The 3 Game-Changing Google Ranking Factors You Can’t Ignore
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The “Google 200 Ranking Factors” Myth
Before we list important factors and signals for ranking, we need to talk about the mythical list of 200 ranking factors that Google allegedly uses.
Do a Google search for “ranking factor,” and you will see in the search engine results pages (SERP) plenty of titles that mention “200 ranking factors” from some well-known blogs.
Most likely, the number 200 originated as a PR attempt by Google to portray its algorithm as complex and having multiple factors. And then it stuck. The only known citation of “200” is from a speech by Matt Cutts at PubCon in 2009.
As we said above, Google and ranking have evolved exponentially over the last 25 years to a point where there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of factors and machine learning overlays.
What Yandex Revealed About Ranking Factors
The Yandex ranking factors leak of January 2023 revealed Yandex uses around 690 ranking factors, give or take.
At the time, this was an insight into how a major search engine applied factors and signals for ranking.
In a direct conversation, Dan Taylor, an expert on Russian search engines, said both Yandex and Google share several similarities in how they try to index and rank websites: “They both have the same data points to work with; on-page content, links, meta-data, mobile-friendliness, and user interactions such as SERP clicks and user behavior.”
He went on to say: “Both search engines also make use of AI for parts of their ranking systems (such as Vega), but have differences in how they weight certain signals, such as backlinks and users clicking on results in the SERPs, and some of these are more easily manipulated than others in comparison to Google.”
Taylor thinks, in theory, that pages can be optimized for both search engines in the same way without compromising performance. That would mean the Yandex leak could offer insights into ranking on Google.
Factors, Systems, And Signals
Whenever Google documentation is updated – or Gary Illyes, John Mueller, or Danny Sullivan’s comment – SEO professionals obsess over the meaning.
This is an issue for Google and the SEO industry at large because SEO pros often look too deeply at the wrong thing and lose focus on what matters. Nothing seems to be held to more scrutiny than ranking factors.
SEO professionals are becoming fixated on the semantic differences between factors, systems, and signals.
When documentation was updated to remove page experience from the Systems page, Google was forced to put out this statement on X (Twitter): “Ranking *systems* are different than ranking *signals* (systems typically make use of signals). We had some things listed on that page relating to page experience as “systems” that were signals. They shouldn’t have been on the page about systems. Taking them off didn’t mean we no longer considered aspects of page experience. It just meant there weren’t ranking *systems* but instead signals used by other systems.”
The 3 Ranking Factors That Every SEO Pro Should Focus On
1. High-Quality Content
The first stage of ranking is to understand the user’s query.
The second stage is to match the query to the content on a page.
From How Search Works: “Our systems analyze the content to assess whether it contains information that might be relevant to what you are looking for.”
As long as your site is technically sound enough to be crawled and rendered, quality content continues to be the number one ranking factor.
Content is key not just for ranking, but also for user experience and conversion.
Gary Illyes from Google summarizes this by saying: “Without content, it is not possible to rank. If you don’t have words on the page you’re not going to rank for it. Every site will have something different as the top 2 or 3 ranking factors.”
The internet is built from pages of content.
2. Page Experience
Page experience caused ripples in the community when it was removed from Google’s ranking systems page, which forced the Search Liaison team to say: “…As our guidance on page experience says in the first sentence: ‘Google’s core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience.’”
Page experience rolled out in 2021. Previously to this, Core Web Vitals (CWVs) had been emphasized as an important ranking factor.
CWVs then became part of something bigger in a collective group of ‘signals’ that make up page experience – essentially still a ranking factor, but part of a group of factors now known as ‘Page Experience.’
To understand why this matters is to understand everything that Google wants to achieve.
Google wants to deliver a good user experience. It does not reflect well on its product if it serves pages that take too long to load, don’t load well on certain devices, or are obscured by large ads that obstruct users from getting to the page.
Google says: “Google’s core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience.”
Page Experience is focused on four main signals:
- HTTPS.
- Page Speed.
- Mobile Friendliness.
- Core Web Vitals.
3. Links
Ranking factors and links go hand in hand.
Since Google first launched, SEO professionals have been using links to manipulate rankings. And Google has been fighting link spam to try and improve its results.
Many SEO professionals think that links are being deprecated as a ranking factor. In a 2022 poll by Marie Haynes, 44% of SEO pros who responded thought that link building was less effective now compared to a few years ago.
If we start by looking at why links have been important historically, in Google Founders Sergey Brin’s and Lawrence Page’s famous Stanford paper, links were given prominence as one of the main factors of ranking in a system that echoed the citations given to academic papers.
In the early days of Google, links quickly became the most leveraged spam technique for ranking. It took Google until 2012 and the legendary Penguin update to wipe out low-quality links, and it has been trying to downgrade the importance of links since this time.
Yet, the first time a Google representative said online that links were a ranking factor was in 2016. In a Q&A with Ammon Johns and others, Google Search Quality Senior Strategist Andrey Lipattsev said the top 3 ranking signals are “Content, Links, RankBrain.”
Google Ranking Factors Takeaway
The main thing to take away from this article is that ranking and SERP visibility are not straightforward applications of, “here is a list of ranking factors that we can work with.”
It’s one of the reasons why this industry is such an exciting and challenging space to work in.
All that said above, although there is not a clear set of Google ranking factors that you can follow, there are several factors and signals that are important to get right to achieve the best ranking you can.
Start by really understanding Google’s motivation and how it works. Then, you can start to understand how to shape your approach to content and SEO strategy to rank.
Conclusion
In conclusion, mastering the three pivotal Google ranking factors discussed – content relevance, mobile-friendliness, and backlink quality – is imperative for online success. These game-changers are the cornerstone of effective SEO strategies, dictating a website’s visibility and performance in search engine results. Ignoring these factors jeopardizes digital presence and diminishes the potential for organic growth. Meanwhile, the quest for optimal SEO solutions leads to the doorstep of the top SEO company in India. With their proven expertise and commitment to staying ahead in the dynamic digital landscape, this company emerges as an invaluable ally for businesses aiming to not just navigate but dominate the competitive online arena. In tandem, embracing the outlined ranking factors and aligning with a proficient SEO partner in India ensures a powerful recipe for sustained online success.
