SEO Domain Factors |
SEO Factor Importance |
SEO Page-Level Factors |
High Importance |
SEO Site-Level Factors |
High Importance |
Backlink Factors |
High Importance |
User Interaction |
High Importance |
Special Google Algorithm Rules |
High Importance |
Brand Signals |
High Importance |
On-Site Webspam Factors |
High Importance |
Off-Site Webspam Factors |
High Importance |
Domain Factors |
|
Your domain age |
High Importance |
Keyword in your domain |
High Importance |
The keyword is the first word in your domain |
High Importance |
Domain registration length |
High Importance |
Keyword in subdomain |
High Importance |
Domain history |
High Importance |
Penalized Whois owner |
High Importance |
Public WhoIs instead of private Whois |
High Importance |
Page-Level Factors |
High Importance |
Presence of the keyword in the title tag |
High Importance |
Having the keyword at the beginning of your title tag |
Low Importance |
Keyword in your meta description tag |
High Importance |
Presence of the keyword in the H1 tag |
High Importance |
The keyword is frequently used in the content |
High Importance |
Content length |
High Importance |
Word count rankings |
Low Importance |
Presence of a linked table of contents |
High Importance |
Keyword density |
Low Importance |
Presence of semantically related keywords |
Critical |
Semantically related keyword in meta title and description |
Critical |
In-depth quality content |
Critical |
Useful content |
Critical |
Page loading speed via HTML |
Critical |
Page loading speed tested on Chrome |
Critical |
Core web vitals |
Critical |
No duplicate content on the same site |
Critical |
Image optimization through ALT, title, and file name |
High Importance |
Content recency (the newer, the better) |
High Importance |
Page age |
High Importance |
How many edits were made to the content during updates |
High Importance |
Historical data on-page updates |
High Importance |
Proper use of rel=canonical |
Critical |
Presence of keywords in H2 and H3 tags |
High Importance |
Presence of keyword in the first 100 words |
High Importance |
Grammar and spelling |
Critical |
The originality of the page’s content |
Critical |
Entity match |
High Importance |
Number of outbound links |
High Importance |
Mobile useability and optimization |
High Importance |
Hidden content on mobile (may not be indexed) |
High Importance |
Page optimized for mobile |
High Importance |
The presence of multimedia, for example, images and videos |
Critical |
Number of outbound links |
High Importance |
The quality of outbound links |
Critical |
The theme of outbound links |
High Importance |
Presence of helpful supplementary content, like free tools and calculators |
High Importance |
Content hidden behind tabs (it may not be indexed and wouldn’t show up in search snippets) |
High Importance |
Number of internal links pointing to the page |
High Importance |
Quality of the internal links |
High Importance |
Presence of too many broken links (could lower-ranking capabilities) |
High Importance |
The reading level of the page |
High Importance |
Presence of many affiliate links |
High Importance |
Presence of many HTML errors |
High Importance |
Authority/trust-level of the domain |
High Importance |
PageRank |
High Importance |
Length of URL |
High Importance |
The closeness of URL to the homepage |
High Importance |
Presence of keyword in URL |
High Importance |
Opinion of human editors |
High Importance |
Relevance of page’s category to a page |
High Importance |
Content formatting for user-friendliness and readability |
High Importance |
Priority of the page in the sitemap.xml |
High Importance |
UX signal from pages ranking for the same keyword |
High Importance |
Citing references and sources |
High Importance |
Use of a user-friendly layout |
High Importance |
URL string in Google search engine results |
High Importance |
Internal link anchor text to the page |
High Importance |
Use of structured data |
High Importance |
Site-level factors |
|
Presence of a contact us page or appropriate amount of contact information |
High Importance |
Content on site provides value or new insights |
High Importance |
TrustRank (how close your site is to a known and trusted site in terms of linking) |
High Importance |
Website updates for freshness factor |
High Importance |
Site architecture |
High Importance |
Presence of a sitemap |
High Importance |
Long-term site downtime |
High Importance |
Location of server |
High Importance |
HTTPS / use of a valid SSL certificate |
High Importance |
Presence of legal pages (terms and conditions and privacy policy) |
High Importance |
Unique metadata |
High Importance |
Use of breadcrumb markup |
High Importance |
Site-wide mobile optimization |
High Importance |
Site-wide user-friendliness (usability and interactiveness) |
High Importance |
|
High Importance |
Bounce rate |
High Importance |
Domain authority |
High Importance |
User reviews |
High Importance |
Site reputation |
High Importance |
Backlink factors |
|
Age of linking domain |
High Importance |
Number of referring domains |
High Importance |
Number of links from separate c-class IPs |
High Importance |
Number of referring pages |
High Importance |
Anchor text of backlinks |
High Importance |
ALT tag of image links |
High Importance |
Number of links from .edu and .gov domains |
High Importance |
The trust factor of linking page |
High Importance |
The trust factor of linking domain |
High Importance |
Presence of links from competitors |
High Importance |
Number of links from expected sites in your industry |
High Importance |
Links from bad neighborhoods |
High Importance |
Number of links that are not from ads |
High Importance |
Country TLD of referring domains |
High Importance |
Domain authority |
High Importance |
Presence of some Nofollow links |
High Importance |
Diversity of link profile |
High Importance |
Context of content the content of a linking page |
High Importance |
Presence of more follow links that sponsored or UGC |
High Importance |
Lots of backlinks to URL with 301 redirects |
High Importance |
The text that appears when you hover over a link |
High Importance |
Link location on the page |
High Importance |
Location of link in content |
High Importance |
Links from relevant domains |
High Importance |
Links from relevant pages |
High Importance |
Presence of your page’s keyword in the title of the linking page |
High Importance |
The natural rate of growth in the number of links |
High Importance |
Spiky and unnatural rate of growth in the number of links |
High Importance |
Links from top resources on a certain topic or hubs |
High Importance |
Number of links from sites that are considered authority sites |
High Importance |
Linked as a source in a Wikipedia article |
High Importance |
Words around your backlinks |
High Importance |
Backlink age |
High Importance |
Links from real sites vs fake blogs |
High Importance |
Natural link profile |
High Importance |
Excessive reciprocal links |
High Importance |
Links in real content vs. UGC |
High Importance |
Backlinks from a page with a 301 redirect |
High Importance |
TrustRank of linking site |
High Importance |
Fewer outbound links on the linking page |
High Importance |
Links in real content vs links in forums |
High Importance |
Bounce rate |
High Importance |
Word count of linking content |
High Importance |
Quality of linking content |
High Importance |
Sitewide links = one link |
High Importance |
User Interaction |
|
Organic click-through rate for an exact keyword |
High Importance |
Organic click-through rates for all ranking keywords |
High Importance |
Dwell time |
High Importance |
Measurement of how users interact on your site based on RankBrain |
High Importance |
Total direct traffic |
High Importance |
Percentage of repeat visitors |
High Importance |
Blocked sites |
High Importance |
Percentage of visitors that click on other pages on the SERP after clicking visiting your page |
High Importance |
Page frequently bookmarked by Chrome users |
High Importance |
Number of comments on the page |
High Importance |
Special Google Algorithm Rules |
|
Need for diversity in the SERP |
High Importance |
Need for freshness in the SERP |
High Importance |
Browsing history of user |
High Importance |
Search history of user |
High Importance |
Succinct answers, formatting, page authority, and HTTPS for featured snippets |
High Importance |
Geo-targeting |
High Importance |
Adult content or curse words (excluded from safe search results) |
High Importance |
High content quality standards for YMYL keywords |
High Importance |
Legitimate DMCA complaints |
High Importance |
Need for domain diversity in SERP |
High Importance |
Transactional searches |
High Importance |
Local search results |
High Importance |
Presence of news stories related to keyword for Top Stories box |
High Importance |
Search intent |
High Importance |
Presence of big brands with relevant content (they are often ranked higher) |
High Importance |
Presence of results optimized for Google Shopping |
High Importance |
Image results |
High Importance |
Branded search |
High Importance |
Easter eggs and April Fools’ Day jokes and hoaxes from Google (this one makes me laugh) |
High Importance |
Spammy queries |
High Importance |
Spammy sites |
High Importance |
Brand Signals |
|
Brand + keyword searches (for example, Hubspot SEO) |
High Importance |
Branded anchor text |
High Importance |
Twitter profile with followers |
High Importance |
Official LinkedIn page |
High Importance |
Facebook page with lots of likes |
High Importance |
Branded searches |
High Importance |
Known author or verified online profile |
High Importance |
Real social media accounts |
High Importance |
Top stories with brand mentions |
High Importance |
Brand mentions without links |
High Importance |
The physical location of offices |
High Importance |
On-site Web |
|
Low-quality content |
High Importance |
Links to bad neighborhoods |
High Importance |
Multiple and sneaky redirects |
High Importance |
Flagged server IP address |
High Importance |
Distracting ads and popups |
High Importance |
Popups that are spammy and difficult to close |
High Importance |
Over-optimizing the site |
High Importance |
Gibberish content |
High Importance |
Use of doorway pages |
High Importance |
Lots of ads above the fold and not much content |
High Importance |
Hiding affiliate links |
High Importance |
Low-value content sites |
High Importance |
Affiliate sites |
High Importance |
Keyword stuffing in meta tags |
High Importance |
Compute generated content |
High Importance |
No following all outbound links |
High Importance |
Off-site Webspam Factors |
|
An unnatural and sudden increase in backlinks |
High Importance |
Hacked site |
High Importance |
Lots of low-quality backlinks |
High Importance |
A high percentage of links from unrelated websites |
High Importance |
Low-quality directory links |
High Importance |
Automatic links in widgets |
High Importance |
Links from sites with the same server IP |
High Importance |
Using “poison” in your anchor text |
High Importance |
Ignored manual actions in search console |
High Importance |
Selling links |
High Importance |
Temporary link schemes |
High Importance |