The Three Pillars of Ranking: Content, Links, and Technical SEO
Google’s ranking factors can be grouped into three main categories: content, external links, and technical SEO.
- Content factors revolve around the quality and relevance of the information on your page. This includes keywords, text structure, headers, and image optimization. The better your content aligns with user queries, the higher your site will rank.
- External factors include backlinks and mentions of your site on other platforms. The more authoritative sites link to yours, the higher your site’s authority will be in Google’s eyes.
- Technical factors determine how easily your site can be indexed and how quickly it loads. This includes page speed, mobile-friendliness, and security.
Google 2024: How Changes Will Impact Your Ranking
Google’s updates in 2024 have significantly altered the landscape for websites, particularly those heavily reliant on reviews. If your site doesn’t fall into this category, you don’t need to rush to make changes—your rankings are likely to remain stable. However, if reviews play a crucial role in your business, it’s essential to pay attention to the new requirements.
Key Considerations:
- Page Speed
In 2024, page speed has become a critical ranking factor. Ensure your site loads as quickly as possible to maintain your position in the SERPs. - User Experience
Optimize your site for mobile devices and simplify navigation. Sites that provide the best user experience will have an edge in search rankings. - Content Quality
Focus on creating unique and relevant content that captures and retains user attention. Optimize it effectively for SEO, but avoid keyword stuffing. - Backlinks
Work on acquiring links from authoritative domains. This will build Google’s trust in your site and improve its rankings.
Recommendations from Numeral Digital:
- If reviews are a key aspect of your website, reconsider your strategy in line with the E-EA-T framework. Incorporate more personal experiences and visual content to meet Google’s new standards.
E-EA-T is an updated concept from Google that stands for:
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- Experience: The author’s real-world experience with the product or service.
- Expertise: The author’s level of expertise in the relevant field.
- Authoritativeness: The reputation of the author or website in the given industry.
- Trustworthiness: The credibility of the information on the site.
Google uses these parameters to evaluate how useful and high-quality the content is for users.
- Check your site’s page speed and make necessary improvements to ensure maximum performance.
- Review your site’s structure, particularly on mobile, to enhance the user experience.
- Focus on the quality of your backlinks and work on strengthening your site’s external authority.
By following these recommendations, you’ll be able to adapt to Google’s new requirements and maintain or even improve your search rankings.
“55 Key Google Ranking Factors in 2024: The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Visibility”
External Links and Domain Authority
1. Commercial Links
Google has become even stricter with the use of artificial and commercial links. Sites that rapidly build up a mass of temporary links risk penalties, as such schemes are easily detected by algorithms.
2. Domain Age
The age of your site continues to play an important role in ranking. Sites with a long history and quality backlinks have a better chance of achieving a high ranking than newer sites with questionable links.
3. Backlinks
Having quality inbound links from authoritative and well-trafficked sites significantly impacts Google’s ranking algorithms.
4. Number of Referring Domains
The number of unique domains linking to your site is a key metric that directly influences your rankings.
5. Disavowing Bad Links
Google’s disavow tool allows you to remove unwanted and harmful links, but it must be used carefully to avoid damaging your site’s ranking.
6. Domain Authority
Domain authority is a metric that evaluates a site’s expertise in a particular field and its ability to rank for relevant keywords.
7. Competitor Sites
Links from sites that are thematically similar to yours are more valuable, especially if those sites rank high in search results.
8. Link Longevity
Links that remain on a site for a long time are more valuable for ranking than temporary or frequently removed links.
9. Contextual Links
Links placed within relevant content carry more weight in ranking than those found in footers or sidebars.
10. Links from Various Types of Resources
Having links from different types of sites (e.g., blogs, forums, news sites) positively influences rankings by creating a more natural link profile.
Technical Aspects and Security
11. Page Speed
Page speed has become one of the most critical ranking factors. Google added this metric to its core quality signals back in 2021, and its importance has only increased.
12. Mobile-Friendliness
The importance of mobile usability continues to grow. Since 2019, Google has prioritized mobile search, making this factor crucial for ranking.
13. Site Violations and Reconsideration
If your site violates Google’s guidelines, it can quickly lose its ranking. Fixing these issues and requesting reconsideration are essential steps for recovering lost positions.
14. Value of C-Class Routing
C-class IP addresses are considered more valuable for links than other classes, but their use requires caution to avoid suspicion of spam.
15. Google Dance
Google Dance refers to the temporary fluctuations in site rankings that can occur when Google updates its servers. This phenomenon helps Google identify unscrupulous SEO practices.
16. Site Security
One of the main requirements for ranking is the use of HTTPS, which encrypts data between the site and the user’s browser.
“Sites without HTTPS are now flagged as insecure in most browsers, which can not only deter users but also lower the site’s ranking in search results.” — Alex Johnson, SEO Specialist at Numeral Digital.
17. Hacking
If Google detects that your site has been hacked, it may remove it from search results, and recovering your ranking will be a challenging task.
18. Spam and Meta Tag Errors
Overuse of keywords in meta tags or hidden text can lead to penalties for your site.
19. Spam Address
If your site’s IP address is listed as spam, all sites on that server may be penalized.
20. XML Sitemap
Having an up-to-date XML sitemap helps search engines index your pages faster, which can positively impact your rankings.
21. Canonical Tags
Using canonical tags helps avoid duplicate content, which is important for maintaining your site’s ranking.
22. Minification of CSS and JavaScript
Reducing the size of CSS and JavaScript files speeds up page load times and improves user experience, positively impacting rankings.
23. Lazy Loading
Delaying the loading of images and other elements until they are in the visible part of the screen helps speed up the initial page load, positively affecting rankings.
24. Cross-Browser Compatibility
Ensure that your site displays correctly in all popular browsers. This helps avoid losing users and improves site performance metrics.
Content and User Experience
25. High-Quality Content
Content quality has a significant impact on Google rankings. The phrase “Content is king” remains true, as high-quality, relevant content helps sites achieve top rankings.
26. Search Intent and Content Relevance
Google places great importance on how well your content matches user search intent. The better your content answers user queries, the higher it will rank.
27. Anchor Text
Optimizing anchor text has become a crucial aspect of ranking. The URL should be relevant to the page and content; otherwise, achieving high rankings will be difficult.
Bad URL:
Anchor Text: “Read more.”
URL: www.example.com/post?id=456
Good URL:
Anchor Text: “Read more.”
URL: www.example.com/seo-best-practices
A good URL reflects the content of the page and helps improve its visibility in search engines, making it more understandable for both users and search engines.
28. Alt Tags for Images
Properly filled alt tags for images can improve their visibility in Google Images and bring additional traffic to your site.
29. PageRank
Although PageRank is no longer public, it remains an important factor in domain authority. Its logic is still relevant for assessing the quality of links.
30. Content Value
The quality of content on the page where the links are placed plays a key role. Copied content is undesirable, and well-written content increases the page’s value in Google’s eyes.
31. Keyword Optimization
Keywords in page titles and text content should be optimized to match search queries. This helps search engines better understand the page’s topic and improve rankings.
32. RankBrain
RankBrain is an algorithm that helps Google interpret user queries. In 2024, it has become even more advanced, considering more factors when determining relevance.
“RankBrain helps Google better understand the essence of user queries, so it’s important to create content that accurately answers user questions.” — Michael Davis, SEO Specialist at Numeral Digital.
33. Behavioral Factors
A high bounce rate and other negative behavioral factors can affect your site’s ranking, reducing its visibility in search results.
34. Page Interaction and User Experience
Google considers metrics related to user experience, such as page interaction and overall site impression. This affects the site’s overall ranking in search results.
35. Content Update Frequency
Regularly updating content on your site shows Google that your resource is current and alive, positively influencing rankings.
36. Content Depth
Detailed, in-depth content that covers a topic from all angles receives more recognition from search engines and ranks better.
37. Internal Links
The structure of internal links helps Google understand the hierarchy of your content, improving the indexing and ranking of pages.
38. Content Uniqueness
Copying content from other sites negatively affects ranking. Unique content is the key to successful SEO.
39. Microdata
Using microdata (e.g., Schema.org) helps search engines better understand page content, which can improve site visibility in search results.
40. Video Content
Embedded video on a page can increase the time users spend on your site, positively influencing behavioral factors and rankings.
Social Media and User Engagement
41. Wikipedia
Links from Wikipedia, despite the nofollow attribute, can positively affect your site’s authority.
42. Social Media Audience
Having an active presence on social media and engaging with a real audience can significantly improve your site’s rankings.
43. Social Media
Social signals continue to play an important role in SEO. Developing accounts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest can become a strategic advantage in promotion.
An active presence on these popular social networks helps increase the visibility of your content and improve its ranking in search results.
44. Comments
Articles with active discussions and comments attract more attention from both users and search engines, positively affecting rankings.
45. Reposts and Shares
The frequency with which your site’s content is shared on social media can affect its visibility in Google.
Advertising and Affiliate Programs
46. Selling Direct Links
Direct links, especially from link exchanges, can lead to your site being excluded from search results. It’s better to avoid such promotion methods.
47. Affiliate Programs
Google is wary of sites that monetize through affiliate programs. To avoid penalties, minimize the use of hidden affiliate links.
48. Link Exchanges
Uncontrolled link exchanges can result in penalties. Quality and targeted links are safer and more effective.
49. Direct Traffic
Direct visits to your site and adding it to browser bookmarks positively influence Google rankings.
Specific Google Factors and Algorithms
50. Sandbox
New sites may end up in the “sandbox”—a filter that limits a site’s visibility during the initial stages of its existence.
51. Penguin
The Penguin filter continues to clean up search results by targeting sites with low-quality links. Being caught by this filter can significantly reduce your site’s visibility.
52. Schema Markup
Schema markup helps improve site visibility in search results by creating more attractive and informative snippets.
53. Panda Algorithm
The Panda algorithm targets low-quality content and content farms, lowering the rankings of such sites in search results.
54. Site Structure
A simple and logical site structure with minimal subdirectories helps Google index your site more quickly and effectively, improving its rankings.
55. Keyword Placement on the Page
Keywords placed closer to the beginning of the page have more impact on rankings than those found at the end of the content.
Optimizing your site for Google’s key ranking factors in 2024 is a critical step for your business’s success in the digital space. High-quality content, technical optimization, and an active social media presence will help your site achieve top rankings and attract more customers.
The Numeral Digital team has the experience and expertise to create an effective SEO strategy that will ensure your site’s growth and success.
Ready to improve your site’s rankings?
Contact us, and we’ll develop a personalized promotion plan that delivers real results. Trust the professionals at Numeral Digital!