You may have read that Google uses 200 ranking factors in its algorithm. Fortunately, you don’t need to know all 200 items to use SEO successfully. In fact, you’d better understand a small number of ranking factors that have the greatest impact. The following are the 13 most important ranking signals in Google’s ranking algorithm:
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1. Content quality
quality content is the final ranking factor.
you can have a website that is perfectly optimized for SEO. However, if your content stinks, it won’t rank at all. The question for
is: when
talks about SEO, what is “quality content” like?
Thoroughly
Google wants to fully answer someone’s query.
this may be why an industry study found that longer content ranks above shorter content:
, so make sure your content is thorough and complete.
Useful
in other words:
when a user decides to do a Google search, does your content meet the needs of the user?
for example, suppose you search for “Crossfit exercises”.
‘s article listing 17 Crossfit exercises is much more useful than a comment on why Crossfit exercises are good for weight loss.
, so make sure your content is very useful.
Structuring
Finally,
, SEO-friendly content is highly structured.
, why is this important?
first of all, well-structured content is easy to read. This means that users can get answers to questions more quickly.
second, organizing your content into multiple parts helps Google understand the full content of your content.
so make sure your content is well-structured and well-organized.
2. Content uniqueness
has a lot of detailed, useful, and structured content is one thing.
but if it regurgitates information that already exists, it may not rank very well.
(after all, Google already has the same information in its index. Why did they put yours on top? )
this is why your content needs to be different or better than the content on page 1.
when you do this, you will gain a huge advantage in the competition.
, for example, the following voice search guide, when there is no other similar thing on the web:
this content provides value that other content does not have, it is possible and very likely to achieve great competitiveness in search engine rankings (such as “voice search”):
3. Fully crawable pages
if you want to rank, it is very important that search engines can fully crawl and index the content on your page.
in other words:
if search engines are blocked from accessing the page (for example, from Robots.txt), they will not index the page at all.
if they can’t access parts of your page, it can also damage your search engine visibility.
you can easily check whether your page is fully accessible to search engines using the “URL check” feature in Google Search Console:
4. Mobile optimization site
Google has said that
“mobile pages that provide a bad search experience may be downgraded in rankings or display warnings in mobile search results.”
in other words: for
to rank in 2022, your site needs to run well on any device.
(desktops, phones, tablets and TVs)
fortunately, Google has created a beautiful free tool called “Mobile-Friendly Test”.
will tell you whether your page is optimized for mobile devices.
… Specific suggestions for repairing it.
5. Number of backlinks
backlinks are like votes from another website. Search engines such as
Bing and Google measure these votes. They use them to determine which pages should be in the top 10. The more backlinks a
page gets, the higher it ranks in search engines.
6. Domain weight
links directly to the page will help the page rank better.
but these links also help to increase the overall domain name weight of your site, which is the overall weight of your site.
the higher the weight of your domain name, the better the ranking of all pages on your site. The best way for
to increase the weight of your domain name is to create a great site.
7. Anchor text
Google uses anchor text to determine what the page is about.
, for example, someone recently used anchor text to link to my site: the anchor text of “backlink”
told Google: “someone else is using ‘backlink’ anchor text to link to this page. This page must be about backlinks. “
8. Website loading speed
the loading speed of your website is a very important ranking factor.
(especially how fast your pages load on mobile devices)
in fact, Google has even come out to say that “page speed is a ranking factor in mobile search.”
9. Keyword use
I’ll sound like an obvious captain here, but stay with me:
if you want to rank a keyword, you need to use that keyword on your page.
otherwise, Google will not know that your page is about this keyword.
, for example, this is the page
on my site optimized around “link building”. As you can see, I have used the keyword “link building” many times in my content.
(I should also point out that I don’t overuse my keywords 100 times. This is called keyword stacking, which may run counter to your SEO work.
Another thing to remember:
you don’t need to use the exact keyword every time. In fact, it is wise to include variants of the main keywords in the content.
for example, if your keyword is “Paleo Desserts”, you also need to use terms such as “Paleo Diet Desserts” and “Paleo Cookies”:
10. Google RankBrain
RankBrain is the AI part of the Google algorithm. How important is
RankBrain?
well, Google has confirmed that RankBrain is one of their “top three” ranking factors:
RankBrain’s main job is to find out what searchers want. And provide them with the best results of the search.
because RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm, it is constantly changing. This makes optimization tricky.
so my advice is this: the best way for
to “optimize” RankBrain is to create exciting content to the satisfaction of searchers.
11. Search intent to match
does your content match what the searcher wants at that particular moment? If this is the case with
, you will find that your ranking has greatly improved.
this is because Google is trying to downgrade traditional ranking factors such as keywords and links to support ranking factors that answer questions such as: “does this content provide searchers with what they are looking for?” .
in fact, Google employs thousands of “quality assessors” to measure the extent to which search results meet search intentions.
, how about an example?
assumes that you have just searched for “link building”.
Google closely monitors how you interact with search results.
for example, if you click from the first result and quickly return to the search result, it is a strong indication that the result is not satisfactory to you.
(the behavior that bounces around the result is called “Pogosticking”)
but if you click on a result and get the result you want, Google will push the result to the top.
12. Content freshness
Google doesn’t want to rank things that are out of date.
this is why you may have noticed that new content has been temporarily promoted in the rankings:
(usually a day or two)
that is, “freshness” is still important weeks or months after your content is launched.
specifically, Google wants to see that your content is still relevant and up to date.
for example, suppose you have just released a large number of iPhone purchase guides.
well, unless you update this content regularly, it will soon become obsolete.
Google measures freshness directly (they check to see if the content is updated after you release it. And how often it is updated.
but they also use user experience signals to see if people are starting to interact with your content in different ways (for example, they notice that people immediately start to jump out of the page).
this is why it is important to update content regularly to keep it fresh.
but even if you are not in a fast-changing industry such as SEO, I still recommend that you update your content once a year to keep it fresh in the eyes of Google (and users).
13. E-A-T
Google’s latest search quality guide states:
“…” The amount of expertise, authority and EAT is very important.
in other words:
Google wants to promote content on this topic written by legitimate experts.
here are three quick tips to help you optimize EAT.
Identify the author
makes it easy for Google to know who wrote a particular piece of content.
hires or works with respected experts in your field whenever possible.
Keep transparent
ensures that users can easily contact you (using a contact form or email address).
Reputation is important.
Google quality assessors are asked to check the site’s over-the-counter reputation.
in other words:
they monitor what people think of your site online.
and if your site is known for publishing useful and trustworthy content, it will greatly help your ranking.
learn more about
Google’s complete list of 200 ranking factors: the list of 200 (potential) signals that Google uses to rank web pages.
learned by analyzing 1 million Google search results: the largest Google ranking factor study to date. The results of this study will help you identify the most important ranking signals at the moment.
Google RankBrain authoritative Guide: an in-depth guide to Google RankBrain algorithms, including actionable techniques and strategies.
