Google Search Ranking Factors

Depending upon who you talk to, Google has anywhere from 100 to well over 200 factors that they use to rank pages in their search results. To add to the fun and excitement, the days of Google updating their algorithms on a monthly basis or so no longer exists.

In today’s world of search, Google now updates their index and rankings constantly (24 hours a day – AKA Everflux). This being the case, you have to really understand SEO in order to be successful in achieving high organic search results.

The days of simply adding some Meta tags to your website and getting found is history. Not only are those days gone – such practices can even be dangerous if you do not have a solid understanding of what you’re doing.

So here are some examples of positive and negative on-page and off-page factors that affect Google rankings. Keep in mind the details are much more complex than bulleted below. However, this will give you some idea of what expert SEO professionals are up against every day. Without further ado, here’s the basics.

Positive On-Page Google Ranking Factors
(Keep in mind that when the following factors are used incorrectly they can become negative factors.)

• Keyword in URL file name
• Keyword in domain name
• Keyword in Title tag
• Keyword in Meta Description tag
• Keyword in Keyword Meta tag
• Keyword density in page body text
• Keyword font size (strong, bold, italic)
• Keyword proximity (how close keywords are placed together)
• Keyword phrase order
• Keyword prominence (how early used in tags/page content)
• Keyword in alt text
• Keyword in links to other pages of site
• Keyword in links to external pages
• Internal and external links not broken
• Efficient tree-like navigation structure
• Intra-site linking
• Less than 100 links out per page total
• Top level URL extension, i.e., “.com” vs. “.tv”
• Page file size
• Freshness of new pages and content updates
• Frequency of updates
• Page theming
• Keyword stemming, i.e., drove, drive, driven, driver
• Use of synonyms
• Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
• URL length
• Site size
• Site age
• Age of page vs. age of site

Negative On-Page Google Ranking Factors

• Text in graphic form only
• Over optimization
• Linking to Free For All (FFA) sites and bad neighborhoods
• Redirects via Meta refresh tags
• Copyright violations
• Keyword stuffing
• Keyword dilution
• Inappropriate use of Flash
• Use of frames
• Misuse of robots.txt tag
• Single pixel links
• Invisible text, i.e., white text on white background
• Duplicate content

Positive Off-Page Google Ranking Factors

• PageRank (based on the number and quality of links to your site)
• Total incoming links
• Anchor text (keywords in text links) of inbound links to your site
• Age of inbound links
• Relevant keywords on referring pages
• Page titles of referring pages
• Inbound links from pages of same theme
• Categorization of links from other sites
• Age of site linking to yours (older better)

Negative Off-Page Google Ranking Factors

• Buying links
• Traffic buying
• No incoming links to your site
• Cloaking (presenting one page to search spiders and a different one to your visitors)
• Links from bad neighborhoods/link farms
• Google Terms of Service violations

Remember, the above are just some basic examples of ranking factors that affect how well your site ranks in Google (and other search engines). This being the case, it is recommended that you seriously study SEO before trying to implement it on your own, or you hire a professional. If you think it’s time you hired a professional to do your SEO work give us a call toll free at 877-276-2402. We can help turn the world of search in your favor.