A List Of 200 Important Google Ranking Factors (2023)
It’s no secret that Google is the world’s most popular and widely accepted search engine. With so many users taking to Google searches to find answers, businesses, products, and services, it is no surprise that website owners are looking for new ways to improve their rankings in search results.
The truth is that Google’s algorithm is constantly being updated to rank web pages better and ensure that every new search is met with an answer. This means your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts will also have to change. We are the SEO Perth professionals your brand has been looking for so lets dive into this article so that you know what to focus on.
Google has over 200 SEO ranking factors that you’ll need to pay attention to if you want to rank well and boost organic traffic to your website.
In this comprehensive list, we’ll discuss these important Google ranking factors to help you appear on the first page of search results. We’ve broken these factors into categories to make them easier to understand.
Site Level Factors
Below, we’ll briefly discuss some of the site-level ranking factors that you’ll need to take note of. Improving the following elements can help you boost your search engine rankings:
1. Material That Provides Value And Insight
When the material doesn’t provide users with any value or insight, Google dislikes it. Such meaningless pages are subject to a penalty.
2. TrustRank
Many SEO experts consider “TrustRank” an important ranking factor because it has an advantage over Google’s ranking process.
3. A “Contact Us” Page
Google uses a business’ contact details to validate the legitimacy of its website. The Google Quality Guidelines make it clear that sites with trustworthy contact details are given priority.
4. Good Website Architecture
An effective website can support your SEO rankings while allowing for a thematic grouping of the material on your website.
5. Optimal Website Uptime
A spike in downtimes may impact your website’s rankings, whether due to server upkeep or other reasons. Pages could potentially be de-indexed in some circumstances.
6. A Sitemap
Using a sitemap can make it easier for your users to understand and navigate your site. Moreover, the sitemap assists Google in finding important pages easily. This will increase your online exposure and support effective indexing and ranking.
7. Server Location
Your page might obtain different rankings in various places depending on where your server is located. When it comes to location-based queries, this is especially useful.
8. An SSL Certificate
After Google’s affirmation, HTTPS has established its status as an undeniable ranking element. Even though Google states that it will merely be a tiebreaker, it is just as essential for those who don’t want to lose out on any potential Google ranking factors.
9. Privacy Or Terms Of Service Pages
These pages can help Google determine the credibility of a website.
10. Breadcrumb Navigation
A user-friendly navigation approach that enables both site visitors and search engines to determine precisely where they are on a website is called breadcrumb navigation.
Google claims that it uses breadcrumb markup to organize the data from a particular page in SERPs.
11. Duplicate Meta Information
It’s not a promising indicator if your page has a lot of duplicate metadata, especially since this could reduce your page’s visibility online.
When the search console alerts you that there are numerous instances of duplicated meta information, take the necessary steps to avoid more serious repercussions.
12. YouTube
YouTube videos have a dedicated spot in Google’s SERPs. After its Panda update, there has been a significant increase in YouTube traffic.
13. Using Google’s Tools
The tools that give Google more information to index and rank websites more favorably are Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Many believe these two tools significantly impact rankings, even though Google says that this isn’t true.
14. Usability
The likelihood that users will abandon your website quickly and spend less time there increases when they have trouble using or navigating it. That can unintentionally cause your rankings to decline.
15. Reviews
Your website’s reputation is greatly influenced by user reviews posted on platforms such as Yelp.com.au. In fact, Google provided a clear explanation of how it uses online ratings and its assessment of how a website takes advantage of its visitors to gain additional links.
16. Mobile Accessibility
Google is especially fond of websites that are accessible on mobile devices because most users today search the internet using their mobile phones.
Brand Signals
These SEO ranking factors determine how well a brand’s pages will rank in search results.
17. A Brand With Keyword Searches
Suppose users combine your customers combine your brand name with other keywords when doing a Google search. In that case, the search engine will boost the ranks of related web pages and pull them up when users search for that term.
If a user searches for “Cesar Millan dog collar,” for example, Cesar Millan’s pages on dog collars will rank higher in search results when users type n the keyword “dog collar.”
18. Branded Searches
The truth is that people look for well-known brands on the internet regularly. Therefore, Google verifies your brand’s validity when customers search for it online. Your brand’s reputation may increase as a result.
19. Branded Anchor Text
Branded anchor texts are specific to your company and are more effective at influencing your rankings than generic terms.
It can help you improve your search engine ranks as a result. Therefore, strengthening your company’s visibility and obtaining brand mentions online is crucial.
20. Facebook Presence
Another important Google ranking factor is a brand’s Facebook presence. Reputable brands have Facebook pages and get a lot of likes.
When ranking websites, Google takes this into account, so it would do you good to set up an official Facebook page for your brand and begin attracting followers.
21. Twitter Presence
Like Facebook, Google also takes businesses with a dedicated Twitter account with a good following seriously. This is why creating a Twitter page can help to boost your brand’s rankings.
22. LinkedIn Profile
One of the best platforms for professional online communication is LinkedIn. A search engine will also take into account an official LinkedIn company profile presenting your brand when ranking pages.
23. Legitimate Social Media Accounts
Google and other search engines don’t just consider the presence of a social media account but also look at its legitimacy.
This means that Google will look at user engagement, the number of followers, and more to determine the legitimacy of a social media account.
In fact, it has even filed a patent to determine the legitimacy of company social media profiles.
24. Author Details
Another factor that can help a brand improve its rankings is including information about the author on a webpage.
The legitimacy of your content is enhanced by author credit. Compared to websites lacking legitimate author claims, this will aid your rankings in SERP results.
Therefore, brands are encouraged to improve their chances of outranking rivals by including an author bio in their articles and blogs.
25. Physical Location
Most businesses have a physical, offline workspace. Google’s algorithm may check a site for locations to determine whether the brand is legitimate or not.
26. Top Story Brand Mentions
Major brands frequently appear in Google’s Top Stories. A few large businesses take up the entire first page of Google’s news feed. That emphasizes the value of developing a brand for SEO.
27. Unlinked Brand Mentions
It’s not uncommon for brands to be mentioned without a link to the company’s website. Google still considers these unlinked brand mentions when determining rankings.
Page Factors
Our next section deals with how the elements of your web pages can influence your Google rankings.
28. Keywords In Your Title Tag
Including keywords or key phrases in the title tag improves your website’s SEO impact while boosting click-through rates and organic traffic.
Additionally, using keywords in the title tag makes it easier for both people and search engines to understand the content of a web page.
29. A Title Tag With A Keyword At The Beginning
Compared to title tags with keywords in the middle or the end, those with keywords at the beginning rank better on organic SERPs and get more clicks.
30. A Keyword In The H1 Tag
The only other significant signal after title tags is H1. Google also considers H1 tags when determining how relevant your content is to web searches, so it is essential to include a keyword when creating your H1 tag.
31. Adding A Keyword To The Description Tag
Google does not regard the meta description tag as a direct ranking indication.
However, when your website is displayed on SERPs, the presence of a keyword in the meta description may increase the click-through rate.
Naturally, the click-through rate is a significant ranking element, making the placement of keywords in the meta description significant.
32. The Length Of The Content
Additionally, Google places greater emphasis on lengthier content because it tends to explain a given topic in greater detail. This means that there’s a higher chance that it will satisfy the user’s search intent.
33. Keyword Density Is Also Important To Search Engines
The frequency with which a search term appears in your content is referred to as the keyword density.
This ranking factor still helps Google interpret your content and assess its relevance, even though it isn’t as significant as it once was in determining how well a page will rank in search results.
34. Including A Table Of Contents
Adding a table of contents with internal links will make it easier for Google to understand the contents of your blog post or article.
Moreover, it increases the likelihood that your page will appear in snippet search results pages, raising your click-through rate.
35. In-Depth Coverage
Remember, Google’s top priority is always to give users access to more pertinent information. Therefore, pages that thoroughly explain a subject are naturally preferred by the search engine over those that simply touch upon a portion of it.
36. LSI Keywords
Google better understands the contextual meaning of phrases with numerous interpretations with the assistance of latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords. These keywords are excellent indicators of content quality.
37. Description And Title Tags That Contain LSI Keywords
Adding LSI keywords enhances the readability of description and title tags for Google. These keywords might also serve as an indication of valuable content.
38. Producing Duplicate Content
An unfavourable impact on a website’s search engine visibility might result from the inclusion of duplicate material on that page. To protect the health of your website, ensure that you remove all duplicate content.
39. Optimizing Images
As essential as it is to optimize your text, title tags, and meta tags, it is just as important to think about the graphics on your site.
Your uploaded image’s alt text, file name, description, title, and caption all give the search engine clues about its relevance.
40. Canonical Tags
Using canonical tags is a great way to avoid a penalty if pages on your site have the same content.
By using canonical tags, you can let Google know which of these web pages is the original. In this manner, the bots will only index and rank one webpage while ignoring the others.
41. Google Hummingbird
Thanks to its Hummingbird update, Google can now explore more than just keywords. This algorithm improvement allowed Google to decode the content of a page more accurately.
42. Optimizing Pages For Mobile Users
Although the speed at which a page loads on mobile devices — known as AMP — doesn’t directly affect rankings, it can nevertheless be helpful.
43. Page Loading Speed Via HTML
Page speed is an essential search ranking factor for both Bing and Google. A search engine’s crawlers use the HTML codes on your website to determine how quickly a page loads.
44. Chrome Page Loading Speed
Google uses data from Chrome users in addition to the HTML codes of a website’s page to predict how quickly it will load.
45. Entity Match
A page will likely receive a ranking boost for a specific keyword if it matches the entity or subject the user is searching for.
46. How Current Your Information Is
Google favors newly updated or published material and will place it at the top of results pages. This is particularly true for urgent online searches.
Moreover, it also displays the most recent revision date for some pages, so the user knows that they’re seeing relevant and current information.
47. The Theme Of Your Outbound Links
Google will probably use the content of the websites you link to as a relevance indication. That is precisely why you must link to specialized websites that serve the same audience as you.
If not, there’s a danger the search engine will think your page is something it isn’t. In this way, when a user conducts a search, Google may not bring up your website on SERPs.
48. The Quality Of Your Outbound Links
You can get high-quality outbound links by linking to authoritative websites in your niche. Strong trust signals are sent to Google by these outgoing links.
Therefore, be sure to establish strong outbound links that contribute to your good standing with the search engine.
49. The Quality Of Content Updates
Google doesn’t merely give new content priority. It also has a sharp eye for whether or not the same content that has been updated contains the most recent facts. After all, the dominant search tool doesn’t want outdated content that has been modified.
Your odds of obtaining a high position on search results are improved by the amount of recent and original high-quality content you produce.
50. Where Your Keywords Appear In The Text
You gain an advantage when your main keyword is placed within the first 100 words of your text, and your page will rank higher for its relevance. It is also important to avoid keyword stuffing when creating content.
51. The Frequency Of Page Updates
Google also looks at your historical page updates and prioritizes those constantly updated to include new, relevant information.
52. Using Target Keywords In H2 And H3 Headings
When you include your LSI keywords in your H2 and H3 tags, your website’s odds of ranking for relevancy are increased.
53. Using Good Grammar
Correct grammar and spelling are indicators of high-quality content. Great material will meet language and spelling rules, and poor grammar will likely harm your rankings.
54. Mobile-Friendliness
The truth is that most users access the internet using their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. This is why Google gives preference to pages that have been mobile optimized, following its 2015 Mobilegeddon algorithm update.
55. Hidden Content
Pages containing hidden material run the danger of not being indexed or of not being given the same weight as clearly visible content on mobile devices.
56. Hiding Content Behind Tabs
If the users visiting your pages have to click on a tab to get to the rest of the content, Google may not index it.
57. Outbound Link Frequency
While there are services you can use for outbound link building & it’s an important search ranking factor, too many outbound links can have the opposite effect, lowering your SERP rankings.
58. Supplementary Content
Supplementary content is essentially anything that encourages a person to explore the other pages on a website. Internal links, associated blog entries, articles, and merchandise are included. It is a measure of a website’s quality, making it a significant Google ranking factor.
59. The Number Of Internal Links
Internal links are a practical approach to signal to Google the significance of a particular page. The importance of the page increases with the number of internal links.
Use relevant anchor texts when building strong internal links from other pages. When used correctly, internal links are an excellent relevance indication that can produce amazing results.
60. Internal Links Quality
Stronger effects are produced by links from your website’s most influential pages than those from pages with a poor PageRank.
61. Images
Multimedia components, such as pictures and videos, are an important indicator of the quality of content. To obtain higher rankings, add these components where they belong in your blog posts and articles.
62. Affiliate Links
Google doesn’t like aggressive affiliate websites. While a few affiliate links won’t hurt your site, having too many might. When a website has a large number of affiliate links, Google bots check the site for additional quality signals that could affect its position.
63. Broken Links
Too many broken links on a page can indicate that the page is neglected, which decreases the chances of that content ranking well in SERPs.
64. Readability
Google does evaluate websites depending on how readable they are. After all, what generates traction is your content’s ability to be understood by your audience. It is likely to rank pages with good readability higher than those with low readability.
65. The Length Of URLs
According to studies, short URLs perform better in SERPs. On the other hand, lengthy URLs hinder your ranking in search results.
66. Sitemap
A sitemap is essentially the blueprint for your site, making it easier for Google bots to scan, index, and rank it. You can let Google know which pages on your website are significant by using a sitemap.
67. How User-Friendly The Page Is
Never ignore the layout of your website. After all, it impacts how user-friendly your page is, which Google takes very seriously.
68. Ranking For Multiple Keywords
Due to its ability to satisfy several users with various search queries, Google considers pages that rank well for multiple keywords as an indication of high quality.
69. The Age Of A Page
Although Google likes fresh content, old content that is constantly updated can also rank well in SERPs.
70. How Useful Or Helpful Your Content Is
High-quality content isn’t always helpful. To rank pages in its index, Google will likely distinguish between valuable and quality content.
71. Parked Domain
A parked domain has been registered but is not active since it is not linked to a web host. The truth is that parked domain accessibility has decreased since an algorithm upgrade in December 2011.
72. Sources And References
Listing references and sources is a sign that you have produced high-quality content. Reviews that require specialized knowledge must keep an eye out for references, sources, and citations, following Google’s Quality Guidelines.
73. The URL Path
Compared to pages buried deep within the site’s design, a page directly related to the homepage may receive a small SERP boost.
74. HTML Errors
Poor user experience is the outcome of sloppy page coding. Therefore, bad HTML coding is a warning sign that indicates low-quality websites.
75. Domain Authority
A scale from 1 to 100 is used to rate the domain authority, and the higher the authority, the more powerful that domain is likely to be. Pages from sites with a high authority typically have a higher Google ranking than those with low domain authority.
76. The URL String
When determining how to rank pages, Google examines URL strings to understand better what the page is about.
77. Including The Main Keyword In The URL
Although some view the inclusion of keywords in a URL as a trivial Google ranking factor, every component — including this one — is crucial to achieving the top spot in SERPs.
78. The Category Of Your Page
A website page listed under an acceptable category is more likely to benefit from increased relevancy than one classified under an unsuitable one.
79. Numbered Lists And Bullet Points
To make your material more readable for your intended audience, bullet points and numbered lists help divide it into manageable sections. Google favors those who employ these lists in their content because the strategy is user-focused.
Domain Factors
Here are some of the domain-related SEO ranking factors that could impact your position in SERPs:
80. The Keyword In Your Domain Name
Including a niche-specific keyword will help the search tool determine your site’s relevance.
81. Positioning Of The Target Keyword In The Domain Name
Domain names that start with the keyword have a higher chance of ranking well.
82. The Age Of A Domain
How old a domain is may play a minor role in rankings.
83. Target Keyword In The Subdomain
Having your target keyword in the subdomain can boost your rankings.
84. The Length Of The Domain Registration
How long a domain has been registered matters because it is a way to tell authentic websites apart from spam sites.
85. Domain History
Changing the ownership of the domain will likely result in penalties.
86. Private Vs. Public Whols
Revealing your identity will likely cause Google to trust you more than another site whose whols information is private.
87. Whols Owners That Have Been Penalized
If you have been penalized by Google before, your pages will likely be subject to much scrutiny in the future.
88. Exact Match Domain
Google will remove exact match domains of low quality.
89. Extensions Specific To Different Countries
Obtaining backlinks from websites with certain extensions, such as .UK or .org could help a website rank well in that particular country.
Google Algorithm Rules
Here are some of the algorithm rules that also count as ranking factors.
90. Search History
The outcomes of a user’s subsequent searches may be influenced by their search history. This is so that Google can give you a tailored internet search experience.
91. Browsing History
Have you found that the websites you visit frequently appear first in your Google search results? This is so that Google can enhance the user experience by giving some sites a SERP boost based on your browsing habits.
92. QDF
A Google ranking factor called Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) promotes the ranking of current pages in response to specific user queries.
93. Diversity
Google intends to offer a range of responses to ambiguous web queries, as some may require unusual outcomes to satisfy users.
94. Geotargeting Or Local SEO
The practice of integrating location data on your website is known as geotargeting. This comprises the country-specific web domain extension and local server IP.
Because it enables Google to gather pertinent results for user queries in a particular area, Google loves geotargeting.
95. Featured Snippets
A highlighted snippet is determined by a mix of authority, content length, HTTP usage, and formatting.
96. Safe Search
Google will restrict any offensive or explicit content, so if you produce such content, your web pages will not show up in SERPs.
97. Your Money Your Life Keywords
The truth is that search engines don’t give authority to pages that can potentially harm the user’s health, financial position, and safety.
98. Domain Diversity
Google displays multiple domains in SERPs.
99. Removal Of Copied Content
Articles and blog entries with copied content will be taken down, which may also affect the rankings of other pages on your site.
100. Local Pages
The search engine also emphasizes local pages that meet the user’s query.
101. Transactional Searches
Shopping-related queries will also feature in certain SERPs.
102. Brand Preferences
Google will rank large, established brands over smaller ones for particular queries.
103. Top Stories
Some pages can be featured on Google’s top stories, boosting their rankings.
104. Images
Sometimes, the search tool will display graphics in its SERPs, so including relevant images can help to boost a page’s ranking.
105. Shopping Results
In addition to images and other ranking factors, Google displays shopping or product results, so choosing your keywords carefully can help you show up on these pages.
106. Payday Loans Update
The search tool will filter out spammy content following its Payday Loans update.
107. Easter Egg Results
At times, Google displays incorrect answers, called “Easter egg results.”
108. Brands
Your site or pages will be displayed when a user searches for your specific brand or product.
User Interaction
How users interact with different pages will also determine how they are ranked. Here are some of the SEO ranking factors based on user interaction:
109. CTAs Can Improve Rankings
Organic calls to action (CTAs) can improve your SEO rankings.
110. Interaction With Search Results
The search tool uses something called RankBrain to assess how a user interacts with certain results to find out how to better meet their search intent.
111. Click-Through Rate
Organic click-through rates for keywords on a page get the content a score, and the higher this rating, the better the online visibility.
112. Bounce Rate
When users leave your site without finding what they need, this will affect your ranking because you haven’t satisfied their search intent.
113. Repeat Traffic
On the other hand, if a user returns to your site, Google will see it as a high-quality site and boost your rankings.
114. Direct Traffic
Google also assesses how many users go directly to a particular page when determining how it will rank in SERPs.
115. Pogo Sticking
This happens when a user clicks on one page and then immediately leaves to click on another. When it occurs, it can lower your rankings because it implies that you haven’t met the user’s search intent.
116. Chrome Bookmarks
If a user bookmarks your page on Chrome, it can help to improve your ranking because it not only meets their search intent but also serves as a valuable resource for future reference.
117. Comments
Suppose hundreds of users comment on your blog post. In that case, your site is more likely to rank well.
118. Dwell Time
This refers to the time a user spends on your page after finding it in Google search results.
119. Core Web Vitals
These three metrics rate the user’s experience when it comes to loading a page. Core web vitals include the rate at which the page loads, how well it can respond to a user’s input, and how unstable the content is as it loads.
Backlinks
Backlinks or incoming links from another site can also affect your rankings. Here are some of the Google ranking factors related to these links:
120. The Number Of Domains Linking To Your Site
When ranking websites, Google considers the volume of referring domains. The higher the number of domains, the higher your ranking.
121. The Age Of The Linking Domain
A stronger backlink profile can be created by acquiring links from older domains instead of more recent ones.
122. How Many Pages Have Linked To Your Website
In addition to the number of domains, Google also considers the number of pages with links to your site.
123. Links From C-Class IPs
A wider range of websites link to yours when you receive links from various class-C IPs. You could improve your site’s ranks by doing this.
124. Anchor Text
Google claims that anchor texts offer reliable information about a page. Strong relevance signals can be generated by anchor text that contains keywords. However, overly optimized anchor texts can have the opposite effect.
125. Links From Institutional Sites
Google claims to disregard many .edu websites. Additionally, Matt Cutts once asserted that a site’s TLD has no bearing on its significance. However, according to SEO experts, Google’s algorithm still gives importance to links ending in .gov, .edu, and .tld.
126. ALT Tags
This refers to the anchor text used for images. To benefit from SEO, ensure that your anchor text contains a keyword.
127. Authority Of The Linking Domain
The value of your links and your SERP ranks are likely to be significantly influenced by the authority of the domains linking to your website.
128. The Authority Of The Linking Webpage
An essential Google ranking criterion has always been the linked website’s PageRank.
129. Backlinks From Expected Sites
The search engine will probably not fully trust your website until you link back to specific recognized domains in your niche, even though this is still debatable.
130. Competitor Links
You can gain an advantage and establish yourself as a more credible source in your business by acquiring backlinks from companies that compete with you for Google rankings.
131. Guest Posts
Links from guest posts add value to your link-building strategy. The truth, however, is that guest post links aren’t as effective as actual editorial links. However, there are legitimate companies who contact bloggers manually and conduct outreach to increase backlinks.
132. Links From Bad Sites
Your rankings will be negatively impacted if you build links to spam or low-quality domains.
133. Ad Links
Google encourages links from advertisements. There is a chance, though, that it will filter do-follow links created as a result of ads.
134. No-Follow Links
Links with a no-follow attribute do not convey link authority to your website because Google does not follow them. However, they can still send relevant referral traffic to your site.
135. Obtaining A Variety Of Backlinks
It could appear unnatural if you receive too many links from one domain. However, obtaining one backlink each from several different domains is beneficial. You may build a more organic and natural link profile in this manner.
136. Authority Of The Homepage
The most significant page of a website is its homepage. Therefore, if you want to increase the authority of your homepage significantly, you must get backlinks from authoritative domains in your area.
137. UGC Or Sponsored Links
These links are viewed differently from other backlinks and could affect your rankings.
138. 301 Redirects
Excessive redirects can lower your rankings.
139. Contextual Links
The search engine evaluates both your website and the site that links to you using what is known as contextual links.
Because of this, it’s crucial to ensure the information surrounding the link is of a good caliber. If you meet this requirement, Google will likely assign your webpage a high value.
140. Title
The text that appears when you hover over a backlink is called the link title. It provides users with useful information about the link.
141. Internal Link Anchor Text
Another relevant indicator is the anchor text for internal links. However, internal links are less important than anchor text from external websites.
142. The Referring Domain’s Country TLD
Acquiring backlinks from popular location-based domains can help to improve your online visibility rankings if you run a country-specific site.
143. Where The Link Is On The Page
Making sure your link is positioned where readers can quickly see it is essential when building backlinks.
144. Where The Link Is In The Content
Links have varying SEO significance depending on where you decide to insert your link within the content.
A link that is placed in the first paragraph of an article, particularly at the beginning, has a better SEO value than one that appears in the conclusion.
145. The Relevancy Of The Domain
Links that you obtain from a website in a similar niche to your own adds more value than a backlink from a website with a different focus.
146. How Relevant The Webpage Is
In the same way, a backlink from a relevant webpage holds greater weight for SEO.
147. Negative Link Velocity
Negative link velocity indicates that your site’s popularity is declining, lowering its rankings.
148. Positive Link Velocity
On the other hand, a positive link velocity boosts your website’s rankings and shows that it is becoming more popular.
149. Hubpage Backlinks
Acquiring backlinks from Hubpages that offer considerable resources for any given topic increases the value of your website.
150. Wikipedia Source Links
Although Wikipedia links have a no-follow tag, SEO specialists believe that Google still views them as a reliable source when determining authority.
151. Backlinks From High-Authority Sites
Compared to backlinks from similar sites with low authority, links from high authority websites are likely to impact your website’s SERP rankings positively.
152. How Old The Backlink Is
According to a Google patent, old backlinks are more effective at boosting your SEO than newer ones.
153. Co-Occurrences
The phrases that surround a backlink are crucial in helping Google understand what the target website is about. Because of this, the information accompanying your backlink should be more pertinent and skillfully written.
154. Natural Inbound Links
A site with an organic link profile will likely rank higher on SERPs than one that uses black hat link-building strategies. One of the best strategies to boost your backlink profile is to find the ideal balance between your no-follow and do-follow backlinks.
155. Backlinks Generated By Users
Google can tell the difference between links to user-generated content and backlinks to webmaster-published information on legitimate websites. You should never use unfair methods to increase the number of backlinks in your profile.
155. Backlinks Generated By Users
Link exchanges that go too far are considered unfair by Google, and it could potentially drop your website’s ranking.
157. Spam Blogs
Authentic websites with legitimate traffic are given more weight by the search engine than spammy blogs. Google decides how much weight to give these backlinks based on user interaction.
158. 301 Links
Although Matt Cutts previously stated that 301 redirects are comparable to backlinks, many believe they are more likely to lose quality than direct external links.
159. Word Count
The number of words matters when developing links. A link from a 1,000-word article, for instance, carries more weight than one from a little excerpt.
160. Forum Links
Google considers these links spammy, so they won’t do much for your link-building efforts.
161. How Many Links Are On The Webpage
A backlink on a webpage with excessive external links will probably transmit the recipient site less PageRank than a link on a page with fewer backlinks.
162. Content Quality
Backlinks from engaging, high-quality content are significantly more useful than those from spun or automatically generated material.
163. Microformat
Websites that support microformats are more likely to function better than those without them.
164. The TrustRank Of The Other Websites
How credible the referring domain is to Google will significantly impact the TrustRank a backlink can convey to your website.
165. Sitewide Links
Matt Cutts revealed that sitewide backlinks are frequently condensed into a single link.
On-Site Webspam Ranking Factors
Here are a few other SEO ranking factors that you should take note of.
166. Links To Bad Neighborhoods
Being linked to spammy websites may lower your search ranks and diminish your website’s reputation. Therefore, it’s important not to link to questionable, spam, or low-quality websites.
167. Google’s Panda Update
Low-quality websites are penalized by Google’s Panda update and prevented from advancing in SERPs.
168. Excessive Advertising On A Website’s Pages
Google has the authority to penalize websites that show pointless popups and annoying adverts. These popups and advertisements have a negative impact on the user experience.
169. Sneaky Redirects
Google will de-index a website and impose penalties if it finds hidden redirects. This can be a serious setback for a webmaster. It is better to avoid deceptive redirection, given the potential damage they can have on rankings.
170. Over-Optimizing
The adverse effects of going overboard apply to SEO as well. Over-optimization can result in a Google penalty, which therefore lowers their rankings. This includes using too many keywords in header tags and stuffing content with keywords.
171. Doorway Web Pages
Users may occasionally be sent to a webpage other than the one they intended to land on. These pages are commonly referred to as doorway pages.
Google despises them because they are seen as attempts to influence its ranking algorithm. The search engine never promotes websites that use unethical methods to rank higher.
172. Interstitial Popups
Google’s algorithm also penalizes web pages and websites that display full-page popup advertisements to mobile users. This is because they prevent users from readily accessing the content on the webpage.
173. Hidden Affiliate Links
It’s no secret that Google dislikes unethical behaviour. The search engine will penalize your website if it discovers that you are concealing or masking affiliate links.
174. Poor Quality Content
When indexing pages, the search engine can identify nonsensical content and sift out spun or automatically generated content.
175. Above The Fold Ads
Ads that display above the fold may frustrate users. This is why Google penalizes websites that place too many advertisements above the fold using its Page Layout ranking algorithm.
176. Spun Content
Google dislikes content that has been automatically generated. When a search engine learns that a site has uploaded spun content, it will likely severely penalize the site and reduce its ranking in the SERPs. It may even de-index the website altogether.
177. Google’s Fred Update
The Fred update, which the search engine introduced in 2017, tends to penalize websites that put profit over user benefit.
178. Affiliate Websites
Since making money is these websites’ principal goal, Google does not support affiliate websites. Because of this, Google keeps a close eye on and increases its scrutiny of websites that prioritize making money over user interaction.
179. PageRank Sculpting
PageRank sculpting is the practice of no-following most of your page’s external links to pass PageRank juice to specific external links. By manipulating PageRank excessively, you risk being penalized by the search engine for abusing its algorithm.
180. Spam IP Addresses
All the websites on a specific server will be impacted if their IP address is flagged as spam.
181. Meta Tag Spam
Enhancing your meta and title tags with keywords might increase your organic click-through rate. However, you risk receiving a penalty if Google discovers that you deliberately used keywords in your meta tags to fool the search engine into awarding your website high ranks.
Off-Site Spam Factors
The following off-page elements can affect how Google ranks your website:
182. A Sudden Surge Of Backlinks
A sudden, out-of-the-blue increase in links that don’t seem natural is a solid sign that the links are spam.
183. The Penguin Penalty
Google’s Penguin algorithm detects websites with unfavorable links and penalizes them by lowering the rankings of their respective pages.
184. Hacked Websites
If your website has been hacked, your web pages will likely not appear in search results.
185. Obtaining Links From Unrelated Sites
The likelihood of receiving a penalty may increase if there are many links coming from sites that are not relevant to your niche.
186. Having A Link Profile With Several Low-Quality Backlinks
Multiple links from websites frequently utilized for black hat SEO indicate that the system is being manipulated and will likely result in lower rankings.
187. Unnatural Links
When Google alerts you that Google Search Console has discovered unnatural links, it is usually an indicator that your SERP rankings have dropped.
188. Automatically Generated Links
When webmasters include a widget on their websites to encourage automatically produced links, Google disapproves of it and may lower your rankings or impose a penalty.
189. Directory Links
Your site is at a greater risk of being penalized if you consistently obtain backlinks from low-quality directories.
190. Links From The Same Server IP
Obtaining links in bulk from websites using the same server IP is not wise if you’re hoping to rank well in SERPs. This will undoubtedly notify Google that all your links come from a blog network.
191. Poison Anchor Text
If your site has “poison” anchor text, such as pharmacy keywords, it might be a sign of spam or hacking and could potentially damage your rankings.
192. Selling Backlinks
Suppose Google discovers that you have been selling links. In that case, you could be penalized.
193. Google Dance
The search engine may use a technology known as the “SERP Dance” to cause brief variations in your search ranks if it believes that you are abusing its algorithms.
194. Google Sandbox
Google Sandbox is used to scrutinize new websites that receive a large number of links. This will temporarily stop the website from being visible online.
195. Link Schemes
When people participate in temporary link schemes that entail quickly creating and discarding spam links, the search engine will detect this and penalize them accordingly.
196. The Disavow Tool
With the use of the disavow tool, manual or algorithmic penalties applied to websites that have a detrimental effect on their SEO rankings can be lifted.
197. Removing Penalties With A Reconsideration Request
An effective reconsideration request can have a penalty that is harming your site’s rankings lifted.
198. Manual Actions
There are a number of operations, and Google uses them to combat link building with unethical SEO practices.
199. Backlinks From Press Releases
Because of the abuse of press releases and article directories to obtain backlinks, Google now typically views these as “link schemes.”
200. Unnatural Spikes In Links
According to a 2013 Google Patent, the search engine can determine whether or not the sudden rush of links to a site is legitimate. Links will be completely useless once they are discovered to be fake.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know all the ranking factors that can influence your rankings, you’re better equipped to grow your online presence and brand awareness! is need help — Please reach out to us today!
