There isn’t an official list of Google ranking factors.
But:
We do know a lot about the signals that Google use to rank sites accordingly.
This information comes from a combination of:
- Official sources
- Case studies
- Experience
- My own personal experimentation
I can say with great confidence that the vast majority of them are covered.
It is also important to note that not all of the below are strictly ranking signals.
Some of them are indexing/crawling signals which are part of the overall search process.
You should also be aware that Google doesn’t look at just 1 ranking signal.
They tend to ‘stack signals’ to build a bigger picture.
I have broken down all the known Google ranking factors into their respective categories
AND
Whether they are a positive or negative factor.
What Will I Learn?
Domain Ranking Factors
This is a list Google ranking factors that can affect your rankings positively or negatively at a domain level. This is one of the most important categories in ranking factors.
Here’s a quick list of the most important domain ranking factors:
- Exact Match Domain
- Keywords In Domain
- Domain History
- Private Whois Data
- Penalized Whois Owner
- Country TLD Extension
+ Positive Domain Factors
#1 – Exact Match Domain
Exact match domains or EMD’s as they are known, used to rank very easily.
However Google cracked down on this with the EMD update.
You still get a small amount of benefit from an exact match domain. But now you have an extra quality layer (patent) to please with your site… thanks to the EMD update!
#2 – Keywords In Domain
A domain containing a keyword doesn’t help you rank any higher than a branded domain.
Although having a keyword in your domain may help people searching better understand what your website is about therefore encouraging more clicks from relevant people.
#3 – Domain History
The history of your domain also has an impact on how your site performs.
If the domain has been in trouble with Google in the past through link spam or bad neighbourhoods it will be harder to rank. Take a look at what Google check for.
Click here to learn how to check your domain ownership history.
#4 – Domain Age
John Mueller has confirmed through Twitter that whether you have an old domain or a brand new domain –
But older domains tend to have more backlinks, which DOES have an impact.
Learn more about how to use aged domains for SEO.
#5 – Domain Registration Date
In a patent filing Google said-
The date that a domain with which a document is registered may be used as an indication of the inception date of the document.
Google
#6 – Domain Renewal Date
In the same patent they also said-
Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.
Google
#7 – Country TLD Extension
Having a cTLD like a .es domain does help with geo-targeting indication.
But at the same time, it doesn’t mean they are inherently easier to rank in their target country. You could rank a .com in the Spanish Google just as easily.
– Negative Domain Factors
#1 – Private Whois Data
Having private Whois data on its own isn’t a problem.
Matt Cutt’s originally suggested that private Whois data can be combined with other factors as a negative signal.
But John Mueller recently clarified that it’s ok to use especially in Europe. Private whois data is certainly used to identify patterns in blog networks so pay attention!
#2 – Penalized Whois Owner
I cannot find any official Google reference for this…
But there are a couple of examples where it seems the Whois owner is penalised.
Granted the examples I have seen were extreme examples of abuse from 2 well known SEO‘s and Google wiped out every single web property whether it was abused or not.
However this is far from confirmed officially.
#3 – Country TLD Extension
Where the cTLD will count as a negative signal is if you have a Spanish domain but are trying to rank it in the Russian market. But the domain extension on its own isn’t enough.
If you put Russian content on a Spanish domain it will rank in Russia.
#4 – Parked Domain
If you have a parked domain Google are actively removing them from their index after the parked domains update.
#5 – Same URL Parameters & Same Shared Hosting
Two domains that are on shared hosting and the same URL parameters, Google will assume they are the same. Ensure you have different URL parameters to avoid this.
#6 – Changing Hosting Provider
The reasons for changing your hosting provider may outweigh this negative factor.
But, you should still be aware that when changing your provider Google will temporarily reduce your crawl rate.
This is because it cannot yet figure out what load the server can stand.
#7 – 503 Status Missuse
If you keep a 503 status in place over a few days Google may think that the site will not be put back up. They will also reduce your crawl rate.
Then the crawling will stop completely if a robots.txt file request is returned 503.
Want to learn how to make profits with domain names? Check these posts:
Page Level Ranking Factors
A list of page level factors that can affect your rankings positively or negatively. These factors effect where abouts each page ranks in Google.
Here’s a quick list of the most important page level ranking factors:
- URL Contains Keyword
- Title Tag Contains Keyword
- Meta Description Contains Keyword
- Duplicate Meta Descriptions
- Duplicate Title Tags
- Underscores In Title Tags
+ Positive Page Factors
#1 – URL Contains Keyword
John Mueller has confirmed that including your keyword in your URL is a ranking factor.
BUT:
It is a very small factor that would not be worth your time in restructuring your site for.
#2 – Title Tag Contains Keyword
Having keywords in your title tags is a massive help to your SEO.
It gives Google a clear indication of what your content is about and also helps to increase relevance when users are searching for your keyword.
#3 – Meta Description Contains Keyword
You should include keywords in your meta descriptions. Just like with your title tags, it helps Google see what the topic of your content is.
#4 – H1 Tag Contains Keyword
The H1 tag is a strong signal for Google. You should take advantage of this and ensure you include your target keyword.
#5 – Other Headings Contain Keyword
Having your keyword present in other headings such as your H2 or H3 tags will also help.
However…
It is much better to use these headers to include LSI keywords and avoid over optimising.
#6 – Main Body Content Contains Keyword
You should mention your target keyword a couple of times in your contents main body.
This will help improve relevancy.
#7 – Keyword Order
The order of your keywords also has a small impact.
For example someone searching for ‘download antivirus software’ will see different results than someone searching for ‘antivirus software download’.
Even though the intent is the same.
#8 – LSI Keywords
Latent Semantic Indexing keywords help search engines work out the exact topic.
For example ‘Orange’ could be:
- Orange the colour
- Orange the fruit
- Orange the mobile phone network
This helps Google index & understand the topic of your page better.
#9 – Site Speed
We know that if you speed up website load time, you will rank higher.
The rendering & loading time are specifically relevant.
Average response time for a site should be somewhere around 100ms.
Faster websites provide a better user experience, increases engagement & converts more.
#10 – Unique Content
Having unique content across your entire site is a strong quality signal.
Make sure content is original and not duplicated. Whether it is a blog post or a product descriptipn – make sure your content is unique.
#11 – Length Of Content
Longer content ranks better & converts better period. The average content length for sites in the top 10 is at least 2,000 words.
Longer content attracts more:
- Engagement
- Links
- Social Signals
#12 – Schema / Rich Snippet Markup
Rich snippets can be added to your SERP’s to make them more attractive.
And you can add it easily with RankMath (read my Rank Math review) or Yoast SEO.
Once setup this will spoon feed data to Google which is then shown in the SERPS.
This will help to attract a higher click-through rate and more traffic from Google.
#13 – Multimedia
Having unique images and videos to support your main content is a quality signal. I recommend investing in a good graphics design team who will produce unique images.
#14 – Image Optimisation
Google will also look at your usage of images. Make sure that you use your keyword in the file name and the alt text.
But don’t over optimise by including your keyword in everything such as:
- File name
- Alt text
- Title tag
- Description tag
#15 – Fresh Content
Way back in 2010 Google released the Caffeine update. This was designed to return fresher and more up to date results.
This was a significant shift in how Google indexes the web and favours fresher content.
#16 – Updated Content
Updating older content will also see a positive impact.
You need to do a little more than just changing the date though. Google is looking for significant updates to content in order to label them as ‘fresh’.
#17 – Outbound Links
Although outbound links have been widely believed as a ranking factor this is not the case.
Having outbound links on your site could add value to your own content which Google may view positively but the links themselves are not a ranking factor.
John Mueller explains this in his Q&A video.
#18 – Internal Links
Just like external links affect your rankings so do internal links as well.
More specifically the number of internal links and quality of those pointing to a given page on your site. It was shown just how important internal links are on ranking.
#19 – Syndicated Content
A lot of people are terrified of posting syndicated content. This is in case they get flagged for duplicate content. However there are a couple of bits of advice.
Syndicating content is fine, but make sure you are linking back to the original source and pray the syndicated content doesn’t outrank you.
#20 – Supplementary Content
Having supplementary content is a strong quality signal.
The 2014 version of the Google Quality Rater Guidelines make this very clear.
Google provides the example that a recipe page might have a feature to multiply or divide the recipe based on how many people you are serving.
#21 – Reading Level
Google measure the reading level of pages and label them as either:
- Basic
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Then clicking on search tools > all results > reading level.
As you can see my site is ‘basic’ but it still ranks very well. It doesn’t appear that Google are using this as an active signal – but they certainly have the data.
#22 – W3C Validation
W3C code validation is not a ranking factor period.
#23 – Domain Authority
The overall authority of the domain also has an impact on how your page ranks.
Assuming everything is equal the page on the more authoritative domain will rank higher.
This is something I see with my own authority sites where they have what I call ‘page 1 pull’ where I can publish an article and have it appear on page 1 for its target keywords.
#24 – Keyword At The Start Of Title Tag
Moz’s data shows that title tags that begin with a keyword…
Outperform those with the keyword at the end of the tag.
So when publishing new content, ensure you have your title tag optimised with your keyword at the beginning. This really does make a difference.
#25 – Keyword Frequency
Your keyword should be the most frequently used phrase within your article.
There is no super special keyword density secret but you should make sure that it appears more than other words or phrases. Also keeping it natural.
#26 – Rel=Canonical
Google may use this tag to identify a particular piece of content as not duplicate.
But you should be aware – they may choose to ignore it! So it’s better not to rely soly on the canonical tag!
#27 – Historical Page Updates
Google may not only be tracking the recency of content updates…
But how often these updates are occurring.
Updating your content-
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Annually
#28 – Size Of Content Update
How much content you’ve changed could also influence ranking.
Updating:
- Whole paragraphs
- Images
- Links
#29 – Outbound Link Theme
Moz’s research suggests that the theme the link points too can influence your relevancy.
Linking to pages that don’t tie with the content’s theme could cause problems. This is because it could add doubt to the topic of your content.
– Negative Page Factors
#1 – Duplicate Meta Descriptions
John Mueller says that having duplicate meta descriptions aren’t really a problem.
Which is backed up by Yoast’s study which show’s a lot of the time Google actually using sentences from the beginning of your content as the meta descriptions.
So you should optimise the first paragraph of content with your meta description in mind.
#2 – Duplicate Title Tags
Just like with Meta Descriptions you should ensure every page has a unique Title tag.
Ensure there are no duplicate title tags across your site.
#3 – Underscores In Title Tags
Matt Cutt’s specifically said not to use underscores as seperators in your title tags.
Instead, you should use commas, pipes or dashes to separate your titles.
#4 – Keyword Stuffed Meta Tags
Having a keyword-stuffed title tag or meta description will negatively affect you.
For example if your title tag is:
‘Link Building | Link Building Services | Link Building Strategy’
That is keyword-stuffed!
Instead you should have something more natural like:
‘Link Building Services – Fast & Efficient’
#5 – Meta Keywords
While not strictly a negative factor, the meta keywords tag was originally used to help software indexing. Google have never used the meta keywords tag as a ranking signal.
They do read the tags – but they are not a ranking factor.
#6 – Keyword Density
Way back when we used to build sites to have the perfect keyword density.
It seemed that around 3% was the ‘sweet spot’.
But since then Google has got much better at processing language and they can understand the topics of webpages better. So when optimising for keyword density…
It is very easy to over optimise and get caught out.
So ignore keyword density and just make sure your target keyword is mentioned in:
- The title tag
- The meta description
- H1 tag
- Once or twice in the main content
#7 – Slow Load Times
Just like having a fast site serves as a positive factor…
Having a slow loading site will act as a negative factor if all other things are equal.
#8 – Duplicate Content
John Mueller walks us through what Google classes as duplicate content.
This comes after Google releases a duplicate content warning.
#9 – Hidden Content
This was the old stance on hidden content…
“Hiding content specifically to manipulate search, increase word count or increase the number of keywords on a page can get you penalised.”
Now John Mueller has revealed that with the mobile first index you can contain/hide content in tabs because of user experience purposes.
Ranking just as well as normal content.
#10 – Irrelevant Image Alt Tags
For a long time we have been using ALT tags to tell Google what our images are about. Typically we use the image alt tag to include a relevant keyword.
However Google can understand images now!
So if you have a picture of a Zebra with the alt text:- ‘best iPhone deals’
You are going to have a hard time!
#11 – Outbound Links
If you are not careful you could end up with a site wide penalty. Google do hand out penalties for outbound links…
Even if it’s just 1 bad outbound link across your entire site and having too many outbound links can hurt your site’s ranking.
The Quality rater document clear states:
“Some pages have way, way too many links, obscuring the page and distracting from the Main Content”.
#12 – Broken Links
Having too many broken links is a sign of a low-quality site according to Google’s rater guidelines. However you should not be worried about having the odd broken link.
But broken links are quick to fix so if you have them, fix them.
#13 – Too Many Affiliate Links
Google and affiliates historically do not get on. For the most part, affiliates are a pain for Google as they contribute a huge amount of spam and low-quality sites.
Having affiliate links isn’t a problem, but if your spamming affiliate links throughout your content you are going to run into trouble.
Either way, you should be nofollowing all of your affiliate links .
#14 – HTML Errors
W3C code validation and HTML errors are not ranking factors.
Unless…
Those errors interfere with how Google spiders and indexes pages. Stay on top of HTML errors and fix them as they are reported in Google Webmaster Tools.
#15 – URL Length
It has been widely believed that the length of your URL has a negative impact on rankings.
It has now been confirmed that Google has no real preference with URL length. But be aware that if your URL contains a hash ‘#’ then Google will not index it.
#16 – Spelling & Grammar
John Mueller answers the question… Does bad spelling and grammar affect your rankings?
The answer is “not really”. However, it is not as simple as that…
He explains that Google doesn’t really have an issue with poor grammar and spelling.
But your visitors will!
If your content is packed full of bad spelling and awful grammar inevitably you will lose the trust of your audience, which will only have one result…
#17 – Interstitial Ads
Interstitial Ads are pop up ads that force a user to view an ad before seeing the content. They can appear before the page loads, when the page loads or when a user scrolls.
Google doesn’t like intrusive interstitials ads.
They ruin the user experience and they will impact your SEO negatively.
#18 – Real Business Information
Ensuring your business information is up to date is crucial to your local SEO strategy.
This includes things like:
- NAP (name, address, phone number)
- Listing your business on Facebook, Google My Business & relevant directories
Although this should happen naturally through great customer service.
Site Level Ranking Factors
A list of site level rankings factors that can affect your rankings positively or negatively. These factors are all changes you can make to your site to rank higher.
Here’s a quick list of the most important site level ranking factors:
- Domain Trust
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy & Terms
- Site Downtime
- Duplicate Meta Content
- Not Optimized For Mobile
+ Positive Site Factors
#1 – Domain Trust
Having a good standing history of trust with Google has a huge influence.
Trusted sites can get away with more and enjoy higher rankings across the board. Trust is measured across a range of signals including links from highly trusted sites.
#2 – Contact Us
Google’s Search Rater guidelines says…
Sites should have easily accessible contact information to help build trust.
#3 – Privacy Policy & Terms
Having a privacy policy and terms of use pages also provide relevant trust signals. If you use Google Adsense for example, these pages are required.
This could introduce the possibility of duplicate content but Google say its not a problem.
#4 – About Us Page
Just like having contact us & privacy policy pages help to build trust with Google.
So does having a detailed about us page.
#5 – Site Structure
Organizing your site into a silo structure is a positive signal for your site. Many people have a flat structure like – domain.com/post-name
But its much better to have a silo structure.
This would look something like –
domain.com/seo/google-ranking-factors
OR
domain.com/social-media/facebook-marketing
But even more important than the URL structure…
Google looks at the number of clicks from the homepage to the destination page. This is considered of greater importance out of the two when it comes to ranking factors.
#6 – Site Freshness
Just like freshness has an impact at page level, it also has an impact at domain level.
Make sure your site is fresh and upto date at all times.
#7 – Number Of Pages
The number of pages a site has is not a ranking signal on it’s own.
However…
More indexed pages does mean you have more chances to rank for different keywords. You are more likely to attract incoming links which does have an impact.
#8 – XML Sitemap
Having an XML sitemap will help Google spider your site easily. This doesn’t guarantee that Google is going to index all of the pages in the sitemap.
But it does help them get around your site.
However not having a sitemap isn’t a negative factor assuming that your site structure is correct and Google can spider the site properly.
#9 – HTML Sitemap
Why stop at just an XML sitemap when you can have a HTML sitemap as well? Although this seems to be an old practice that is rarely seen now.
But it can help your users and Google bots.
#10 – Server Location
Server location isn’t a massive issue if you can set geotargeting. You can do this in either Webmaster Tools’ or ccTLD.
It plays a very small role according to Google’s John Mueller.
#11 – HTTPS/SSL
Google are officially using HTTPS as a ranking signal.
Although at the moment it is a very minor signal. It is used more like a tiebreaker rather than a strong ranking signal.
When you make the transition be sure to redirect all the http addresses to https addresses with clear 301 redirects in place.
#12 – Breadcrumb Rich Snippets
Having breadcrumb navigation on your site will help the overall architecture of the site.
What helps even more is having the RichSnippet mark up for breadcrumbs in place.
#13 – Mobile Optimisation
If your site has a responsive design and displays well on mobile devices it’ll perform well.
Google recently introduced mobile first indexing and have a mobile friendly testing tool and a mobile pagespeed testing tool.
#14 – Hreflang
Hreflang tags (when implimented correctly) are used to organise content by language.
They sort multiple regions with one language or one region that has multiple languages.
Although the Hreflang tags don’t directly impact your SEO ranking, if you have a website that’s international it’s important that you get the correct pages in front of your visitors…
– Negative Site Factors
#1 – Site Downtime
A day or two of downtime will not inherently hurt your rankings.
However…
Google will remove your site entirely if is unavailable for around a week or more.
On the bright side once your site is backup – Google will reinclude it in the index.
#2 – Duplicate Meta Content
We already discussed how important it is to have a unique title and meta description.
Having duplicate meta information across your site can lead to less visibility.
#3 – Not Optimized For Mobile
While not having a responsive design won’t hurt your rankings in desktop search…
Having a mobile-friendly design is very important to show up in mobile search.
#4 – Poor User Engagement
Google knows how many pages people visit and how much time they spend on each page. They know if the user bounces or keeps reading.
They know this regardless of whether you have Google Analytics installed or not.
Sites with poor user engagement signals such as:
- High pogo rates
- High bounce rate
- Low time on site
- Slow load times
#5 – Negative Reviews
If your site has a bad reputation on sites like:
- Yelp.com
- RipOffReport.com
- Google Places
You will suffer in the long term for that.
This was addressed after someone came up with the ingenious way to earn links…
By treating customers badly.
#6 – Adverts Above The Fold
If your site is ‘top heavy’ with adverts above the fold that distract from the main content…
You will suffer.
#7 – Pagerank Sculpting
Pagerank Sculpting is the practice of:
- Nofollowing all outbound links
- Nofollowing specific internal links
Abusing this will get you in trouble.
#8 – Panda Penalty
Google specifically targets low quality sites with the Panda update.
If your site is penalised you will see huge drops in search visibility.
Backlink Ranking Factors
A list of backlink related factors that can affect your rankings positively or negatively. Paying attention to these link building factors can make a big difference to your rankings!
Here’s a quick list of the most important backlink ranking factors:
- Number Of Links
- Anchor Text
- Link Title
- Bad Neighbourhoods
- Same C-Class
- Guest Posting
+ Positive Link Factors
#1 – Number Of Links
The number of sites linking back to your site is one of the most important ranking factors.
Quantity does help in terms of number of linking domains.
#2 – Anchor Text
The anchor text of the backlink helps Google understand the topic of the linked page.
#3 – Link Title
The title of a link also helps indicate the topic of a page although it is a much weaker signal than anchor text.
But if you can get a link from a page that has your target keyword in the title and the anchor text – that’s power!
#4 – Domain & Page Relevancy
A link from a domain and/or page that is relevant… is much more valuable than a link coming from an irrelevant site.
For example:
You wouldn’t want a link from this blog if you sold garden furniture online.
But having an industry leader like Matt Diggity link to this blog is very valuable.
#5 – Link Sentiment
The text around a link does a few things:
- It helps Google work out the relevancy
- It helps work out whether the link is a positive or negative citation
So it’s definitely worth paying attention to.
#6 – Keyword In Title
Links from pages that have either the same or tightly related keywords in their title…
Are much more valuable than those that don’t.
#7 – Domain Authority
Getting backlinks (such as edu backlinks and gov backlinks) from domains with high levels of authority and trust is a significant ranking factor that you should be focusing on.
Learn how to increase your domain authority.
#8 – Page Authority
The overall authority of the page that you are getting a link from also plays a big role.
A link from an authoritative page from an authoritative domain is the holy grail.
#9 – Age Of Backlink
Google have a patent that shows the age of a backlink is relevant.
In short: Older backlinks are more powerful than newly created ones.
#10 – C-Class IP’s
The number of links from domains only count if they are on separate class-c IP’s.
You want to have links from lots of different domains and IP ranges for maximum effect.
#11 – Diversity
Make sure you have backlinks coming in from a range of sources.
Relying on just 1 ‘link type’ such as guest posts, for example, stands out. You want a diverse mix of link types coming from relevant and authoritative sources.
#12 – Competing Pages
Links from pages that are in the top 10 for your target or related keywords will boost your rankings so you should focus on building links from these sites.
#13 – Social Authority
A link from a page that has a high number of social shares is worth more so include this as part of your research when prospecting sites for link building outreach.
#14 – Guest Posting
John Mueller’s view on guest posting is to make any links back to your site ‘no follow’. He believes visitors coming to your site via ‘no follow’ links are the people you want.
Check out my list of the 5x best guest posting services that I’ve tried and recommend.
#15 – Homepage Links
Links coming from the homepage of a site carry more weight.
This is because other links are found further away from the homepage in structure.
#16 – Contextual/Editorial Links
Links coming from the main content of a page are known as contextual or editorial links. These links carry the most weight compared to any other link.
An editorial link is an awful lot more powerful than a footer link from the same page.
#17 – User Generated Content Links
Google knows the difference between user generated content and site published content.
Links coming from the actual site are more powerful.
#18 – 301 Redirects
A link that reaches your site via a 301 redirect is just as powerful as a normal link. You wouldn’t think so right? But it’s true.
#19 – Wikipedia
Although links from Wikipedia are Nofollow, Wikipedia backlinks are highly authoritative.
If you get your site listed as a source of information you will also receive targeted traffic.
#20 – Positive Link Velocity
Link velocity is a measurement of how many links you gain over time.
It is much better to maintain a positive or neutral velocity than one that is degrading.
#21 – Nofollow Links
John Mueller explains that no follow links aren’t included in the algorithm.
So this means they do not contribute negatively towards your SEO.
#22 – Word Count Of Page
A link from a page with 2,000 words is worth more than a page with 100 words. This should help you when finding sites to reach out to.
#23 – Number Of Outbound Links
A link from a page that has hundreds of links to other sites is worth a lot less than a link from a page that only has a few links to other sites.
#24 – Sitewide Links
A link from the sidebar that is present on every page of the site is treated as a single link.
– Negative Link Factors
#1 – Bad Neighbourhoods
Having links from sites that have been identified as a “Bad Neighbourhood” by Google will hurt your site.
If Google has uncovered a blog network and your site has a lot of links from that network
You are in trouble.
#2 – Same C-Class
Having lots of links from IP addresses in the same C class is not natural.
This is usually an indication of link manipulation.
#3 – Guest Posting
Guest posting was a great way to get backlinks a couple years back. However spammy guest posting will get you penalised.
So if your throwing together poor quality articles to guest post purely for the sake of links…
Make sure you are nofollowing them! Google are actively cracking down on this activity.
#4 – Buying Links
You will be penalised if you get caught out buying or sponsoring links.
The official rules are you should apply the NoFollow tag to all paid links, but trust me – nobody actually does that.
#5 – Selling Links
Just like buying links can get you in trouble, so can selling links. There are numerous examples of well known sites selling links and being penalised.
Again, that only happens if you get caught. And some people are more stupid than others as you can see above.
#6 – Negative Link Velocity
Link velocity is a measurement of how many links you gain or lose over time.
A negative link velocity will have a negative effect on your visibility in search.
#7 – Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal linking used to be very effective but an update many years ago killed that.
It is now seen as a link scheme and should be avoided.
#8 – Forum Profiles
Links from forum profiles used to be highly effective.
However this will now get you penalised if systematically abused.
#9 – Linking Relevancy
Sites with a high percentage of links coming from unrelated or irrelevant sites rank lower. So make sure any links pointing to your site are relevant to your niche.
#10 – Penguin Penalty
The Google Penguin penalty tends to focus on your backlink profile.
This can affect you on a page and domain level.
User Engagement Ranking Factors
A list of user engagement factors that can affect your rankings. Knowing the user engagement of your site is the first step, then just implement these factors.
Here’s a quick list of the most important user engagement ranking factors:
- Page Level SERP Click Through Rate
- Domain Level SERP Click Through Rate
- Dwell Time / Pogo Sticking
- Page Level SERP Click Through Rate
- Domain Level SERP Click Through Rate
- Dwell Time / Pogo Sticking
+ Positive Engagement Factors
#1 – Page Level SERP Click Through Rate
Pages that get a higher click-through rate in search results get a boost in rankings.
Mark my words, this is one of the most effective ways to rank today. Given the choice between the perfect backlink profile and a high SERP CTR…
#2 – Domain Level SERP Click Through Rate
If your domain attracts high click-through rates across all pages…
You will be rewarded with higher visibility across the site.
#3 – Dwell Time / Pogo Sticking
Pogo sticking occurs when people visit your site and click back to the search results…
Google measures if people stay on your page after visiting it from a Google search.
If the user visits your site and doesn’t return to the results…
This is a clear sign to Google that your page is of excellent quality.
#4 – Low Bounce Rate
Google knows exactly which pages you visit and how much time you spend on them. Regardless of which browser you use or if your site has Google Analytics.
A lower bounce rate attracts higher visibility in the search results.
#5 – Pages Per Visit
Sites that engage users for long periods of time or visit multiple pages are ranked higher. Therefore both content quality and internal links play a big part in the pages per visit metric.
#6 – Direct Traffic
A site that gets a lot of direct traffic is deemed to be of higher quality than a site that doesn’t get much direct traffic.
#7 – Returning Visitors
Sites that have a high percentage of returning visitors are deemed to be of higher quality than sites that don’t get many return visitors.
#8 – Comments
Pages that attract user engagement in the form of comments are a clear signal of quality and user interaction.
– Negative Engagement Factors
#1 – Page Level SERP Click Through Rate
Pages that get a low click-through rate in search results will drop from the first page.
Regardless of other factors. Backlinks get you there, CTR keeps you there.
#2 – Domain Level SERP Click Through Rate
Domains that have a low click-through rate across their pages will have less visibility.
#3 – Dwell Time / Pogo Sticking
Google measures if people stay on your page after visiting it from a Google search.
If the user returns to the search results quickly this is a strong negative signal.
#4 – High Bounce Rate
Sites with a high bounce rate will see a negative effect on their rankings across the board. This is a clear sign to Google that your site is not giving value to it’s visitors.
Google pays attention to user engagement and so should you.
Social Signals Ranking Factors
A list of social media related factors that can affect your rankings positively or negatively. Pay attention to these factors and you’ll see a boost in your rankings.
Here’s a quick list of the most important social signal ranking factors:
- Tweets
- Facebook Shares
- Facebook Comments
- Negative Social Velocity
+ Positive Social Factors
#1 – Tweets
The number of tweets a given URL or domain will influence rankings in Google so having a robust Twitter strategy is important.
#2 – Facebook Shares
It is generally thought that Google do not have access to Facebook’s data. But that is not true. The number of times your pages are shared on Facebook impacts your rankings.
#3 – Facebook Comments
The number of comments a given URL has received on Facebook will impact rankings.
Although less important than shares.
#4 – Facebook Likes
Facebook Likes of a URL/Domain also has positive traction in the SERPS.
This Facebook signal is the weakest of the 3.
#5 – Pinterest Pins
Having your URL pinned and re-pinned on Pinterest is a strong social signal. This platform may not be relevant to your niche but if it is… take advantage!
#6 – YouTube Links
Native YouTube content, or links from YouTube itself, could influence rankings.
This is because Google owns the platform and video content is often given priority.
#7 – Relevancy
Relevancy of your social signals is also important.
For example:
Having an industry leader like Matt Diggity mention this blog on social is very valuable.
#8 – Positive Social Velocity
Just like you can have a positive link velocity you can also have a positive social velocity.
I have used positive social velocity to bring Penguin penalised sites back to the #1 spot.
– Negative Social Factors
#1 – Negative Social Velocity
Negative social velocity will see your site drop in rankings.
For example:
If you bought 1,000 Tweets today and 3 days later 900 of them were removed…
That would damage your rankings.
I mentioned bringing penalised sites back to the #1 spot with positive social velocity. As the velocity drops off – so does the ranking.
Brand Signal Ranking Factors
A list of brand signals that can affect your rankings positively or negatively. Use your brand to give your Google search engine rankings a boost!
Here’s a quick list of the most important brand signal ranking factors:
- Branded Anchor Text
- Branded Searches
- Brand Mentions / Citations
- Negative Reviews
- Low Branded Click Through Rate
+ Positive Brand Factors
#1 – Branded Anchor Text
Anchor texts that include your brand a very strong signal to Google.
For example: ‘Matthew Woodward Link Building’
Is much more powerful than just – ‘Link Building’
#2 – Branded Searches
Similar to branded anchor text, when people search Google and include your brand with associated keywords this offers a huge boost in rankings.
For example:
People searching for – Matthew Woodward SEO
Tells Google my brand is important to SEO.
#3 – Brand Mentions / Citations
Having your brand mentioned on popular sites with your keywords is a clear signal to Google.
You can use this Google search to see what Google see’s-
#4 – Facebook & Twitter Presence
Popular brands have a presence on Facebook with a strong following, they use this following to increase social signals and drive traffic to their site.
#6 – LinkedIn Company Pages
Popular brands have a dedicated LinkedIn page for their business.
This also shows employees.
#7 – Social Activity
Brands that are more active on social media/engaging with people are more popular than brands that do not.It’s worth putting in the extra effort.
#8 – Brick & Mortar Business
The majority of real businesses have physical brick & mortar premises.
Listing your address in the website’s footer along with a Google My Business listing is a strong signal.
– Negative Brand Factors
#1 – Negative Reviews
If your brand has a bad reputation on sites like:
- Yelp.com
- RipOffReport.com
- Google Places
#2 – Low Branded Click Through Rate
If people are searching for your brand and associated keywords but don’t click to your site.
That is a negative brand signal.
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it – all known Google ranking factors in one place for your convenience!
With this knowledge in hand, you now know how to improve your search rankings.
Just to recap we covered ranking factors in these areas:
- Domain
- Page Level
- Site Level
- Backlinks
- User Engagement
- Social Signals
- Brand Signals
If you are not paying attention to these areas you are going to have a hard time.
And do not forget!
Google doesn’t look at just 1 ranking signal.
They ‘stack signals’ together to build a bigger picture.
…because Bing SEO is something that needs to be taken seriously as well.
PRO TIPS: If you want to learn more about Google ranking factors and/or SEO in general, why don’t you take an SEO certification/SEO course or read an SEO book?
252 Responses
what an amazing blog
Thanks :)
Good info. Thanks you for sharing post.
No problem!
Very well explained. Thanks for sharing this amazing article. Really very helpful.
No problem- Cheers, Vijomi!
Really a great post. Thank you so much Matts.!
No problem, Amir!
I have confidence now after reading I can also rank my website on Google.
Everyone can! The only thing you have to do is find out what the search engine algorithm wants and then manipulate the website to those factors.
Nice post. Thanks for sharing this valuable information matts ;)
No worries!
Wow such a great informative. Very useful, appreciate it Matts!
Thank you, cheers!
Wow great article. You included all the important factors together.
Hello
Matthew
Do you want to tell me if I follow what you have outlined in your article I can also rank as you do?
I really want to be at the top like you…
Hey Abduljabbar,
If you follow those tips, your website should appear in the search results and even start ranking well.
It’s gonna take time and hard work to get it at the top of search results but it’s possible!
And just to remind you there are a bunch of other factors to think of to rank a website like:
-Keywords
-Backlinks
-On-page/Off page etc…
I am quite impressed by how you have noted down both negative and positive impact on the site like I would love to if near in future I can write 10% of this :)
Thanks for your feedback! :)
Awesome post. Thanks for sharing such unique and valuable content
No problem Chuck – Always happy to help.
I hope it help me!!
I hope too! Let me know!
There are quite a few factors in this article that are listed as positive ranking factors that simply are not.
Which factors are you talking about?
Awesowe Matthew
I start for read all your posts
Easy to understand and ludic
Thank you for your feedback, Thanya!
Thank you for this great article, Matt.
I have just shared on Twitter and bookmarked this article for my easy reference. There is a lot I’ve learned out of this and going to implement now.
Have a good day :)
Great news, Mudassir! Let us know if you obtain any results!
PS: I’ve seen your post on Twitter! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this complete list of google ranking factors,
Now I have a clear understanding of ranking factors.
Great news!
Thanks for sharing this valuable information. I appreciate your effort in penning this down.
No problem, hope you find it useful.
I have added this site to my bookmarks as its got lots of intersting digital marketing blogs that I will need to read!
Thanks for the bookmark!
Nice post,
I strongly agree with your point. I have seen that Google mostly focuses on User experience. If you missed some points of optimization but your user is satisfied with your website / Business then Google provides rankings to your website.
Sending positive user experience signals is so important these days.
Mansi
You talked about user experience
I really would like to know what you meant by that
Please…
Hey – According to the ISO definition, user experience includes all the users’ emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use. Additionally, it includes a person’s perceptions of system aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency.
Hope it helps!
Excelente publicación para implantar una correcta estrategia SEO.
Muchas gracias :)
Nice Tips
Cheers :)
Not only that its a factor for Google but for Bing and Yahoo its something different. They woun`t index all your pages/rank you well if you don`t add geo location and language as meta information.
Yep, other search engines put different values on these factors. Here are Bing’s – https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/bing/
i was searching for ranking factors in 2019, i have read somewhere that in sept google release new algo update which focus on long keyword in website is this true?
Waiting to find that out
Oh wow, again a great post regarding SEO. Thanks, Matthew
Hey Manoj – no problem at all :)
Great…!! A complete guide to increasing search traffic. Thank you so much, Matthew.
No problem Varun!
Is it very nice post and it is very helpful for heavy traffie on our sites . And thankyou so much for it .
Glad I could help :)
Thanks for this great post. As I am new to this field your post has helped me a lot in understanding the on page concepts. I would like to share it with my colleagues too.
Glad I could help Pooja – appreciate the shares
hello,
I am a digital marketing student thanks for sharing this information this is very useful to me.
No problem at all Vijay!
Very nice, thanks for sharing to us.Really looking forward to reading more. And please check my this site
Well there’s plenty more for you to read :)
Thanks for your valuable advice
No worries – happy to help :)
This is the best article i have ever read this is almost complete package of ranking factor it cover all major factor for beginner this is very helpful .
Thanks very much Ashish – when you say almost… what else would you add? Thanks
Awesome issues here. I am very glad to look your post.
Thanks so much and I am having a look ahead to touch you. Will you
please drop me a mail?
Feel free to ask any questions you have here…
Bounce rate is not a factor, it is more of a helper… there are many sites that do not have analytics installed.
Google knows your bounce rate regardless of which browser you are using and whether your site has Google analytics installed or not.
i search here all factor about ranking that i was mistaken, so after read your blog post ,i really feel that am a SEO master for my post, so thanks for share that sort of information
Haha, great news!
I was following blindly what ever information I got to grow in terms of SEO but since I followed your articles I believed in intelligent way to SEO. Believe me my traffic grew by 22%. Very informative. Thanks tons.
That’s fantastic news Srikant – if you get chance I’d really appreciate a testimonial – https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/testimonials/
Thanks a lot Matthew, very well written & explained. I will follow all those advices & need to make lots of changes to my websites. Thankyou.
Let me know how you get on Vivek
I see so many things I need to update and I was working so hard to get it right. Thanks for the details!
No problem!
Loved! This is a great post with lot of important and useful information of Google ranking factors.
Thanks! Matthew Woodward! For helping us on Google SEO.
Happy to help Imran!
Nice Article there.. Though in 2019 google has become more and more unstable and im bit confuse what to do to get my site to rank better afer march update when my site got hit pretty hard.
Will carefully look for this article and check whats wrong with my site for now..
Hey Axel, yes use this guide to help you get back on track.
Banging little free tool for checking your SEO neighbors you might want to include.
https://seoneighborchecker.com
Thanks for the recommendation Jamie, I’ll take a look.
This was very useful. I am currently following this guide to focus on the important aspects to rank my website better. I still have some of them to work on. I appreciate this thorough guide.
No problem Zola, hope you can get these tips in place soon.
Another great post … although I seem to remember that you shut the blog down last year… lol! … all respect to you Matt!!
Did I? That’s news to me
This post is really good
Cheers!
Great work Matthew! It will help me a lot to improve my blog. Thanks for sharing.
Happy to help Zubair :)
Hi, Matt
Thanks for this insight, great work done here. Thanks a lot, really appreciate… Keep the Good Work Up Man.
I certainly will, there’s plenty more to come!
Wow great article. You included all the important factors together. I am keeping this list to cross check all my sites.
Great idea Faisal!
Matthew! Thanks for these.
But I have important to question to ask on Rank Math.
Well, I’m glad to now have a professional testifier who’ll proof that my newest use of the Rank Math is cool. I prefer the Rank Math plugin to Yoast Premium and it has been helping me enchant my audiences.
For instance, in my flourishing ‘Ideaflavour’ blog, some of the whole Content Marketing posts that weren’t showing up on 1st SERP are now showing.
But my question is: what percent over hundred would you advice I settle with. Because as at now, I feel fine when I reach 75/100 – using the Rank Math plugin you also implied?
I’m curious to help all content marketers to breakthrough affordably. And Rank Math has been amazing for that new blog… Except for that confusion.
Regards,
Godwin Oluponmile
Hey,
In my SOP’s I have it to achieve a 79 or more in RankMath
That was so awesome! Thanks. Really beneficial piece of content that goes to my bookmarks.
Thanks for the bookmark! Hope it helps with your Google rankings.
I have spend 3 hour to read and understand this important article. After finishing it I have understand what I am doing now and what I have to do now. Thanks Matthew for this valuable content.
Glad I could help you put a plan together for your site :)
Wow, what an awesome resource. Bookmarked for multiple future references, thanks Matt this is baller!
Thanks Colin!
I got a lot of information from your blog. I was waiting for this ranking updates. I will try to follow the latest SEO update on my own blog. Really I am very glad now. Thanks a lot.
Awesome news Bhupati. Hope you find your ranking increasing after implementing all these factors :)
Awesome, well-researched Blog. I have been always a fan of your Blogs. Very informative and you have added all the factors responsible for ranking on Google.
No worrys glad to help you out!
Hi,
Thank You, Matt, for This Wonderful article.
I am following many SEO Blogs.
Normally We have to Consider All those Sites to Study,
Sometimes We Really Miss something… because each sites, and their articles are in different places.
But here, you made all in one place.
and many things are new, that has a small potential but that worth.
so, this will be my one stop shop, when I do SEO fro one site.
Thanks Again, expecting more…
If you think this is good, wait for the next 2 weeks :)
waiting ;p
Hahaha yep, there’s some great stuff on its way :)
As always informative post love you :)
Thanks Hammad! Got some good stuff coming soon so keep an eye.
All these factors are very good. And I am sure these are one of the best refined factors to rank any keyword. If someone really implement all these factors for one keyword, I am sure they can change the game and get #1 position for the keyword. Great stuff Matthew. Thank you so much for sharing the real time insights.
Why don’t you give it a try and let me know how you get on!
Hi Matthew
I am following you and your SEO strategy from some time. I am very eagerly waiting for each type of content. Every SEO content is valuable and worthy.
Keep up this good work
Keep watching as I have some really valuable content on its way :)
Simply superb content that gives SEO a good clarity on aspects to focus on and which ones to avoid.
Thanks Umair :)
Thanks, Matthew for sharing an interesting article. I m a daily reader of your blog. Keep it continue something new about SEO.
Thanks for all your support Manish
Thanks for sharing this amazing post.
No problem, hope you can tick some boxes.
thanks for write great article. i have questions: how to rank website in google.co.uk? please let me know, thanks
It’s an remarkable post in favor of all the internet visitors;
they will get advantage from it I am sure.
Yes for sure
Hi Matthew
Following your blog posts couple of days and honestly saying your guides helped a lot. Like above Kulwant said how you come up with great new tips and guides is truly amazing.
Well from the last couple of days thinking to shift my blog to SSL https but as you said a minor ranking factor so I ll plan to do this later.
Thanks again :)
Hi Sharjeel, glad to have helped
Brilliant Article which covers almost all the aspects of seo
Cheers Zayn
Thanks matthew for this amazing information.
No problem Robert!
Hi! Really really nice article. Some people say that longer articles are better for SEO, while others think that people don’t have patience anymore and prefer shorter pieces. What do you think about that?
I think there is a balance in everything and not a right or wrong answer to the question
Hi Matt, I just wanted to give you a big thank you for taking the time :)
Hope you have a great day,
Ryan.
Thanks Ryan, no problem!
Thanks for sharing this information, if anyone want to be on top of search results, they have to provide relevant information to the audience. This is for sure.
And not just relevant information, but the best information :)
Hi there Mathew,
For every blogger google ranking factors are the most crowd talked thing right? We try to determine it’s factors righty?
Truth to be spoken you have covered most of them here, I congratulate you about this article.\
Cheers,
Clay Smith.
Thanks Clay :)
This is really a great article. We know that google page rank is the most important factor for any blog or website. We are really crazy to increase our page rank. But we need to follow some tricks to rank higher on google. You have shared such an informative article that will must be helpful for all the bloggers. Thank you so much for sharing with us.
Nice post. Here is another similar resource to yours, just broken down by whether the factors are concrete, myths, or somewhere in the middle. https://northcutt.com/wr/google-ranking-factors/
Great additional resource thanks!
my domain was live for 6 months then it was parked for a month . After a month I again made it live.
Will it effect my domain visibility in search engines?
does it have any negative seo effect?
Yes it will affect you short time but once you put the site live again and continue to grow it won’t be a problem
Thank you so much for the reply
so informative post
I think i can use this for my website
No problem :)
This article has been unbelievably helpful. This would be great to print out and have next to me while developing a new website.
Glad to be of service :)
Wow !! very nice information you have shared here. Thanks a lots. Keep it up !!
No problem :)
that was great but i think that was so general.
i think u should explain with real examples.
thanks a lot
i love your sharings.
Here you go https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/reviews/pandabot/
This is one of the best resources I have found in quite some time. Nicely written and great info. I really cannot thank you enough for sharing.
No problem Douglas :)
Thanks matthew for this wonderful list and I wonder what are the top 10 ranking factors which we must give the most importance to
I’ve been following you for a couple of months now but this is my first time commenting on a blog post. This is a really good guide and can bring you really high on SERPs. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. Keep up the good work. Already bookmarked for future reference ;)
Thanks for jumping in :) Don’t be shy =D
Hi Matt, This is my first time commenting, but I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of months now. I’m currently preparing to launch my own Zero Backlink Experiment, but after reading up a bit on reciprocal links something is kind of bothering me.
I plan on promoting my site via forum and I’ve picked out four that are hot spots of activity where my audience is very active. I know they’ll be great for getting my name out there and establishing myself as an authority and a simple link to my site in my signature should provide the initial traffic that I need. However…
These sites aren’t just forums and are attached to websites. I’ll be frequently linking to a lot of the content on the websites. Basically, they have products available for users and my site focuses on helping users get the products working properly (that’s just a rough idea there’s a bit more to it than that).
So I’m kind of concerned that google will see the incoming links from the sites and my own outgoing links to the same sites and penalize me for them. Do you think this is the case or am I worrying too much?
I wouldn’t worry about it at all
Hey, you say that “valid html code” isn’t a ranking factor, and while it may not be a “direct” ranking factor, it can have beneficial “secondary” factors like the page loads faster (as the HTML rendering engine in the browser doesn’t have to try to interpret what on earth that invalid code means), the page will display better across more devices and browsers (have you seen what invalid code does to IE, even the latest versions? It’s not good!) and this can lead to more social shares, more followers, more back links, reduced bounce rates, more return visitors, etc.
For me, NOT validating my HTML, CSS and JS is just being lazy and stupid, it’s not rocket science. Remember, it’s the little things that quickly add up to make big differences!
Yes that is true however there is a difference between code validation and cross platform testing. A fully validated website can load incorrectly cross platform and a website that doesn’t validate can load perfectly cross platform.
>> A fully validated website can load incorrectly cross platform and a website that doesn’t validate can load perfectly cross platform.
True. But that is much much less likely to happen if the code is valid. My point was having HTML code that validates can lead to “secondary” ranking benefits.
Anyway, enough of picking the finer points out of my point. I thought it was a really good article. Thanks.
Yes I agree although my bias comes from the basis of never having ranked a validated website in my life and I’ve ranked a bunch – and the Google homepage doesn’t validate so you know :)
If I recall correctly the reason they gave for it not validating was to make it cross device compatible in an ever changing landscape of phones, tablets, laptops and TV’s.
Not very often you see an article as comprehensive and informative as this.
Solid information, really appreciate this Matthew, excellent work!
No problem glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you Matthew for this articles,it came when i needed it,i will try the above factors so i can rank better on Google. keep the articles coming.
I will do what I can :)
Cool, Matthew?
It’s awesome :)
Hope you liked it :)
Hi Matt, a very useful resource, thank you! You mention that “I have used positive social velocity to bring Penguin penalised sites back to the #1 spot.” Do you have any articles or guides on this?
I haven’t sorry =\
Matt, maybe you can elaborate more then? :)
Just drip out retweets from quality accounts increasing in velocity over time to simulate ‘virality’
Wow … interesting this article, complete. Made me linger here. It seems in need of a snack and a cup of coffee. I do not know many things in SEO is here … thumb
how can we disable the safe browsing thing so Google will not find out when we do SEO stuff for our website?
Google it combined with your browser name
based on my experience (with 200 niche sites), there is no benefit in using EMD compared to a more generic domain.
Great share thank you :)
“Facebook Shares
It is generally thought that Google do not have access to Facebook’s data, but that is not true.
The number of times your page/domain has been shared on Facebook has an impact on your rankings and is the most valuable Facebook signal.”
This is absolutely not true, i have tested this many times and having likes does nothing for your rankings, social signals like shares and tweets are only good to justify your links (in theory) but as for ranking itself my conclusion is that it hasn’t any impact at all.
But don’t believe me, go test it and you will see that i am right
Hi Paul.
I have heavily tested it and I revealed precisely how I have made over 6 figures with nothing but social signals this year at the BHW conference in Vegas last month.
hello matt
this is great article up here. now i really believed why this blog is award winning. thanks lot for sharing such info here. some of these factors are so important to me in future.
No problem Sahil :)
My goodness.
How do you come up with such great ideas?
A complete post on SEO I have ever read..
Just a natural follow up to the Bing post
Wonderful guide Mathew. It was a bit long but didn’t feel bored or uninterested at all. The guie contained each and every aspect and you explained everything just perfectly.
Thanks, Keep writing dude :)
Thanks glad you stuck around!
Hi Matt
Just tell me how to Get Instant Access To The Google Ranking Factor Cheat Sheet Right Now!
I’m already in your list and won’t except my email address because of in your list.
Any solution?
Thanks
Sabastian
Look at the subscriber resources page
That’s an incredible list Matt! I’ve never seen anything like it before! I’m now $50 poorer after extending one of my domains by 5 years, thanks! :-)
Hahaha sorry about that :P
Hi Matthew – absolutely awesome post. Thank you!! There were a few holes in my knowledge and this has just filled them all in!
I know this was a lot of work, but I can’t begin to tell you how much it’s appreciated!
Minor point – tried getting access to your ‘Google Ranking Factor Cheat Sheet’ but the list of resources doesn’t seem to contain that. Or is it under a different title?
Thanks again for all your hard work.
Hi,
They are on the resources page
This is called complete SEO Tutorial. We don’t need to go anywhere to find Google New Ranking Factors.
This single post is more than enough for anybody whether the guy is newbie or pro.
Thanks Sir. Waiting for your next article desperately
Enjoy =D
Great article Matt.
I have a question for you relating to schema.org implementation… After implementing this on my site (and checking in WMT that it’s reading it correctly), within 48 hours I had dropped from #2 to #12 for a lucrative keyword, from #2 to #8 for another, and #21 to no where to be seen for a HUGE keyword that we were working on.
The page had been rock solid for 2 years, and apart from the odd link here and there, it was just doing very well from on page SEO.
From your guide here, and also other research – I can’t see anything conclusive about Scheme.org affecting rankings positively or negatively… Just improving visibility in the SERPs…
My theories are:
1) Coincidence… I don’t know how much you value the Mozcast temperature, but that jumped to 75 degrees… but none of the other SERPs were affected
2) Although I implemented the dateModified attribute, the datePublished attribute was also added. As this article was, as I say, published nearly 2 years ago, the date has now appeared in the SERPs – so I’m wondering if that was the reason.
Just wondering if you’ve seen anything similar on any of your sites? The site otherwise has almost perfect on page SEO, great interlinking etc
Cheers,
Doug
Hi,
What was your click through rate while in the top spots?
Hmmm, you could have a point… 3-5% for the main keywords, but for some longer tailed keywords it was 40-50% +
All the same page.
Bounce rate was 48.34%. The below is from last month:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s227/sh/3ce010e3-8dcc-4fe3-85e1-f011df6fbddb/9824b0b84747b9ef56d791a90236fab7
Would you speculate that it’s not the implementation of schema.org that would cause the sudden drop, and that it’s just coincidence?
Thanks mate – keep up the awesomeness.
The Penguin ‘Double-Take’ could be responsible… that landed on the day we dropped rank…
Have a quick look see at this https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/google-ranking-factors/
Thanks for this Matt, good stuff.
No problem Stefan
So where does backlinks stands now? Suppose we follow everything mentioned above does this mean we will rank on the top positions or not?
They are still important, and no single thing on its own will rank you – it needs to be a combination of things. But not so long ago that wasn’t the case, all you needed was links
Hey Matt,
Thank you for taking your time to compile this big list of google ranking factors.
I have to bookmark this for further rereading and understanding.
Take care and have a nice day ahead.
Thank you.
-Oloyede Jamiu
Thanks Oloyede
Hi Matthew,
First of all thank you for sharing such a nice resourceful guideline….. 1 thing i can say that… there are lot of good resource like your one but you have better point wise & structure wise presentation…..
Thanks
Thanks Bhargav
Matthew, thanks so much for mentioning my post about ranking with internal links. I really appreciate it.
Thanks also for all of the invaluable tips and leads that you have included in your article; there’s a wealth of information here to come back to.
No problem at all :) If you ever wanted to design a case study for me to run and publish on this blog feel free – I know the internal linking sucks!
Thanks Matthew!!
Re. linking that sucks (as mentioned at the end of your comment), did you mean external linking??
With respect to internal linking, I particularly like the control that we can have over the process and the fact that the links are virtually instantaneous.
Thanks again for all the valuable information that you pass onto us via your posts and tutorials.
No I mean the internal linking here :)
Nice article to understand the factors that can make your ranking better. Thanks Matt to share such a useful article. I always love to hear form you :)
Waiting for your next blasting email.
THanks Muhammed
great stuff man!!!
Thanks Chirag
Hello Matthew,
Thanks for sharing. Too good to just reading it. Have printed a copy for daily reference.
Keep up the good work!
Awesome =D
Wow! Thanks Matt you have done it again with an awesome piece of content. Most people don’t check their site speed as a ranking factor. Even if you don’t think it’s good for SEO it’s good for user retention so you don’t lose sales because a slow site.
Well you should be doing! https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/on-page/increase-website-speed/
Great post Matt. I will be sure to print this out.
Keep the posts rolling.
It’s funny how some people came out and said NO to guest posting. It’s still a very good way to gain reach in your given industry.
Cheers
I’ll keep posting, you keep printing =D
Thanks a lot Matthew, your post open up my mind about how to do a proper SEO ..
This ranking factors absolutely true..
I hope it has helped!
nothing new.. SEO is not dead..
And as long as search engines exist, it never will be :)
a nice, complete list with real signals that influence Google, compliments Matthew, another great post!
Thanks Maurizio
Excellent, comprehensive and easy to follow checklist. Thank you Matthew, some great advice to follow.
Thanks Damien!
Excellent explaination matt! better than moz and backlinko! keep it up!
Actually I thought Brians was much prettier
Hi Matt ! I’m Alex… first thanks for share with us this great content. I follow your blog for months and I am convinced it is one of the best blogs that I read. Congratulations and thank you again
Thanks Alex =D
Nice list. Should it have included a mention of negative SEO?
So where does this leave your previous articles on tiered linking, GSA, network building and other ‘manufactured’ link building techniques? Are they now all irrelevant and incorrect?
Hi,
They are all included in the negative signals area.
Manufactured link building techniques are still working just as well as ever before, however you need a tighter grip on things now than you did 12 months ago.
Additionally backlinks are a much smaller part of the equation, if you are not taking social signals and engagement metrics into account – you won’t rank for very long.
Great post thanks Matt
No worrys :)
Waiting to read how Google tracks you without analytics installed or using chrome…
All will be revealed =D
Thanks for citations! Awesome list!
No problemo!
Wow ! Another great article :) Thank you for this great information . Nowadays google pays a lot more attention to articles that give people the information they want , Not just the main website with root domain address ,
The world of internet is changing :)
It is indeed!
Great info as usual Matt… I agree. Social signals matter. Anchor text is not of much significance I would think. I have seen pages rank for terms with 0% exact anchor.
PS: the way you listed positive, negative link factors. Are you using some plugin to list and categorize text ?
No it’s just straight HTML
Nice post, I’d add if you have a .com trying to rank for another country (other than US), add geo meta tag. I’ve seen this work well. If your site targets different areas on different pages, on those pages use the right geo meta tags.
Nice tip!
Not only that its a factor for Google but for Bing and Yahoo its something different. They woun`t index all your pages/rank you well if you don`t add geo location and language as meta information.
Hello Matthew,
I`ve been looking over your posts since the event tracking tutorial for Analytics.
I`m in the SEO business for a very long time and I believe what you should add into this equation, is the purpose of the site and the niche.
If you are doing SEO for long businesses, other factors come in place as well, such as verified Google Places location, reviews, being indexed in sites such as Yelp etc.
On the other hand, if you are building for “Made for Adsense”, there are still a lot of blackhat methods which are still working great and you don`t have to put all the effort into all these signals because some represent a stronger signal than the other; and finally:
If you build a long term business, all this info is a must have and I know its hard for someone that is a newbie but its a start because all of this is a theory, when it comes to practice, things are getting much more complicated; but does this means you have to quit ?
Well figure that out for yourself :)
Hope I could offer an extra layer of information.
Cosmin
Thanks for your extra inputs :)
Boy oh boy! Just gave it a birds eye view.. Fantastic as ever.
Now lemme get me a cup of coffee and sit through this whole post.
Thanks ALOT Matt! :D
Hope it helps you out!