The 200 Google ranking factors: The complete list (2024)
To rank websites in its search results, Google takes into account over 200 factors! But what are they precisely? Would you believe me if I told you that I have listed them all for you?
During my experience, I have even been able to test some of them. I have classified them by category:
In relation to the domain
1. His age: The age of the domain plays a role in history.
Video Matt Cutts
2. The domain in question (composed of keywords or not): If your domain contains a keyword related to your topic, it is more likely to appear in thebest results.
3. The placement of the keyword in the domain name (at the beginning):Having a keyword in your domain is one thing, but placing that keyword first is another. These types of domain names always carry more weight compared to those that have it, but are located in the middle or at the end.
4. Domain registration duration: Google trusts sites that register their domain name for multiple years. That is why there are companies that register their domain name for a period of more than 5 years, instead of renewing it every year.
5. Keyword in the subdomain: The principle of the subdomain is the same as for the domain; if it contains a keyword related to your theme, your site will have a better ranking.
6. History of the domain: The history of a domain name is also verified by Google. If it has been abandoned multiple times in the past but has not been reset yet, it is better not to take it. Otherwise, you can reset it by canceling all the links that are already pointing to the domain.
7. Exact Match Domain: Also called an "exact match domain" (EMD), it gives a slight advantage to the site that bears it. What is it about? These are domains that perfectly match the searched keywords. Provided that the content on the site is relevant, it will probably remain in the top rankings for a long time.
8. Whois Public vs. Private: By ensuring that your WhoIs is public, you will attract search engines. Private WhoIs information is not transparent to them; it hides something.
9. WhoIs owner penalization:As a website owner, you are also responsible for the ranking of your site. If you are ever a spammer and Google discovers it, it immediately examines your other sites (even successful ones) and penalizes them.
10. Country code top-level domain extension: To rank globally, there is nothing better than classic extensions. However, all domains with extensions matching their country code, and which are ranked higher in their country, are more advantageous.
Page Level Factors
11. Keyword in the title tag: We often repeat this 11th criterion. The keyword must appear in the title tag of the page. However, it is no longer as important as before, but that is not a reason not to respect it.
12. Title tags that start with a keyword make a page more effective in the eyes of search engines.
13. Keyword in the Description tag: This is also not a direct criterion for natural referencing. However, if you integrate keywords into this tag, you are more likely to get a higher click-through rate, which is then a high ranking factor.
14. The keyword appears in the H1 tag: The H1 tags are considered as a "second title tag" of the page.
15. TF-IDF (a frequency criterion): To cut to the chase, we are talking about the frequency of a keyword on a web page. The higher it is, the better the page is referenced. However, it is important to be careful not to overdo it at the risk of being penalized.
16. Content Length:Have you noticed that I regularly publish long articles? It's simply to please Google. He prefers long content over short content.
17. Table of Contents: I recommend using tables of contents in your articles. They help Google understand what you are talking about, making it easier for it to position your site in search results.
18. Keyword DensityIn the past, a lot of importance was placed on keyword densities. This is no longer the case currently, but I think it is still worth considering. Google also uses it to determine the subject of a site. Make sure to establish a certain balance: not too dense nor too light.
19. Latent Semantic Analysis of Keywords (LSI): Google analyzes the text of each web page in order to extract hidden relationships. And it is completely understandable. Otherwise, how could it differentiate between Apple, the famous tech company, and Apple, the fruit?
20. LSI keywords in title and description tags:The richness of semantics in title and description tags is just as important as that in the content.
21. The page that covers all the topics of the site: The pages that cover all topics of the site probably have an advantage over pages that only talk about a part of the subject.
22. Page loading speed: Google is not the only one to consider the loading speed of a page important; Bing is also strict on this point (as are many other search engines). They use robots to estimate the loading time of each site, based in particular on the HTML code of the page.
23. Page loading speed via Chrome You can be sure that Google's evaluation is reliable. Indeed, it takes into account data from Chrome users when analyzing a page's loading time.
24. Use of AMP format:For several years now, smartphones have been playing an undeniable role in technology. It is therefore clear that AMP formats are increasingly favored.
25. Entity Matching: In SEO, there is what is called
Does the content of a page correspond to the "entity" that a user is looking for? If so, this page can achieve a higher ranking for that keyword.
26. Google Hummingbird: This "algorithm change" has allowed Google to go beyond keywords. Thanks to Hummingbird, Google can now better understand the topic of a web page.
27. Duplicate content: Identical content on the same site (even slightly modified) can negatively impact the visibility of a site on search engines.
28. Rel=Canonical:Used correctly, this tag can prevent Google from penalizing your site for duplicate content.
29. Image optimization:Images send important relevance signals to search engines through their file name, alt text, title, description, and caption.
30. Freshness of content:Google's Caffeine update favors recently published or updated content, particularly for time-sensitive searches. Emphasizing the importance of this factor, Google displays the date of the last update of a page for certain pages
31. Extent of content updatesThe importance of modifications and changes is also a freshness factor. Adding or removing entire sections is more important than changing the order of a few words or correcting a typo.
32. Historical page updates: How often has the page been updated over time? Daily, weekly, every 5 years? The frequency of page updates also plays a role in freshness.
33. Keyword ProminenceThe fact that a keyword appears in the first 100 words of a page's content is correlated with the ranking of the first page of Google.
34. Keywords in H2, H3 TagsThe fact that your keyword appears as a subtitle in H2 or H3 format can be another signal of low relevance. In fact, Google's John Mueller states
35. Outbound Link QualityMany SEO experts believe that links to authoritative sites help send trust signals to Google. And this is confirmed by a recent industry study.
36. Outbound links theme:According to the Hillop algorithm, Google can use the content of the pages you have linked to as a relevance signal. For example, if you have a page about cars that links to pages related to movies, this can indicate to Google that your page is about the movie Cars, not the automobile.
37. Grammar and Spelling:Correct grammar and spelling are a signal of quality, although Cutts gave conflicting messages a few years ago about the importance of this point.
38. Syndicated Content: Is the content on the page original? If it is scraped or copied from an indexed page, it will not be ranked as well... or may not be indexed at all.
39. Mobile-friendly update: Often called "Mobilegeddon", this update rewarded pages that are properly optimized for mobile devices.
40. Mobile Usability:Websites that are easily accessible for mobile phone users can have an advantage in Google's "Mobile-first Index".
41. "Hidden" content on mobile devices:Hidden content on mobile devices may not be indexed (or weighed as heavily) compared to fully visible content. However, a Googler recently stated that hidden content is acceptable. But he also stated that in the same video, "...if it's critical content, it should be visible...".
42. Useful additional content: According to a publicly available Google ranking guidelines document, additional useful content is an indicator of the quality of a page (and therefore Google ranking). This includes things like currency converters, loan interest calculators, and interactive recipes.
43. Hidden content behind tabs:Users should click on a tab to reveal part of the content on your page? If so, Google has stated that this content "cannot be indexed".
44. Number of outbound links: Too many dofollow OBLs can "leak" PageRank, which can harm the ranking of this page.
45. Multimedia: Images, videos, and other multimedia elements can act as a signal of content quality. For example, a study in the industry found a correlation between multimedia and rankings
Number of internal links pointing to the page: 46The number of internal links to a page indicates its importance compared to other pages on the site (more internal links = more important).
47. Quality of internal links pointing to the pageThe internal links on pages with authority in the domain have a greater effect than pages without or with low PageRank.
Broken links: 48The fact that a page has too many broken links can be a sign of a neglected or abandoned site. Google's guidelines document on website evaluation uses broken links as a way to assess the quality of a homepage.
Reading level: 49There is no doubt that Google considers the readability level of web pages. In fact, Google used to provide statistics on the readability level:
But what they do with this information is subject to debate. Some say that a basic reading level will help you rank better because it will appeal to the masses. But others associate a basic reading level with content mills like Ezine Articles.
50. Affiliate linksAffiliate links themselves are unlikely to harm your ranking. But if you have too many, Google's algorithm may pay special attention to other quality signals to ensure you are not a "thin affiliate site".
51. HTML Errors/W3C validationA large number of HTML errors or sloppy coding can be a sign of a low-quality website. Although controversial, many SEO specialists believe that a well-coded page is used as a quality signal.
52. Domain AuthorityAll other things being equal, a page from an authoritative domain will have a higher ranking than a page from a domain with less authority.
53. Page's PageRank : The correlation is not perfect. But pages with a lot of authority tend to outperform pages with little authority in terms of links.
54. URL length: URLs that are too long can harm a page's visibility in search engines. In fact, several industry studies have shown that shorter URLs tend to have a slight advantage in Google search results.
55. URL pathA page closer to the homepage may receive a slight increase in authority compared to pages buried deep within a site's architecture.
56. Human writers:Although it has never been confirmed, Google has filed a patent for a system that allows human editors to influence the SERP.
57. Page Category: The category in which the page appears is a relevance signal. A page that is part of a closely related category can receive a relevance signal compared to a page classified in an unrelated category.
58. WordPress Tags:Tags are specific relevance signals in WordPress. According to Yoast.com:
59. Keyword in the URLAnother relevance signal. A Google representative recently described this phenomenon as a "very low ranking factor." But a significant ranking factor nonetheless.
60. URL Chain: Categories in the URL chain are read by Google and can provide a thematic signal about the subject of a page
61. References and sources: Citing references and sources, as research documents do, can be a sign of quality. Google's quality guidelines state that evaluators should keep an eye on sources when reviewing certain pages: "This is a topic where expertise and/or authoritative sources are important...". However, Google has denied using external links as a ranking signal.
62. Bullets and numbered lists: Bullets and numbered lists help break down your content for readers, making it more user-friendly. Google probably agrees and may prefer content with bullets and numbers.
63. Page priority in the site map: The priority given to a page via the sitemap.xml file can influence the ranking.
64. Too many outbound links: Straight from the aforementioned quality assessment document:
65. User Experience Signals from Other Keywords Page Ranks for: If the page ranks for multiple other keywords, this can give Google an internal quality signal. In fact, Google's recent report "How Search Works" indicates
66. Page Age: Although Google prefers fresh content, an older page that is regularly updated can perform better than a newer page.
67. User-friendly layout:Quoting once again from Google's Quality Guidelines document:
68. Domain Names in ParkingA Google update in December 2011 decreased the visibility of parked domains in searches.
69. Useful Content: As highlighted by the Backlinko readerJared CarrizalesIf we cannot rely on Google's experience, Google can distinguish between "quality" content and "useful" content.
Factors related to the site level
70. The content brings value and unique perspectives:Google has stated that it is happy to penalize websites that do not bring anything new or useful, especially thin affiliate sites.
Page "Contact Us" : The Google quality document mentioned above indicates that they prefer sites with "an appropriate amount of contact information". Make sure your contact details match your whois information.
72. Domain Trust/TrustRank: Many SEO experts believe that "TrustRank" is an extremely important ranking factor. And a Google patent titled "Search result ranking based on trust" seems to confirm this.
73. Site Architecture: A well-designed website architecture (such as a silo structure) helps Google organize your content by theme. It can also help Googlebot access all pages of your site and index them.
74. Website Updates: Many SEO experts believe that website updates - especially when new content is added to the site - are a freshness factor for the entire site. Although Google recently denied using "publishing frequency" in their algorithm.
75. Presence of a site map: A sitemap allows search engines to index your pages more easily and completely, which improves visibility. However, Google recently stated that HTML sitemaps are not "helpful" for SEO.
76. Website uptimeMany interruptions due to website maintenance or server issues can harm your ranking (and may even lead to deindexing if not corrected).
77. Server locationThe server location influences the ranking of your site in different geographical regions (source). Particularly important for geospecific searches.
78. SSL CertificateGoogle has confirmed the use of HTTPS as a ranking signal.
According to Google, however, HTTPS only acts as a "tie-breaker"..
79. Terms of use and privacy policy pagesThese two pages allow you to tell Google that a website is a trustworthy member of the Internet. They can also help improve the E-A-T of your site.
80. Duplicate metadata on the websiteDuplicating meta-information on your site can reduce the visibility of your page.
81. Breadcrumb navigation: This is a user-friendly website architecture style that helps users (and search engines) know where they are on a site
This is what Google claims: "Google search uses breadcrumbs in the body of a web page to classify the information on the page in search results".
82. Mobile Optimized: With over half of searches conducted from mobile devices, Google wants to ensure that your site is optimized for mobile users. In fact, Google now penalizes websites that are not mobile-friendly
83. YouTube: There is no doubt that YouTube videos receive preferential treatment in the SERPs (probably because Google owns it)
In fact, Search Engine Land found that traffic to YouTube.com increased significantly after Google Panda.
Ease of use of the site: 84A difficult-to-use or navigate website can indirectly harm rankings by reducing the time spent on the site, pages viewed, and bounce rate (in other words, RankBrain ranking factors).
85. Use of Google Analytics and Google Search Console:Some believe that installing these two programs on your site can improve the indexing of your page. They can also directly influence ranking by providing Google with more data to work with (such as a more accurate bounce rate, whether or not you get SEO traffic from your backlinks, etc.). That being said, Google has denied that this is a myth.
86. User reviews/Site reputation: The reputation of a site on sites like Yelp.com probably plays an important role in Google's algorithm. Google has even released a rare candid preview of how it uses online reviews after a site was caught scamming customers for press and links.
Feedback Factors
87. Linking domain age: Backlinks from older domains can be more powerful than new domains.
88. Number of root linking domains: The number of referring domains is one of the most important ranking factors in Google's algorithm, as you can see in this industry study covering 1 million Google search results.
89. # Number of links from distinct Class C IP addresses: Links from different Class C IP addresses suggest a greater variety of sites linking to you, which can help establish a ranking.
90. # Number of link pagesThe total number of link pages - even from the same domain - has an impact on rankings.
91. Anchor text of the backlinkAs mentioned in this description of the original Google algorithm:
Obviously, anchor text is less important than before (and, when too optimized, it functions as a webspam signal). But anchor text rich in keywords still sends a strong relevance signal in small doses.
92. Alt Tag (for image links)The Alt text serves as anchor text for images.
93. Links from .edu or .gov domainsMatt Cutts stated that the TLD does not take into account the importance of a site. And Google said that it "ignores" many Edu links. But this does not prevent SEOs from thinking that the .gov and .edu TLDs have a special place in the algorithm.
94. Page authority of links: The authority (PageRank) of the referring page has been an extremely important ranking factor since the early days of Google and still is.
95. Domain Authority of BacklinksThe authority of the referring domain can play an independent role in the value of a link.
96. Links from competitors: Links from other pages within the same SERP may have more value for ranking a page for that particular keyword.
97. Links to "expected" websites:Although speculative, some SEOs believe that Google will not fully trust your website until you have been linked to a set of "expected" sites in your industry.
98. Links from bad neighborhoods: Links from what we call "bad neighborhoods" can harm your site.
99. Guest Posts: Although links from guest posts always have some value, they are probably not as powerful as genuine editorial links (in addition, "large-scale" guest posts can put your site at risk)..
100. Links from advertisements:According to Google, links from advertisements should be marked as nofollow. However, it is likely that Google is able to identify and filter followed links from ads.
101. Home Page Authority: Links to the homepage of a reference page can play a particularly important role in evaluating the weight of a site - and therefore a link.
102. Nofollow Links:It is one of the most controversial topics in SEO. Google's official word on this subject is
What suggests that theyto do.. At least in some cases. Having a certain percentage of nofollow links can also indicate a natural or unnatural link profile.
103. Diversity of link types: The fact that an abnormally high percentage of your links come from a single source (for example, forum profiles, blog comments) can be a sign of webspam. On the other hand, links from diverse sources are a sign of a natural link profile.
104. Tags "Sponsored" or "UGC" :Links marked as "rel=sponsored" or "rel=UGC" are treated differently from normal "followed" or rel=nofollow links.
105. Contextual links: The links embedded in the content of a page are considered more powerful than links on an empty page or found elsewhere on the page.
106. Excessive redirections to page 301:The backlinks coming from 301 redirects dilute the PageRank slightly, according to a video tutorial for webmasters.
107. Internal link anchor textThe anchor text of the internal link is another relevance signal. That being said, internal links likely carry much less weight than anchor text from external sites.
108. Link Title AttributionThe title of the link (the text that appears when you hover over a link) can also be used as a low relevance signal.
Country code top-level domain (TLD) of the reference domain: Getting links from country-specific top-level domains (.de, .cn, .co.uk) can help you better position yourself in that country.
110. Link placement in the content: Links placed at the beginning of content may carry slightly more weight than links placed at the end of the content.
111. Link Placement on the Page: The placement of a link on a page is important. In general, a link embedded within the content of a page is more powerful than a link in the footer or sidebar.
112. Linking domain relevance: A link from a site in a similar niche is significantly more powerful than a link from a site with no connection.
113. Relevance of As an expert SEO, translate the content of this website into English levels: A link from a As an expert SEO, translate the content of this website into English also adds more value.
114. Keyword in the title: Google pays special attention to links from pages that contain the keyword of your page in the title ("Experts linking to experts")
115. Positive connection speed: A website with a positive link velocity usually gets a SERP boost because it shows that your site is becoming more popular.
116. Negative connection speed On the other hand, a negative link speed can significantly reduce rankings as it is a sign of a decrease in popularity.
117. Links to "Hub" pages: The Hilltop algorithm suggests that obtaining links from pages that are considered top resources (or hubs) on a certain topic benefits from special treatment.
118. Linking from authority sites:A link from a site considered as an "authority site" will probably pass better than a link from a relatively unknown small site.
Related to the source Wikipedia: 119Although the links are not followed, many believe that getting a link from Wikipedia gives you a little more trust and authority in the eyes of search engines.
120. Co-Occurrences:The words that tend to appear around your backlinks help tell Google what this page is about.
121. Link Age: According to a Google patent, older links have more ranking power than newly created backlinks.
122. Real website links vs. "Splogs":Due to the proliferation of blog networks, Google probably gives more weight to links from "real sites" than from fake blogs. They likely use brand signals and user interaction to distinguish between the two.
123. Natural link profile:A website with a "natural" link profile will be better ranked and more sustainable to updates than a site that has clearly used black hat strategies to create links.
124. Reciprocal links: Google's page on link schemes lists "excessive link exchanges" as a link scheme to avoid.
125. Links to user-generated content: Google can identify the Terms of Service in relation to the content published by the site owner. For example, they know that a link from the official WordPress.com blog isvery different from a link coming from besttoasterreviews.wordpress.com.
126. Links from 301: Links from 301 redirects may lose some of their juice compared to a direct link. However, Matt Cutts claims that 301 redirects are similar to direct links
127. Use of Schema.org:Pages that support microformats can rank higher than pages that do not. This can be a direct boost or the fact that pages with microformatting have a higher SERP CTR
128. TrustRank of the linking site: The reliability of the site that links back to your site determines the amount of "TrustRank" that is passed on to you.
129. Number of outbound links on the page: The PageRank is limited. A link on a page with hundreds of external links passes less PageRank than a page with a handful of outgoing links.
130. Forum links:Due to industrial-level spamming, Google may significantly devalue forum links.
131. Number of words in the content of the links: A link from a 1000-word message is generally more valuable than a link within a 25-word snippet.
132. Quality of link content:Links from poorly written or poorly turned content do not have as much value as links from well-written content.
133. Links throughout the site: Matt Cutts confirmed that site-wide links are "compressed" to be counted as a single link.
User Interaction
134. RankBrain: RankBrain is Google's AI algorithm. Many believe that its main purpose is to measure how users interact with search results (and rank results accordingly).
135. Organic click-through rate for a keywordAccording to Google, pages that are clicked on more frequently in CTR can benefit from a boost in the SERP for that particular keyword.
136. Organic CTR for all keywordsThe organic CTR of a site for all the keywords it ranks for can be a signal of interaction with the user (in other words, a "quality score" for organic results).
137. Bounce rate: Not everyone agrees on the importance of bounce rate, but it may be a way for Google to use its users as quality testers (after all, pages with a high bounce rate are probably not a good result for that keyword). Furthermore, a recent study by SEMRush has established a correlation between bounce rate and Google rankings.
138. Direct traffic: It is confirmed that Google uses data from Google Chrome to determine how many people visit the site (and how often). Sites with a lot of direct traffic are likely to be of better quality than sites that receive very little direct traffic. In fact, the SEMRush study I just mentioned found a significant correlation between direct traffic and Google rankings.
139. Repeat TrafficWebsites with regular visitors can achieve a higher ranking in Google.
140. Pogosticking: "Pogosticking" is a specific type of bouncing. In this case, the user clicks on other search results to try to find the answer to their query.
The results of Pogostick can significantly drop rankings.
141. Sites blockedGoogle has abandoned this feature in Chrome. However, Panda used this feature as a quality signal. Google may still use a variation of it.
142. Chrome bookmarks: We know that Google collects data on the use of the Chrome browser. Pages that are bookmarked in Chrome could be boosted.
143. Number of comments: 0Pages containing many comments can be a sign of user interaction and quality. In fact, a Googler has stated that comments can help "a lot" in establishing rankings.
144. Occupation time: Google pays special attention to "dwell time": the time that users spend on your page when they perform a search on Google. This is sometimes referred to as "long clicks versus short clicks". In short: Google measures the time that users spend on your page. The longer the time spent on your page, the better.
Special rules of Google's algorithm
145. The query deserves freshness: Google gives a boost to the most recent pages for certain searches.
146. The query deserves diversity Google can add diversity to a SERP for ambiguous keywords, such as "Ted", "WWF", or "ruby".
147. User navigation historyYou have probably noticed it yourself: the websites you frequently visit receive a boost from the SERP for your searches.
148. User search history:The search history influences search results for future searches. For example, if you search for "magazines" and then "toaster", Google is more likely to rank websites about toaster magazines in the SERPs.
149. Featured Briefs:According to an SEMRush study, Google selects the content of Featured Snippets based on a combination of content length, formatting, page authority, and use of HTTP.
150. Geographic targeting: Google prefers websites with a local server IP and a country-specific domain extension.
151. Secure Search: Search results with curse words or adult content will not appear for people with Safe Search enabled.
152. Google+ Circles: Even though Google+ is about to disappear, Google still displays higher results for authors and sites that you have added to your Google Plus circles.
153. Keywords "YMYL" : Google has higher quality content standards for the keywords "Your money or your life".
154. DMCA Complaints: Google "downgrades" pages with legitimate DMCA complaints.
155. Diversity of domainsThe update known as "Bigfoot" would have added additional domains to each page of the SERP.
156. Transactional searchesGoogle sometimes displays different results for shopping-related keywords, such as flight searches.
157. Local searches: For local searches, Google often places local results above "normal" organic SERPs.
158. Story Box:Some keywords trigger a Top Stories box
159. Preference for big brands:After the Vince update, Google started giving a boost to big brands for certain keywords.
160. Shopping results:Google sometimes displays Google Shopping results in organic SERPs
161. Image results: Google images sometimes appear in regular and organic search results.
162. Easter egg results: Google has a dozen results for Easter eggs. For example, when you search "Atari Breakout" in Google image search, the search results turn into a playable game (!). Shout out toVictor Pan for this one..
163. Unique site results for brands: Domain or brand-focused keywords bring up multiple results from the same site.
Update on payday loans:This is a special algorithm designed to clean up "very spammy queries".
Brand signals
165. Brand anchor text: The anchor text of the brand is a simple - but strong - brand signal.
166. Brand searches: People search for brands. If people search for your brand on Google, it shows Google that your site is a legitimate brand.
167. Brand + Keyword Research: Are people searching for a specific keyword along with your brand (e.g. "Backlinko Google ranking factors" or "Backlinko SEO")? If so, Google may give you a ranking boost when people search for the brand-less version of that keyword in Google.
The website has a Facebook page and likes: Brands tend to have Facebook pages with a lot of things they like.
169. The website has a Twitter profile with followers: Twitter profiles with a lot of followers indicate a popular brand.
Official page of the company Linkedin: Most real businesses have Linkedin pages.
171. Known author: In February 2013, Google CEO Eric Schmidt declared
172. Legitimacy of social media accounts:A social media account with 10,000 followers and 2 posts is likely to be interpreteda lot différemment d’un autre compte fort de 10 000 personnes avec a lot d’interaction. En fait, Google a déposé un brevet pour déterminer si les comptes de médias sociaux étaient réels ou faux.
173. Brand mentions in the news: Many major brands are consistently mentioned on Top Stories websites. In fact, some brands even have a news feed from their own site on the front page
174. Unrelated brand mentions: Brands are mentioned without being linked. Google probably considers unrelated brand mentions as a brand signal.
175. Placement of bricks and mortar:Real businesses have offices. It is possible that Google searches for location data to determine whether a site is a major brand or not.
Factors of spam on the site
176. Panda Penalty: Websites with low-quality content (especially content farms) are less visible in searches after being hit by a Panda penalty.
177. Links to bad neighborhoods:Links to "bad neighborhoods" - such as pharmacies or payday loan sites - can harm the visibility of your search.
178. Redirections: Sneaky redirects are a big no. If caught, they can not only result in the site being penalized, but also deindexed.
179. Popups or "Distracting Ads":The official Google Rater Guidelines document states that popups and distracting advertisements are signs of a low-quality website.
180. Interstitial Popups:Google could penalize websites that display full-page "interstitial" pop-up windows for mobile users.
181. Site over-optimization:Yes, Google penalizes people who over-optimize their site. This includes: keyword stuffing, header tag stuffing, excessive keyword decoration.
182. Gibberish Content:A Google patent describes how Google can identify "gibberish" content, which is useful for filtering spun or automatically generated content from their index.
183. Door pages:Google wants the page that you show to Google to be the same page that the user ultimately sees. If your page redirects people to another page, it is considered a "Doorway Page". It goes without saying that Google does not like sites that use Doorway Pages.
Ads above the fold: The "layout algorithm" penalizes websites with a lot of advertisements (and little content) above the fold.
185. Concealing affiliate links:Going too far in concealing affiliate links (especially with cloaking) can result in a penalty.
186. Fred: A nickname given to a series of Google updates starting from 2017. According to Search Engine Land, Fred "targets low-value content sites that prioritize revenue over helping their users".
187. Affiliated Sites: It is no secret that Google is not the biggest fan of affiliates. And many believe that sites that monetize with affiliate programs are subject to increased scrutiny.
188. Automatically generated content:Google rightly hates auto-generated content. If it suspects that your site is scraping computer-generated content, it could penalize or deindex you.
189. Sculpture of excess PageRank:Going too far with sculpting PageRank - by not following all outgoing links - can be a sign of gaming the system.
190. IP address reported as spam: If the IP address of your server is marked for spam, it can affect all the sites on this server.
191. Spamming Meta Tag : Keyword stuffing can also occur in meta tags. If Google thinks you are adding keywords to your title and description tags in order to manipulate the algorithm, it can penalize your site.
Off-site spam factors
192. Website hackedIf your website is hacked, it can be removed from search results. In fact, Search Engine Land was completely deindexed after Google believed it had been hacked.
193. Influx of unnatural linksA sudden (and unnatural) influx of links is a sure sign of fake links.
194. Penguin Penalty: Websites that have been affected by Google Penguin are significantly less visible in searches. Although apparently, Penguin now focuses more on filtering out bad links than penalizing entire websites.
195. Profile of links with a high percentage of low-quality links: Many links from commonly used sources by SEOs (such as blog comments and forum profiles) can be a sign of system abuse.
196. Links from unrelated websites: A high percentage of backlinks from sites unrelated to the topic can increase the chances of a manual penalty.
197. Unnatural Links Warning:Google has sent out thousands of messages saying "Google Search Console notice of detected unnatural links". This typically precedes a drop in ranking, but not 100% of the time.
198. Low-quality directory links: According to Google, backlinks from low-quality directories can lead to a penalty.
199. Widget Links:Google disapproves of links that are automatically generated when the user integrates a "widget" on their site.
200. Links from the same Class C IPObtaining an abnormal amount of links from sites located on the same server IP address can help Google determine that your links come from a blog network.
201. Anchor Text "Poison":Having "poisoned" anchor text (especially pharmacy keywords) pointing to your site can be a sign of spam or a hacked site. In both cases, this can harm the ranking of your site.
202. Unnatural Link Peak:A Google patent from 2013 describes how Google can determine if an influx of links to a page is legitimate or not. These unnatural links can be devalued.
203. Links from articles and press releases:Article directories and press releases have been used so excessively that Google now considers these two link building strategies as a "link scheme" in many cases.
204. Manual Actions: There are several types, but most are related to black hat link building.
205. Link Sales: Getting caught selling links can harm your search visibility.
206. Google Sandbox : The new sites that receive a sudden influx of links are sometimes put in Google's sandbox, which temporarily limits search visibility.
207. Google Dance: The Google Dance can temporarily disrupt rankings. According to a Google patent, this can be a way for them to determine whether a site is trying to manipulate the algorithm or not.
208. Disavow Tool: The use of the Disavow tool can remove a manual or algorithmic penalty for sites that have been affected by negative SEO.
209. Request for reviewA successful request for reassessment can result in the lifting of a sanction.
210. Temporary liaison programs: Google has targeted individuals who create - and quickly remove - spam links. Also known as the temporary links system.
In conclusion
It's quite a list.
In summary, here are the main ranking factors of Google in 2020:
Domain referencing
Organic click-through rate
Domain Authority
Mobile usability
Length of stay
Total number of backlinks
Quality of content
SEO on the page
Now, I would like to hear from you
Which ranking factor from this list was new to you?
Or maybe I missed something..
In any case, let me know by leaving a comment below.