Simple 200 Factors For Rank Higher in Google
There are a lot of factors on the basis of which Google decides the rankings of various websites. Earlier, the things were completely different. Earlier, the only technique to get your website a higher ranking was embedding more and more keywords in your articles. So, it was easy to disguise the search engines. But now, you have to follow so many factors to increase the ranking of your website. Google has been changing its algorithms just to make the search criteria better and better. Google updated his algorithms from Panda to Penguin to Humming Bird and their further versions too to make everything more efficient and intuitive.
You must have heard that there is a list of 200 factors in Google’s algorithm for deciding the rank of a website.
You are lucky enough that I’m presenting the complete list here today exclusively for my readers but as all of the factors are not important enough, I’ll give the details only of those factors which are the most important.
Here is the complete list. And the most important are marked bold.
DOMAIN FACTORS – Start Your Blog with Great Domain
- Domain Name Age: The Domain Name of the website must be at least 6 months old.
- Domain name consists of keywords: If keywords appear in the domain name, it is definitely a plus, but even if they do not appear in the domain, it is not a minus at all.
- Keyword as first word in Domain: Domain with first word as the keyword is definitely preferable.
- Length of Domain Name: One of the Google Patent says that
“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”
- Keyword in Sub Domain: Keyword in subdomain sometimes boosts ranking. Again not very important thing to be done.
- Domain History: A site with volatile ownership (via whois) or several drops may tell Google to “reset” the site’s history, negating links pointing to the domain.
- Exact Match Domain: If the search query is as same as the domain, that is, matches with it completely, it gives you an extra edge.
- WhoIs Information: WhoIs privacy protection service also plays a role. If you have a single site in your name, it is a plus. But, no need to pay a lot of attention on this.
- Penalized WhoIs owner: If a person is detected as a spammer by Google, then all his other sited will be inspected.
- Country TLD extension: If your Domain Name is a Country Code Top Level Domain then it helps your site to rank good for that country but restricts to rank globally.
By choosing the Domain name for blog – the question rises that how to select a right domain name for your blog
PAGE-LEVEL FACTORS
- Keywords in Title Tag: For a perfect On Page SEO, this is the initial stair. You must have the keyword in the title tag. It plays a vital role in SEO.
- Title Tag starting with Keyword: Title tags containing a keyword in the start perform better than title tags containing keyword in the end.
- Keywords in Description Tag: Earlier was a very important factor, but not now. But now also it makes a little bit difference.
- Keywords in H1 Tag: H1 tags are second title tag and it is important to use keywords in H1 tags.
- Keywords in H2 and H3 Tags: Your keyword as sub heading is a negative point.
- Use of keyword frequently in the post: Use keywords around 6-7 times if your article is of 12-15 lines. It acts as an advantage.
- Content Length: Longer content with useful information is preferred over shorter content.
- Keywords Density: Use a decent density of keywords. Over usage is risky.
- Content filled with (LSI) Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords: Presence or Absence of LSI Keywords is included in the quality of the content.
- LSI Keywords in Description and Title Tags: LSI keywords in Title and Description tags are equally necessary as in the content of the post.
- Loading Speed and Time of the Page: Speed and Time taken to open the page of the website is also used as a ranking factor. More the speed and lesser the time is, better ranking you get.
- Content Duplication: Alike and indistinguishable content gets you in danger zone. Unique content is a must.
- Rel=Canonical: Using this tag in a proper manner may prevent Google from considering pages with duplicate content on your website.
- Loading Speed via Chrome: Google might use Chrome to calculate the speed and loading time of the website.
- Optimization of Images: Optimization of images is equally important as optimization of text. Adding Title, Alt Text, Description, correct file name and caption optimizes images separately.
- Recentness in Content Updates: Google examines the recentness in the content updates and it errands recently updated content. It observes the date when the recent post was uploaded on that website.
- Amount of Updates: Making updates to your website regularly is very important and that too at regular intervals.
- Frequency of Updates: Frequency in updating content is also a big factor. It is checked whether you are updating your site daily or weekly or monthly and so on.
- Eminence of Keywords: Make sure your keyword appears in the first 10 lines of your content. It gives you an advantage.
- Order of Keywords: If the order of the keywords entered as the search query in the search box is same as that present in your content, you’ll definitely be preferred. This is why you should select the keywords after lots and lots of research.
- Number of Outbound Links: Too many outbound links are also harmful.
- Quality of Outbound Links: If you have given the links of quality and authority websites in your posts, it helps in developing trust on you.
- Outbound Link Theme: The content of the pages to which you have referred or have provided a link on your website, is also tested for relevancy.
- Spellings and Grammar: Obviously your grammar and spellings in your language must be correct. It signifies quality.
- Complementary Content: Helpful complementary content like currency convertors, scientific calculators gives you a lead.
- Multimedia: Use Multimedia elements in addition.
- Number of Internal Links: Good and a number of internal linking are important.
- Quality of internal Links: If quality websites give links of your website, then it has a very strong impact on the image of your website.
- Syndicated Content: Make sure your content is not copied. Copied content will decrease your ranking.
- Broken Links: Too many broken links are also a wrong thing done.
- Reading Level: The presentation of your content also matters a lot. If it is easy to read it is good for your rank. Basic reading level is good as it can be understood by maximums.
- Affiliate Links: Affiliate Links won’t hurt your ranking but having many is a minus.
- Coding Errors: What can be worse than creating coding errors in HTML. It indicates poor quality site.
- Domain Authority: If you’re equal in every case then a page on high authority domain will also be chosen than low authority domain.
- Page Rank: Obviously, higher PR pages are chosen over lower PR pages.
- URL Length: Keep them shorter. Long URL’s hurt visibility.
- URL Path: Keep it as closer as possible to Home Page.
- Human Editors: It is possible that Human Editors are used by Google to impact SERPs.
- WordPress Tags: Tags are WordPress-specific relevancy signal.
- Keyword in URL: Not a necessity but a plus.
- URL String: Google reads the categories written in URL which tells what the page is all about.
- Page Category: If the category of the page is related to the search query you’ll get an advantage.
- Sources and References: If you add sources and references like authoritative sites, research papers etc then you’re actually following Google quality guidelines.
- Numbered and Unnumbered Lists: Content broken in lists always make it easy to read and more user friendly. Google too likes this.
- Priority of Page in sitemap: The priority a page is given via the sitemap.xml file influences ranking.
- Too many Outbound Links: As discussed earlier, it harms the ranking of your website.
- Quality of other Keywords for which the Page Ranks: It is an internal sign indicating excellence of content.
- Page Age: Though Google prefers fresh pages but older pages updated regularly also outrages quality.
- Nice GUI: If the layout of your page is good you’re going nicely.
- Parked Domains: These are less visible.
- Useful Content: Upload useful content. People will stay longer on your site.
Don’t miss: How to do proper keyword researching
SITE LEVEL FACTORS
- Valuable and Unique Content: Update new things, rather than repeating older stories and content.
- Contact Us Page: Make a good Contact Us page with suitable information. It develops trust.
- Domain Trust: It’ll be better if you read about TrustRank here
- Architecture: Google prefers Silo Structure. It helps it to organize your content.
- Site Updates: The freshness factor again matters.
- Number of Pages: Number of pages is also a criterion Google looks at for page ranking.
- Sitemap: Your website will not be indexed by search engines if you’ve not created your sitemap.
- Site Uptime: Use a good hosting because server issues can harm your ranking.
- Server Location: Server location matters in case of region specific searches.
- SSL Certificate: Google has assured that it uses SSL Certificates for indexing.
- Privacy Policy Pages: Privacy Policy Generator for your Website
This page assures that your website is trustworthy. It is a necessary condition for Google
- Copied Meta Information: It drastically hurts the visibility of all your pages.
- Breadcrumb Navigation: An amazing user friendly architecture which tells the user in which section they are reading right now.
- Mobile Optimization: Creating a responsive site is very important. Read this you’ll come to know how important it is.
- YouTube: YouTube video Links are given preferences.
- Usability of Site: A site in which a user gets lost or we can say a site which is difficult in navigation will surely decrease the Page Ranking because of reduced page views and increase in bounce rate. Also read reduce the bounce rate
- Using Google Webmasters and Google Analytics: Having these two pages is the foremost thing one must do. As it improves indexing and ranking both.
- Reputation of site: A site’s review on review sites like Yelp.com and RipOffReport.com prospectively play a vital role role in the Google algorithm.
BACKLINK FACTORS
Don’t miss: Top 10 Off Page SEO Techniques
- Linked Domain Age: Backlinks from older Domain are more commanding than backlinks from new domains.
- Number of Linked Root Domains: Google’s algorithm also considers the number of referring domains as a ranking factor.
- Number of Links from separate IP’S: Links from separate IP addresses makes Google realise that an extensive list of sites is linking to you.
- Number of Linked Pages: Number of pages linked, whether on some other domain or on the same domain is also counted in ranking factors.
- Alternative Tags: Not a surprise, alternative tags are important for image linking.
- Links from .gov / .edu domains: .edu and .gov are the top level domains, which if link your website in them, it obviously makes your website’s place special.
- PageRank of Linking Page: What authority does the website which is referring your page holds, this also matters in ranking of your website.
- PageRank of Linking Domain: The authority of referring domain matters in ranking as well.
- Links from Competitors: Links from the websites of your competitors who list high in Search Engine makes your site more reputed.
- Social Shares: The number of social shares the page which has linked your website is getting also influences the value of the link.
- Links from Bad Sites: If wrong sites are linking you on their page, it will harm your ranking.
- Guest Posts: Allowing Guest Posts is a good idea of SEO, but contextual link is more valuable in comparison. List of blog that accept guest posts
- Links to Home Page Domain: This means that if your website is linked on the home page of a reputed site then it is a plus.
- NoFollow Links: Having a definite percentage of Nofollow links may also differentiate a profile between natural and unnatural.
- Range of Link Types: Having a large number of links from a single domain signifies spam so don’t let that happen.
- Link Partners or Sponsored Links: Use of these terms decreases the value of a link.
- Contextual Links: Links entrenched inside the text of a page gives you more value as compared to links given elsewhere like in Comment Box etc. These embedded links are contextual links.
- Excessive 301 Redirects: This weakens the Page Ranking of your website.
- Backlink Anchor Text: Earlier it was very important, now holds less value. You can read more about it here
- Internal Link Anchor Text: Internal Link is also weighted in ranking factor.
- Link Title Attribute: This is the text which appears when you move the cursor over the link. It is a weak signal.
- Links from Country specific Domains: If your website is linked in country specific domain names then it will help your website getting higher ranking in the country.
- Placement of Link in the Content: If your link exists in the starting of the content then it weighs less as compared to if it is placed in the end.
- Placement of Link in the Page: As I’ve told you earlier, link entrenched or embedded in the content is better than the link placed elsewhere like in sidebars or comment boxes.
- Relevance of Linking Domain: The site which has given your link is relevant to your niche or not also matters. A site whose niche is relevant to you impacts better than the irrelevant site.
- Relevance of Page: It is almost same as above. Link from a relevant page is stronger than the link from unrelated pages.
- Comments related to the Link: If your link holds negative image, that is, if your link has got a negative review then it is a minus. Links with positive reviews are more powerful and are preferred.
- Keyword in Title: Google prefers the sites whose keywords are present in their title.
- Positive Link Velocity: A link with positive velocity gets a Ranking priority.
- Negative Link Velocity: A link with negative velocity is obviously a minus and signifies decreasing reputation.
- Links from Core Pages: It has also been claimed that links from pages which are specialised on a particular topic are given priority. For example your website is on the topic of gadgets and your backlink has been created on the website which tops in the field of gadgets then it is a benefit.
- Link from Expert Sites: Again the same point, getting a link from an expert site is more powerful than getting a link from a Microniche site.
- Link from Wikipedia: Wikipedia is the largest source of information so getting a link from it adds trust on your website.
- Co-Occurences: You can read about it here
- Age of the Backlinks: Newer backlinks have less Ranking Power as compared to older backlinks.
- Links from Sites v/s Blogs: Links from original sites are given more priority than links coming from bogus blogs.
- Natural Links: Natural links profiles get higher ranking.
- Communal Links: This scheme should be avoided as listed by Google Link Schemes
- User Generated Links: It matters to Google that the link is from the owner of the original site or it’s from one of its user. To exemplify consider a link from WordPress.com and one from bestgadgets.wordpress.com. Obviously the later one has less power and the first one is stronger.
- Links from 301: Direct link is better than a 301 link.
- Schema.org Microformats: Pages supporting microformats may be preferred over pages not supporting them.
- Sites Listed in DMOZ: Google trusts sites listed in DMOZ.
- Linking Site’s Trust Rank: The trust of the site linking to yours determines the trust of your site.
- Number of Out Bound Links: The number of Out Bound links must neither be very less nor be very more. A page containing so many Out Bound links are preferred less.
- Forum Profile Links: Google degrades links from Forum Profiles.
- Word Count of Linking Content: A link from content with a large number of word counts is more valued than a link from few lined articles.
- Quality of Linking Content: Obviously a link from an eminent content is appreciated than a link from a poorly written article.
- Sitewide Links: These are compacted to form a single link.
USER INTERACTION FACTORS
- Organic Click through Rate for a Keyword: More Organic Clicks give a boost in ranking for that particular keyword.
- Organic CTR For all Keywords: More Organic Clicks give a boost in ranking for all keywords.
- Bounce Rate: Bounce Rate is the rate of people who visits your website but don’t come again. Hence lesser the bounce rate is, better a site gets in ranking.
- Direct Traffic: Google determines if a people visit a site more often or not. Sites with more direct traffic are ranked higher than sites with less direct traffic.
- Repeat Traffic: Google also keeps a check that people visiting a page comes to visit it again or not. Sites with constant visitors are ranked higher.
- Blocked Sites: Earlier this was used, but now it has been disabled by Google.
- Chrome Bookmarks: Pages which have been bookmarked in Chrome are benefitted.
- Number of Comments: Lots of comments on a page is an indication of user interactivity and popularity and hence are kept at priority.
- Google Toolbar Data: Google uses Google Toolbar Data for ranking.
- Dwell Time: Dwell Time is the time that a user spends on your site. More is the time, more advantages you get.
SPECIAL ALGORITHM RULES
- Freshness: Newer pages are given a boost for certain searches by Google.
- Diversity: Diversity is added to a ranking page for ambiguous keywords.
- Browsing History of the User: Sites which are frequently visited by a user are listed higher in their results.
- Geo Targeting: Google prefers sites with a country specific domain extension.
- Search safe On: Sites containing slangs and adult content are not displayed for the people who have turned their Safe Search on.
- Google+ Circles: A user can add sites to Google+ circles. These sites will be displayed higher to that user.
- Search History of the User: Search chain also influences search results for future searches.
- DMCA Complaints: Pages with DMCA Complaints are ranked lower by Google.
- Diversity in Domain: This is adding more domains to each SERP Page.
- Local Searches: Google prefers Google+ local results over normal organic SERPs.
- Transactional Searches: Different results are displayed by Google for shopping and related keywords.
- Google News Box: Google News Box is triggered by various keywords.
- Preference to Big Brands: Preference is given to Big Brands as compared to others by Google.
- Image Results: Image Results are displayed according to the optimization of images.
- Shopping Results: Shopping results are also displayed by Google.
- Results for Brands: This shows brand oriented results.
- Easter Egg Results: This is an amazing feature. If you’ll search a game like Atari Breakout, it will display the game itself and you can start playing online.
SOCIAL SIGNALS
- Number of Facebook Likes: Number of Facebook likes a page gets, is one of the ranking factors.
- Facebook Shares: Facebook share carries more weight than Facebook likes when we talk in the field of ranking factors as shares act as a backlink.
- Level of Facebook Accounts: From what kind of page you’re getting likes and shares also matters. If your site is getting likes and shares from a popular then obviously it has a stronger impact.
- Number of Tweets: Number of tweets your site has may also matter.
- Level of Twitter Accounts: It is probably expected that getting tweets from an older page having a large number of followers gives more impact than getting tweets from a general account.
- Pinterest Pins: It is also a social media and perhaps a ranking factor. Still not very important.
- Votes on Social Sites: Shares at sites like Digg, Reddit etc is also counted by Google.
- Number of Google+1’s: Not an important factor at all.
- Authority of Google+ User Accounts: Again the same, getting +1s from popular accounts is better than normal accounts.
- Known Authorship: This program has been shut down now.
- Neck and Neck Social Signals: This may increase the authority and visibility of a site.
- Relevance of Social Signal: It is checked if the social account sharing your content is relevant or not.
BRAND SIGNALS
- Anchor Text of Brand Name: It is a powerful brand signal.
- Searches for Brands: Just like people search for brands, Google will consider when people will search for your site on Google.
- Facebook page with likes: Obviously a good website will have its Facebook Page with tons of likes.
- Twitter Profile with Followers: Obviously a good website will also have its Twitter Account with lots of followers.
- Linkedin Page: Company Linkedin page is a must.
- Linkedin Employees List: If people’s Linkedin profiles say that they work for you then it is a plus as Brand Signal.
- Social Media Accounts’ Legality: If a social media account is having only a few posts but a huge number of followers then it is seen with doubt. But a social media account with a huge number of followers and lots of communication is better.
- Brand Name on News Sites: If your site is mentioned on News Sites then you are a real Brand Name and that’s amazing.
- Unlinked Brand Names: Google takes unlinked Brand Names positively. That is if your name is mentioned and not linked then this is also a plus.
- RSS Subscribers’ Number: If your site has many RSS Subscribers then again you are a Brand.
- Location: If you are a brand and a real business then according to Google you must have an office. So Google also checks for location data.
- Paying Tax: Google also checks whether you are a tax payer or not. This is also included in Brand Signal.
ON SITE WEBSPAM FACTORS
- Penalty: A site with low quality content is less visible on search engines, once they get hit by a penalty
- Links to Bad sites: Linking to wrong sites will definitely decrease your ranking and visibility.
- Redirects: Sly redirects should never be done. Never means never. Your site is not only penalized but de-indexed.
- Add Pop Ups: According to Google, Ads creating diversion and interfering pop ups denote low quality sites.
- Over-optimization of Sites: Site over optimization is a result of wrong tricks like Black Hat SEO, Keyword Stuffing etc.
- Over-optimization of Pages: Same as above. Above mentioned was for the site. This one is for pages.
- Over Advertisements: Sites with more than the limit Ads are penalized according to Google’s page Layout Algorithm.
- Hiding Affiliate Links: Don’t try to do that, you’ll be penalized.
- Sites with Affiliate Marketing: It is a positive point in Google’s eyes as Google loves Affiliate Marketing.
- Automatic Content Generator: Google hates this. If you are uploading computer generated content on your site then your site will get de indexed as soon as you are caught.
- Server’s IP Address Spammed: If your server’s IP Address is found as spam then you’re in a big trouble.
- Moulding PageRank: Don’t try to mould the PageRank of your site by doing wrong activities.
- Spamming Meta Tag: If you are stuffing your Meta tags title and description with keywords unnecessarily then get ready for a penalty.
OFF PAGE WEBSPAM FACTORS
- Flood of Links: If suddenly, links start inflowing on your site then Google takes it negatively.
- Penalty by Penguin: The visibility of such sites decreases which are penalized by Penguin.
- Links from Low Quality Sites: Links from low quality sites decreases the ranking of your site too.
- Relevance of Linking Domain: The domain linking to your site must be relevant. Irrelevant sites’ linking to your sites is considered as gaming with the Algorithm.
- Selling Links: Selling Links also harms the visibility of your site.
- Disavow Tool: Using this tool might help you in removing the penalty from your site.
- Links from the Same Class IP: If a site is getting a large number of links from sites hosted on same server then Google considers it a game of network.
- Reconsideration Request: This might help you in lifting your penalty if you have been penalized.
- Temporary Links: Creating and Removing links is a spammy scheme. Avoid it for your betterment.
Though this is a long post, which might tire you a bit, but this post is really helpful as it has covered all the ranking factors used by Google to rank your site. I’ll soon update with you the most important out of these all to make it more amazing for you. Thank you readers.
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