. Dwell time 4. Bounce rate 5. Measurement of how users interact on your site based on RankBrain 6. Total direct traffic 7. Percentage of repeat visitors 8. Blocked sites 9. Percentage of visitors that click on other pages on the SERP after clicking visiting your page 10.Page frequently bookmarked by Chrome users 11. Number of comments on page Special Google Algorithm Rules Some Google Algorithm rules are not directly connected to your page or domain. They include factors that look at personalizing search results for the user or better search results as a whole. Here are some of them: 1. Need for diversity in the SERP 2. Need for freshness in the SERP 3. Browsing history of user 4. Search history of user 5. Succinct answers, formatting, page authority and HTTPS for featured snippets 6. Geo-targeting
- 8. 7. Adult content or curse words (excluded from safe search results) 8. High content quality standards for YMYL keywords 9. Legitimate DMCA complaints 10.Need for domain diversity in SERP 11. Transactional searches 12.Local search results 13.Presence of news stories related to keyword for Top Stories box 14.Search intent 15.Presence of big brands with relevant content (they are often ranked higher) 16.Presence of results optimized for Google Shopping 17.Image results 18.Branded search 19.Easter eggs and April Fools' Day jokes and hoaxes from Google (this one makes me laugh) 20.Spammy queries 21.Spammy sites Brand Signals How great is your branding strategy in terms of SEO? If you haven't taken care of your brand mentions and brand all over the internet, you need to start now. Because there are some serious ranking factors related to your brand: 1. Brand + keyword searches (for example, Hubspot SEO) 2. Branded anchor text 3. Twitter profile with followers 4. Official LinkedIn page 5. Facebook page with lots of likes 6. Branded searches 7. Known author or verified online profile
- 9. 8. Real social media accounts 9. Top stories with brand mentions 10.Brand mentions without links 11. Physical location of offices On-site Web To rank high on search engine results, you need to ensure your site isn't spammy and doesn't look spammy - as with many things in life, looks play a role in how we're perceived. Here are some factors around that: 1. Low-quality content 2. Links to bad neighborhoods 3. Multiple and sneaky redirects 4. Flagged server IP address 5. Distracting ads and popups 6. Popups that are spammy and difficult to close 7. Over-optimizing the site 8. Gibberish content 9. Use of doorway pages 10.Lots of ads above the fold and not much content 11. Hiding affiliate links 12.Low-value content sites 13.Affiliate sites 14.Keyword stuffing in meta tags 15.Compute generated content 16.Nofollowing all outbound links
- 10. Off-site Webspam Factors The Off-site webspam factors affect spam based on what's done outside your website that connects with your website. They include: 1. Unnatural and sudden increase in backlinks 2. Hacked site 3. Lots of low-quality backlinks 4. High percentage of links from unrelated websites 5. Low-quality directory links 6. Automatic links in widgets 7. Links from sites with the same server IP 8. Using “poison” in your anchor text 9. Ignored manual actions in search console 10.Selling links 11. Temporary link schemes