This is the first post in a series that will cover almost all of the Google ranking factors. Google is a great source for traffic if you rank for organic keywords and phrases. Sounds simple right? Simple concepts are sometimes difficult to actually achieve. Google considers a lot of factors when ranking a particular website, web page, or blog post. So what Google Ranking Factors should I pay attention to?
The short answer is; All of them. There are, by most estimations, around 200 factors that influence the way Google ranks your website. In this series of posts, I will do my best to explain all of the Google ranking factors that I know of as well as the importance of each one.
Google makes changes to their algorithm several times per day. No one outside of Google knows exactly what changes they made to their algorithm on any given day. However, a lot of SEOs study and test constantly to see how those changes are affecting their client’s websites.
You shouldn’t be reactive. You should be proactive and make sure you have all the bases covered.
Don’t get me wrong, the SEOs that monitor everything they can are able to react quickly, but, it’s still reactive. While no one can predict exactly which Google ranking factors are going to be important today, tomorrow, next week or next month. There is always a lot of talk about Google algorithm changes, however, you shouldn’t need to be playing catch-up every time Google makes a change.
Short story; I worked for a pest control company that did not have monthly fees. Customers paid for the whole year upfront and the guarantee was that if they see a bug, we had to go out and spray again for free. And the person that did the initial spray was the one that had to go back for free. Needless to say, I paid a lot of attention to that first spray to make sure I didn’t have to go back again.
It’s no different with SEO. The initial job should be so complete that you barely notice updates to Google ranking factors. By doing everything we can on that initial job, we aren’t constantly chasing the solution to the latest update.
How do I know which Google Ranking Factors to focus on first?
As an SEO services provider, we have to keep up with the latest trends, tools, and changes for SEO. That includes for our clients with a global presence and companies who rely on local search optimization. We also have to go through a long list of SEO factors each time we take on a new project. No one wants to continually go back and fix things later.
Again, Google considers around 200 SEO factors in it’s algorithm for ranking the relevance of websites. They assign each factor a number that indicates it’s importance and of course, they don’t share those numbers with anyone. To change their algorithm, all they have to do is assign higher or lower numbers to each of those factors. It’s that simple for Google and they also don’t tell anyone when they are going to make those changes. (Keep in mind, that is an oversimplification of how algorithms work, but you get the idea.)
By examining each of those SEO factors and making sure we address each one, then no matter what priorities are given to them, it should only affect your rankings a little. Not the “OMG! Our website is dropping quick! Fix it now!” scenario.
What about improving my rankings in Google?
Of course you want to continue improving your website and how it ranks in Google, but you want to avoid taking two steps forward and one step back. That’s more expensive in more ways than one. The SEO has to be paid to “fix” it and don’t forget the possible loss in revenue.
By paying close attention to all of the ranking factors, it will not only improve your rankings, but also make sure you don’t have a problem whenever Google does an update.
How do I learn more about specific Google ranking factors?
This post is the first in a series where we go into more detail about Google ranking factors you should be aware of. So, let’s drill down and learn more about how to keep your website ranking well in Google. You can click the links below to follow along in order or skip to the topic that interests you the most.
- Google Ranking Factors having to do with your domain name.
- Google Technical SEO Factors to pay attention to
- Google Ranking Factors in regards to content.
- Google Ranking Factors having to do with Off-page SEO.
- You can learn about some of the penalties that will hurt your rankings here.
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