What are the main SEO ranking factors on Google?

Google’s algorithms, which make the weather on the SERP, are extremely complex to decipher and understand. That’s because they include no fewer than 200 factors whose importance varies.

However, through repeated tests, studies and reading on the subject, it is now possible to identify the main factors that influence a site’s ranking. Of course, what is true today won’t necessarily be true tomorrow. SEO is a long-term effort, and above all a constant one!

Since we can’t tell you exactly how the famous ranking algorithm works, we’ve put together an article that highlights the most important ranking factors in Google’s eyes.

Why are these ranking factors so important for your SEO?

You often hear about “Google Friendly” or “SEO Friendly” sites. This term is used to describe sites that meet the broad principles laid down by the American giant, and according to which some sites are favored over others.

If you want to improve your positioning on the SERP, you can’t ignore these “ranking factors”. A site that meets most of them is considered optimized for the search engine and maximizes its chances of ranking.

…Or you can choose to leave them to your competitors. By deciding to set these factors aside, you’re clearly closing doors on yourself. This means your site will be optimized on certain aspects fairly naturally. Indeed, meeting some factors is more a matter of common sense than of a real ranking strategy. But other points deserve closer attention.

Sometimes, it only takes a few small details to make the difference and gain positions among search results. If you don’t do it, know that your competitors will do everything they can to make their site meet these ranking factors as much as possible. You know the rest…

Once you’re aware of the main Google ranking factors, you can easily develop certain reflexes, both in on-site technical design and in content production or netlinking strategies.

RankBrain shakes up the ranking factors

The rollout of the RankBrain algorithm, which feeds on data from user behavior when they use the search engine, also has a significant influence on ranking factors. It is crucial to take this change into account. While ranking factors were still similar at a universal level before the arrival of this algorithm, that’s no longer the case today. The importance of these ranking systems therefore varies according to users’ concerns related to your activity, and thus according to how relevant your answers are to their queries.

The arrival of RankBrain notably gave rise to the different types of queries: transactional, informational, institutional…

The main ranking factors in 2019

As noted earlier, the 200 ranking factors that affect a site’s positioning are bound to change. Factors related to content quality, backlinks or a site’s Mobile Friendly aspect will probably persist for a few more years, and may even grow in importance. On the other hand, others such as the presence of keywords in the meta description or the number of pages on a site have lost importance and may perhaps fade away entirely over the coming years.

In this section, we’ll present the main ranking factors for each element related to your website.

The Domain

Domain age

The age of a website and its domain remains an important ranking factor for Google. The older a site’s domain name is, the more credibility and importance Google will grant it.

Keywords and domain

An exact match between the searched keyword or key phrase and the domain name influenced a site’s positioning until a few years ago. Today, it is preferable to choose a strong brand to make an impact on your market and to buy a domain name matching the brand. For example, to rank for the keyword “florist lyon”, we’d bet on buying a strong brand name rather than buying a domain name like “florist-lyon.fr”.

URL structure

Hyphens in the domain name should be used sparingly; we advise against putting more than one, at the risk of ending up with a spammy-looking domain name.

source: Rankwatch

Localization

The last factor: the choice of domain name should be made in relation to the country/countries where your customers are located. As part of an expanding international activity, or simply to cover your bases, don’t hesitate to acquire all the domain names of the countries in which you want to establish yourself.

Web page

The ranking factors related to your website’s pages are very important to Google. Why? Your site’s pages contain and present your content, and it’s precisely the quality of this environment that determines the quality of the UX!

Main keyword

First of all, for an effective SEO strategy, you must assign a strategic keyword to each page.

The TITLE tag of each page must absolutely contain the main keyword assigned to it — ideally at the beginning — and be optimized for SEO. It counts almost as much as the content itself and is one of the main elements of on-page SEO, so put your heart into it!

This same keyword should also appear in:

• the H1,
• at least one H2,
• the body text,
• the URL of the page in question (which should not be overly long),
• the ALT tag of the images on the page.

Keyword density ranges between 1.25% for the least competitive sectors, and 7% for SERPs where competition is fierce. Beware of keyword stuffing, or you’ll be penalized!

source: SEMrush study

Hn tags

For more comfortable reading, your content must be properly structured and organized according to the principles of Hn tagging.

As for the text itself, its size must be greater than that of competing content to have a chance of ranking. To help you, you can rely on the Top 3 for the targeted keyword, and do everything you can to do better. This is what’s called the “Skyscraper” technique.

The relevance of your content will also be judged based on the richness of the semantic field.

Website

You now know what to watch out for when optimizing a page; let’s move on to the requirements of your website itself.

Accessibility and usability

You must be able to offer your visitors an accessible and user-friendly website. Those that are perpetually under maintenance, that aren’t responsive, or that take 2 minutes to load can forget about the top positions on Google!

User security

The browsing experience you offer your users must be secure. Your site must not contain malicious programs or other spam.

Intuitive navigation

Finally, your content must be rich and regularly updated. A clear site structure will always be valued more than a messy, unstructured sitemap. Your visitors must have a way to contact you, and your site must include legal notices that guarantee your compliance with data-protection regulations.

Backlinks

The quantity and quality of your backlinks are the main factors for determining your site’s authority, but other elements come into play. Here are the main ones:

• the age of the domain from which a backlink comes,
• the number of referring domains, which lets you check the diversity of your link profile,
• the number of IP addresses from which your links come,
• the number of pages on your site that benefit from backlinks,
• the anchors of your links, which give Google valuable indications about the page’s content (be careful, as over-optimized anchors can be treated as spam),
• the authority of the page that links to your site,
• a consistent dofollow / nofollow link ratio,
• a semantically relevant contextualization of the links.

Of course, if meeting these factors positively impacts your SEO, the opposite is also true!

source: ahrefs

Algorithm

Through studies and long-term observations, all across a large volume of sites, it is now possible to draw a few conclusions about the algorithm’s behavior.

Browsing history and search context

To deliver the best result to its user, Google takes browsing history into account. This means that already-visited sites will be favored over others, obviously. But also that, depending on an internet user’s interests and habits, Google will know exactly which content to present to them.

Take the query “Python” as an example. The search engine will present different results to a user who searches daily for information about reptiles and to a web developer who is in the middle of learning new programming languages.

Search localization

The user’s geographic location also affects the ranking of sites, which will be chosen based on their domain name extension and the IP address of the server they are hosted on.

The SERP presented to you will also depend on the type of query: informational, transactional… Local search takes on its full meaning here.

Rich snippets

As for the display of snippets, a SEMrush study reveals that it would depend on content length, page authority and format…

HTTPS

User security above all: HTTPS sites are heavily favored over those that don’t use a secure protocol.

source: Searchmetrics

Social networks

The influence of social networks on SEO remains unclear, but it exists — that’s certain. Regular use of the various social networks, posts and interactions send positive signals to Google. This activity indicates that your brand is very much alive and suggests that your content is up to date and in tune with current events.

Some social network accounts, however, remain more legitimate than others when it comes to standing out on the search engine.

A broad presence

Brands that are present across all social networks also multiply their chances of appearing in search results. The more followers the accounts have, the more the brand gains legitimacy in Google’s eyes.

An engaged audience

Measuring your audience’s engagement is a factor that also influences your ranking. With the growing use of stories, Google is giving more and more importance to brand mentions. If your company is often cited, this element can influence its ranking.

The same goes if your posts get lots of likes, shares and comments: Google considers you to be popular! Even though most of the population has abandoned Google+, those who still use it and are famous on it are also in the American giant’s good books.

Brand

Branded query volume

Your company will start to exist as a brand in Google’s eyes as soon as it becomes the subject of regular queries. For example, if there are enough queries like “Semji” on Google, our site will become a brand and its ranking will therefore be governed by all the ranking factors related to brands.

Influence on social media

The notion of brand is intimately linked to the factors relating to influential accounts on social networks. To be considered as such, your brand will of course need to hold “company” or “professional” accounts on social networks.

Professional social networks like LinkedIn make it possible to link “individual” accounts to “brand” accounts. Don’t hesitate to ask your employees to indicate their connection with your company to strengthen its authority.

Company reputation

A brand mentioned regularly in Google News will also be considered very popular.

Backlinks that contain your brand name also carry more weight, and know that mentions of your brand made without a hyperlink also have value. So keep up regular communication and continue to develop your press relations.

The main SEO ranking factors by industry

Every business has its own codes and specifics. Users’ expectations also differ in terms of search results. For this reason, Google adapts its ranking factors to each sector. Searchmetrics shares its analysis covering 5 different industries. This valuable data will help you pinpoint the main factors that deserve to be tackled as a priority to serve your SEO.

E-commerce sites

It’s no longer news: online commerce records phenomenal growth every year. In the US, in 2016, half of all purchases were made online, which means no retailer can currently ignore this sales channel.

Unlike physical stores where priority is given to local SEO (because the user intends to physically go to the store searched for), the SEO of e-commerce sites will be more focused on the quality of the user experience, but also on users’ reviews of products, etc.

The ranking of e-commerce sites is defined by the following factors, most of which converge toward the quality of the UX:

• content structure, which must allow for intuitive, easy and pleasant navigation. The presence of bulleted lists is a great classic of e-commerce sites, for example to present the technical specifications of products. Users turn to e-commerce to save time, not to lose more of it than in a store!
• the number of advertisements such as Adsense, which must not be too high, once again for the sake of a smooth UX.

Other important factors include the domain name extension (.com in most cases) and page size, knowing that the best-ranked e-commerce sites have much heavier pages than average.

Searchmetrics also reveals that the URLs of the best-ranked merchant sites are, on average, 25% longer than usual.

Backlinks, as always, are also decisive.

source: Searchmetrics

The health sector

A multitude of health resources are available online, and it’s up to Google to regulate this data as well as possible. Although the search engine is no substitute for a consultation with a specialist, more and more users trust Google to provide them with information on nutrition, exercises to improve their physical condition, symptoms related to a possible condition, and more. So what are the main relevance factors that govern the ranking of sites dealing with health-related topics?

Beyond the many ranking factors that matter just as much for health-topic sites as for ordinary sites, we find:

• content structure, with a highly appreciated use of bullet points, Hn headings and tables.
• the quality and relevance of the content, given that the information concerns the life, physical and moral integrity of an individual, but also because these resources sometimes address a specialized audience. Priority will therefore be given to rich and comprehensive content.
• the number of keywords related to a page is generally high, which allows content to rank for a multitude of queries.

Focused on the YMYL philosophy (Your Money, Your Life), Google pays particular attention to sites that rank among the top positions for health-related queries.

source: Searchmetrics

The finance sector

On the same model as the health sector, more and more users turn to Google to obtain information about products related to banks and insurance.

In this sector, here are the trends:

• Once again, content quality and the comprehensiveness of information is the most important factor.
• File size and site loading speed are two factors that also matter, knowing that for financial sites, lightness and speed are the order of the day.
• Sites that present airy, structured, easily readable content are also favored. The presence of keywords in the text must be carefully worked on, knowing that the best-ranked financial sites tend to have fewer of them than average.
• Finally, the presence of a moderate number of ads seems to be a favorable factor for ranking in Google’s Top 10. Be careful, however, that they remain consistent with the site’s content and that they don’t clutter navigation.

source: Searchmetrics

Travel

The travel world also has its own ranking factors. If your brand is related to travel and you want to improve your positioning on the SERP, here are the 5 main ranking factors that take on greater importance in your sector than elsewhere:

• content richness: if you claim to give advice to future travelers, you have a multitude of things to tell them: advice on the best activities or places to visit, transportation, culture, food, accommodation, local customs… For this reason, word count matters.
• content quality, again because it’s crucial to provide accurate and precise information to readers, given that the subject is engaging.
• images, very important in this context to offer the most precise possible view of the coveted destinations.
• the number of internal links, which guarantee the semantic coherence of the content and allow readers to find even more information related to their interests. This data is important for travelers who want to plan a particular itinerary and who need ideas and inspiration.
• the presence of bulleted lists, which offer good readability.

source: Searchmetrics

The world of media and the press

This sector sets itself apart from the others previously analyzed by the Top 5 Ranking factors that characterize it.

Ranking factors related to social networks are particularly important for press and media sites. We can see, for example, that activity on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter or even Google+ accounts is far more important compared to standard sites.

Next comes content, which is truly the crux of the matter in these two sectors, and which is scrutinized by Google to best estimate its quality.

Internal linking, for its part, matters more than on standard sites. It allows users to navigate intuitively within the site and to discover content related to their interests.

Loading time is an extremely important ranking factor, which helps guarantee a high-quality UX.

Another interesting fact in this sector: AMP technology is heavily favored, with nearly a quarter of URLs being AMP and thus optimizing content consumption.

source: Searchmetrics

And now that you know the ranking factors better?

Overall, after this analysis, we notice that content and backlinks are ranking factors valid for all sites, regardless of their sector, role or theme. If you have to focus your efforts on two points in particular, it’s these two! Next come accessibility, with responsiveness in particular, or purely technical performance such as accessibility or site loading time.

Google’s 4 essential ranking factors as of today:

• the quality and relevance of the content, both in substance and in form,
• the relevance of backlinks,
• the authority of a page and, by extension, of its domain, which are intimately linked to their link profile,
• the quality of the user experience.

source: Searchmetrics

However, keep in mind that these ranking factors are not fixed. Their nature and importance vary constantly. As always in SEO, what was true yesterday isn’t necessarily true today and probably won’t be tomorrow!

Now you have all the cards in hand to better understand how Google’s ranking algorithm works and to identify the main factors that influence your site’s positioning on the SERP! Now it’s up to you: all that’s left is to work on your SEO accordingly! If you lack the time or technical skills to see your project through, our SEO agency can help you reach your goals and gain positions in the SERPs.