You want to buy a new product or maybe want an answer to your burning question. Where will you go to find your answers within seconds? You’ll go to your colleagues, family, friends or a book from your house? Nowhere.

Because everything’s already available on Google. You’ll add the product to the search list or type your question. Within nanoseconds, you’ll get the answer. You don’t even have to walk to the next room to ask anyone or make any significant effort.

But there’s one big problem.

Most people don’t even scroll past the 1st page of Google. So if your website is not on the 1st page, there are high chances that traffic will be extremely low. As a result, you miss the chance to generate high-quality leads, sales, and brand awareness. However, don’t worry.

Because in this article, you’ll learn something that’ll completely change your website. It is Search Engine Ranking Factors. Google uses these factors to rank websites. We’ll look at the most crucial search ranking factors that’ll increase your chances of being Google’s top favorite. Let’s dive into it.

What Is “Ranking” in SEO?

The ranking means your position on the SERPs (search engine results). So what does top ranking such as number 1 indicate?

It means your web page ranks first on Google, and every website aims for that. You should aim for ranking among at least the top 3 positions because it’ll greatly boost your click-through rates. Either way, ranking on page 1 is extremely advantageous.

Around 95% of people stay on the first page of Google.

And that reminds me of a famous joke;

Why did the website go to therapy after ending up on the 2nd page of Google?

Because it had serious “ranking” issues and needed some search-engine counseling.

So keep reading because this is free search-engine counseling for your website.

What are Google Ranking Factors?

In SEO, you optimize your website to increase its position organically. You aren’t paying for Google ads, advertisements, etc. So you implement specific ranking factors to boost your website’s organic search.

Google ranking factors are the criteria and elements used by Google’s search algorithms to evaluate and determine the position and search visibility of web pages in search engine results pages (SERPs). These factors include a wide range of considerations that help Google determine:

• Relevance
• Quality
• Authority of a webpage to a given search query.

Google uses a complex combination of ranking factors to decide how to order and present search results to users. The goal is to deliver the most relevant and useful information based on the user’s query. These factors include on-page elements, off-page elements, user experience, and more.

But is it of any help?

Yes.

Optimizing a website according to these ranking factors can improve its chances of achieving higher positions in search engine rankings and attracting more organic traffic.

But you should remember one thing.

That Google search algorithm keeps changing. These factors can evolve as the search engine’s algorithms and user preferences change.

There are about 200+ Google ranking factors. Knowing them is difficult, and implementing them is extremely arduous. But we know the most important ones, and if you implement them, the chances of your website reaching the top organically are extremely high.

Types Of Google Search Ranking Factors

Before knowing about top Google search ranking factors, you must under the basic types in which the factors fall. The most common and important types are as follows:

• On-page Ranking Factors: These refer to your content optimization and quality. Moreover, target keywords on your website.
• Off-page Ranking Factors: Endorsements, interviews, links from other sites. They can be on your site or external sites, through link-building strategies.
• Technical Ranking Factors: Evaluate a website’s accessibility for crawling, indexing, rendering content swiftly, and ensuring security for searchers.
• Local Ranking Factors: A combination of the aspects mentioned above, emphasizing reviews, reputation, and listings within a specific geographic area.

No single factor holds the ultimate win over search engine optimization outcomes. You must diligently perfect every part bit by bit to achieve success on Google.

How Do Google Search Rankings Work?

By now, you might have a clear idea of search ranking factors. But knowing how they work will make your work much easier. Let’s learn it practically.

Imagine you’re planning a road trip, and you need to find the best gas stations along the route. You’d probably type something like “best gas stations on my road trip.” These words you use that tell the search engine what you’re looking for they’re called keywords.

However, using competitive keywords isn’t enough. Your content must be high-quality to win against other competitors.

If we look at Google’s search quality rankings, we’ll learn what pages have high chances of indexes. So Google checks factors such as:

• What’s the purpose of the page?
• How good is the content on it & its length?
• Information about the site and who made the content
• What’s the reputation of the site and creator?
• What people do on the page (how long, do they leave fast)
• Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) of website.

How Does Google SEO Works?

Google is one of the biggest search engines. It aims to provide authentic, real, and useful information to everyone. There are billions of web pages on Google. But the first page has space for only 10 pages.

What should you do in this scenario? Learn about SEO. Because that way, you’ll be able to create content and optimize your website accordingly.

This is how SEO works.

Step 1:

Google’s bots, known as “spiders” or “crawlers,” explore websites on the internet. They follow links from one page to another, collecting information about each page they visit.

Step 2:

The collected information is organized and stored in Google’s index. It is a massive database of web pages. This index helps Google quickly retrieve relevant pages when someone searches.

Step 3:

When you search on Google, its complex algorithms analyze the indexed pages to determine which ones are most relevant to your query. They consider various factors, including relevant keywords, content quality, backlinks, user experience, etc.

Top 11 Google Search Engine Factors

Boosting your rankings might be extremely hectic. Website owners want to improve everything. Yet, being flawless and perfecting every factor is close to impossible.

That’s why you should focus on the ranking factors that bring you the most advantages. Here are the 11 top factors.

1. Write Awesome Content

Focus on writing relevant, error-free, and high-quality content. This is the key to being Google and your audience’s favorite. It doesn’t mean just adding high-quality content on the homepage and ignoring other pages of websites.

Then what does it mean? How can you make your content relevant and high-quality?

It means that your content is in-depth and the information is factually accurate. It should add value and useful links only. Think about your target audience:

• Your content should be easy to read.
• Write your content logically.
• Speak in a conversational tone to engage with them.

Many people add keywords to rank content on the first page. But it backfires, and content rots in Google’s void forever.

Do you know why?

Because they make the terrible mistake of stuffing content with too many keywords. Remember Google penalizes websites that do keyword stuffing.

But don’t worry; there’s a solution to this problem.

You should add keywords naturally and replace keywords with relevant synonyms.

Make your content evergreen.!

Evergreen content refers to articles, blog content, or web pages that remain relevant and valuable over a long period. Unlike news or trending topics that have a short lifespan, evergreen content retains its usefulness to readers.

But if you want to reap amazing results from your evergreen content, keep updating it. Because Google’s algorithm keeps changing. Add new information to outdated pages and make them unique. It increases the freshness score.

2. Art of Keyword Placement

Create a comprehensive list of all the keywords beneficial for your website ranking. Now brainstorm where you can add your keywords and which page is best for the keyword.

It includes various things that you should know. Let me elaborate on it in the best possible way for you.

Suppose you’re writing a recipe for a delicious smoothie, and the keyword is smoothie recipe.

The first thing is Title Tag(meta title)

This title appears on the Google SERP. So in the above example, it’ll be:

“Delicious and Nutritious Breakfast Smoothie Recipe”

Next is the H1 Title.

This is the big, bold title of the recipe on each page. It’s like the title at the top of the page in your book. Your H1 should be;

“Nutrient-Packed Breakfast Smoothie Recipe to Kickstart Your Day”

H2 Headings make it easier to navigate your content. Makes it easy to follow. So you can add two H2 headings, such as:

• Ingredients
• Step-by-step Smoothie Recipe

The URL string is the most important part, and you must optimize it. Don’t make it 19 words long, such as:

www.yourwebsite.com/the-best-recipe-of-smoothie-you-will-have-in-your-entire-life-so-try-now

This is a terrible way of adding keywords to the URL.

Instead, do this:

www.yourwebsite.com/healthy-breakfast-smoothie-recipe

Just like you need ingredients for your recipe, you need the main keyword in your content. So add your main keyword naturally in the content.

Meta description comes right below the title tag. It should be exciting and tell people why they must read the entire article. You can create a meta description like this for your smoothie recipe.

Make the ultimate breakfast smoothie recipe packed with vitamins and flavor. Boost your mornings with this easy and nutritious blend.

3. Do Image Optimization to Shine 

Human beings are becoming highly reliant on visual searches. Instead of reading a 10,000-word essay, we’d rather watch a 50-page book explaining the same concept but with interesting images, infographics, mind maps, etc.

It is one of the most important factors in Google search ranking. Here’s how you can do image SEO on your website.

• Alt Text: Give your images a special description called alt text. It helps Google understand them. Make it short and clear.
• Compress and Resize: Use a tool like Converterzu to make your images smaller. Around 70-100 KB is good. Try using JPG instead of PNG. And big images can be around 1,000px wide. With smaller images, your website loads faster.
• Include the Keyword: Not just in the alt text but also in the image’s name. Use dashes instead of spaces in the name. Otherwise, your website might make the name look weird, and no one wants it.

Following these steps will make your images load faster and improve your website’s quality.

4. Make Your Page Speed Like Flash

I recently browsed a jewelry website to purchase some jewelry. And a lot of websites were taking forever to lead. I didn’t make any purchases from them.

But what does it teach you?

It shows that a slow-loading website can decrease your revenue to a great extent.

Slow-loading website = Missing out on potential leads

So make your website fast. Otherwise, you’ll counter a lot of problems, such as a high bounce rate. Google will view this as a negative aspect and decrease your website ranking.

You can use two tools to check speed which has a direct impact on ranking:

• GTmetrix
• PageSpeed Insights

5. Make a Big Impact With Mobile-friendly Site

In 2019 Google openly informed everyone about the importance of mobile-friendliness for new websites. It stated that mobile-friendly websites will play a huge role in indexing.

So what should you do in this case?

You shouldn’t optimize your website for the desktop version only. But do it for mobile searches as well.

Google wants to give its audience the best experience. And they realized very soon that most people search on smartphones and want to provide an exceptional user experience.

That’s why in 2020, Google said that every website must abide by it, whether new or old.

Almost every content management system allows you to check your website in both views:

• Desktop
• Mobile versions

After checking it thoroughly, you can make changes until you get desired results. Google also provides Mobile-Friendly Test so you can ensure your website doesn’t have any major SEO issues.

6. Look Closely at Core Web Vitals

SEO trends keep changing, so you should adapt your websites as soon as possible. In 2021, Google announced Core Web Vitals. Web vitals is a part of the page experience and a crucial factor. It talks about how users engage with your website. It includes 4 major things.

First is LCP, abbreviated as Largest Contentful Paint. It is the time for elements, words, gifs, and everything to appear on the page. 

Second is FID, abbreviated as First Input Delay. It’s about how quickly the page responds when you click or tap.

Third is CLS, abbreviated as Cumulative Layout Shift if things move around unexpectedly, such as annoying pop-ups, ads, etc.

You can make a website smoother for visitors by making code smaller, lazy loading, and other methods.

7. Use the Power of Backlinks

Backlinks, also known as inbound links or incoming links, are links from one website to another. Simply, they are like referrals or recommendations from one site to another.

When website A includes a hyperlink that leads to website B, that link is a backlink for website B.

It is an extremely important factor in Google SEO rankings. Think of backlinks as recommendations from reputable sources.

Just a reference from a respected person can enhance your credibility and increase your chances of getting a job. Likewise, backlinks from reputable websites can improve a site’s authority and help it rank higher in search engine results.

Remember, one high-quality link is better than several low-authority links. Get links from high-domain authority sites to increase your social presence.

More high-quality = More chances of a higher position on Google

Less-authority links = Less positive impact

But I’ve seen many link builders struggle to get high-quality links. That’s why they just settle for low authority links. If you want to get links to increase your website position, follow these top 3 link-building strategies.

• Creating High-Quality Content: When you make really good and unique content that people like, they might link to it. Think about unique ideas or share new facts to stand out.
• Guest Posting: Guest posting is a method where you write articles for other websites. This helps you reach a new audience and establish your expertise. In return, you can include a link to your website.
• Cold Outreach: Cold outreach is when you contact website owners or bloggers and introduce yourself and your content. You might suggest how your content can benefit their readers and politely ask if they’d consider sharing it.

8. Maintaining Your Position With Rank Brain

Artificial intelligence is taking the world by storm. It has made work much easier, and almost every sector is adopting it. Google also uses an AI system to rank web pages. It is known as Rank Brain.

It also takes into account other things that affect how your site shows up in search results. These include:

• Click-through rate: The number of people who visit your site after seeing it in search results.
• Bounce rate: How many people quickly leave your page after clicking on it.
• Dwell time: How long visitors stay on your site.

Suppose a person clicks on your website to find “healthy vegan recipes,” but your article tells about the “environmental benefits of adopting a vegan lifestyle.” So most likely, visitors will leave the page.

Why?

Because the keyword intent isn’t matching, understand the search intent. Otherwise, this will lower your website position.

However, if people click on your website, read the content, and check different pages in general, if they stick around, it means your website pieces of content are relevant.

9. Give Safe Website Experience

What’s the difference between HTTP and HTTP? Are they the same thing?

The S means SECURE.

Now, you should also make your website secure. So how can you do that?

It’s very simple. All you need is an SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate. There are many routes through which you can get SSL, and the price also varies, usually depending on two things:

• Level of security
• Hosting setup

However, HubSpot offers free SSL in its CMS.

10. Building Blocks For Getting Found Locally

Local SEO, according to Google, has three important parts, i.e., relevance, distance, and prominence.

Relevance is about how well your business fits what the person is searching for. For example, if someone types “best cafes,” Google wants to show them the most relevant places.

The next part is distance means how close your business is to the person searching. If your business is nearby, it’s more likely to appear in the local results. This is why searches like “cafes near me” work.

Lastly, prominence is how popular your business is offline. Google checks reviews, and ratings to see how well-known and liked your business is.

Remember, ensuring your business info is complete and accurate in places like Google My Business helps Google understand these things better.

11. E-E-A-T Pillars of Trust in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines. It was known earlier as E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). It was introduced in December 2022.

E-E-A-T doesn’t directly rank Google stuff. But Google likes strong E-E-A-T. So, it’s important for SEO. It builds trust with users and can help you get more people to do things on your site.

It is crucial for YMYL and affiliate sites (Your Money Or Your Life). Let’s understand it better with this example.

Imagine you’re looking for health advice and find two medical websites:

YMYL Website A:

• Run by a board-certified doctor.
• 10 years of practical work
• Provides detailed info, citing studies.
• Linked to known health organizations.

YMYL Website B:

• Written by a self-proclaimed health enthusiast.
• Offers general advice without sources.
• Promotes unverified remedies.

In this case, Website A’s expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness make it more reliable for accurate health information.

How to Check Your Position In Google Search Engine Rankings?

Now you are ready to work on your website SEO. But before moving forward, you should know where your website stands in the online world.

One way is to search on Google using keywords your customers might use. Search in an incognito window so Google shows you the best results. Look where your website shows up.

As an SEO expert, you should know that for big websites, it’s tricky. So, use an SEO tool like Semrush. You add your domain name and get a report. It shows the top keywords you’re ranking for. You can also track the exact words you want to rank for using similar tools.

Conclusion

I’ve added some of the best and most important ranking SEO factors. However, there is much more than that. But remember, fundamentals are most important. And if you improve the factors mentioned in the list, your chances of ranking on Google will be 10x.

So are you ready to skyrocket your business growth? We are EchoFish, and we help businesses go from $0 to 6 figures by generating high-quality leads. Contact us now.