8 Best Google Ranking Factors

posted byPatrick Chemoul10/12/2020

Why Google ranking factors the most talked-about subject nowadays?

Read on if you want the right answer!

These factors define exactly how a page ranks in Google’s organic search results.

How many Google Ranking Factors are there?

According to many SEO experts, there are around 200 Google ranking factors that make up Google’s Search Algorithm.

However, not every ranking factor holds the same value.

In this post I present you with the top 8 Google ranking factors. Let’s Begin!

1. Website Structural Design

There are other Google ranking factors that have a greater effect on your website’s ranking than this one.

However, according to SEO experts, your website’s architecture is the main thing you need to get right before everything else.

Mainly before launching (or relaunching) your site.

This can be done by:

  • Sorting out your site into subdirectories
  • Having clear strings of text (or "slugs") at end of each URL

Doing this will make it much simpler for Google to comprehend who you are and what topics you want to be an authority on.

For instance, in the event that you need to dispatch a blog on pizza.

And plan to deliver content explicitly about its ingredients, recipe, and baking.

Then it’s ideal for you to divide your content into three subdirectories.

2. Domain Security (HTTPS)

Notice the "https" at the start of the model URL, above?

This is the manner by which Google distinguishes secure sites from non-secure ones.

Understandably, you need your site to be as secure as possible.

HyperText Transfer Protocol or HTTP is a virtual procedure that moves data from a website to the user’s browser.

HTTPS is the protected rendition of this convention.

And it guarantees Google that the data its indexing is secure to the user search queries.

The "S," in HTTPS stands for "secure."

To verify your website’s domain, you'll need an SSL certificate.

3. Importance of Backlinks

Backlinks are also called ‘Inbound links’.

These are some of the most important ranking signals on search engines.

They symbolize all of the hyperlinks that re-direct to your website’s page from somewhere else on the web.

Many SEO consultants believe that they have a noteworthy effect on your position in Google search rankings.

So the two questions that arise at this moment are:

  • Why do these links make a difference to your Google search engine’s ranking?
  • Why does Google care who links to you?

The responses to both of these questions is simple.

Inbound links from different sites reveal to Google that individuals trust what you need to state which is plenty of reason to link it from their very own websites.

Also, trust is a colossal part of Google’s search ranking algorithm, which means the inbound link has to be more reliable from the source that is linking it to you.

This will ensure that you get a heavy-duty effect on your Google ranking.

Inbound links don't work in a similar way if you're linking to your blog entry from another of your blog entries.

In fact, the impact of these backlinks comes for the most part from outside domains.

Consequently, "link building" has turned into a significant (yet sensitive) process for acquiring backlinks from different distributors.

A few publishers, who have equivalent domain authority, consent to exchange backlinks from one another.

Others constitute a guest post on this existing publisher’s site and agree to backlink it to themselves

4. Relevance of Title Authority

Topics are the backbone of your Google ranking.

As they help establish the framework for the page authority which you'll require to rank highly in the long run.

The more content you write and publish on a specific theme…

…the higher each bit of content having a place with that subject will rank in Google's SERPs.

Recall our pizza example from the 1st ranking factor, above?

Suppose this website has 20 articles about “how to bake a pizza?”

At this point, Google realizes that this site is most likely an expert on the theme of baking pizza.

Now, this website has a greatly improved shot at ranking exceptionally for a blog entry about baking pizza.

On the other hand, if there was post on this website called “How to reduce pollution?”

Then even if this article is well-written and keyword-optimized, it would not rank high in Google.

Thus it is very important to stay relevant about the main theme of your topic.

5. Significance of Keyword Intent

Topics may be more significant in the long-haul than individual keywords.

However, this doesn’t downgrade the importance of keywords as a separate Google ranking factor.

One of the most substantial elements you can address in your site's SEO methodology is keyword optimization.

The principal prominence of Google is to search for the maximum occurrences of a keyword.

This is expressed verbatim, in a blog entry or a website page.

This was recognized as an "accurate match."

Today, "accurate match" signifies somewhat entirely dissimilar.

And a website may not rank the highest for that keyword, even if it is an accurate match.

To give you a flawless picture, let’s use our pizza example (also mentioned in the 1st Google ranking factor)

This site needs to rank for the keyword, "best pizza ingredients"

Then adding this keyword a few times in the article.

Rather, it ought to incorporate the keyword at least once.

Trailed by genuine instances of pizza, its ingredients, where you can get them, how to bake them, etc.

Now when consumers are searching for these keywords, sites that serve it to them will get greater engagement by site guests.

Google then deciphers this expanded engagement as a smart response to the user’s inquiry.

And as a result, positioning the URL higher than before.

6. Content Quality & Structure

Simply serving your website visitors with the information they want is not enough.

This is because there are millions of answers to a single question on the web.

So, how does Google differentiate between them?

Simply by ranking content according to structure and the quality at which it is written.

This becomes especially crucial when you attempt to rank content on extremely competitive keywords.

Great content also ensures a low bounce rate which is also a ranking signal.

And you can easily fulfill the demands of this Google ranking factor and user experience by focusing on the tone & quality of your content.

Great content structure incorporates an assortment of headings and sub-headings.

This is done to make an answer simpler for an individual to process and get it.

It may likewise incorporate numbered lists, bullet points, supporting images, and most importantly clearly cited research.

All of this helps the user properly engage with your content.

The more interested a reader is with your content, the more time they'll remain on your site.

This will have a direct & positive impact on "session length," which is another significant Google ranking factor.

7. Inclusion of Meta Tags

Ensuring the meta tag sounds like the job of a developer.

However, inserting meta tags is a simple process and a vital Google ranking factor.

And, it is also one of the regularly underused elements of your content management system (CMS).

They additionally happen to be the fulcrum SEO uses to rank well in Google results.

Meta tags help Google identify two things in particular:

  • The particular purpose for a page
  • The role that every segment of that page plays to the topic and the target keyword.

There are various kinds of meta tags that ought to be inserted.

Either with the main keyword or specifics involving that keyword:

  • Title Tag: The title tag is generally the title of your article, placed in the HTML of that article.

    This enables Google to make the blue, interactive feature you see on the SERP itself.

    There are some articles that don't have regular, article-style titles to portray themselves.

    This is a valid case where title tags are useful to non-article website pages.

    In these cases, you can include a keyword-optimized title label by going into the website page's HTML.

    This fulfills the similar need of an article title.
  • Image Alt Text: Google can't crawl or read pictures the similar way it crawls content.

    And that is not ideal, since pictures can help blog entries and site pages rank very well in natural search results.

    To help Google read pictures, content makers are urged to give their pictures alt content (or "alt labels").

    As it best defines the picture in setting of the website page on which the picture is published.

    Anchor text is also a great factor for ranking your web page on top of Google.

    Read more about it in this full guide to optimizing anchor text.
  • Meta Description: It is the short string of content that shows up underneath each blue link on Google's SERPs.

    This provides a summary of the content inside the URL.

    A meta description doesn't need to incorporate explicit keywords.

    Yet having it filled in is a significant box to verify according to Google.

    You can fill your meta description in a dedicated space provided by most of the content management systems. (CMSs)

Schema Markup is also a great tool for helping Google rank your content & website higher on Google. Read more about it here.

8. Faster Page Loading Speed

Isn’t it a great feeling when a website loads with lightning speed?

It sure is.

When a user clicks on your website from a Google search result, it should load quickly.

This is called Page Speed and it is one of the most important Google ranking factor.

A few on-page components add to how quick your page loads.

However as a rule, the quicker the site, the higher it can rank on Google.

Key point: Always mobile first index your websites along with a faster page load speed.

A quick enough website page is considered to be the one that loads in less than or equal to three seconds.

Be that as it may, this can vary dependent on two things:

  • The purpose of the website
  • The sort of visitors it draws in

For instance, social media sites are urged to be somewhat quicker.

And according to Google’s latest algorithm update, they should take around only two seconds to fully load.

Distinctive sizes & fonts can overload your site fairly, however probably the greatest reason for moderate page speed is uncompressed pictures.

Sites with heaps of overwhelming, complex kinds of media on the page can make the site take more time to load.

And in this manner drastically lower your site's page speed.

Now and then this is difficult to dodge.

Yet one thing you can control is the total file size of each picture on the page.

A solution would be to compress your pictures.

This should be done before transferring them to your CMS utilizing sites like compressor.io or, for compressing pictures in bulk, tinypng.com.

Prepared to plunge into the full rundown of Google ranking factors?

Look at the thorough guide underneath and try to make it as a source of perspective for your future SEO needs.

Note that the consideration and significance of these components changes after some time.

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