200 Top Google SEO Ranking Factors – A Different Way of Explaining SEO

This article is going to take a different approach than any other article on this subject. This article is going to list the 200 Top Google Ranking Factors FOR SEO that many of us ‘believe’ Google uses to do Page Ranking. I say ‘believe’ because this is our collective educated guess on what these SEO Ranking Factors are, and how important each is.

This article will only include the ‘list’, the ‘definition’ of each ranking factor, and whether I ‘believe’ the listed ranking factor is ‘directly’ used as a ranking factor in the Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

Next, I’m going to ‘dive deep’ on each of the 200 Top Google Ranking Factors For SEO. One by one, I’ll write separate articles on each of the 200 ranking factors. I’ll explain in ‘layperson terms’ what each ‘factor’ is, how to find each ‘factor’ on a webpage, and what makes that ‘factor’ on your webpage being ‘good’ or ‘in need of improvement’. I’ll share with you any methods or software tools (Free and Paid) we used to analyze each webpage for each of the ‘factors’.

Now I know 99% of my clients or prospects will never use this article to improve their Google Ranking Factors for SEO, but at Idea To Growth LLC we believe in ‘education first’ when we seek to engage with a potential client. If I can’t explain what we’re doing to help your website deliver more ‘leads’ that you can turn into ‘paying clients’, why should you trust us by giving us your money?

When our team does an analysis of your website and its contents, we use a variety of complicated, oft expensive software tools. In the end, we have to make tradeoffs in what we fix and how we fix your web content, mostly based on your budget.

The end goal of all SEO professionals should be to get each of your web pages onto Page 1 of a Google Search for the Primary Keyword Phrase for each web page. For example, the primary keyword search phrase for this blog post page is ‘200 Top Google SEO Ranking Factors’.

E-A-T = Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

At Google, E-A-T is shorthand for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This acronym comes from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines—a 168-page document used by human quality raters to assess the quality of Google’s search results. You can download the July 28 2022 Update [HERE]. For SEO professionals, I think of this document at a sort of ‘bible’ that should be read cover-to-cover, and reviewed regularly.

E-A-T is a not a single ranking factor, but is built into many to all of the 200+ Google Ranking Factors for SEO that Google uses. I mentions this to explain from a sort of 30,000 foot view what Google’s Ranking Algorithm is all about. In an ideal world, Google wants to bring the best answer to any search into the first spot on Page 1 of the search results. The more successful Google is at accomplishing this, the more people will make Google their search engine of choice, and the more advertising dollars they can make.

‘Show Me the Money!’ as was screamed by a famous actor in a well watched movie. That’s what every Google Search Engine Algorithm update, usually 2-3 times per year, is all about.

‘Quality is King’

Now, most SEO experts will agree that almost regardless of how ‘well’ you execute these 200 Google Ranking Factors, the ‘Quality of Your Content’ will ‘trump’ a poor execution of ‘most’ of these factors.

If you create content that’s unique, fresh, and helpful to users, then Google will rank that content higher on its Search Engine Results Page (SERPs).

Likewise, no matter how optimized your webpage is, if your content is not valuable to users, then Google is unlikely to rank your webpage content on Page 1.

Let’s get to those Top 200 Google Ranking Factors for SEO!

** Credit: This list of 200 and variations has been published by others, including Backlinko and Hubspot. I mostly agree with their lists, but with a few differences.

Top Google Ranking Factors ‘Categories’

To make these 200 Top Ranking Factors easier to discuss, I’m going to break the factors into nine (9) Groups: (These are local hyperlinks. Tap on one to scroll down to the category.)

These ‘groups’ are NOT in any ranking order of importance, and the items with each group are also NOT in any ranking order of importance.

Each Ranking Factor has a ‘Conclusion’ in which I state ‘my professional opinion’ on whether that ranking factor is highly likely directly used as a Ranking Factor by Google.

As promised, I do a ‘deep dive’ on each Ranking Factor in a separate blog post. If I have completed the ‘deep dive’ blog post article on that ranking factor, you’ll see a button. As this article was first written in early September 2022, it will take me several months to write all 200 deep dive blog posts.

Don’t worry, I won’t make you open each of the 200 ranking factors to find which ‘deep dive’ articles are complete. If you see an ‘Clipboard to the Right’ of the Title of the Ranking factor, click the ‘down-arrow’ to the far right of the title to expand the mini-article, then click the button inside the Ranking Factor mini-article to jump to the ‘deep dive’ ranking factor full blog post article.

Domain Ranking Factors (1 – 21)

Domain Ranking Factors are the ranking factors that are connected with your domain name (URL). Domain names are the unique, human-readable Internet addresses of websites. They are made up of three parts: a top-level domain (sometimes called an extension or domain suffix), a domain name (or IP address), and an optional subdomain.

Domain names are the second level of a domain’s hierarchy (after the top-level domain). Domain Names on a specific Top-Lbe Domain (TLD (called a Root Domain) are purchased from registrars.

1. Domain Name Age – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Domain Name Age’ is the total length of registration time of the domain name.

CONCLUSION: ‘DOMAIN NAME AGE’ IS LIKELY NOT A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

Read Full ‘Deep-Dive’ Article

2. Keyword In Domain Name – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Keyword in Domain Name’ are domains in which specific keywords or phrases are included in the domain name itself.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

Read Full ‘Deep-Dive’ Article

3. Keyword As 1st word Of domain Name – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Keyword As 1st Word Of Domain Name’ are domains in which specific keywords or phrases are listed as the front of the domain name itself.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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4. Keyword In Subdomain Name – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Keyword in Subdomain’ are web page names ‘in front of’ your top level domain in which specific keywords are part of the subdomain name.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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5. Keyword In Subdirectory Name – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Keyword in Subdirectory’ are web page names ‘after’ your top level domain in which specific keywords are part of the subdirectory name.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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6. Exact Match Domain – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Exact Match Domain’ (EMD) is a domain name that is identical—or nearly identical—to a search phrase entered into Google.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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7. Length Of Domain Name – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Length Of Domain Name’ is the number of characters in your domain name.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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8. Domain Name Readability – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Domain Name Readability’ is the ‘readability’ of character string that makes your domain name.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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9. Domain Registration Date – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Domain Registration Date’ is the calendar date on which your Domain Name was recorded with your Registrar.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A ‘SMALL’ RANKING FACTOR

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10. Domain Renewal Date – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Domain Renewal Date’ is the date each year that you need to renew (pay money) your domain name with your domain registrar.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A ‘VERY SMALL’ DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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11. Domain Ownership History – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Domain Ownership History’ is the recorded record history of a domain name.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A STRONG RANKING FACTOR

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12. private Whois – Google Ranking Factor?

Definition: ‘Private Whois’ is also called Domain privacy (or Whois privacy) is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. A user buys privacy from the registrar, who in turn replaces the user’s information in the WHOIS with the information of a forwarding service (for email and sometimes postal mail, it is done by a proxy server).

CONCLUSION: LIKELY NOT A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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13. WhoIs Owner Previously Penalized – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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14. Country TLD Extension – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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15. Parked Domain – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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16. Same URL Parameters – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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17. Same Shared Hosting – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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18. Changing Hosting Provider – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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19. 503 Status Misuse – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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20. 301 Redirects – Google Ranking Factor?

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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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21. 302 Redirects – Google Ranking Factor?

A ‘302 Redirect’ is used to navigate the user to another page, rather than having them find a broken link or an error page.

CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY NOT A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR

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Page-Level Ranking Factors (22 – 81)

Page-Level Ranking Factors are items on each page that you can optimize to improve your SEO.

Site-Level Ranking Factors (82 – 99)

Site-Level Ranking Factors go above the page level and take a look at items on the entire site.

Backlink Ranking Factors (84 – 130)

Backlink Ranking Factors look at the sites that are linking to you to determine where to rank your page on Google Search.

User Interaction Ranking Factors (131 – 141)

User Interaction Ranking Factors measure how a user interacts with your page to determine its rank.

Special Google Algorithm Ranking Factors (142 – 160)

Special Google Algorithm Ranking Factors are rules that are not directly connected to your page or domain.

Brand Ranking Factors (161 – 171)

Brand Ranking Factors are related to how your brand is mentioned across all other websites and social media platforms across the entire internet.

On-Site Webspam Ranking Factors (172 – 187)

On-Site Webspam Ranking Factors are items on your website that might make it look ‘spammy’.

Off-Site Webspam Ranking Factors (188 – 206)

Off-Site Webspam Ranking Factors are the items that affect spam based on what’s done outside your website that connects with your website (backlinks).