Back in 2016, a Google engineer famously said that Google’s top three ranking factors were content, links and RankBrain. However, this was later disputed by more than one Googler.

Sure, those three factors are likely a huge part of how Google determines rankings, but that’s not an exhaustive list.

It is wrong to think that the algorithm is made up only of these three factors and that each of them carries one-third weight for each query. That’s because the factors in Google’s algorithm change from query to query.

That said, I’ll spend the rest of this article shedding more light on what I believe are the top factors in how your website ranks.

• Content
• Technical factors
• Links
• RankBrain
• FAQ: How can I increase the ranking of my website with Google using its top ranking factors?

Content

If I were to choose the No. 1 spot among the top ranking factors, it would be content. Content is the fabric of the web. Without content, Google’s search results simply wouldn’t exist.

Now, any website can have content, but quality content is how you rank. That’s because the content you create is important to the efficacy of Google’s search results.

Google wants its users to have a good experience. To do that, the websites featured in its search results must offer good answers to their users’ queries.

To ensure that Google is featuring the best content in its search results, it has created things like:

• Its “Search Essentials,” which teaches website publishers the rules of the game.
• Its search algorithm, which is constantly being updated to find the best websites for page one of the search results.
• Its “Search Quality Rater Guidelines,” which is a manual for assessing the quality of websites.

For more, see:

• The Complete Guide to the Basics of Google’s E-E-A-T
• What Is a Google Penalty and How Do I Avoid It?
• What Makes a Webpage Quality?
• 5 Steps To Help Writers Create Expert Content for SEO

Technical Factors

If your site is not crawlable and/or doesn’t perform well, it will likely not do well in the search results.

One of the most important things you can do is make sure your site is optimized from the ground up so that search engines can access, crawl and understand it with ease. And it must provide visitors with a good user experience.

Case in point: Google’s Gary Illyes once said:

“I really wish SEOs went back to the basics (i.e. MAKE THAT DAMN SITE CRAWLABLE) instead of focusing on silly updates and made-up terms by the rank trackers and that they talked more with the developers of the website once done with the first part of this sentence.”

In Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, it states that unmaintained sites are low quality:

… unmaintained/abandoned “old” websites or unmaintained and inaccurate/misleading content is a reason for a low Page Quality rating.

In 2021, Google rolled out its page experience update, outlining various technical factors that should be followed to ensure a good user experience. If you want to be rewarded with better ranking, optimize your site to address these signals.

For more, see:

• Page Experience: Google’s New User Experience Algorithm Update
• Technical SEO vs. On-Page SEO

Links

If content is the fabric of the web, links are the strings that tie it together. Ever since PageRank, links have been a significant way search engines determine rankings. Why? Links have always served as a “vote” from one website for another.

Even though Google says links have less impact now than they used to, they are still important.

However, not all links are created equal. Google doesn’t give every link to your site an equal vote. In fact, some links can even result in a negative impact on your website’s ability to rank.

Today, links are no longer a numbers game. Even though Backlinko research shows that the No. 1 result in Google has an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than positions No. 2 to 10, we have seen sites with fewer but higher quality links outrank sites with more.

To get links right, you want to focus on link earning rather than link building and the quality and relevance of links versus the quantity. Link earning first starts with creating excellent content and a trusted site so that it naturally earns the links it deserves.

In 2020, Google’s John Mueller said links were “definitely not the most important SEO factor.” What does that mean? Google wants people to focus on making a great site first and not worry too much about building tons of links.

For more, see:

• 3 Steps To Create a Better Link-Building Campaign
• E-book: The New Link Building Manifesto: A Complete Guide to Earning Links That Count
• 50 Ways to Get Quality “White Hat” Backlinks

RankBrain

RankBrain is probably one of the most misunderstood ranking factors. RankBrain is a machine learning component of Google’s algorithm. It uses multiple data points at the time of a search to help the search engine better interpret the intent of search queries and serve the most relevant search results.

With RankBrain, Google can go beyond factors like the quality of the content or the links to a webpage to help identify the very best answer to a search.

So to survive RankBrain, you have a lot of work to do to ensure that you are creating the type of content that satisfies the query / your keywords. If you don’t, you risk the chance of RankBrain deciding that your content is not relevant to a search and you can lose rankings.

For more, see:

• The Real Impact of RankBrain on Web Traffic
• 5 Ways to Create Winning SEO Content That Gets More Visibility in the Search Results
• What Is Google’s “Needs Met” Rating and Why Should Website Publishers Care

There are countless factors that go into ranking a webpage, video, or image. And those factors change based on the search query. Understanding the top factors, though, is an important first step in knowing how search works.

Unlock your website’s potential with our expert SEO strategies tailored to Google’s dynamic ranking factors—let’s boost your visibility and climb the search results together. Talk to us. 

FAQ: How can I increase the ranking of my website with Google using its top ranking factors?

Today’s digital world necessitates having an effective online presence for any business to remain viable; and Google’s top ranking factors play a pivotal role when it comes to your website’s SERP ranking. So, how can these elements help boost website performance and how can businesses utilize these factors to their benefit? In order to understand more on this subject and gain some valuable insights.

At first, it’s essential to recognize that Google uses a sophisticated algorithm to rank websites. Although this algorithm incorporates numerous factors, here are a few primary ones which you should focus on:

1. Content Quality: Producing high-quality, engaging and relevant content is of utmost importance for Google to recognize websites as providers of valuable information to their visitors, so invest time into producing engaging articles, blog posts, videos and other forms of media content creation such as books.
2. Backlinks: An authoritative backlink network can make all the difference for improving website rankings. Partner with prominent industry websites when possible and prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to backlinks.
3. Mobile Responsiveness: Being mobile-first makes having a mobile-responsive website essential. Google prioritizes websites which deliver seamless user experiences on all devices; to maximize this benefit for mobile visitors optimize both design and functionality to provide optimal experience across devices.
4. Page Loading Speed: Slow websites can lead to poor user experiences and reduce Google ranking, so make sure yours loads quickly by optimizing images, minifying code and employing caching strategies.
5. User Experience: Google prioritizes websites that focus on user experience. Focusing on elements like easy navigation, intuitive design and clear calls-to-action will not only increase rankings but will also foster engagement and conversions.

Moving forward to enhance your website’s ranking:

6. Leverage Keywords Precisely: Conduct keyword research to identify relevant search terms, then incorporate these naturally into the content, meta tags and headings on your website.
7. Optimize meta tags: Create attractive titles and descriptions that accurately capture your webpage content while encouraging viewers to visit it.
8. Take Advantage of Header Tags: Header tags can help structure and simplify your content for users as well as search engines alike, making it more readable for both audiences.
9. Include alt text with images: Alt text can help search engines understand your images more readily, making your website both accessible and search-engine-friendly.
10. Regularly update content: Stagnant websites tend not to rank well; to stay ahead, ensure yours remains fresh by regularly publishing articles, blog posts or product updates.
11. Leverage Social Media: Utilize social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook to increase exposure, drive visitors directly to your website, and potentially secure backlinks from outside sources.
12. Monitor and Assess Website Performance: Utilizing tools like Google Analytics can be useful in monitoring website performance, user activity and traffic sources — providing valuable data that reveals areas requiring improvement and potential problem areas.
13. Engage Your Audience: Responding to user comments, queries and feedback is vital in building relationships and maintaining your website’s visibility and reputation. Engaging and building relationships will pay dividends!
14. Increase Website Security: Search engines prefer secure websites; utilize SSL encryption technology and regularly upgrade software updates in order to protect it against malware attacks.
15. Optimize for local search: If your business has physical presence, pay special attention to local SEO factors like Google My Business listings, customer reviews and local keywords when optimizing for local search.
16. Generate an XML Sitemap: Generating an XML sitemap helps search engines understand and index your website more effectively.
17. Stay Abreast of Your Competitors: Keep tabs on what strategies, keywords and tactics your competitors employ in order to increase the ranking of their website.
18. Create an effective internal linking structure: Internal links enable search engines to navigate your website more effectively while also helping establish its hierarchy, dispersing authority more evenly among pages and improving user navigation.
19. Strive for positive user experience: Prioritize providing visitors with an engaging user experience on your website by prioritizing fast loading pages, intuitive interfaces and fast access to pertinent data.
20. Stay current: With search engine algorithms ever evolving, staying informed on latest trends, updates and best practices is key for maintaining and improving the ranking of your website.

Utilizing Google’s top ranking factors is the cornerstone of improving website rankings. Apply these expert strategies, deliver valuable content with exceptional user experiences and watch as your rankings soar higher and higher on search engine result pages.

The post What Are Google’s Top Ranking Factors? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

With the page experience update now rolled out, I wanted to revisit this topic. I’ll add a few more tips we’ve learned in the intervening months by helping many websites improve their core web vitals scores. Mostly, I want you to be able to take advantage of the potential ranking benefits for your well-tuned webpages.

Core web vitals measure core elements of a webpage that enhance user experience. Google has identified three core web vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• First Input Delay (FID)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

This article is part of our series on the Page Experience update. Here I’ll discuss LCP or largest contentful paint:

• What is LCP?
• How do I measure LCP?
• How does LCP impact SEO?
• How can I improve my LCP score?
• FAQ: How can I optimize my website’s user experience and SEO ranking using core web vitals?

What Is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)?

LCP measures webpage load performance. More specifically, LCP measures how fast the webpage’s largest image or text block renders.

Google discusses LCP here:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is an important, user-centric metric for measuring perceived load speed because it marks the point in the page load timeline when the page’s main content has likely loaded—a fast LCP helps reassure the user that the page is useful. …

How Is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Measured?

Google states that in order to provide a good user experience, the largest image or text block should render on the webpage within the first 2.5 seconds.

Google’s LCP score

LCP documentation specifies which types of elements are considered for LCP, and include:

• Images
• Video
• Background images loaded via CSS
• Heading tags
• Tables
• Lists
• Any other block element with text

Here’s an example of when the largest element of the page (a paragraph of text) renders before any other elements on the page:

“Largest contentful paint,” Google Developers

The goal is to hit the recommended target loading speed on most of your pages. Google says “if at least 75 percent of page views to a site meet the ‘good’ threshold, the site is classified as having ‘good’ performance for that metric.” You can learn more about how Google defines its thresholds here.

How Does Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Impact SEO?

We know that Google values a fast site and that things like page speed are already in its ranking algorithm. LCP is another way to ensure that webpages load fast so your website visitors have a good user experience and stay on your site.

So if you already have a fast site, are you in the clear? Not exactly. According to a study by Screaming Frog, the majority are not prepared for the LCP thresholds.

Data shows that less than half of the websites studied (across 20,000 URLs) were considered good. Specifically, 43% of mobile and 44% of desktop URLs had a good LCP. The average render time was 3.13 seconds for mobile and 3.04 seconds for desktop.

In that study, the research correlated LCP and search rankings. The data is interesting, but there are too many factors to be able to say for certain how LCP influences rankings today.

“How Many Sites Pass the Core Web Vitals Assessment?,” Screamingfrog.co.uk

As an incentive for website publishers to improve their performance metrics, Google shows a “fast page” label in search results on Android that have historically met or exceeded the thresholds for core web vitals, including LCP.

Websites with this label may see an uptick in organic traffic and time on site.

How Do I Improve My Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Score?

Google provides tools to measure LCP in a lab and in the field, including:

• Search Console (field)
• PageSpeed Insights (lab and field)
• Web Vitals Extension (lab)
• WebPageTest (lab)
• Chrome UX Report (field)
• Chrome DevTools (lab)
• Lighthouse (lab)

When it comes to lab versus field data, both can be useful. Lab is important for testing and working on improving your scores. You will get a greater variance in results, but lab data provides instant feedback.

Field data is more important when you’re trying to get the overall view of your site. The values represented will depend a lot on your users’ environments, for example, mobile versus desktop, their internet speed, their computer performance, etc. The field data is nice because it gives you an idea of how your site is performing for everyone, not just how it performs for you.

You can also measure LCP with the web-vitals JavaScript library, and you can learn more about that here. This is useful if you have your own reporting or you want to build it into other reports.

To get started, Google provides a general roadmap for how to use the tools provided to diagnose a core web vital. Out of the following list, the first three are good. I would wrap up after the third bullet by saying to publish your changes and start seeing the benefits of increased performance. The remaining bullets (4th to 6th) are “nice to haves.” The last bullet likely won’t apply to 90% of websites.

• Use Search Console’s new Core Web Vitals report to identify groups of pages that require attention (based on the field data).
• Once you’ve identified pages that need work, use PageSpeed Insights (powered by Lighthouse and Chrome UX Report) to diagnose lab and field issues on a page. PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is available via Search Console or you can enter a URL on PSI directly.
• Ready to optimize your site locally in the lab? Use Lighthouse and Chrome DevTools to measure Core Web Vitals and get actionable guidance on exactly what to fix. The Web Vitals Chrome extension can give you a real-time view of metrics on desktop.
• Need a custom dashboard of Core Web Vitals? Use the updated CrUX Dashboard or new Chrome UX Report API for field data or PageSpeed Insights API for lab data.
• Looking for guidance? web.dev/measure can measure your page and show you a prioritized set of guides and codelabs for optimization, using PSI data.
• Finally, use Lighthouse CI on pull requests to ensure there are no regressions in Core Web Vitals before you deploy a change to production.

In general, LCP is impacted by the following:

• Server and/or software response times
• Webpage resources and bandwidth
• Browser software and plugins
• Site JavaScript and CSS code

Many of the things Google suggests when it comes to optimizing LCP are things you may already be doing as part of a good SEO strategy to create a faster site.

Some tips to keep in mind as you are optimizing:

• Text will render faster in most cases than other items that need to be fetched separately (like images). So using things like heading tags as the larger elements is a good idea.
• Design changes may be needed in some cases where the largest contentful item is just too slow.
• Optimizing your JS and CSS will help load times. Be wary of including too many third-party scripts.
• The LCP is in the viewport for mobile or desktop. Things in your footer are not likely to count, so this really is focusing on the top of your page.
• You should be able to see your LCP element above the fold if you visit the page with JavaScript turned off.
• If your LCP element is an image, consider inlining it in your HTML with a data URI.

For more about this algorithm update, read the rest of our page experience series:

1. What’s the Page Experience Update?
2. How to Make a Mobile-Friendly Site
3. Intrusive Interstitials & Why They’re Bad for SEO
4. HTTPS for Users and Ranking
5. Core Web Vitals Overview
6. Core Web Vitals: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
7. Core Web Vitals: FID (First Input Delay)
8. Core Web Vitals: CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

Need to go more in-depth on this topic? I invite you to watch our on-demand webinar 3 Expert Tips to Improve Core Web Vitals. The extended Q&A at the end may just answer your toughest CWV questions!

FAQ: How can I optimize my website’s user experience and SEO ranking using core web vitals?

Optimizing your website’s user experience and SEO ranking has become paramount. Core web vitals, a set of user-centric metrics introduced by Google, play a pivotal role in achieving these goals. In this whitepaper, we’ll explore how you can leverage core web vitals to elevate both the user experience and your website’s SEO ranking, backed by expert insights and practical tips.

Understanding the Significance of Core Web Vitals

Core web vitals encompass three essential metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These metrics gauge loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability, respectively. Google emphasizes these metrics because they directly impact user engagement and satisfaction. A seamless user experience fosters longer sessions, lower bounce rates, and improved SEO rankings.

Elevating User Experience and SEO Ranking

To optimize the user experience and SEO ranking using core web vitals, consider these expert tips:

Prioritize Loading Speed (LCP): Accelerate loading times for the largest content element on your pages, such as images or text blocks. Compress images and minimize server response times to ensure quick rendering within the first 2.5 seconds.

Enhance Interactivity (FID): Reduce First Input Delay by optimizing JavaScript code and minimizing main thread tasks. This enhances page responsiveness and provides a seamless browsing experience.

Maintain Visual Stability (CLS): Avoid unexpected layout shifts by specifying image dimensions and setting a proper size attribute for multimedia content. This prevents content from shifting, providing visual consistency.

Monitor and Iterate: Regularly monitor your core web vitals using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Search Console. Iterate your optimizations based on feedback and evolving best practices.

Optimizing your website’s user experience and SEO ranking through core web vitals requires a meticulous approach. By understanding and fine-tuning LCP, FID, and CLS metrics, you can provide users with a seamless and engaging browsing experience while boosting your site’s visibility and ranking in search results. Stay informed, adapt to evolving standards, and make data-driven improvements to stay ahead in the digital landscape.

Step-by-Step Procedure: Optimizing User Experience and SEO with Core Web Vitals

1. Assess Current Performance: Use Google’s tools to measure core web vitals metrics on your website.
2. Identify LCP Elements: Determine the largest content element on each page for LCP optimization.
3. Optimize Images: Compress images without compromising quality to enhance loading speed.
4. Minimize Server Response Time: Work on server-side optimizations to reduce delays.
5. Optimize JavaScript: Minimize and defer non-essential JavaScript to improve FID.
6. Specify Image Dimensions: Set explicit image dimensions to prevent unexpected layout shifts.
7. Manage Multimedia Content: Use appropriate attributes for multimedia content to maintain visual stability.
8. Use Monitoring Tools: Regularly check core web vitals using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Search Console.
9. Prioritize User Experience: Implement changes that improve user engagement and satisfaction.
10. Iterate and Refine: Continuously monitor metrics, gather insights, and refine your optimizations.
11. Stay Updated: Keep up with industry best practices and algorithm updates to maintain optimal performance.
12. Analyze Data: Utilize data-driven insights to make informed decisions for further improvements.
13. User-Centric Approach: Ensure that optimizations enhance user experience and engagement.
14. Test Across Devices: Evaluate your website’s performance on various devices and browsers.
15. Address Feedback: Respond to user feedback and address issues promptly.
16. Collaborate with Developers: Work with web developers to implement technical optimizations effectively.
17. Stay Consistent: Maintain a consistent monitoring, optimizing, and refining approach.
18. Adapt to Changes: Adjust strategies as core web vitals standards evolve.
19. Utilize Expert Resources: Refer to trusted sources for up-to-date information and guidance.
20. Measure Success: Track improvements in user experience metrics and SEO ranking over time.

The post Core Web Vitals: LCP – What It Is and How to Improve It for SEO appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..