200+ Possible Google Ranking Factors

Brijesh Patel Last Update - 2023-05-05

Confirmed Factors by Google
1. BERT
2. Crisis Information Systems
3. Deduplication Systems
4. Exact Match Domain 5
5. Freshness Systems
6. Helpful Content System
7. Link Analysis Systems
8. Local News Systems
9. MUM
10. Neural Matching
11. Original Content Systems
12. Removal-based Demotion System
13. Page Experience System
14. Passage Ranking System
15. Product Review System
16. RankBrain
17. Reliable Information Systems
18. Site Diversity System
19. Spam Detection Systems
Domain Factors
1. Domain Age
2. Domain Name
3. Keyword in Domain Name
4. Domain Registration Length
5. Keyword in Subdomain
6. Domain History
7. Exact Match Domain
8. Public Vs. Private WhoIs
9. Penalized WhoIs Owner
10. Country TLD Extension
Special Google Algorithm Rules
1. Query Deserves Freshness
2. Query Deserves Diversity
3. User Browsing History
4. User Search History
5. Featured Snippets
6. Geo-Targeting
7. Safe Search
8. “YMYL” Keywords
9. DMCA Complaints
10. Domain Diversity
11. Transactional Searches
12. Local Searches
13. Top Stories Box
14. Big Brand Preference
15. Shopping Results
16. Image Results
17. Easter Egg Results
18. Single Site Results for Brands
19. Payday Loans Update
Brand Signals
1. Branded Anchor Text
2. Branded Search
3. Facebook Page and Likes
4. Brand + Keyword Searches
5. Twitter Profile with Followers
6. Official LinkedIn Company Page
7. Known Authorship
8. The Legitimacy of Social Media Accounts
9. Brand Mentions on Top Stories
10. Unlinked Brand Mentions
11. Brick and Mortar Location
Page-Level Factors
1. Keyword in Title Tag
2. Title Tag Starting with Keyword
3. Keyword in Description
4. Keyword in H1 Tag
5. TF-IDF
6. Content-Length
7. Table of Contents
8. Keyword Density
9. LSI in Content (LSI)
10. LSI Keywords in Tags
11. Page Covers Topics In-Depth
12. Page Loading Speed via HTML
13. Page Loading Speed Via Chrome
14. Use of AMP
15. Entity Match
16. Google Hummingbird
17. Duplicate Content
18. Rel=Canonical
19. Image Optimization
20. Content Recency
21. The Magnitude of Content Updates
22. Historical Page Updates
23. Keyword Prominence
24. Keyword in H2, H3 Tags
25. Outbound Link Quality
26. Outbound Link Theme
27. Grammar and Spelling
28. Syndicated Content
29. Mobile-Friendly Update
30. Mobile Usability
31. Hidden Content on Mobile
32. Helpful “Supplementary Content”
33. Content Hidden Behind Tabs
34. Number of Outbound Links
35. Relevant Images
36. Number of Internal Links
37. Quality of Internal Links
38. Broken Links
39. Reading Level
40. Affiliate Links
41. HTML Errors/W3C Validation
42. Domain Authority
43. Page’s PageRank
44. URL Length
45. URL Path
46. Human Editors
47. Page Category
48. Keyword in URL
49. URL String
50. References and Sources
51. Bullets and Numbered Lists
52. Priority of Page in Sitemap
53. Too Many Outbound Links
54. UX Signals From Other Keywords
55. Page Age
56. User-Friendly Layout
57. Parked Domains
58. Useful Content
User Interaction
1. RankBrainTime
2. Organic CTR for A KeywordTime
3. Organic CTR for All KeywordsTime
4. Bounce RateTime
5. Direct TrafficTime
6. Repeat TrafficTime
7. Pogo StickingTime
8. Blocked SitesTime
9. Chrome BookmarksTime
10. Number of CommentsTime
11. Dwell Time
On-Site Webspam Factors
1. Panda Penalty
2. Links to Bad Neighborhoods
3. Redirects
4. Pop-ups
5. Interstitial Pop-Ups:
6. Site Over-Optimization
7. Gibberish Content
8. Doorway Pages
9. Ads Above the Fold
10. Hiding Affiliate Links
11. Fred
12. Affiliate Sites
13. Auto-Generated Content
14. Excessive PageRank Sculpting
15. Meta Tag Spamming
16. IP Address Flagged as Spam
Off-Site Webspam Factors
1. Hacked Sites
2. Unnatural Influx of Links
3. Penguin Penalty
4. Link Profile with a High Percentage of Low-Quality Links
5. Links From Unrelated Sites
6. Unnatural Links Warning
7. Low-Quality Directory Links
8. Widget Links
9. Links from the Same Class C IP
10. “Poison” Anchor Text
11. Unnatural Link Spikes
12. Links From Articles and PR
13. Manual Actions
14. Selling Links
15. Google Sandbox
16. Google Dance
17. Disavow Tool
18. Reconsideration Request
19. Temporary Link Schemes
Site-Level Factors
1. Content Providing Value and Unique Insights
2. Contact Us Page
3. Domain Trust / TrustRank
4. Site Architecture
5. Presence of Sitemap
6. Site Uptime
7. Server Location
8. SSL Certificate
9. Terms of Service & Privacy Pages
10. Duplicate Meta Information On-Site
11. Breadcrumb Navigation
12. Mobile-Optimized
13. YouTube
14. Site Usability
15. Using GA and GSC
16. User reviews/Site reputation
Backlink Factors
1. Linking Domain Age
2. Number of Linking Root Domains
3. Number of Links from Separate C-Class IPs
4. Number of Linking Pages
5. Backlink Anchor Text
6. Alt Tag (for Image Links)
7. Links from .edu or .gov Domains
8. Authority of Linking Page
9. Authority of Linking Domain
10. Links from Competitors
11. Links from “Expected” Websites
12. Links from Bad
13. Neighborhoods
14. Guest Posts
15. Links from Ads
16. Homepage Authority
17. NoFollow Links
18. Diversity of Link Types
19. “Sponsored” or “UGC” Tags
20. Contextual Links
21. Excessive 301 Redirects to Page
22. Internal Link Anchor Text
23. Link Title Attribution
24. Country TLD of Referring Domain
25. Link Location In Content
26. Link Location on Page
27. Linking Domain Relevancy
28. Keyword in Title
29. Page-Level Relevancy
30. Positive Link Velocity
31. Negative Link Velocity
32. Links from Hubpages
33. Link from Authority Sites
34. Linked to as Wikipedia Source
35. Co-Occurrences
36. Backlink Age
37. Links from Real Sites vs. “Splogs”
38. Natural Link Profile
39. Reciprocal Links
40. User-Generated Content Links
41. Links from 301
42. Number of Outbound Links Within a Page
43. Forum Links
44. Word Count of Linking Content
45. Schema.org Usage
46. TrustRank of Linking Site
47. Sitewide Links
48. Quality of Linking Content
Retired Ranking System
1. Hummingbird
2. Mobile-friendly Ranking System
3. Page Speed System
4. Panda System
5. Penguin System
6. Secure Site System