Knowledge Base

Ranking factors in Google

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – optimizing a website for search engines. In the process of internal and external optimization for Google, it is necessary to consider numerous factors that directly influence a website’s ranking in search results for key queries. Most ranking factors can be positively influenced by competent SEO promotion.

Below is a list of positive and negative factors that affect a website’s ranking in Google’s search results.

Internal Optimization of the Website:

Positive Ranking Factors (Internal)

Factors for Successful Website Ranking, Supported by Evidence:
  • Keyword in the URL,
  • Keyword in the Title tag,
  • Keywords highlighted in any way—headings, underlined, italicized, etc.,
  • Keyword in the alt attribute,
  • Natural use of keywords—not just exact matches,
  • Anchor text of internal links,
  • Keyword in the domain name,
  • Page authority,
  • Use of HTTPS,
  • “Fresh” content if the user query implies it,
  • “Old” content may be preferable for certain queries,
  • Quality outbound links,
  • Mobile device optimization.
Possible Factors that Positively Affect Ranking:
  • Order of keywords in the URL,
  • Moderate keyword density in the page text,
  • Document relevance to the query (TF-IDF),
  • Keywords in H1, H2 tags, etc.,
  • Distance between keywords in the text—closer is better (but remember to maintain meaning!),
  • Exact keyword matches with the search query in the text,
  • Partial keyword matches with the search query in the text,
  • Important keywords at the beginning of relevant page content,
  • Domain name matches the keyword,
  • Overall site relevance to the keyword query,
  • Overall site relevance to the query (TF-IDF),
  • Domain age—old (for certain topics),
  • Domain age—new (for certain topics),
  • Use of hyphens in the URL to separate words,
  • Order of keyword usage in tags,
  • Time remaining until domain registration expiration,
  • Publicly accessible Whois,
  • Use of Schema.org markup,
  • Updatable content on the site if the query implies it,
  • Old content on the site if the query implies it,
  • Relevant outbound links,
  • Absence of errors (grammatical, spelling),
  • Multimedia,
  • Subdirectories,
  • Domain extension,
  • Highlighting entities—Google seeks to operate not just with words but with meaningful entities, suggesting recipes for queries like “how to cook meat” rather than just pages with information about meat,
  • Context in which keywords are used,
  • Website corresponds to user location,
  • Use of subdomains,
  • Number of subdomains,
  • Use of Privacy Policy,
  • Verified phone number,
  • Accessible contact page,
  • Low code/content ratio,
  • More content on the page,
  • Keywords at the beginning of the displayed title (Title),
  • Keywords at the beginning of the displayed title (H1, etc.),
  • Interesting content on the site compared to existing content on the internet,
  • Interesting content on the page compared to existing content on the site,
  • Average content quality across the site.
Unlikely Factors that Positively Affect Ranking:
  • Readability level,
  • Meta tag keywords,
  • Meta tag description,
  • Google Analytics tracking code,
  • Presence of Google Webmaster Tools,
  • XML Sitemap,
  • Author reputation,
  • Use of rel=”canonical”,
  • Use of rel=”author”,
  • Use of rel=”publisher”,
  • Use of www in the domain,
  • Dedicated IP address,
  • Use of AdSense,
  • Keywords in HTML comments,
  • Keywords in CSS/JavaScript comments,
  • Keywords in CLASS, NAME, and ID,
  • Verified address,
  • Meta tag source,
  • Meta tag geo,
  • Number of comments,
  • Positive nature of comments.

Negative Factors (Internal)

Factors for NON-successful Website Ranking, Supported by Evidence:
  • Main color of page elements matches the background color,
  • 1×1 px image as an invisible link,
  • Links with empty anchors,
  • Copyright infringement,
  • Doorway pages,
  • Non-functional internal links,
  • Internal redirects,
  • Text on images,
  • Text in videos,
  • Text in multimedia,
  • Iframe and Frame,
  • Low-quality content,
  • Low-quality content across the site,
  • Excessive advertising,
  • Duplicate content from external sources,
  • Duplicate content on the site,
  • Links to non-optimized sites,
  • Slow sites,
  • NoIndex,
  • Complete site block for search robots,
  • Domain with a poor reputation,
  • Meta and JavaScript redirects,
  • Text in JavaScript,
  • Site inaccessibility,
  • High number of outbound links,
  • Pages resembling search results,
  • Automatically generated content,
  • Phishing activity,
  • Pages without incoming links,
  • Page response code 4XX or 5XX.
Possible Factors that Negatively Affect Ranking:
  • High keyword density in the main text,
  • Unclear essence of the content,
  • High keyword density in the title tag,
  • Overly long title tag,
  • H1, H2, H3, etc., headings with a high number of keywords,
  • Excessive use of H1, H2, H3, etc., tags,
  • Keyword repetition in the domain name,
  • Unjustifiably long URL,
  • High keyword density in the alt tag,
  • Unjustifiably long alt tag,
  • Long anchor text of internal links,
  • High number of links in the text,
  • Too many unnatural listings of words, phrases, ideas, etc.,
  • Content “hidden” in JavaScript,
  • Content “hidden” in CSS,
  • Excessive use of formatting—bold, italic, etc.,
  • Dynamic content,
  • Use of pop-up (pop-under) technologies,
  • Internal nofollow,
  • IP address associated with questionable location,
  • Closed Whois,
  • Local domain extensions for global sites,
  • High number of internal links,
  • Non-functional HTML/CSS,
  • Outbound partner links,
  • Parked domains,
  • High number of links in the footer,
  • Compromised site,
  • Outdated content,
  • Adult content,
  • Purchased links,
  • Use of subdomains instead of subdivisions where unnecessary,
  • Number of subdomains,
  • Number of error pages on the site,
  • Non-functional code on the page,
  • 404 software errors,
  • HTTP Expires header—can cause indexing problems,
  • Order of pages in the Sitemap,
  • tag in the Sitemap,
  • Description tag with a high number of keywords,
  • Keywords tag with a high number of keywords,
  • Spammy user content,
  • Content in a foreign language,
  • Text translated using software.
Unlikely factors negatively affecting ranking:
  • Fake Whois,
  • Site owner suspected of using fake Whois data,
  • Outbound links,
  • Absence of robots.txt.

 

External site optimization

Positive ranking factors (external)

Evidence-backed:
  • Authoritative links to the page,
  • A large number of inbound links to the page,
  • Authoritative inbound links to the site,
  • A large number of inbound links to the site,
  • Link stability – it has existed for a long time,
  • Keyword in anchor text,
  • Links from relevant sites,
  • Keyword in alt text,
  • Relevant content on the donor site surrounding the link,
  • Query requiring up-to-date information,
  • Safe search.
Possible:
  • Social signals,
  • Partially relevant text in link anchors,
  • Partially relevant text in alt,
  • Link from a site ranking for the same keyword,
  • Inclusion in the DMOZ directory,
  • Page CTR in search results,
  • Domain CTR,
  • The speed at which the site gains links,
  • Low bounce rate,
  • Natural indicator of “deep” links,
  • Google+ profile,
  • Shares on Twitter,
  • Shares on Facebook,
  • Links from domains older than the site,
  • Query requires an answer from an authoritative source,
  • Query requires an answer from a long-established source,
  • Query requires diverse answers,
  • Page bookmarked in Chrome,
  • Chrome data on site traffic,
  • Personalized results,
  • User activity tracked via Google Toolbar,
  • User preferences when searching for specific sites,
  • User click speed on results in search,
  • Google tool for targeting the site to different countries,
  • Google tool for submitting a reconsideration request,
  • Links from national top-level domains of a specific country,
  • Links from IP addresses of the target region.
Unlikely:
  • Title of the linking page,
  • Mention of the company name,
  • Links from numerous C-blocks (part of the IP address),
  • Backlinks from .edu,
  • Backlinks from .gov,
  • Number of followers on Twitter,
  • Likes on Facebook,
  • Circles on Google+,
  • Number of Google +1s,
  • Use of AdWords,
  • Non-use of AdWords,
  • Low Alexa ranking,
  • High MozRank/MozTrust score,
  • Uploading an XML sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools,
  • Verified business address in Google+.

Negative factors (external)

Evidence-backed:
  • Excessive interlinking on sites owned by the same user,
  • Negative SEO,
  • Paid link exchange schemes,
  • Low page authority (PageRank),
  • Low site authority (PageRank),
  • Manual penalties,
  • Changes in site indexing speed in Google Webmaster Tools.
Possible:
  • Altered anchor text of links,
  • Unnatural amount of anchor text,
  • Unnatural overall amount of anchors,
  • Unnatural variety of linking sites,
  • Signs of web spam,
  • Comment spam,
  • Spam posts on forums and blogs,
  • Promotional posts on forums disguised as natural,
  • Links in profiles and signatures on forums and blogs,
  • Links in the footer,
  • Links at the top of the page,
  • WordPress themes with links,
  • Links in widgets,
  • Links in the author section,
  • Link ring (pyramid),
  • Article directories,
  • Generated web directories,
  • Reciprocal links,
  • Link farms,
  • Attempts to artificially influence Google search results,
  • Low quality content surrounding links,
  • Links without context,
  • Number of links in the text,
  • Irrelevant context to the links,
  • Sudden increase in the number of links,
  • Sudden decrease in the number of links,
  • Unnatural links to the domain,
  • A decrease in the number of inbound links may signal that the content on the page is outdated,
  • If a site loses links faster than it gains them, it may indicate something is wrong,
  • Redirect penalties,
  • Links disavowed via the Disavowed Tool,
  • Links from penalized sites,
  • Sites blocked in Chrome,
  • Negative brand reputation,
  • Improper use of the international targeting tool in Google Webmaster Tools,
  • Manipulation of site CTR in search results,
  • Manipulation of searches for the company name,
  • Reports of illegal activities,
  • Reports of copyright infringement,
  • User click speed on results in search,
  • User speed in finding answers to their queries,
  • Links from the same CSS class.
Unlikely:
  • Inbound affiliate links,
  • Links from irrelevant sites,
  • Link building,
  • Paid links,
  • Absence of content around links,
  • Small number of pages on the site.

SEO specialist advice: The factors mentioned above can be considered when working on site optimization. However, it’s important to remember that Google has never revealed its ranking algorithm, and this algorithm is constantly changing. Thus, a one-time adherence to even all the provided advice does not guarantee stable presence in the top rankings; the site will need to be adjusted according to the current requirements of search engines.

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