Google’s 200+ Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2023)

• Domain Factors
• Page-Level Factors
• Site-Level Factors
• Backlink Factors
• User Interaction
• Special Google Algorithm Rules
• Brand Signals
• On-Site Webspam Factors
• Off-Site Webspam Factors

Domain Factors

1. Domain Age
2. Keyword Appears in Top Level Domain
3. Domain registration length
4. Keyword in Subdomain
5. Domain History
6. Exact Match Domain
7. Public vs. Private WhoIs
8. Penalized WhoIs Owner
9. Country TLD extension

Page-Level Factors

1. Keyword in Title Tag
2. Title Tag Starts with Keyword
3. Keyword in Description Tag
4. Keyword Appears in H1 Tag
5. TF-IDF
6. Content-Length
7. Table of Contents
8. Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords in Content (LSI)
9. LSI Keywords in Title and Description Tags
10. Page Covers Topic In-Depth
11. Page Loading Speed via HTML
12. Use of AMP
13. Entity Match
14. Google Hummingbird
15. Duplicate Content
16. Rel=Canonical
17. Image Optimization
18. Content Recency
19. Magnitude of Content Updates
20. Historical Page Updates
21. Keyword Prominence
22. Keyword in H2, H3 Tags
23. Outbound Link Quality
24. Outbound Link Theme
25. Grammar and Spelling
26. Syndicated Content
27. Mobile-Friendly Update
28. Mobile Usability
29. Hidden Content on Mobile
30. Helpful “Supplementary Content”
31. Content Hidden Behind Tabs
32. Number of Outbound Links
33. Multimedia
34. Number of Internal Links Pointing to Page
35. Quality of Internal Links Pointing to Page
36. Broken Links
37. Reading Level
38. Affiliate Links
39. HTML errors/W3C validation
40. Domain Authority
41. Page’s PageRank
42. URL Length
43. URL Path
44. Human Editors
45. Page Category
46. Keyword in URL
47. URL String
48. References and Sources
49. Bullets and Numbered Lists
50. Priority of Page in Sitemap
51. Too Many Outbound Links
52. UX Signals From Other Keywords Page Ranks For
53. Page Age
54. User Friendly Layout
55. Parked Domains
56. Useful Content

Site-Level Factors

1. Content Provides Value and Unique Insights
2. Contact Us Page
3. Domain Trust/TrustRank
4. Site Architecture
5. Site Updates
6. Presence of Sitemap
7. Site Uptime
8. Server Location
9. SSL Certificate
10. E-A-T
11. Duplicate Meta Information On-Site
12. Breadcrumb Navigation
13. Mobile Optimized
14. YouTube
15. Site Usability
16. Use of Google Analytics and Google Search Console
17. User reviews/Site reputation
18. Core Web Vitals

Backlink Factors

1. Linking Domain Age
2. # of Linking Root Domains
3. # of Links from Separate C-Class IPs
4. # of Linking Pages
5. Backlink Anchor Text
6. Alt Tag (for Image Links)
7. Links from .edu or .gov Domains
8. Authority of Linking Page
9. Authority of Linking Domain
10. Links From Competitors
11. Links from “Expected” Websites
12. Links from Bad Neighborhoods
13. Guest Posts
14. Links From Ads
15. Homepage Authority
16. Nofollow Links
17. Diversity of Link Types
18. “Sponsored” or “UGC” Tags
19. Contextual Links
20. Excessive 301 Redirects to Page
21. Internal Link Anchor Text
22. Link Title Attribution
23. Country TLD of Referring Domain
24. Link Location In Content
25. Link Location on Page
26. Linking Domain Relevancy
27. Page-Level Relevancy
28. Keyword in Title
29. Positive Link Velocity
30. Negative Link Velocity
31. Links from “Hub” Pages
32. Link from Authority Sites
33. Linked to as Wikipedia Source
34. Co-Occurrences
35. Backlink Age
36. Links from Real Sites vs. “Splogs”
37. Natural Link Profile
38. Reciprocal Links
39. User Generated Content Links
40. Links from 301
41. Schema.org Usage
42. TrustRank of Linking Site
43. Number of Outbound Links on Page
44. Forum Links
45. Word Count of Linking Content
46. Quality of Linking Content
47. Sitewide Links

User Interaction

1. RankBrain
2. Organic Click Through Rate for a Keyword
3. Organic CTR for All Keywords
4. Bounce Rate
5. Direct Traffic
6. Repeat Traffic
7. Pogosticking
8. Blocked Sites
9. Chrome Bookmarks
10. Number of Comments
11. Dwell Time
12. Query Deserves Freshness
13. Query Deserves Diversity
14. User Browsing History
15. User Search History
16. Featured Snippets
17. Geo Targeting
18. Safe Search
19. “YMYL” Keywords
20. Domain Diversity
21. Transactional Searches
22. Local Searches
23. Top Stories box
24. Big Brand Preference
25. Shopping Results
26. Image Results
27. Easter Egg Results
28. Single Site Results for Brands
29. Payday Loans Update

Brand Signals

1. Branded Searches
2. Brand + Keyword Searches
3. Site Has Facebook Page and Likes
4. Site has Twitter Profile with Followers
5. Known Authorship
6. Legitimacy of Social Media Accounts
7. Brand Mentions on Top Stories
8. Unlinked Brand Mentions
9. Brick and Mortar Location

On-Site Webspam Factors

1. Panda Penalty
2. Links to Bad Neighborhoods
3. Redirects
4. Popups or “Distracting Ads”
5. Interstitial Popups
6. Site Over-Optimization
7. Gibberish Content
8. Doorway Pages
9. Ads Above the Fold
10. Hiding Affiliate Links
11. Fred
12. Affiliate Sites
13. Autogenerated Content
14. Excess PageRank Sculpting
15. IP Address Flagged as Spam
16. Meta Tag Spamming

Off-Site Webspam Factors

1. Unnatural Influx of Links
2. Penguin Penalty
3. Link Profile with High % of Low Quality Links
4. Links From Unrelated Websites
5. Unnatural Links Warning
6. Low-Quality Directory Links
7. Widget Links
8. “Poison” Anchor Text
9. Unnatural Link Spike
10. Links From Article Directories and Press Releases
11. Manual Actions
12. Selling Links
13. Google Sandbox
14. Google Dance
15. Disavow Tool
16. Reconsideration Request
17. Temporary Link Schemes