You probably already know that Google uses about 200 ranking factors in
their algorithm…
But what the heck are they?
Well today you’re in for a treat because I’ve put together
a
complete list.
Some are proven.
Some are controversial.
Others are SEO nerd speculation.
But
they’re all here.
Domain Factors
1. Domain Age: “The difference between a
domain that’s six months old versus one year old is really not that big at
all.”..
In other words, they do
use domain age…but it’s not very important.
2. Keyword Appears in Top
Level Domain: Doesn’t give the boost that it used to, but having your keyword
in the domain still acts as a relevancy signal. After all, they still bold
keywords that appear in a domain name.
3. Keyword As First Word
in Domain: A domain that starts with their target keyword has an edge over
sites that either don’t have the keyword in their domain or have the keyword in
the middle or end of their domain.
4. Domain registration
length: A Google patent states:
“Valuable (legitimate)
domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway
(illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the
date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting
the legitimacy of a domain”.
5. Keyword in Subdomain Name: Moz’s 2011 panel
agreed that a keyword appearing in the subdomain can boost rankings:
6. Domain History: A site with volatile ownership (via whois)
or several drops may tell Google to “reset” the site’s history, negating links
pointing to the domain.
7. Exact Match Domain: EMDs may still give you an edge…if
it’s a quality site. But if the EMD happens to be a low-quality site, it’s
vulnerable to the
EMD update:
8. Public vs. Private
WhoIs: Private WhoIs information may be a sign of “something to hide”. Matt
Cutts is quoted as stating at Pubcon 2006:
“…When I checked the whois on
them, they all had “whois privacy protection service” on them. That’s
relatively unusual.
…Having whois
privacy turned on isn’t automatically bad, but once you get several of these
factors all together, you’re often talking about a very different type of
webmaster than the fellow who just has a single site or so.”
9. Penalized WhoIs Owner: If Google identifies a
particular person as a spammer it makes sense that they would scrutinize other
sites owned by that person.
10. Country TLD extension: Having a Country Code Top
Level Domain (.cn, .pt, .ca) helps the site rank for that particular
country…but limits the site’s ability to rank globally.
Page-Level Factors
11. Keyword in Title Tag: The
title tag is a webpage’s second most important piece of content (besides the
content of the page) and therefore sends a strong
on-page
SEO signal.
12. Title Tag Starts with
Keyword: According to
Moz
data, title tags that starts with a keyword tend to perform better than
title tags with the keyword towards the end of the tag:
13. Keyword in Description
Tag: Another relevancy signal. Not especially important now,
but still makes a difference.
14. Keyword Appears in H1
Tag: H1 tags are a “second title tag” that sends another
relevancy signal to Google, according to results from
this correlation study:
15. Keyword is Most Frequently Used Phrase in Document:
Having a keyword appear more than any other likely acts as a relevancy signal.
16. Content Length: Content with more words can cover
a wider breadth and are likely preferred to shorter superficial articles.
SERPIQ found that
content length correlated
with SERP position:
17. Keyword Density: Although not as important as it once
was, keyword density is still something Google uses to determine the topic of a
webpage. But going overboard can hurt you.
18. Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords in Content (LSI):
LSI keywords help search engines extract meaning from words with more than one
meaning (Apple the computer company vs. the fruit). The presence/absence of LSI
probably also acts as a content quality signal.
19. LSI Keywords in Title and Description Tags: As with
webpage content, LSI keywords in page meta tags probably help Google discern
between synonyms. May also act as a relevancy signal.
20. Page Loading Speed via HTML: Both
Google and
Bing use page loading speed as a ranking factor.
Search engine spiders can estimate your site speed fairly accurately based on a
page’s code and filesize.
21. Duplicate Content: Identical content on the same site
(even slightly modified) can
negatively influence a site’s
search engine visibility.
22. Rel=Canonical: When
used properly, use of this tag
may prevent Google from considering pages duplicate content.
23. Page Loading Speed via Chrome: Google may also use
Chrome user data to get a better handle on a page’s loading time as this takes
into account server speed, CDN usage and other non HTML-related site speed
signals.
24. Image Optimization: Images on-page send search engines
important relevancy signals through their file name, alt text, title,
description and caption.
25. Recency of Content Updates: Google Caffeine update favors
recently updated content, especially for time-sensitive searches. Highlighting
this factor’s importance, Google shows the date of a page’s last update for
certain pages:
26. Magnitude of Content Updates: The significance of edits
and changes is also a freshness factor. Adding or removing entire sections is a
more significant update than switching around the order of a few words.
27. Historical Updates Page Updates: How often has the page
been updated over time? Daily, weekly, every 5-years? Frequency of page updates
also play a role in freshness.
28. Keyword Prominence: Having a keyword appear in the
first 100-words of a page’s content appears to be a significant relevancy
signal.
29. Keyword in H2, H3 Tags: Having your keyword appear as a
subheading in H2 or H3 format may be another weak relevancy signal. Moz’s panel
agrees:
30. Keyword Word Order: An exact match of a searcher’s
keyword in a page’s content will generally rank better than the same keyword
phrase in a different order. For example: consider a search for: “cat shaving
techniques”. A page optimized for the phrase “cat shaving techniques” will rank
better than a page optimized for “techniques for shaving a cat”. This is a good
illustration of why
keyword research is really,
really
important.
31. Outbound Link Quality: Many SEOs think that linking out
to authority sites helps send trust signals to Google.
32. Outbound Link Theme: According to Moz, search engines may use the
content of the pages you link to as a relevancy signal. For example, if you
have a page about cars that links to movie-related pages, this may tell Google
that your page is about the movie Cars, not the automobile.
33. Grammar and Spelling: Proper grammar and spelling
is a quality signal, although
Cutts gave mixed
messages in 2011 on whether or not this was important.
34. Syndicated Content: Is the content on the page
original? If it’s scraped or copied from an indexed page it won’t rank as well
as the original or end up in their
Supplemental Index.
35. Helpful Supplementary Content: According to a
now-public Google Rater
Guidelines Document, helpful supplementary content is an indicator of a
page’s quality (and therefore, Google ranking). Examples include currency
converters, loan interest calculators and interactive recipes.
36. Number of Outbound Links: Too many dofollow OBLs may
“leak” PageRank, which can hurt that page’s rankings.
37. Multimedia: Images, videos and other multimedia
elements may act as a content quality signal.
38. Number of Internal Links Pointing to Page: The
number of internal links to a page indicates its importance relative to other
pages on the site.
39. Quality of Internal Links Pointing to Page: Internal
links from authoritative pages on domain have a stronger effect than pages with
no or low PR.
40. Broken Links: Having too many broken links on a page
may be a sign of a neglected or abandoned site. The Google Rater Guidelines
Document uses broken links as one was to assess a homepage’s quality.
41. Reading Level: There’s no doubt that Google estimates
the reading level of webpages. In fact, Google used to give you reading level
stats:
But what they do with that information is up for debate. Some say that a
basic reading level will help you rank better because it will appeal to the
masses. But others associate a basic reading level with content mills like
Ezine Articles.
42. Affiliate Links: Affiliate links themselves probably
won’t hurt your rankings. But if you have too many, Google’s algorithm may pay
closer attention to other quality signals to make sure you’re not a “thin
affiliate site”.
43. HTML errors/W3C validation: Lots of HTML errors or
sloppy coding may be a sign of a poor quality site. While controversial, many
in SEO think that WC3 validation is a weak quality signal.
44. Page Host’s Domain Authority: All things being equal, a
page on an authoritative domain will rank higher than a page on a domain with
less authority.
45. Page’s PageRank: Not perfectly correlated. But in
general higher PR pages tend to rank better than low PR pages.
46. URL Length: Search Engine Journal
notes that excessively long URLs may hurt search visibility.
47. URL Path: A page closer to the homepage may get a
slight authority boost.
48. Human Editors: Although never confirmed, Google has
filed
a patent for a system that allows human editors to
influence the SERPs.
49. Page Category: The category the page appears on is a
relevancy signal. A page that’s part of a closely related category should get a
relevancy boost compared to a page that’s filed under an unrelated or less
related category.
50. WordPress Tags: Tags are WordPress-specific
relevancy signal. According to
Yoast.com:
“The only way it improves your SEO is by relating one piece of content
to another, and more specifically a group of posts to each other”
51. Keyword in URL: Another important relevancy signal.
52. URL String: The categories in the URL string are
read by Google and may provide a thematic signal to what a page is about:
53. References and Sources: Citing references and sources,
like research papers do, may be a sign of quality. The Google Quality
Guidelines states that reviewers should keep an eye out for sources when
looking at certain pages: “This is a topic where expertise and/or authoritative
sources are important…”. However,
Google has denied that they use external links as a ranking
signal.
54. Bullets and Numbered Lists: Bullets and numbered lists
help break up your content for readers, making them more user friendly. Google
likely agrees and may prefer content with bullets and numbers.
55. Priority of Page in Sitemap: The priority a page is
given via the sitemap.xml file may influence ranking.
56. Too Many Outbound Links: Straight from the
aforementioned Quality rater document:
“Some pages have way, way too many links, obscuring the page and
distracting from the Main Content”
57. Quantity of Other Keywords Page Ranks For: If the page
ranks for several other keywords it may give Google an internal sign of
quality.
58. Page Age: Although Google prefers fresh content, an
older page that’s regularly updated may outperform a newer page.
59. User Friendly Layout: Citing the Google Quality
Guidelines Document yet again:
“The
page layout on highest quality pages makes the Main Content immediately
visible”
60. Parked Domains: A
Google update in December of
2011 decreased search visibility of parked domains.
61. Useful Content: As pointed out by Backlinko
reader
Jared Carrizales,
Google
may
distinguish between “quality” and “useful” content.
Site-Level Factors
62. Content Provides Value and Unique Insights: Google
has stated that they’re on the hunt
for sites that don’t bring anything new or useful to the table, especially thin
affiliate sites.
63. Contact Us Page: The aforementioned Google Quality
Document states that they prefer sites with an “appropriate amount of contact
information”. Supposed bonus if your contact information matches your whois
info.
64. Domain Trust/TrustRank: Site trust — measured by how
many links away your site is from highly-trusted seed sites — is a massively
important ranking factor. You can read more about TrustRank
here.
65. Site Architecture: A well put-together site
architecture (especially a silo structure) helps Google thematically organize
your content.
66. Site Updates: How often a site is updated — and
especially when new content is added to the site — is a site-wide freshness
factor.
67. Number of Pages: The number of pages a site has is a
weak sign of authority. At the very least a large site helps distinguish it
from thin affiliate sites.
68. Presence of Sitemap: A sitemap helps search engines
index your pages easier and more thoroughly, improving visibility.
69. Site Uptime: Lots of downtime from site maintenance or
server issues may hurt your ranking (and can even result in deindexing if not
corrected).
70. Server Location: Server location may influence where
your site ranks in different geographical regions. Especially important for
geo-specific searches.
71. SSL Certificate: Google has confirmed that they
index SSL certificates and that
they
use HTTPS as a ranking
signal.
72. Terms of Service and Privacy Pages: These two pages
help tell Google that a site is a trustworthy member of the internet.
73. Duplicate Meta Information On-Site: Duplicate meta
information across your site may bring down all of your page’s visibility.
74. Breadcrumb Navigation: This is a style of
user-friendly site-architecture that helps users (and search engines) know
where they are on a site:
Both
SearchEngineJournal.com and
Ethical SEO Consulting claim
that this set-up may be a ranking factor.
75. Mobile Optimized: Google’s official stance on mobile
is to create a responsive site. It’s likely that responsive sites get an edge
in searches from a mobile device. In fact, they now add “
Mobile friendly” tags to sites that display well on mobile
devices. Google
also started penalizing
sites in Mobile search that aren’t mobile friendly
76. YouTube: There’s no doubt that YouTube videos are given
preferential treatment in the SERPs (probably because Google owns it ):
77. Site Usability: A site that’s difficult to use or to
navigate can hurt ranking by reducing time on site, pages viewed and bounce
rate. This may be an independent algorithmic factor gleaned from massive
amounts of user data.
78. Use of Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools: Some
think that having these two programs installed on your site can improve your
page’s indexing. They may also directly influence rank by giving Google more
data to work with (ie. more accurate bounce rate, whether or not you get
referral traffic from your
backlinks etc.).
79. User reviews/Site reputation: A site’s on review sites
like Yelp.com and RipOffReport.com likely play an important role in the
algorithm. Google even posted
a rarely candid outline of their
approach to user reviews after an eyeglass site was caught ripping off customers
in an effort to get backlinks.
Backlink Factors
80. Linking Domain Age: Backlinks from aged domains may be
more powerful than new domains.
81. # of Linking Root Domains: The number of referring
domains is one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s algorithm, as
you can see from this chart from
Moz (bottom axis is SERP
position):
82. # of Links from Separate C-Class IPs: Links from
separate class-c IP addresses suggest a wider breadth of sites linking to you.
83. # of Linking Pages: The total number of linking pages —
even if some are on the same domain — is a ranking factor.
84. Alt Tag (for Image Links): Alt text is an image’s
version of anchor text.
85. Links from .edu or .gov Domains: Matt Cutts
has stated that TLD doesn’t
factor into a site’s importance. However, that doesn’t stop SEOs from thinking
that there’s a special place in the algo for .gov and .edu TLDs.
86. Authority of Linking Page: The authority
(PageRank) of the referring page is an extremely important ranking factor.
87. Authority of Linking Domain: The referring domain’s
authority may play an independent role in a link’s importance (ie. a PR2 page
link from a site with a homepage PR3 may be worth less than a PR2 page
link from PR8 Yale.edu).
88. Links From Competitors: Links from other pages ranking
in the same SERP may be more valuable for a page’s rank for that particular
keyword.
89. Social Shares of Referring Page: The amount of
page-level social shares may influence the link’s value.
90. Links from Bad Neighborhoods: Links from “bad
neighborhoods”
may hurt your site.
91. Guest Posts: Although guest posting can be part of a
white hat
SEO campaign, links coming from guest posts — especially in an author bio
area — may not be as valuable as a contextual link on the same page.
92. Links to Homepage Domain that Page Sits On: Links to a
referring page’s homepage may play special importance in evaluating a site’s —
and therefore a link’s — weight.
93. Nofollow Links: One of the most controversial
topics in SEO.
Google’s official word on
the matter is:
“In
general, we don’t follow them.”
Which suggests that they
do…at least in certain cases. Having a
certain % of nofollow links may also indicate a natural vs. unnatural link
profile.
94. Diversity of Link Types: Having an unnaturally large
percentage of your links come from a single source (ie. forum profiles, blog
comments) may be a sign of webspam. On the other hand, links from diverse
sources is a sign of a natural link profile.
95. “Sponsored Links” Or Other Words Around Link: Words
like “sponsors”, “link partners” and “sponsored links” may decrease a link’s
value.
96. Contextual Links: Links embedded inside a page’s
content are considered more powerful than links on an empty page or found
elsewhere on the page.
A good example of contextual links are
backlinks from guestographics.
97. Excessive 301 Redirects to Page: Links coming from 301
redirects dilute some (or even all) PR, according to a
Webmaster Help Video.
98. Backlink Anchor Text: As noted in
this description of Google’s original
algorithm:
“First, anchors often provide more accurate
descriptions of web pages than the pages themselves.”
Obviously, anchor text is less important than before (and likely a webspam
signal). But it still sends a strong relevancy signal in small doses.
99. Internal Link Anchor Text: Internal link anchor text is
another relevancy signal, although probably weighed differently than backlink
anchor text.
100. Link Title Attribution: The link title (the text that
appears when you hover over a link) is also used as a weak relevancy signals.
101. Country TLD of Referring Domain: Getting links from
country-specific top level domain extensions (.de, .cn, .co.uk) may help you
rank better in that country.
102. Link Location In Content: Links in the beginning
of a piece of content carry slightly more weight than links placed at the end
of the content.
103. Link Location on Page: Where a link appears on a page
is important. Generally, links embedded in a page’s content are more powerful
than links in the footer or sidebar area.
104. Linking Domain Relevancy: A link from site in a
similar niche is significantly more powerful than a link from a completely
unrelated site. That’s why any
effective SEO
strategy today focuses on obtaining
relevant links.
105. Page Level Relevancy: The Hilltop Algorithm states that link from a
page that’s closely tied to page’s content is more powerful than a link from an
unrelated page.
106. Text Around Link Sentiment: Google has
probably figured out whether
or not a link to your site is a recommendation or part of a negative review.
Links with positive sentiments around them likely carry more weight.
107. Keyword in Title: Google gives extra love to
links on pages that contain your page’s keyword in the title (“Experts linking
to experts”.)
108. Positive Link Velocity: A site with positive link
velocity usually gets a SERP boost.
109. Negative Link Velocity: Negative link velocity can
significantly reduce rankings as it’s a signal of decreasing popularity.
110. Links from “Hub” Pages: Aaron Wall claims that getting links from pages
that are considered top resources (or hubs) on a certain topic are given
special treatment.
111. Link from Authority Sites: A link from a site
considered an “authority site” likely pass more juice than a link from a small,
microniche site.
112. Linked to as Wikipedia Source: Although the links are
nofollow, many think that getting a link from Wikipedia gives you a little
added trust and authority in the eyes of search engines.
113. Co-Occurrences: The words that tend to appear
around your backlinks
helps tell Google what that page
is about.
114. Backlink Age: According to
a Google patent, older
links have more ranking power than newly minted backlinks.
115. Links from Real Sites vs. Splogs: Due to the
proliferation of blog networks, Google probably gives more weight to links
coming from “real sites” than from fake blogs. They likely use brand and
user-interaction signals to distinguish between the two.
116. Natural Link Profile: A site with a “natural” link profile
is going to rank highly and be more durable to updates.
117. Reciprocal Links: Google’s Link Schemes page lists
“Excessive link exchanging” as a link scheme to avoid.
118. User Generated Content Links: Google is able to
identify links generated from UGC vs. the actual site owner. For example, they
know that a link from the official WordPress.com blog at en.blog.wordpress.com
is
very different than a link from besttoasterreviews.wordpress.com.
119. Links from 301: Links from 301 redirects may lose a
little bit of juice compared to a direct link. However,
Matt Cutts says that a
301 is similar to a direct link.
120. Schema.org Microformats: Pages that support
microformats may rank above pages without it. This may be a direct boost or the
fact that pages with microformatting have a higher SERP CTR:
121. DMOZ Listed: Many believe that Google gives DMOZ
listed sites a little extra trust.
122. TrustRank of Linking Site: The trustworthiness of the
site linking to you determines how much “TrustRank” gets passed onto you.
123. Number of Outbound Links on Page: PageRank is finite.
A link on a page with hundreds of OBLs passes less PR than a page with only a
few OBLs.
124. Forum Profile Links: Because of industrial-level
spamming, Google may significantly devalue links from forum profiles.
125. Word Count of Linking Content: A link from a
1000-word post is more valuable than a link inside of a 25-word snippet.
126. Quality of Linking Content: Links from poorly
written or spun content don’t pass as much value as links from well-written,
multimedia-enhanced content.
127. Sitewide Links: Matt Cutts
has confirmed that sitewide links are
“compressed” to count as a single link.
User Interaction
128. Organic Click Through Rate for a Keyword: Pages that
get clicked more in CTR
may get a SERP boost for that
particular keyword.
129. Organic CTR for All Keywords: A page’s (or site’s)
organic CTR for all keywords is ranks for may be a human-based, user
interaction signal.
130. Bounce Rate: Not everyone in SEO agrees bounce rate
matters, but it may be a way of Google to use their users as quality testers
(pages where people quickly bounce is probably not very good).
131. Direct Traffic: It’s confirmed that
Google uses data from Google Chrome
to determine whether or not people visit a site (and how often). Sites with
lots of direct traffic are likely higher quality than sites that get very
little direct traffic.
132. Repeat Traffic: They may also look at whether or not
users go back to a page or site after visiting. Sites with repeat visitors may
get a Google ranking boost.
133. Blocked Sites: Google has discontinued
this feature in Chrome. However,
Panda used this feature as a
quality signal.
134. Chrome Bookmarks: We know that Google
collects Chrome browser usage data.
Pages that get bookmarked in Chrome might get a boost.
135. Google Toolbar Data: Search Engine Watch’s Danny
Goodwin reports
that Google uses toolbar data
as a ranking signal. However, besides page loading speed and malware, it’s not
known what kind of data they glean from the toolbar.
136. Number of Comments: Pages with lots of comments may be
a signal of user-interaction and quality.
137. Dwell Time: Google pays very close attention to “dwell
time”: how long people spend on your page when coming from a Google search.
This is also sometimes referred to as “long clicks vs short clicks”. If people
spend a lot of time on your site, that may be used as a quality signal.
Special Algorithm Rules
138. Query Deserves Freshness: Google gives newer pages a
boost
for certain searches.
139. Query Deserves Diversity: Google may
add diversity to a SERP for ambiguous keywords,
such as “Ted”, “WWF” or “ruby”.
140. User Browsing History: Sites that you frequently visit
while signed into Google get a SERP bump for your searches.
141. User Search History: Search chain
influence search results for later
searches. For example, if you search for “reviews” then search for
“toasters”, Google is more likely to show toaster review sites higher in the
SERPs.
142. Geo Targeting: Google gives preference to sites with a
local server IP and country-specific domain name extension.
143. Safe Search: Search results with curse words or adult
content won’t appear for people with Safe Search turned on.
144. Google+ Circles: Google shows higher results for
authors and sites that you’ve added to your Google Plus Circles
145. DMCA Complaints: Google “downranks” pages
with DMCA complaints.
146. Domain Diversity: The so-called “
Bigfoot Update” supposedly added
more domains to each SERP page.
147. Transactional Searches: Google sometimes displays
different results for shopping-related keywords, like flight searches.
148. Local Searches: Google often places Google+ Local
results above the “normal” organic SERPs.
149. Google News Box: Certain keywords trigger a
Google News box:
150. Big Brand Preference: After the
Vince Update, Google began giving big
brands a boost for certain short-tail searches.
151. Shopping Results: Google sometimes displays Google
Shopping results in organic SERPs:
152. Image Results: Google elbows our organic listings for
image results for searches commonly used on Google Image Search.
153. Easter Egg Results: Google has a dozen or so
Easter
Egg results. For example, when you search for “Atari Breakout” in
Google image search, the search results turn into a playable game (!).
Shout out to
Victor Pan for this
one.
154. Single Site Results for Brands: Domain or
brand-oriented keywords bring up
several results from the same
site.
Social
Signals
155. Number of Tweets: Like links, the tweets a page has
may influence its rank in Google.
156. Authority of Twitter Users Accounts: It’s likely that
Tweets coming from aged, authority Twitter profiles with a ton of followers
(like Justin Bieber) have more of an effect than tweets from new, low-influence
accounts.
157. Number of Facebook Likes: Although Google
can’t see most Facebook
accounts, it’s likely they consider the number of Facebook likes a page
receives as a weak ranking signal.
158. Facebook Shares: Facebook shares — because they’re
more similar to a backlink —
may have a stronger influence than
Facebook likes.
159. Authority of Facebook User Accounts: As with Twitter,
Facebook shares and likes coming from popular Facebook pages may pass more
weight.
160. Pinterest Pins: Pinterest is an insanely popular
social media account with lots of public data. It’s probably that Google
considers Pinterest Pins a social signal.
161. Votes on Social Sharing Sites: It’s possible that
Google uses shares at sites like Reddit, Stumbleupon and Digg as another type
of social signal.
162. Number of Google+1’s: Although Matt Cutts gone on the
record as saying Google+ has “
no direct effect” on
rankings, it’s hard to believe that they’d ignore their own social network.
163. Authority of Google+ User Accounts: It’s logical that
Google would weigh +1’s coming from authoritative accounts more than from
accounts without many followers.
164. Known Authorship: In February 2013, Google CEO Eric
Schmidt famously claimed:
“Within
search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked
higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users
naturally clicking on the top (verified) results.”
166.
Site Level Social Signals: Site-wide social signals may increase a site’s
overall authority, which will increase search visibility for all of its pages.
Brand
Signals
167. Brand Name Anchor Text: Branded anchor text is a
simple — but strong — brand signal.
168. Branded Searches: It’s simple: people search for
brands. If people search for your site in Google (ie. “Backlinko twitter”,
Backlinko + “ranking factors”), Google likely takes this into consideration
when determining a brand.
169. Site Has Facebook Page and Likes: Brands tend to have
Facebook pages with lots of likes.
170. Site has Twitter Profile with Followers: Twitter
profiles with a lot of followers signals a popular brand.
171. Official Linkedin Company Page: Most real businesses
have company Linkedin pages.
172. Employees Listed at Linkedin: Rand Fishkin thinks that
having Linkedin profiles that say they work for your company is a brand signal.
173. Legitimacy of Social Media Accounts: A social media
account with 10,000 followers and 2 posts is probably interpreted
a lot
differently than another 10,000-follower strong account with lots of
interaction.
174. Brand Mentions on News Sites: Really big brands get
mentioned on Google News sites all the time. In fact, some brands even have
their own Google News feed on the first page:
175. Co-Citations: Brands get mentioned without getting
linked to. Google likely looks at non-hyperlinked brand mentions as a brand
signal.
176. Number of RSS Subscribers: Considering that Google
owns the popular Feedburner RSS service, it
makes sense that they would look at RSS Subscriber data as a popularity/brand
signal.
177. Brick and Mortar Location With Google+ Local Listing: Real
businesses have offices. It’s possible that Google fishes for location-data to
determine whether or not a site is a big brand.
178. Website is Tax Paying Business: Moz reports that Google
may look at whether or not a site is associated with a tax-paying business.
On-Site
WebSpam Factors
179. Panda Penalty: Sites with low-quality content
(particularly
content farms) are less visible in
search after getting
hit by a Panda penalty.
180. Links to Bad Neighborhoods: Linking out to “bad
neighborhoods” — like pharmacy or payday loan sites — may hurt your search
visibility.
181. Redirects: Sneaky redirects
is a big no-no. If caught, it can get a site not just
penalized, but de-indexed.
182. Popups or Distracting Ads: The official
Google Rater Guidelines Document says that
popups and distracting ads is a sign of a low-quality site.
183. Site Over-Optimization: Includes on-page factors like
keyword stuffing, header tag stuffing, excessive keyword decoration.
184. Page Over-Optimization: Many people report that —
unlike Panda — Penguin targets individual page (and even then just for certain
keywords).
185. Ads Above the Fold: The “
Page Layout Algorithm”
penalizes sites with lots of ads (and not much content) above the fold.
186. Hiding Affiliate Links: Going too far when trying to
hide affiliate links (especially with cloaking) can bring on a penalty.
187. Affiliate Sites: It’s no secret that Google
isn’t the
biggest fan of affiliates. And many think that sites that monetize with affiliate
links are put under extra scrutiny.
188. Autogenerated Content: Google
isn’t a big fan of
autogenerated content. If they suspect that your site’s pumping out
computer-generated content, it could result in a penalty or de-indexing.
189. Excess PageRank Sculpting: Going too far with
PageRank sculpting — by
nofollowing all outbound links or most internal links — may be a sign of gaming
the system.
190. IP Address Flagged as Spam: If your server’s IP
address is flagged for spam,
it may hurt all of the sites on that
server.
191. Meta Tag Spamming: Keyword stuffing can also happen in
meta tags. If Google thinks you’re adding keywords to your meta tags to game
the algo, they may hit your site with a penalty.
Off
Page Webspam Factors
192. Unnatural Influx of Links: A sudden (and unnatural)
influx of links is a sure-fire sign of phony links.
193. Penguin Penalty: Sites that were hit by
Google Penguin are significantly less visible in
search.
194. Link Profile with High % of Low Quality Links: Lots of
links from sources commonly used by black hat SEOs (like blog comments and
forum profiles) may be a sign of gaming the system.
195. Linking Domain Relevancy: The famous analysis by
MicroSiteMasters.com found
that sites with an unnaturally high amount of links from unrelated sites were
more susceptible to Penguin.
196. Unnatural Links Warning: Google sent out thousands of
“Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links” messages. This
usually precedes a ranking drop, although
not 100% of the time.
197. Links from the Same Class C IP: Getting an unnatural
amount of links from sites on the same server IP may be a sign of blog network
link building.
198. “Poison” Anchor Text: Having “poison” anchor text
(especially pharmacy keywords) pointed to your site may be a sign of spam or a
hacked site. Either way, it can hurt your site’s ranking.
199. Manual Penalty: Google has been known to hand out
manual penalties, like in the well-publicized
Interflora fiasco.
200. Selling Links: Selling links can definitely impact
toolbar PageRank and may hurt your
search visibility.
201. Google Sandbox: New sites that get a sudden influx of
links are sometimes put in the
Google Sandbox, which temporarily limits search
visibility.
202. Google Dance: The Google Dance can temporarily shake
up rankings. According to a
Google Patent, this
may be a way for them to determine whether or not a site is trying to game the
algorithm.
203. Disavow Tool: Use of the Disavow Tool may remove a
manual or algorithmic penalty for sites that were the victims of negative SEO.
204. Reconsideration Request: A successful reconsideration
request can lift a penalty.
205. Temporary Link Schemes: Google has (apparently) caught
onto people that create — and quickly remove — spammy links. Also know as a
temporary
link scheme.
Source By:
http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors
