For search engines, ranking factors are evaluation indicators used by algorithms to determine the relevance of site pages to a user’s query. In accordance with them, the web resource receives one or another position in the search results. In short, ranking is the distribution of positions of Internet projects for specific queries in search results.
Robots are constantly improving, changing ranking algorithms. There are several reasons for this:
- Users have growing requirements for the quality of content, it must satisfy the request as much as possible;
- The number of sites is increasing, but not all of them are able to provide useful and reliable information.
The ranking is influenced by many factors, therefore, for the convenience of classification, it is customary to distinguish two classes – internal and external. The former include content, behavioural, semantic, commercial, textual and technical factors. To internal – the presence of a site, directories, as well as reviews about the project on third-party resources, incoming links, etc.
In the article, we will talk about the most relevant ranking factors and the most significant ones.
Page Text Relevance
Little has changed here, but practice shows that for example, Yandex pays less attention to titles than Google. Though it closely monitors the occurrence of a request in the page text. Also in Google, the correlations of text factors with the position are leading, and in Yandex – with a rise in the top 30. Now there is no need to stuff SEO texts with keywords. For example if you are writing a text for Hellspin login and how to sign in to your account, providing a large amount of keywords will not be necessary.
H1 and keywords do not affect positions and rankings, and in the case of a meta description, the principle of anti-literalism works (the farther from the exact query, the stronger the parameters). The same principle applies to the domain name and URL. Sometimes a domain name is a chance to get into the search results for competitive queries.
For alt and title images, internal headings, highlights, lists and internal links, there is a strong relationship with ranking, and the principle of anti-literalism is valid.
Commercial, Traffic and Linking Factors
Here are the factors we need to talk about:
- Traffic – Search engines give preference to large sites. Measurement indicators are the number of pages in the index, visits, the size of the assortment, and the number of unique links to the site. This trend can cause a monopolization of the issuance: due to the high traffic of top sites, they will see an increase in their positions.
- Link factors – They are no longer the main ones, but they retain some weight. Now an indirect parameter is the share of links to the main page: the lower it is, the greater the weight of internal pages.
- Commercial Factors – Google, is distrustful of aggregators, preferring them to mono-brand resources.
Business Factors
The reliability and credibility of a commercial site are formed by:
- From a positive reputation;
- Experience in the field;
- Detailed information on customer service and about the company;
- User reviews;
- Regularly updating and editing information on the site.
It is also important to have a presence on social media. At the same time for Google Facebook and YouTube are considered priority platforms. Special offers, promotions and discounts are also of considerable importance.
Site Quality
Let’s introduce you to the elements of a commercial site that have a relationship with ranking:
- Product photo and text descriptions, characteristics;
- The presence of video on the pages of goods/services;
- The possibility of selecting goods, comparison, calculator;
- Description of payment methods, the possibility of cashless payments;
- Guarantees and after-sales service, and delivery;
- Availability of adaptive layout.
Do not forget about high-quality relevant content to increase the competence of the resource. Also, we need to mention the impact of content marketing – it increases the link mass, the number of pages in the index, and mentions in social networks.
The Bottom Line
It turns out that it is impossible to know the true ranking factors. All studies conducted on this topic show correlations between page positions in Google and parameters. There is no guarantee that the influence of any particular parameter is actually taken into account by machines, or that this particular factor will definitely work for your site. Therefore, it is best not to rely on individual tools, but to choose a comprehensive promotion from well-established agencies.
