This large article tells about the most important, in our opinion, ranking factors. Of course, there are more of them – according to rough estimates, about 800.
With numbers like these and complex management, SEO can sometimes feel like a chore.
If there is a list of factors and a formula for determining relevance, why is SEO promotion always tailored to the project, why can’t you just set something up and immediately find yourself at the top? Because the formula is secret: search engine representatives don’t like to talk about the intricacies of how their algorithms work. SEO specialists’ knowledge of ranking factors is what Yandex and Google representatives do talk about, as well as their own experience and that of their colleagues. Some of the basic information about ranking was once obtained by optimizers “through sweat and blood”: through mistakes and experiments, analysis of search results and exchange of experience with other industry specialists.
What is ranking?
Ranking is the distribution of documents in search results by positions according to their relevance to the user’s query. In the ranking process, Internet sites take their places in search results. The user sees the results at the top of the results first. The better the site responds to the query, the higher its place in the results.
The task of ranking is to find and display on the first SERP pages the sites that are most relevant to the query. At the same time, irrelevant results are filtered out: they are pessimized in the search results, that is, sent to the end of the results list.
From the point of view of search engines, the most valuable (useful, interesting and safe) resource for users gets to the first line. Then – in descending order: pages are inferior in some way to the leader and each previous site.
Ranking factors of search engines Yandex and Google
The entire array of factors influencing ranking in any search engine is measured by hundreds of parameters (here it becomes clear why all elements of the formula are unknown).
Some, as we will see further, help to raise the site’s position in both Yandex and Google equally well. But in some there is a difference: not everything that is important to Yandex bots is interesting to Google bots. This should be taken into account if the Internet site is promoted with priority in one search engine.
Depending on the components, they can be divided into 6 large groups.
Domain (host) factors
These are the parameters and features of the domain – the name of the site.
These include:
- The actual domain name, or domain name. It should either characterize the business theme (for example, prosto-khoroshaya-mebel.rf), or be directly associated with the brand (chernogolovka.rf). This way, the site will be more closely related to the main queries of the semantic core.
- Age of the site. Counted from the moment of the first indexing. The older the domain, the better for the site ranking: a long existence of the domain tells bots that the online project has earned a certain level of trust, unlike young sites that have recently been opened for indexing.
- History. The history of a domain is formed by the purposes for which it has been used since its inception, as well as violations of rules and sanctions from search engines. For example, if a domain previously served as a doorway or was designated as an affiliate, this will have a negative impact on ranking.
- Domain zone. The site receives signals for high ranking in the country search results if it has a national top-level domain. Domain names with .рф, .ru or .com are equally suitable for promotion in Russia.
- Number and quality of indexed pages. All relevant pages with potentially useful content should be available to visitors, and system, non-target, non-existent ones should be closed from indexing by setting up the robots.txt file.
Technical specifications
Technical ranking factors include indicators of overall performance. There is no need to talk about their importance at length: if the site does not work, there can be no talk of any high positions.
Key characteristics of a site’s technical health:
- Secure connection. Without moving to HTTPS, getting into the top 10 is not just difficult, but extremely difficult. An SSL certificate ensures encryption of user data and payment security.
- Availability of pages for indexing. All important pages of the site should be open for indexing by search engine robots. Indexing rules are set in the robots.txt file or in the meta tag “meta name=”robots””.
- Server response codes. Algorithms pessimize web sites that are oversaturated with redirects and errors, including 404. Developers and webmasters need to strive to ensure that all pages of an online resource return the correct server response code.
- Duplicate pages. Pages with identical content appear for various reasons: an unfinished website structure, problems with the CMS, incorrect processing of non-existent URLs, etc. The presence of duplicates on a website has a negative impact on the website’s ranking, since search engines may have difficulty determining the most relevant document for a specific request.
- Loading speed from different devices. The evaluation of pages by search robots is largely influenced by such indicators as Time To First Byte (aka server response time), as well as the speed of rendering the first content (FCP). If the site loads slowly due to an incorrectly selected CMS, a weak server, unoptimized media files or a large number of errors in the code, this must be corrected immediately.
- Media content weight. If pictures and videos weigh a lot, this may interfere with the correct display and functioning of the page.
- Optimization for mobile devices. This can be a mobile version, responsive design, PWA or a native app.
Textual factors
A few years ago, text content on a website was created based on the principle of “the more keys, the better.” The overall relevance of a web page was determined by the presence of words from a search query in a document and the number of occurrences of these words. Fortunately, these merciless times have given way to a more conscious period: search algorithms have become smarter, and texts for websites have begun to be developed based on the principle of benefit to visitors.
Despite the shift towards content quality, search engines still take into account keyword occurrences in various text zones. Here are the most important ones:
- <title> meta tags
- headings H1, subheadings H2-H6;
- outgoing link anchors;
- main text area;
- other fragments that are not related to the main SEO text;
- alt and title attributes.
Link Ranking Factors
Previously, links as a ranking factor were very influential. However, over time, ways to manipulate them and improve a site’s position in search appeared. Search engine developers had to gradually reduce the importance of the link indicator – this trend is still observed today.
But it is impossible to exclude links from the ranking formula now: it is links that help crawlers find pages on the web and determine their context in relation to other sites. Therefore, it is impossible to say that links as a promotion method no longer work – they do (their influence is especially noticeable when you need to raise the site’s position in Google search), just with some peculiarities.
The most important link ranking factors are:
- Similarity of the donor and acceptor topics. The site from which links go to your web site and vice versa should be in the same or similar thematic groups.
- Dynamics of the volume of link mass. The speed and regularity of link growth should be balanced: gradual and slow, not sudden and fast.
- Anchor list, or a list of anchors for external links. Crawlers look for naturalness, so it is better to use anchors that are as close to natural as possible. These are most often queries in the form of coordinated phrases (not “buy slippers cheap”, but “inexpensive slippers in Moscow”).
- Regionality of the donor. It is necessary to ensure that the domain zone in which the donor site is registered corresponds to the country where the site is being promoted.
- Donor trust. For good ranking, long-functioning thematic donor sites with a developed link profile are needed. Otherwise, low donor quality indicators will negatively affect the acceptor site.
Internal and external factors
All the parameters listed above can be grouped by one more feature – direct or indirect relationship to the site:
External ranking factors are link and near-link factors. They characterize the site, its subject matter, and connections outside of itself.
internal ranking factors – all the rest. Its structural elements and parameters.
