12 Most Important Google Ranking Factors (with Tips to Improve them)

Mostly every blogger and SEO wants to beat Google's algorithm to get to the top spot in SERP but most of them don't know that their blog posts can get the number 1 spot if they fulfill the Most Important SEO Ranking Factors.

So In this post, I am going to explain what are the most important Google ranking factors that I learned.

Google themselves said that there are 200 factors to determine to show what's in the first and what not to. If you want to know all those 200 then read from Backlinko. 

Here I am going to explain only the top 12 of those google ranking algorithm factors but before that let's see about,

What are the SEO Ranking Factors

SEO Ranking Factors are the norms used by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and etc to determine the rankings of web pages on the search results for user-given queries.

Most Important Google Ranking Factors

1. Relevance
2. Backlinks.
3. User Experience
4. E.A.T
5. Content Age
6. Social Community
7. Page Speed
8. Mobile Friendly
9. Internal Linking
10. Media
11. Legal Information
12. Linking out to Quality Sites

These are the top 12 important factors after reading and listening to many SEO experts and Bloggers along with mine too. 

Expect backlinks the other 11 Organic search rankings factors are On-page SEO factors

1. Relevance

As many factors may change relevance is the most important Google Search Ranking factor most time. The relevance factor is that matching the most relevant content with people's queries. 

Content which answers very specific answer to the people's questions with in-depth sources and data to back that up can get the top spot.

There are sometimes blogger think that they're writing an article which answers directly to the people's questions but they make several errors in that process. 

If you want to know, "How to write the most relevant blog post"  then download my simple 2-page guide on How to Improve the Relevance of Blog posts.

Try to keep your articles simple and make sure it will be useful to all types of readers. 

Now let's jump to the other 10 most important Google Ranking Factors 2020.

2. Backlinks

Backlinks are one of the most important factors for a website's ranking, specifically High-Quality backlinks. High-Quality backlinks mean that getting a backlink from high authoritative websites in your niche. 

But if you get from some crappy websites which have no or less value in your niche field then it can be considered as a high-quality one. 

Instead of focusing on linking building tasks like sending emails and asking them to link to your website, focus on your content, it will help you get high-quality backlinks.  If you want to know, "How to get High-quality Backlinks" then 

Read: 2 Smartest way to Get High-Quality Backlinks

3. User Experience

It is the experience of your readers about your website, Google can get the user experience from the website from several factors like 

Visitors Time

It's the amount of time that users spent on your page if your reader just clicks on your article and leaves immediately because of not getting a good impression on your website. If your visitors didn't bounce off from your site and spend time till the end of the article then it's a sign to Google that your content is somewhat valuable.

Regular Visitors

If your visitors keep coming back to your website then it's also a sign to Google.

To keep them coming back, engage with them in your article's comments section, respond to them, build your audience in social media especially on Facebook and Twitter because they can bring a lot of traffic to your website and keeps your regular visitors in touch with you.

Clicking through Articles

It is that when your reader clicks on other articles on your website. It sends a positive signal to Google that your content to follow up to your website. 

To get high click-through then place links to your other articles that are somewhat relevant to the current article they're reading and make sure you have a catchy title to get clicked. 

Also, there are some other factors that also help in determining user experience but these three are good enough to be known by new bloggers.

In order to improve your experience of your visitors make sure you have

1 - Catchy titles that make readers click on it and also describes what's article about.

2 -  Simple answer with long descriptive content to keep the visitors for a while on your website.

3 - Good internal linking on your post to other articles of yours. 

4. E.A.T

E.A.T is Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is one of the top-ranking factors, the overall health of your website. Your website and its worthiness also play a role in Google searching ranking.

You have to keep making content in your field regularly and prove to yourself that you're an expert in this field which helps you in the ranking factor.

EAT is not that important for some queries like Dog pictures, best hobbies, how to keep ourselves busy and etc but it is important for life queries like medicine, finance, fitness, arms, and many other industries. 

Because people look for the most legit and correct answer so here's the clueless and less authoritative answer that can't be trusted.

There's no score based on a website's EAT and one can improve the EAT level of their website by

• Backlinks - Getting backlinks from good websites is a positive sign to Google that your content is trustworthy.

• Up to Date - Keep your content updated to the market.

• Stats - Use statistics and facts to support your content. You can get statistics from the internet or make your own b researching the market. It's better to make your own stats because it will bring more backlinks.

• Persistence - Be consistent with your writing, just because you can't get a good ranking within a year, don't quit. Be persistent with your website because getting a Google search ranking is like wine. The old and consistent your website, the more in getting a good ranking.

Trust is earned. 

These four factors the most important factors in the Google search ranking and also the hardest ones to achieve. Let's see about the other seven factors which can one get that quickly than those four.

5. Content Age

Content age also places a role depending upon the query or niche, for eg, content age doesn't matter for the question "What is Pythagoras theorem", or about a person like "Who is Mahatma Gandhi". 

The answers to these questions don't vary over the year but content age is relevant for news, updates about a product, achievements of a person or company and etc like "Best Phones of 2020". The answers to the questions change over the period of time if it's present and continuous.

So the age of content really depends upon one's query. If your article is an answer to questions that are subjected to change over time then you should update the answers often or at least once in a year.

Tip - If your article is time-sensitive then don't put year or date in the permalink because you can't change the permalink of an article or blog post.

6. Social Community

Social community is nothing but building a fan following in social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or any other platform. It is not that important factor like those top 4 but this also has an impact on your ranking. 

If your social followers can get into your blog traffic, it sends a good signal to Google about your website and which in turn improves your ranking and traffic quickly in the long run. 

Market your content and get huge following in that circle.

7. Page Speed

Your website and the page loading speed also have a role in your page ranking because visitors will leave if a website takes a much longer time to load. 

It's vital for bloggers to optimize their page speed for both desktop and mobile. 

You can find your blog's page speed by using Google PageSpeed Insights.

After knowing the things which increase page load speed, optimize it. 

8. Mobile-Friendly

Mobile Friendliness is also a leading factor because almost 50% of internet traffic is from mobile browsers. 

According to report that Website traffic from mobile devices is 52.6% between October 2019 - December 2019. [source]

So Google focusing on websites that do well on mobile devices if your website is not adaptable to mobile browsers then your website has less chance of getting ranking in the future.

So make your website theme is well opted for mobile browsers and make sure it looks good to read.

9. Internal Linking

Internal Linking is that linking from one article on a website to another article or page on the same website. A clickable Internal link on a website actually gives a positive signal to Google that the linked article is very helpful to users. 

We already talked about the "User Experience" factor on how important the Clickthrough rate is. But one should remember that clicked links only value the ranking of that article and if it's not clicked then it won't be a good factor.

So what one should make clickable Internal links is that provide correct information about the article which they link and it should be relevant to the current article they're reading. 

10. Media

Having multimedia like Images, Videos, and mainly Infographics boost your article. User's love to have images between some very long articles but those media should be related and contribute to the article or topic which the blogger wrote. 

Infographics help to increase visitors' interest, it looks cool and also very informative. People also prefer knowing something from a video than reading a very long article. 

So in order to sustain in the updating field, it's more likely one should use multimedia in their article related to their content.

I recommend you to make your own custom images for your blog and blog posts.

If you can't make your own video then find the more related video to your content from YouTube and embed it on your blog posts.

But don't use images or media which has no relation to your article.

11. Legal Information

It is information about the website owner or company and what's your site is about. Google wants to know the authority of a website for which they require this information and if the website doesn't provide that information then how can they going to trust that website for the content they wrote.

So for this factor, it's good to provide Legal pages that are

1. About us - It is the page that provides information about the website owner or about the organization that run's this website. It's like proving the credibility of that website. It shouldn't just like "Hey I am running the website", one should provide valuable information about themselves to make their website good in authority and trustworthiness.



2. Contact us - Contact us is the page from which users can contact you other from the comments section. It may provide a contact form which collects messages from users along with their detail or the website owner may provide their email, mobile number, or any other way to contact them. 



3. Terms and Conditions - It is the agreement that sets the rules and guidelines that visitors must agree to and follow in order to use & access one's website. The Terms and Conditions act as a legally binding contract between the website owner and the visitors.
   
   If you want terms and conditions developed for your website then I recommend using a lawyer but if you want free for your small website then use Terms and Conditions Generator.



4. Privacy Policy - The Privacy policy is a legal document that details how a website gathers, stores, shares, and sells data about its visitors. This data typically includes information such as a user's name, address, birthday, marital status, medical history, and consumer behavior.

If you want terms and conditions developed for your website then I recommend using a lawyer but if you want free for your small website then use Privacy Policy Generator.

12. Linking out to Quality Sites

It is that linking to quality sites in your article. Google wants to see that your article is true, accurate, and authoritative, so sometimes linking out to other authoritative sites in your field may help your site in increasing authoritativeness.

Try to link out to other authoritative sites more to let google increase the E.A.T of your website. 

FAQ

1. Why Ranking Factors are Important to know?

If bloggers get to know some of the important ranking factors of Google, they can make better content by which they can get better rankings in Google SERPs using their White Hat SEO strategies.

2. Which On-Page element carries the Most Weight for SEO?

Relevancy is the on-page element that carries the most weight for SEO.

3. What is the single most important on-page SEO factor?

Blog post Relevancy is the single most important on-page SEO factor.

If you want to know how to create a free blog then 

Read - Create a Free on Blogspot (Google Blogger): [2020 Helpful Illustrated Guide].

Conclusion

So these are the 12 most important search ranking factors that determine your Google rankings. Google uses these factors to measure the authoritativeness and helpfulness of one's website. 

So the basic of Google ranking is providing more helpful authoritative content. I not only mentioned these factors but also provided information on how to improve those factors on your website. 

These 12 factors not alone decide Google Ranking, like I said there are overall 200 factors but in which these 12 are the most important and effective on a website over the competitors.  

If you want to understand all these factors and some extra tips then watch the below video of Ricky from Income School YouTube video.

If you want to learn more about Blogging and SEO then I suggest you guys check out my following articles.

Read - 12 [Most Helpful] Podcasts for Bloggers (Infographic, Comparison Table).

Read - 11 [Most Helpful] Free Chrome Extensions for Bloggers.

Read - 8 [Best] YouTube Alternatives where you can make a Living.

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