The Top 12 Google Ranking Factors 2023

You may know that Google uses 200 ranking factors in its algorithm.

Fortunately, you don't need to master all 200 to enjoy your Website in SEO to be successful.

Perhaps you are more familiar with the few ranking factors that have the greatest impact.

Here are the most important ones Google Ranking Factors to better ranking on the SERPs in the Google algorithm (2023).

Content Quality

You can have a website that is perfect for Search Engine optimization is suitable and fulfills many different Google ranking factors.

However, if your item is too cheap on the website, it simply won't be rated.

The question is: What does "high-quality content" look like when it comes to SEO?

thoroughness

Google wants content that answers the queries of many users. completely answer.

That's why content length is very important.

Therefore, make sure that your article on the website is complete and contains the information that users need.

meaningfulness

Mit anderen Worten: Does your content meet the needs of a user after they have decided to perform a Google search?

Let's say you search for "CrossFit exercises" on Google.

A post listing 17 CrossFit exercises is MUCH more useful than an opinion piece on why CrossFit exercises are so good for weight loss.

Therefore, make sure that your article offers real added value and covers the user's search query, and is not just run-of-the-mill advertising.

structuring

The SEO-friendly content is highly structured.

Why is that important?

Firstly, well-structured content is easy to read.

This means that users can get the answer to their question faster.

Secondly, by organizing your content into sections, Google helps clarify what your content is about.

Therefore, make sure your content is structured and well-organized, as this is a very important Google ranking factor.

Uniqueness of the content

It's one thing to have a good amount of thorough, useful, and structured content.

But if it contains information that has already been published, it is unlikely to achieve a good ranking.

(After all, Google already has content with the same information in its index. Why would they rank yours above it?)

Therefore, your material must Different or Together be the content on page 1.

If you do that, you'll have a HUGE competitive advantage.

Fully crawlable page

If you want to achieve a good ranking, it is very important that search engines can fully crawl and index the content of your page.

Mit anderen Worten: If search engines block access to the page (e.g., due to...) Robots.txt), the page will not be indexed at all.

And if they cannot access certain areas of your site, this also affects your site's visibility in the search engine.

With the "URL check" function in the Google Search Console You can easily check if your site is fully available to search engines.

Optimized page for mobile devices

Google has in an update The following was announced to let:

"Mobile sites that offer a poor search experience may be demoted in rankings or displayed with a warning in mobile search results."

Mit anderen Worten: To achieve a good ranking in 2023, your website needs to work well on every device – desktops, phones, tablets and televisions.

Fortunately, Google has a neat, free tool called «Mobile-Friendly Test" developed.

Here you can find out whether your site is optimized for mobile devices or not – with specific recommendations for fixing any issues.

Number of backlinks

A backlink is like a vote in a poll by another website and has a huge influence on a website's ranking.

Search engines like Bing and Google measure these votes.

And they use them to find out which sites deserve to be in the top 10.

This page on my website, for example, contains a total of 12 backlinks:

This helped me improve the rankings for my focus keyword: «SEO Agency Zurich».

These days we are rapidly gaining the number 1 position on Google.ch:

(This applies not only to backlinks, but also to other criteria such as internal links, meta description, meta title, alt attributes, H1 heading, keyword in the title tag, etc.)

The bottom line: The more backlinks a page receives, the better it will rank in search engines.

Meaningfulness of the domain

A link that points directly to a page helps that page to be ranked higher.

These links also contribute to improving the overall message of your website.

This is considered the overall authority of your page.

The more meaningful your domain name is, the better your website's rating.

The best way to improve your domain authority is to create a great website.

anchor text

Google uses anchor text to find out what a page is about.

For example, someone recently created a link to my website using the anchor text: “SEO Agency Zurich".

This anchor text tells Google: "Other people link to this page with the anchor text "backlinks". This page must refer to backlinks."

Page loading speed

The loading speed of your website is a very important Google ranking factor.

(Especially how quickly your site loads on mobile devices)

Google has even discovered that "page speed is a Google ranking factor for mobile search".

Keyword usage

We sound like know-it-alls here, but…:

If you want to rank for a keyword, you must use that keyword on your page.

Otherwise, Google will know notthat it is on your side this keyword is about.

To note another point: You don't need to use your exact keyword every time. In fact, it makes sense to include variations of your main keyword in your content.

For example, if your keyword «Zurich desserts» is, you can also use terms like «Zurich Diet Desserts" and "Zurich biscuits" use:

Google RankBrain

RankBrain This is the AI ​​part of the Google algorithm.

How important is RankBrain?

Well, Google has confirmed that RankBrain is one of the The top 3 Google ranking factors are:

RankBrain's main task is to find out what a searcher wants... and to provide them with the best results for that search.

Since RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm, it is constantly changing.

Which makes optimization difficult.

Our advice is: The best way to "optimize" for RankBrain is to create impressive content that makes searchers happy.

Search intent

Does your content match what a searcher wants at this moment?

If so, you will find yourself with a massive jump in the rankings.

This is because Google is trying to replace traditional ranking factors (such as keywords and links) to degrade in favor of ranking factors that answer the question:

"Does this content give the searcher what they were looking for?".

In fact, Google uses thousands of “Quality Raters“, to measure how well the search results satisfy the search intent.

How about an example?

Suppose you have just searched for «Link Building" wanted.

Google closely monitors how you interact with the results.

For example, if you click on the first few results and quickly return to the search results, this is a strong indication that the result does not make the readers happy.

This process of jumping around the results is called «Pogo sticking" designated.

Pogo sticking is a user behavior pattern that is considered a negative signal for search engines.

However, if you click on a result and get exactly what you were looking for, Google will move that result to the top.

Up-to-dateness of the content

Google does NOT want to rank outdated content.

For this reason, you may have noticed that brand new content receives a temporary ranking boost.

That means, "Topicality“is still important weeks or months after you have posted your content on the internet.

Google especially wants your content to be relevant and up-to-date.

For example, let's say you've just published a comprehensive buyer's guide for the iPhone.

Well, if you don't update this content regularly, it will REALLY obsolescence.

Google directly measures recency (they check if the content has been updated since you published it... and how often).

They use User Experience Signals However, it's also about seeing if people interact with your content in different ways (e.g., noticing that users immediately leave the page). springen).

Therefore, it is important that you update your content regularly to keep it up to date.

For example, we update almost every page of our website at least once a year.

Even if you are not in a rapidly changing industry like SEO, we recommend updating your content once a year to keep it up-to-date for Google (and users).