The main factors of website ranking in Google

Site rankingis the distribution of sites by search engines in the search results for a particular query. In order for a website to rank high in search engines, it must be suitable for the maximum number of ranking factors. There are more than 1200 factors that affect ranking. In the classical scheme, there are 5-6 main groups into which all these factors are divided:

1. Host (site-wide).

These include: age, SSL certificate, domain zone, resource type, availability of some functionality, and many others.

2. Technical

Technical factors include parameters that describe the technical condition of the site: loading speed, document size, and others.

3. Textual

The group of textual ranking factors evaluates how the text of the page reveals the user’s need (content) and helps them solve the task.

4. Links

The main factors are the quality of the links and their weight.

5. Commercial

The main things in Google’s commercial ranking formula are assortment, trust, ease of choice, quality of services, and design. The search evaluates the availability and value of prices, company information, reviews, and much more

6. Behavioral (internal and external)

Google is trying to solve the user’s task – to assess whether he was able to find the information he was interested in using the search, order a product or service and satisfy his needs.

The main groups of factors

Content

Good and relevant content ranks better and is recognized by the following signals

• Writing style
• Position of key and related terms in the text
• Large number of characters
• Use of media content

Even if your site is visually good and filled with quality content, it cannot be fully finalized if there are technical errors. It is imperative to check for duplicate content, broken links, the quality of transitions, and so on.

Optimized page in technical terms

1. Convenient structure
2. Fast page loading
3. The Title and Description meta tags are written
4. Senseless pages are excluded from indexing;
5. Waiting time for server response.

And this is only a small part of the ranking factors, algorithms and criteria for ranking sites are constantly changing and improving.

So, in 2021, Google introduced new quality assessment factors – Core Web Vitals. There are more than ten of these factors, but there are three most important ones:

1. The speed of displaying the main content on the page.
2. The minimum waiting time before the first interaction with the content.
3. Visual stability of the content and the absence of any obstacles to interaction with it.

That is, now the priority is to prioritize sites that load content blocks faster, look correct, and with which the user can start interacting quickly.

Backlinks

Obviously, a large number of external links referring to your site has a positive effect on its ranking in Google. In external links that lead to our site, the following are important:

• Quality
• Quantity

But On July 26, 2021, Google’s official blog announced the launch of a new update aimed at combating spam – Spam Link Update. After which sites with (purchased) spammy links began to lose positions in Google.In its official blog, Google made it clear what types of links can lead to manual sanctions and lowering the site in search results.

The new algorithms apply to both inbound and outbound links. In short, you can now get penalized for a large number of affiliate links without the rel=”sponsored”tag. Placing a large number of outbound sales links will lead to a decrease in the search results.

Behavioral factors

This refers to indicators that characterize the behavior of site visitors. They are used by search engines to determine how convenient and useful a website is for the user.

• Bounce rate
• Time on Site
• CTR
• Position
• Number of pages viewed

You can also include social proof in this list – the activity of the target audience’s reaction to the site’s content on social networks. This parameter does not directly affect the ranking, but search engines take it into account as one of the factors. HTTPS

In August 2014, Google announced that sites that transmit data via the HTTPS protocol will receive a ranking bonus. Since then, nothing has changed, all sites that are promoted in Google’s search engine (Bing) must be under the secure https protocol.

Commercial ranking factors

These factors determine the quality of the site, so they are of some importance when sorting the site in the search results. For example, a person won’t want to buy anything in an online store if it doesn’t contain the organization’s contacts or prices for goods. And if the site does not have a form to fill out for the purchase of goods, then it will be impossible to buy something.

The main indicators of the quality of an online store, which are paid attention to by both users and search engines, include:

• phone numbers and other contacts on all pages;
• button “Buy” or “Order” next to each product;
• button or link to the Shopping Cart on all pages;
• price next to each product or service;
• correct display of the site in all popular browsers;
• information on the delivery of goods and available payment methods.

Stanislav Nikitiuk

Linkbuilder

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