Potential Google Ranking Factors 2020 that You Must Consider

Since its inception in 1998, Google has evolved and so does the search engine industry. With more than 200 ranking factors in consideration, Google has become the number one search engine and this is why it is quite difficult to rank high on it.

You might have heard of them, but if you are not using these ranking factors wisely, you will surely not able to win the best bet in search engine results.

These factors affect the SEO ranking to a great extent and to win all the deals you must have knowledge and understanding about the updates pertaining to the most important ranking factors.
Here check our recently update list for important Google ranking factors 2018, which you must know!

Keyword in the Domain Name

A domain name starting with the target keyword offers more clarity. Hence, it has an edge over others that don’t include the keyword.

Penalized Domain

A penalized domain, even if used by a new owner, is subject to penalized and suffers low rankings.

HTTPS

Websites without an SSL certificate are deemed insecure and unsafe. Google prefer sites with HTTPS and cater them with better rankings.

Penalizing the Owner

If Google finds any person as a spammer, then they would scrutinize other websites owned by that people.

Keyword in Title Tag

With keyword included in the title tag, it still remains a vital on-page SEO ranking factor.

Keyword in the Domain Name

With keyword included in the title tag, it still remains a vital on-page SEO ranking factor.

Description Tag with Keyword

Google does not use the description tag as a direct ranking factor. But, your description tag can create a great impact on click-through-rate, which is a vital key ranking factor.

Mobile-Friendly

Mobile-friendly update is an important announcement from Google, designed to identify pages that can offer rich user-experience to the users.

Content Length

Contents with more words tend to cover wider breath. Such contents are preferred by algorithms as compared to superficial and shorter content pieces. With a good content length, you can gain higher position in the SERP.

LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords

LSI keywords aid search engines to extract meaning from words with more than one meaning. The absence of LSI can reduce the overall content quality, and hence, your site ranking.

Mobile Interstitials

Google penalize websites with intrusive pop-ups and interstitial pages that intervene with mobile user experience.

Page Loading Speed

Google uses page loading speed as an important ranking factor. Search engine crawlers can estimate the speed of your site quite accurately based on the HTML code of your page.

Google Hummingbird

With this algorithm update, it has become possible for Google to go beyond keywords. The Google Hummingbird factor enables to better understand the webpage topic and can turn things to your favor.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate or identical content on the same sight can create a negative influence on your website’s search engine visibility. Hence, make sure the content on your site does not duplicate the content on other websites.

Mobile-First Indexing

This means that in most of the cases Google indexes mobile version of a website or page rather than the desktop version.

Image Optimization

Images send vital and relevancy signals to the search engines through their alt text, file name, caption, title, and description. Moreover, image optimization is an easy way out to get higher rankings for every page on your website.

Keyword Prominence

A keyword appearing in the first 100 words of the content on a page is directly correlated to the Google rankings on first page.

Heading Tags

Among all heading tags, the most important one is H1 tag, which tells what the entire page is about. Including H1 tag can sure give a slight ranking boost to your page.

Content Available Behind Tabs

If there is any such content on your site, which users can read only when they click on a tab then this content would not bring you much benefits. It is because such content is usually not indexed by Google.

Multimedia

Videos, images, and other multimedia elements can be excellent content quality signal. A good example of this is an industry study that found a direct correlation between rankings and multimedia.

Number of Interlinks to a Page

With more numbers of internal links to a page, it is possible to gain higher rankings. It is because it indicates the importance of the page relative to other pages on website.

Authoritative Backlinks

Links offer afforded value and with backlinks the impact on rankings is much stronger.

Sitemap

A sitemap throws more clarity on your website and helps search engines to index pages easier and thoroughly, enhancing visibility.

Outbound Links

Linking can be a trust signal and linking with trustworthy sites can give your website an edge.

Image Alts

Image alt tag is treated more like Anchor text and this is something that Google likes.

Link Anchor Text

With algorithms like Penguin, Google avoids ranking manipulative sites higher. So, do consider this algorithm while aiming for higher rankings.

To Sum Up

Ranking factors alone are not enough to guide your site’s SEO strategy, but they are important to a great extent. Hence, do consider the important Google ranking factors when aiming for higher search engine rankings in 2018.