Top List of Search Engine Ranking Factors
What EXACTLY is Search Engine Ranking?
Basically, the SEO ranking of a site is where your website ranks on Google and other search engines. Improving the SEO ranking of you site is something that you should be actively doing, all the time. If you are not on the first couple of pages on Google, chances are that people won’t even look at your site. There is much debate over SEO ranking and what affects it. There is a lot of speculation over what Google takes into account, but no-one will confirm or deny any. Having a blog, writing unique content and having AWESOME titles are a few of the things that seem to work. People who work with SEO have to use these vague rules to do all that they can to drive web pages on Google further up the rankings. So what does this Search Engine Ranking Factors report suggest as the most important things that affect search engine rankings?
What Factors Affect Search Engine Rankings?
According to the Search Engine Ranking Factors report, there are 5 standout things that can affect SEO rankings. Four out of five of these mention LINKS. Obviously, inbound links and external links are important when it comes to SEO ranking. Below are the top 5 factors that can affect the SEO ranking of a website:
- Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links
- External Link Popularity
- Diversity of Link Sources
- Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
- Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains
As you can see, links are something that the top SEO professionals believe are one of the major factors that affect SEO rankings.
Why are QUALITY Inbound Links and External Links so Important?
If someone tells you that ALL links are good – don’t believe them! Google (and other search engines) can sometimes punish your website if you have dodgy links to or from your site. If you have inbound links from legitimate websites, you are bound to improve the ranking of your site on search engines. In saying this, it generally pays to have one link from 10 different (and legit) sites, than 10 links from the one website. External links are those links that point to your site. These can also significantly affect your SEO ranking; links from reputable sites are good and links from not so reputable sites can harm!
Now, there is no conclusive evidence that having links are the most important factor when it comes to good SEO ranking in search engines. But from the Search Engine Ranking Factors report, it appears that inbound links and external links are TWO of the dominating factors.
