SEO Ranking Factors |

November 22, 2014

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Google SEO Ranking Factors For 2015

 

Google SEO Ranking Factors

Every webmaster wants to know Google SEO ranking factors, more then anything. Every SEO has a need to know SEO ranking factors, although many of us will tell you we know. The truth of the matter, only Google knows and this billion dollar answer will likely ever be leaked. Thanks to the efforts of SearchMetrics and their credible research, we do have a great idea of all the SEO ranking factors that matter the most. SearchMetrics released their 2014 Google SEO Ranking Factors Report in September 2014. Based on their own results and our own studies over the last few weeks, we’re proud to release our first Google SEO Ranking Factors for 2015.

Official SearchMetrics SEO Ranking Report

Content Is Still A Leading SEO Ranking Factor

Every new SEO ranking factors report always has “content” near the top of the heap. All of us have heard the term “Content is King.” We feel that content is more important then ever. High quality content is more valuable then ever and the length of that content is also important. One element that continues to grow is relative content.

Content SEO Ranking Factors

  • Sitespeed *0.11
  • Keyword Position in Title (Characters) *0.10
  • Length of URL *0.10
  • Keyword Position in Title (Word) *0.10
  • H2 (Sub-Title) *0.07
  • H1 (Sub-Title) *0.05
  • Description *0.05
  • Video Integration *0.05
  • Keyword in Title *0.02
  • Keyword in Description *0.01
  • URL is no Subdomain *0.00
  • Keyword in URL *-0.01
  • Flash *-0.02
  • Keyword in Domain *-0.02

Social Media SEO Ranking Factors

Social media and social signals continue to become more of a SEO ranking factor. While we didn’t see much growth in this sector, moving forward we believe social media will continue to become more of a dominant SEO ranking factor. And for those that know, Google+ is the leading social media SEO ranking factor, followed by Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

As social media growth continues and Google counts social signals as trusted votes for all domains, we’ll continue to see the importance of social platforms continuing. We don’t expect social media growth to falter anytime soon.

Social Signal SEO Ranking Factors

  • Google+ *0.33
  • Facebook Shares *0.28
  • Facebook Totals *0.28
  • Facebook Comments *0.27
  • Pinterest *0.27
  • Facebook Likes *0.25
  • Twitter Tweets *0.24

Link SEO Ranking Factors

Links have been a relatively long-time ranking factor for SEO and expect no different in 2015. We did see that quality backlinks are important and the total quantity of links are still an important SEO factor. However, links with exact-match keywords are becoming less of a ranking factor.

When another website links to your website, Google views this as a trust ranking factor. You can view it as if it is a vote for your website. This is why you should only link to authority websites, websites that you trust. Backlinks are always going to be important, that is likely to change anytime soon.

Link Ranking Factors

  • Total Backlinks *0.31
  • SEO Visibility of Backlinking URL *0.26
  • Percentage of Backlinks rel=nofollow *0.23
  • New Backlinks *0.20
  • Backlinks from New Domains *0.20
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Keyword *0.17
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Anchor=domain.tld *0.16
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Stopword *0.16
  • Word Count in Anchor Text *0.11
  • Percentage of Backlinks from same Country *0.07

On-Page SEO Ranking Factors

Every webmaster should start in this area, there’s a number of ranking factors that are of importance on-site. Relevant internal links and external links in your text are both important. Site speed is becoming more of a top ranking factor for on-site SEO. Titles, sub-titles, body text, H1 and H2 are all important. Site navigation and site architecture as well.

On-Page Ranking Factors

  • Relevant Terms *0.34
  • Proof Terms *0.21
  • Number of Internal Links *0.16
  • Keywords in Body *0.15
  • HTML Length *0.14
  • Text Character Length *0.13
  • Word Count *0.13
  • Keywords in External Links *0.11
  • Sentence Count *0.10
  • Keywords in Internal Links *0.10
  • Number of External Links *0.08
  • Image Count *0.07
  • Keyword in H2 *0.02
  • Flesch Readability *0.00
  • Title Character Length *-0.01
  • Flash *-0.02
  • AdSense Blocks *-0.03
  • Keyword in H1 *-0.03
  • Adlinks *-0.03
  • AdSense *-0.03
  • Adlinks without AdSense *-0.03
  • TF IDF *-0.06

 User Signal SEO Ranking Factors

We’re seeing user signals and experience more relevant then ever. Three areas that you need to focus on moving forward is (CTR) Click-Through Rate, Bounce Rate and Time On Site. You don’t need fancy software to track a majority of these three areas, Google Analytics should be enough of a tool to set a foundation.

All three of these areas are important, as well as user experience. If your website struggles in these areas, you need to think about;

  • What type of traffic you’re targeting
  • What type of keywords are being targeted
  • Which keywords are bring traffic in to the website
  • Pagespeed, 404s and errors
  • Site Navigation

All Google SEO Ranking Factors

  • Relevant Terms *0.34
  • Google+ *0.33
  • Total Backlinks *0.31
  • Facebook Shares *0.28
  • Facebook Totals *0.28
  • Facebook Comments *0.27
  • Pinterest *0.27
  • SEO Visibility of Backlinking URL *0.26
  • Facebook Likes *0.25
  • Twitter Tweets *0.24
  • Percentage of Backlinks rel=nofollow *0.23
  • Proof Terms *0.21
  • New Backlinks *0.20
  • Backlinks from New Domains *0.20
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Keyword *0.17
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Anchor=domain.tld *0.16
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Stopword *0.16
  • Number of Internal Links *0.16
  • Keywords in Body *0.15
  • HTML Length *0.14
  • Text Character Length *0.13
  • Word Count *0.13
  • Keywords in External Links *0.11
  • Sitespeed *0.11
  • Keywords in External Links *0.11
  • Sentence Count *0.10
  • Keywords in Internal Links *0.10
  • Keyword Position in Title (Characters) *0.10
  • Length of URL *0.10
  • Keyword Position in Title (Word) *0.10
  • Number of External Links *0.08
  • H2 (Sub-Title) *0.7
  • Percentage of Backlinks from same Country *0.07
  • Image Count *0.07
  • H1 (Sub-Title) *0.05
  • Description *0.05
  • Video Integration *0.05
  • Keyword in Title *0.02
  • Keyword in H2 *0.02
  • Keyword in Description *0.01
  • Keyword in Description *0.01
  • Flesch Readability *0.00
  • URL is no Subdomain *0.00
  • Title Character Length *-0.01
  • Keyword in URL *-0.01
  • Keyword in Domain *-0.02
  • AdSense Blocks *-0.03
  • Keyword in H1 *-0.03
  • Adlinks *-0.03
  • AdSense *-0.03
  • Adlinks without AdSense *-0.03
  • TF IDF *-0.06

 

Credit Source: SearchMetrics

Google |

October 8, 2014

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2014 Google PageRank Update Likely To Not Come?

Will We See The 2014 Google PageRank Update?

We’re already starting to see the articles being published everywhere, everyone asking when will the 2014 Google PageRank update will come. Around this time in 2013, we were hearing the same thing. The Google Toolbar PageRank has often been considered a major ranking factor in terms of SEO. I’ve never thought that personally. If PageRank was an important factor in the algorithm, why would Google go on not updating the Toolbar PageRank? They wouldn’t, if the 2014 Google Toolbar PageRank update never comes, it won’t be that big of a deal.

2014 Google PageRank Update

 

Google’s John Mueller was recently spotted on Google Hangouts. An upset individual was asking about some websites selling high PR links. They wanted to know why Google hadn’t put these large link websites in their place. John Mueller responded with this;

“There are a few things where we do take action that you might not see directly. Toolbar PageRank is something that we have not updated for about a year now, and we’re probably not going to be updating it going forward… we have a lot of way to recognize these problematic links, and the sites selling those links, that essentially blocks the PageRank from passing through those sites.”

We did learn that Google has measurements in place that don’t allow PageRank to be passed through the links if the link is considered to be spam. Nothing new to learn about Google not updating the Toolbar PageRank. We’ve been hearing about this for years and we’ve always seen a PageRank update. I wouldn’t be surprised if Google does an update. It may not come in 2014, but I don’t think Google is done with Toolbar PageRank.

This brings up two concerns really. If we don’t see the 2014 Google PageRank update, does it mean that PageRank is no longer a ranking factor? If we don’t see the Toolbar PageRank updated in 2014, will it be updated in 2015? Many questions left unanswered but it does appear that PageRank is becoming less of a ranking factor. That I’m pretty sure on.

I don’t doubt that Google PageRank does play a role in your search engine rankings. If Google never does a PageRank update again, they will likely still give websites some favor for PR, right? Is that fair for up and coming websites? We knew this was coming with Google’s recent changes to link algorithms. Relevance and authority are two big ranking factors in links. Google already told us that each link is like a vote. Basically, when you link to a website, your endorsing that particular website.

Considering all the recent changes, Google will one day end all Google Toolbar updates once and for all. As for the 2014 Google PageRank update, only time will tell. As of December 25th, there’s still no Google update.