The Full Guide To This Year Google Ranking Factors
The Google search engine has become smarter than ever before. If you want to move your website or blog to the top in Google search results, you have to follow the latest SEO and Google ranking factors.
Here, we have created a complete list of Google ranking factors, which can easily take your website or blog to a new height.
HTTPS
Google announced in August 2014 that HTTPS (SSL Certificate) will be considered as a ranking factor.
In August 2017, Google Chrome began marking those sites as insecure, which did not use HTTPS.
So it indicates that Google is now using HTTPS as a ranking factor, and the sites that HTTPS will use will rank well in the search engine.
Mobile-Friendliness
Today’s era is from a smartphone, and more than half of the search is from a smartphone.
Therefore, Google took the first step to improve mobile-friendly search results. And finally, mobile friendliness was offered as a Google ranking factor.
To determine if your site is mobile-friendly or not, Google has also developed a mobile-friendly testing tool.
Domain Age
Google’s Matt Cutts has confirmed this video.
The difference between the year and the six-month-old domain is not really so great.
Domain age is only seen for new websites because they can be spam sites or it is only developed to spread spam.
Domain registration length
One Google patent tells that
Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains are rarely 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.
Heading Tags
The H1 tag helps the search engine find out what your page or post is about.
However, Google tells about John Mueller H2 tags H3.
These heading tags in HTML help us to understand the structure of the page.
Note: H1 tags help boost your Google ranking. But keep in mind that it does not fill your entire content with the H1 tag.
Loading speed
Google uses website loading speed as one of its ranking factors to give a better user experience to its users. If your site’s loading speed is very good, then Google will give your content a top rank.
Apart from this, users will also like to visit your site.
Breadcrumb
Breadcrumb helps users know where they are on your site, as well as help search engines understand your site’s structure. In an article, we told you how to add breadcrumbs to the WordPress site.
Google Search uses breadcrumb markup in the body of a web page to categorize the information from the page in search results.
Backlinks
Backlinks are a very old Google ranking factor that Google uses to rank content. Backlinks can make a big difference in your Google search ranking. It can take your ranking up to a new height or bring it down overnight.
Backlinks are very important to increase domain authority, Google website ranking, and website traffic.
If you create bad backlinks for your site, these backlinks can badly hurt your website ranking. So always create high-quality backlinks for your website or blog.
Quality content
This is the most important factor in Google ranking factors. No matter how good SEO is or why you do not, your content will not be able to rank in Google.
Simply put, if you do not write informative blog posts on your site, then you are doing garbage on your blog and nothing else.
Always try writing unique and quality content. In addition, your content should be interesting and evergreen.
Content Length
Compared to small content, long content receives better rank in search engines. To understand better, you can read this article on Search Engine Land: The SEO and User Science Behind Long-Form Content.
If you write short posts on your blog, your post should be at least 1000 words long, without nonsense.
Keyword Research
Along with good content, you should also come across keyword research. Without keyword research, you can not get a top rank in Google or any search engine. This is an important part of SEO.
Keyword research is not a difficult task. There are many great tools and websites that you can use to find the best keywords. Always choose low competition, high searches, and long-tail keywords for your content.
Meta Description
Meta description technology is not a Google ranking factor. But it plays an important role in increasing click-through rate (CTR) on your content.
However, Google generally allows writing 300 characters for meta descriptions.
Starts Title with Keyword
According to SEO, a title that begins with a keyword gets a better rank in the search engine. Also, the length of the title should be 50–60 characters.
Use ALT Tag
Google does not have the ability to read images; it crawls alt tags to know what the image is about. That’s why you should use the meaningful name in your image.
Alt text works as anchor text for images.
Grammar and Spelling
Proper grammar and spelling improve your article quality. Matt Cutts has a video on it that is telling whether it is important or not.
Use Media
If you use media (images, videos, and infographics) in your content, it makes your content even more useful and engaging.
Simply put, a medium can interpret 1000 words.
Regular Post
If you publish posts on your blog regularly, then both your ranking and readership will increase. But your content should be informative and useful.
Internal Links
Internal liking provides both relevant search engines and users with relevant information about your content.
If you use internal linking, it makes your post even more informative. In addition, visitors spend more time on your site, which reduces the bounce rate. Google also treats your content as quality content.