Google ranking factors - Search Engine Optimisation

Knowledge of, or at least an understand of, Google ranking factors is a necessity for search engine optimisation. First, it's an art, not a science. The information on this page has no official source. It's based on various informal sources - non of which are directly related to Google. Nothing on the page can be taken as guaranteed and any Google factor that works today might not work tomorrow.

Why should you understand Google ranking factors?

Most web sites want traffic. If your web site is for personal use only, then there is no need to attract traffic to your site. But if not, your site needs traffic. Google remains the most widely used search engine and is therefore a good goal to start exploring the ranking factors. But other search engines do exist with different search algorithms, so a separate understanding of them is also useful.

When should you not bow to the Google ranking factors?

Yes, it is possible to fool Google and other search engines and to build a site with a top search position. But if your business relies on this position, what happens when the search engines catch up with you? Orders drop, income drops and your business has nowhere to go. So use the optimisation tips wisely, not to spam search engines.

Google ranking factor tips

Keyword in URL / domain name If you are lucky enough to be able to buy a suitable URL with your chosen keyword in it, this can realy help. Also, separate words with hyphens, for example, www.google-ranking.com would go very nicely! Including the keywords in the page names is even more important, look at the name of this page.

Keyword in title tag Keep the tag short (up to 60 characters) and do not include special characters. The earlier in the tag the keyword is included, the better.

Keyword in metadata First the description (max 200 characters) then the keyword metatag (max 10 words). Google is supposed to not use the description tag, but it does display the contents in some search results. Can the pundits be wrong? Maybe this tag is used. In the keyword tag, all keywords must appear in the main text, else you are penalised. Don't repeat words, but Google is supposed to now ignore this field. Even still, other search engines may still read it, so make it good.

Keyword density Reports suggest that all keywords should make up around 5-20% of the total text, with each keyword 1-5% of the total. Some experts believe these percentages vary according to topic.

Header tags Include keywords in H1, H2, H3 etc tags.

Text decoration Highlight keywords using bold, italic, font-size etc.

Keyword positioning Keywords in the same order as the query will have more weighting than those that aren't. A search for "ranking factors google" should return different factors to "google ranking factors". Also, the higher up a page the keywords are, the more weighting they are given.

Alt text Describe the image, don't fill with spam. Used to work, but not so good. Possibly related to the introduction of Google Images search?

Links to internal pages Include the keyword in the file name and in the anchor text, but keep the filename reasonable.

Site structure Keep the site easy to navigate. Ensure visitors and spiders can easily pass through the pages. Supply a usable site map and separate keywords in url with hyphens.

External links out Avoid link farms / free for all links - these will harm you. Check the Google Page Ranking of sites you link to and the popularity of these pages. Be ready to remove links to sites that suddenly drop or links that stop working. Include only relevant links on each page and keep the number of out links to less than 100 per page. Include keywords in the anchor text and deep link to relevant pages.

Updating pages Adding new information to a page / site indicates it's being maintained. It also interests visitors and keeps them coming back - so they don't need the search engines. But there is a ratio of new pages / existing pages to maintain. Frequent updates should also encourage frequent spidering.

Size & Age Large sites imply good organisation and a site the visitors will stay on for a while. Older sites are also preferred.

Links in At first not essential as Google will give you the benefit of doubt for a new site, but you need quality links to be found. Having just one link from a quality site is essential. Through this you will get spidered and indexed far quicker than if you submit the site to Google. Then you need to arrange links from suitable other sites. These should be sites with a good Google ranking, not link farms etc, and related to the content of your site. Best links are from structured pages. The links on a links page should all be related, for example a page for mobile phone insurance, another for handset sales. Also, the less links on the page the better, plus if your keyword is in the title of the page, that's really good.

Specialist links Links from specialist sites and directories can give a lot of weight. But if you can find how to get listed in dmoz,let me know.

Link style If the site is offering links through an image map or using javascript, it might not be worth the effort. Go for a text link and include your keyword in the anchor text.

None build related

Traffic Google can use the Google Toolbar to sample traffic to various websites. It favours sites with a lot of traffic, that is clicked on a lot through the search engines or visited a lot elsewhere. If the visitor then spends a lot of time on the page / site, bookmarks the page or follows an external link, then that can help.

If the number of visitors to your site is increasing, then that helps. Traffic schemes such as ours are reported to attract spiders to sites. Sites that have not seen spiders and are struggling can suddenly be visited when the traffic increases.

And what not to do

Over optimisation Optimise too much and you will be penalised for spamming. Don't use too many different keywords, nor include keywords too many times.

Bad external links As mentioned above, avoide link farms, free for all links etc. Check regularily that the sites you link to have not fallen into these categories. Also, if you are hosting several sites, multiple cross linking between them can be detrimental when they share a host.

Use flash Rely on flash or images and search engines won't be able to read your site.

Frames As per flash, spiders tend not to be able to follow frames. IFrames shouldn't have such an effect as the content is still visible on the rest of the page, but will cause trouble if the frame holds the content.

Single pixel links Why would you have a link that visitors can't see? Because you are trying to trick the spiders. They will spot it and penalise you.

No good links Google will drop you.

Link Buying As this messes up the page rank, Google claims to class these against you when discovered. But then why are there so many Google Adwords adverts for these???