200 TOP GOOGLE RANKING FACTORS FOR SEO
200 Top Google SEO Ranking Factors – A Different Way of Explaining SEO
This article will take a different approach from any other 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 as a sort of ‘bible’ that should be read cover to cover and reviewed regularly.
E-A-T is not a single ranking factor; it is built into many of the 200+ Google Ranking Factors for SEO. I mention 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, 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, Google is unlikely to rank it 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.)
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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 to be directly used as a Ranking Factor by Google.
As promised, I will 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 a ‘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 associated 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-Level Domain (TLD), called a Root Domain, are purchased from registrars.
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
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
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
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
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
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
Definition: ‘Length Of Domain Name’ is the number of characters in your domain name.
CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
Definition: ‘Domain Name Readability’ is the ‘readability’ of character string that makes your domain name.
CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT 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
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
Definition: ‘Domain Ownership History’ is the recorded record history of a domain name.
CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A STRONG 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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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT RANKING FACTOR
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CONCLUSION: IS LIKELY A DIRECT 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
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 beyond the page level and consider items across 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 relate to how your brand is mentioned on other websites and social media platforms across the 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).
Conclusion:
Yes, this is a ‘long read’, but hopefully highly educational.
You should focus on the following Google Ranking Factors ‘first’ on every page:
My goal was to make this the ‘website anchor article’ for Idea To Growth LLC. As we believe we are the only Digital Marketing & Website Agency your business will likely ever need, our goal is to strive to ‘be the best’. We believe if we can help you understand more about the importance of Digital Marketing to helping you achieve a successful business, the more businesses we can help achieve the success they desire.
If you’re ready for a F2F Zoom chat, or want to ask a quick question by email, click the appropriate link below.
100% FREE GOOGLE PAGE RANK ANALYSIS
I want to prove my value to “Helping You Grow Your Business Stronger!” by offering a 100% free Google SEO pagerank analysis. Could you share your homepage URL (domain name) and the email to which I should send your 100% free report? Within a day or two, I’ll point out the top items on your business website that cost you customers.
WHY AUDIT YOUR WEBSITE?
SEO & SERP
Search Engine Optimize your website to maximize your Search Engine Results Pages Ranking.
UX + ADA
Check your website to improve User eXperience, increase their time-on-page, and follow ADA + WCAG guidelines.
PERFORMANCE
Check your website to minimize page open times on users’ phones, laptops, and desktop devices.
SECURITY
Check your website security to keep you and your users safe when visiting or making purchases.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Check your website for its social media optimization to help maximize visitors.
QUESTIONS?
If you’re ready for an F2F Zoom chat or want to ask a quick question by email, click the appropriate link below.
Regards,
Kenneth Ervin Young, CEO
Idea To Growth LLC
Digital Marketing and Website Agency
