Google Ranking Factors: There are lots of myths and very few facts available about the Ranking Factors used by Google to determine the rank of a webpage. In fact, it is widely believed that Google’s Hummingbird algorithm uses over 200 factors to rank any webpage.

All of those factors are not equally important and some may not even make much of a difference in search page ranking. So if you are wondering which are the most important search ranking factors that determine your webpage’s rank on Google, then we have a list of Top 30 Google Ranking Factors for you.

If you have just launched a new website or a blog, then our list of Top 30 Google Ranking Factors will greatly help you prioritize your SEO efforts. So here we go..

Top 30 Google Ranking Factors

On-Page Factors

Quality of your content and the way your page is optimized have the most impact on the ranking of your page. Top On-Page factors which affect the Google ranking:

1. Content length: The longer your content the better you would be able to cover your topic. Pages with 2000 words or more, tend to rank much higher than superficial pages.
2. Quality of content: Write original good quality content for each page and avoid duplicate content at all cost.
3. Content update: Google prefers recently and regularly updated content. The significant and magnitude of the update is also an important factor for Google.
4. Keyword in the Title tag: Include keyword at the beginning of the title tag so that it provides an accurate description of the content of the page.
5. Keyword in Description tag: Including the keyword in Description meta tag is helps search engines make search results more relevant.
6. Keyword in H1 tag: Search engines consider H1 tag like a secondary title tag and including the keyword in H1 tag helps search engines further evaluate the relevancy of your page.
7. Keyword prominence: Your keyword should appear in the first 100  words of your content on each page.
8. Keyword frequency: You don’t need to stuff the content with keyword however it is important that keyword appears more than once.
9. Image optimization: Include your keyword in image file name, alt text, title, caption and description to enhance relevancy signals sent to search engines.
10. Outbound links:  Linking your pages to authority websites sends trust and relevancy signals to Google but please use such links in moderation.

In case you require help with determining the right keyword for your page, you can check out SEMrush, which is #1 tool for keyword research.

Backlink Factors

The total number of external links pointing to your site and the quality of those links are very important factors which Google looks for while determining the rank of your webpages. Top Backlink factors which affect the ranking of your pages:

1. No. of linking root domains: The number of different domains referring to your page is one of the most important off-page factors in Google’s algorithm.
2. Age of linking domain: Backlinks from older domains have a higher value in Google’s algorithm than newer domains.
3. No. of linking pages: The total number of pages referring to your site also impact the search ranking; however pages on the different domain are more valuable than pages on a single domain.
4. Authority of linking domain: The authority of domain referring to your site is an important ranking factor as well. One link from a high authority domain is much more powerful than multiple links from low authority domains.
5. Authority of linking pages: Similar to domain authority, the authority of referring page (Page Authority) is an extremely important factor.
6. Link from a homepage: Link from a homepage of a referring domain is more powerful than a link from any other page.
7. A mix of Dofollow and Nofollow links: Although Nofollow links don’t play a direct role in search engine rankings, it is important to have a mix of Dofollow and Nofollow links to avoid the risk of appearing suspicious to search engines.
8. A mix of link types: It is important to have a mix of different type of links e.g. bookmarking, social profiles, guest posts, blog comments etc.
9. Contextual links: Backlinks embedded within the content on the referring page are more important than standalone links.
10. Anchor text: Although backlink anchor text is less important today than earlier, it is still an unavoidable source of relevancy signals for Google.

Creating backlinks is often the most manual and time-consuming activity within the overall SEO effort. I would recommend using this robotic solution to completely automate the link building activity so that you can focus on writing great content.

Social Media Factors

Along with On-Page and Backlink factors, Google uses social signals (follow, like, share, retweet etc.) emanating from social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc.) as important inputs in determining search page rankings.  Top Social Media factors which greatly influence your Google rankings:

1. Presence on Social Media: Getting social media profiles, with neatly done About section, profile image and link to your website significantly impacts rankings on search engines pages.
2. Facebook Shares and Likes: Total number of Facebook Shares and Likes is an important ranking signal for Google. It is quite likely that Google sees Facebook Shares as similar to backlinks.
3. Authority of Facebook users: Shares and Likes coming from authority Facebook users (popular users, brand pages etc.) are more useful for improving search rankings.
4. Tweets and retweets: Tweets or retweets about your page from other Twitter users influences the rank of that page.
5. Authority of Twitter users: Similar to Facebook, tweets or retweets originating from high authority Twitter accounts affect the Google rankings.
6. Google +1s: Being Google’s own platform, the total number of Google +1s is an important source of social signal for Google.
7. Authority of Google+ users: Similar to Facebook and Twitter, +1s by Google+ users having a high number of followers are likely to carry more weight in determining Google ranking.
8. Pinterest Pins: Number of Pinterest Pins saved by other users is likely to be considered as a social signal by Google.
9. Social sharing sites: Number of votes, upvotes, saves or shares received by your pages on social sharing sites like Reddit, Stumbleupon, Flipboard is an extremely important factor.
10. Presence on Linkedin: Having an official Linkedin company page and Linkedin profiles which list your company as the place of their employment provides important social and branding signals to Google

I hope this list of Top 30 Google Ranking Factors helps you in prioritizing your overall SEO effort and better managing your day-to-day SEO activities. I would also recommend you to read my earlier posts Unbelievably Powerful Link Building Software and WordPress Ping List for Ultra Fast Indexing to help you on your SEO journey.

Do you think there are any other top Google ranking factors which we need to include in my list? Do let us know through your comments.