Top Search Engine Ranking Factors

Keyword use factors

Page Attributes

Site/Domain Attributes

Inbound Link Attribute

Negative crawling/Ranking attributes

Keyword use factors

A list of components of a particular page is ranked depending on the use of user's search query terms in search engines. The ranking is an indication of the value of each of the component in SEO actions.

Keyword use in title tag

Placing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag of the web page's HTML header

• Title tag has been the single most important aspect for many years consistently.
• Since the keyword gets bolded in SERPs, it attracts the focus of the visitor.
• A well-written title using keywords greatly influences ranking and influences CTR (Click Through Rate) as well.
• Using the right keyword in the title tag can yield rapid results.
• In fact, a keyword is so vital that some sites agree to place their brand names after the keyword within the title tag.
• There should be a match between keywords used in the body text and the title tag.

Keyword use in Body Text.

Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page

• Many critics suggest that it is important to include keywords/ keyword phrase throughout the body wherever necessary and avoid heavy stuffing of keywords in the body text unnecessarily since it might send wrong signals to search engines.
• It is not just the keywords that increase the rankings but a mix of all words on the page that benefit optimization most. For example if someone is writing about real estate, keywords related to real estate such as homes, builders, communities etc should be used within the content.
• The sequence of the keywords within the body text will aid in ranking.
• Using keywords in the body text can be additionally beneficial when searchers are searching with long tail keywords.

Relationship of Body Text Content to Keywords (topic analysis)

• This is an aspect with growing importance in future and has weightage especially to trusted sites.
• Using related keywords in the body text is a good practice as it can bring in searches with longtail keywords.
• If the keyword density crosses 5% of a particular page, it may send wrong signals to search engines.

Keyword use in H1 tag.

Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase

• H1 tag is regarded as the 2nd most important on-page criteria.
• The role of the H1 tag in ranking a page depends on the page and the words in the H1 tag. If the page and words in the H1 tag are unrelated, it does not help.
• It is also a good practice to use keywords in the H1 tag.

Keyword use in domain name

Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com

• It is an advantage to have the keyword in the domain name. It improves CTR.
• Domains with keywords get bolded and this is a major advantage since it catches the attention of the viewer.
• It immediately helps the viewer to know what the website is all about.
• Having keyword as your domain name will give you a lot of anchor text links. It will also be used in a lot of backlinks.
• The benefit of the keyword in the domain name also depends on the search engine.

Keyword Use in Page URL

Including target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. seomoz.org/keyword-phrase

• Not ranked as high as domain name but helps improve CTR.
• It influences rankings where many sites are linking to that page using the URL as anchor text.
• If the anchor text is same as the URL, it gets bolded on many search results and this assists Click Through Rates. However, this is has sleek value.
• A number of factors influence its importance-webpage, number of words, dashes, slashes.

Keyword use in H2,H3,H(x) tags.

Placing targeted terms in the H2, H3 headline HTML tags

• It works well in targeting accompanying keyword phrases to a main word.
• The weightage given to H1, H2, H3.. Tags keep changing now and then. It may happen that H2/H3 tags have more importance than H1 tags.
• The final verdict however is that its importance depends on aspects like the search engine, what the viewer is looking for and other such aspects.

Keyword used in Alt tags and Image titles.

Using target keywords inside alt HTML tags and image title tags

• Since the alts and titles describe an image, it is very handy when the browser is slow and the image is not displayed.
• When images are used for links, the alt tag is as important as the anchor text, but not very useful in web search.
• It is highly beneficial for the visually challenged.
• They are a great way for improving user experience.
• They might not be as important as pure text but alt tags and title tags are of some internal text value.

Keyword use in bold /strong tags.

Positioning keyword in HTML text with strong/bold attributes

• It is of some value in targeting accompanying word to the main keyword.
• Many critics opine that letters are bolded in order to communicate better with the user, to make a page visually more appealing and they are not used to improve ranking of a site.
• It can benefit indirectly as it can hold the reader on to the page for a longer time.

Keyword use in Meta description tag

Utilizing keywords in the Meta description tag in a webpage's HTML header

• Unique keywords within the Meta description tags attract people to view the page and are thus beneficial.
• While it may not be an important aspect in ranking a page, the CTR improves.
• A good description is beneficial to the page and is important in preventing duplicate content issues. On the contrary, a bad description has a negative impact on the page.

Keyword use in Meta keywords tag

Utilizing keywords in the Meta keywords tag in a webpage's HTML header

• A lot of search engines ignore the tag.
• It helps in ranking if there are two sites with similar contents. The one with a Meta keyword tag is likely to rank better than the one without the tag.
• It is not given any importance on Google.
• Though it is not of much use, it won't be any harm anyway.
• But, it will let your competitors know about the keywords for that page. So watch out!

Page Attributes

The list of components given below indicates how Google interprets a specific data on a webpage independent of keywords.

Link popularity within the site's internal link structure.

Refers to the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page

• It is a very important aspect of a site. The nature and quality of internal links tell you about the page itself.
• In large websites, internal link popularity becomes very important in ranking deep content pages.
• It is now of less importance than it used to be. However, since it is completely under your control, optimum benefit from it should be reaped.

Quality or relevance of links to external sites/pages

To analyze whether links to a page indicate quality of that page.

• Linking can be beneficial, especially when it is a new website.
• Only good content cannot help your site. Links to quality sites can help your rankings in a big way.
• In a search engine like Google, who you link to is very important as it speaks volumes about who you are and what your topic is.
• In general, linking to sites with relevant topics is advisable.

Age of document

Older pages are considered more authoritative while newer pages are taken to be temporarily relevant.

• Google ranks older documents better than newer ones. However this statement does not hold good at all times in all cases.
• It sometimes depends on the topic of search. For a particular search, people may favor older documents as relevant sources of information or vice versa.
• Sometimes, it is the domain age that matters. Regardless of the age of the document, content on a trusted site is popular.
• Older documents may be favored if they are cited well. But new documents tend to have high rank on blogs and news sites.

Amount of indexable text content

Refers to the literal quantity of visible HTML text on a page

• The quality of indexable content is more important the quantity of indexable content.
• Indexable pages filled with flash and images are known to have lower ranks.

Quality of content

Assuming search engines can use text, visual or other analysis methods to determine the validity and value of content.

• It is a valuable factor, especially when it comes to links. Great content means good links.
• Once the site is trusted the weight age to its content is high.

Organization of document flow

The construction of document text flow - i.e. journalistic style generally dictates a detail-oriented introduction, a broad level overview of the issue and increasing specificity and detail as the article continues.

• It is essential to keep the content simple and cluster related ideas to help Google focus on what your pages are all about.
• The flow of text in a document not only improves the quality of the document but also helps increase the ranking of the page.
• With organized text, the control of deep links also becomes easy and in all probability the vital contents of a document are cached by Google.

Frequency of updates to page

The number and time frame of changes made to the document over time

• This basically depends on niche. If you have a well linked page on Shakespeare's biography, it makes no sense changing the content drastically.
• There are instances when people do not change the content of their rank #1 sites for years together and still mange to stay on top. The logic is simple. If there is nothing legitimate to be updated, there is no point in adding something just for the sake of adding something.
• Of course updates play a key role in ranking a variety of sites. A news website for instance needs to be updated on the current news and go with the flow to provide the user with the latest and updated information.

Number of trailing slashes (/) in URL.

• It may not impact rankings in any way. But it counts when it comes to spiderability.
• Though many websites have several "folders", keeping it restricted to 4 is better.
• Even when there are several folders in the URL, it is important to arrange the documents in a hierarchy, starting with the most important ones and outing less important ones in the later folders.

Accuracy of Spelling and Grammar

• It does not matter much for rankings. But can adversely affect the quality and hence the popularity of the site.
• Since Google automatically corrects misspellings ("did you mean") it should not matter much in the search query. HTML validation of document

Validation of HTML page code as per the W3C consortium, an authoritative body on the standards of web-compatible code

• Validation is not an important aspect in ranking the site but too many errors can create problems.
• Google probably does not spend the processing cycles to make sure your code is valid. However, it can improve accessibility and you get spidered properly.
• It becomes an issue when the error causes page indexing problems.

Site/Domain Attributes

The factors below contribute to Google's rankings based on the site/domain on which a page resides.

Global link popularity of a site

• A website's link popularity greatly affects its ranking.
• It is believed that quality of linking matters more than quantity of linking.

Age of site

The time from the launch of indexable content seen by search engines is taken into consideration.

• This aspect is very important to a new site and not so important for an older site.
• Others believe that older sites have an advantage over newer ones in ranking.
• Links aid in the ranking of a site. The age of links hence becomes more important than age of the site itself.
• When a new site has a connection to an older site as their parent site, it has better chances of ranking well.

Topical relevance of inbound links to site

The subject-specific relationship between the sites/pages linking to the target page and the target keyword

• It is very important to have links of relevant sites.
• If a link comes from a topically relevant site it can help in a big way in improving ranks and can be beneficial to traffic too.

Link popularity of site on topical community

The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world

• This is one valuable factor and can make your site have high ranks. SEM and blogs also give the same verdict.
• This especially helps if the topical community contains links from trusted sites.
• Can bring traffic to your site.

Rate of new inbound links to site.

The frequency and timing of external sites linking in to the given domain

• Natural links to your site could have your ranks go up.
• This can impact new/untrusted sites in a big way.
• In cases where you get a huge number of links each week without any real user traffic, it can cause problems.

Relevance of site's primary subject matter to query

The topical relationships between the full content of a website and a user's given query

• It matters! Especially when you need huge search results.
• Some critics feel that its role is less compared to the role of domain trust and authority.
• Since relevancy of search is the goal of any search engine, this aspect could be a good "long-term SEO strategy".

Historical performance of site as measured by time spent on page, clickthroughs from SERPs, direct visits, bookmarks, etc.

Metric of click-through-rate, time spent on a page/site, direct navigation via bookmarks, etc. that Google may be measuring through use of their toolbar, free wifi, Google analytics, etc.

• This is gaining immense importance these days.
• This becomes a huge factor over time.
• Google gets a large amount of information from analytics, toolbar and personalization. So, this aspect must be important.

Manual authority/weight given to a site by Google.

Google is occasionally suspected or accused of applying manual manipulation to a domain or page

• Some critics believe this to be true...
• While others think this rarely happens with Google. They assert that domain trust and authority influence ranking most.
• Many critics cite Wikipedia as an example for favorism by Google.

TLD extension of site (edu, gov, com etc)

The top-level domain extension of the site. Note that some domains, such as .edu, .gov, .mil and others have restrictions on who may purchase them

• The TLD itself does not make much difference. However, .edu and .gov sites link to quality sites.
• It is unlikely that a webmaster can influence these sites.
• Links from TLDs pass the quality aspect that they hold to your site too.

Rate of pages added to a site.

The amount & frequency of new, spiderable documents added to the domain over time

• Most critics believe that adding new pages to a website does not harm it in any way.
• Depends on the subject matter for example a news site can make a 1000 page additions per day. But a site on pets would not make those many additions per day. It's a matter of niche.
• But heavy addition of pages each day can signal trouble.

Number of queries for site/ domain over time

The frequency of searches for the domain name or the company/organization's brand as measured through Google's search query logs

• It does not matter to ranking in a big way.
• Might help in a new website.
• Over a matter of time, this may become a negligible factor.

Verification of site with Google webmaster.

• Does not impact popular websites.
• Some critics feel that it does not impact ranking. However, it can increase crawling rate and re-inclusion requests from the webmaster.
• It can add to the trust-worthiness of a website.

Inbound Link Attribute

The following aspects affect Google's weighting of links from external websites pointing to a page.

Anchor text of inbound link.

• This is one of the most important factors.
• The value of a link largely depends on the site that links and the site that receives that link.
• With Google bombing, its importance has diminished. It cannot be completely ignored however.

Global link popularity of Linking Site.

• In deciding on a link, link popularity and site become important factors to be taken into consideration.
• Inbound links from different IPs are given more weightage by Google.

Topical relationship of linking page

• All links help and links on topic help a lot more.
• However, topical sites do not indicate authority of a site.

Link popularity of a site in topical community

• If there is no link within your community, it would be difficult to rank.
• One authority is more useful than 100 crappy links. So quality does count.

Age of link

• Google gives importance to 'age of a link' aspect.
• And it is the older link that is likely to be favored.

Topical Relationship of linking site

• Holds a lot of weightage.
• A trusted site itself is enough. A topically relevant site is an added advantage.

Text surrounding a link

• It does have some impact. It is becoming more and more important.
• They are known to receive more weight when the anchor text is non -keyword focused. Example: "click here"

Internal link popularity of linking page within host site/domain.

• A link from a well-linked page can improve rankings.
• It can also be a disadvantage if the host site has too few IBLs from other domains.

Temporal link attributes

• It is similar to age of a link.
• Well established links perform better than those which are not well linked.
• Factors such as when the link was created, how long it has been around and its developments since then are important.

Domain extension of linking site

• .gov and .edu are regarded as more important
• Links to these sites are valuable since they have several trusted and powerful links hitting them from great websites.
• However it is difficult to get links from them.

Page rank (as measured by the toolbar) of linking page

• It could help in connectivity.
• But it is not necessary to give too much emphasis on this aspect since the data on the toolbar is months old.
• It does not directly influence ranking. Topical relevance and trust are more important.

Negative crawling/Ranking attributes

The following components may negatively impact a spider's ability to crawl a page or its rankings at Google.

Server is often Inaccessible to bots

• If the site is not live for a long time, say 48 hours it is likely to drop pretty fast from the index.
• If you are not getting good hosting services, there is a risk of poor ranking.
• If your site cannot be crawled, it becomes a big advantage to other sites.

Content very similar or duplicate of existing content in the index.

• Duplicates are a huge issue since it can harm the website while filtering the content.
• It can indirectly affect ranking by splitting inlink value.
• The number of duplicates in the site is also determinable.
• A small percentage of critics feel that duplication need not always cause trouble since it is not a criterion in indexing. Again it depends upon niche.

External links to low quality/Spam sites

• Linking to good sites is very important. If links are directed to spam sites, it can adversely affect the site.
• However the percentage of bad links also matters. One bad link amongst all good links should not do much harm.

Duplicate title/Meta tags on many pages

• Duplicate titles and descriptions will cut down rankings.
• Duplicate content can damage the trust of the site as well.
• It can wipe out a site completely but fixing the problem can bring it right back.

Overuse of targeted keywords (stuffing/spamming)

• Using words related to keywords is always better than using keywords heavily throughout the text. This can affect quality.
• Stuffing content with keywords is not always penalized. This is possible when keywords are skillfully used in the content.
• Overuse of keywords can send wrong signals to search engines which in turn affect rankings.

Participation in link schemes or actively selling links.

• "Schemes" as such is bad. And especially so if you get caught, it can ruin your site completely.
• It can disable your outbound link quality.
• However, some critics have no issues with selling links.

Very slow server response times

• It may not make a huge impact to ranking.
• Crawls slow down and this can affect over time.
• Spiderability of the site is adversely affected.

Inbound links from spam sites

• It depends on number.
• A few spam links to a trusted site will not make much difference. Again, the number matters.
• If your site is loaded with bad links and has very few good links. It can affect the site. It depends on the ratio.

Low levels of visitors to the site

• Some critics believe that the time spent on the site by each visitor is more valuable than the number of visitors.
• Sometimes, it depends on niche. Lots of high quality sites have low number of visitors.
• However this may become a determinable factor in the long run especially with close competition around.