The 40 Most Important SEO Ranking Factors for Google

If technical SEO is addressed, even the best content will be able to rank highly. Duplicate Content Another common mistake is publishing duplicate content, which happens when the same or very similar content appears on various pages of your site or across different websites. Duplicate content confuses search engines about which version to prioritize, which can negatively impact your search engine ranking factors. Google’s algorithms prefer unique, valuable content that adds something new to the conversation. If you inadvertently create duplicate content (for instance, through similar product pages), using canonical tags can help resolve this issue and improve your SEO ranking factors. Knowing your SEO ranking helps you identify high-traffic keywords that can improve your online strategy.

#17 – User Experience

Google views backlinks (links from other websites to yours) and local citations (mentions of your business name, address, and phone number across the web) as signals of trust and authority. The more high-quality backlinks and accurate citations your business has, the stronger your Google Maps ranking. I have seen cases where focusing on improving keyword rankings, backlinks, and organic traffic significantly improved a site’s SEO performance.

Earning quality backlinks through valuable content creation and ethical practices is an important strategy for any site looking to improve its SEO performance. Backlinks are one of the most powerful ranking signals and continue to be a top-ranking factor in 2025. When high-authority websites link back to your site, it signals to Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy. For example, speaking at events, doing interviews, and blogging for other websites. These activities give you the opportunity to showcase your expertise and reach new people. In that case, it’s important that you focus on the experience that people have with your shop.

Enhancing User Experience for Better Search Engine Rankings

Engage in link-building strategies such as guest blogging and collaborating with industry influencers. Conduct a competitor analysis to identify which keywords your rivals are successfully ranking for. Tools can provide insights into competitors’ organic traffic and their strategies. With this knowledge, you can prioritize which keywords to target based on their potential impact on your website traffic. Search volume refers to the number of times a keyword is queried within a specific time frame. High search volume indicates strong interest, but it’s important to evaluate if you can attract traffic for those keywords based on your current rankings.

• By following these steps, you can systematically work towards improving your website’s SEO, enhancing your online visibility, and attracting more targeted traffic.
• Search engine optimization is basically optimizing the websites according to these signals in order to improve the rankings.
• The endless feedback loop of permanent-iterative update cycles is designed purely to generate search results that offer constant improvements to the individual searcher.

Page speed is measured by a few small ranking signals called Core Web Vitals. Page speed has been a well-known ranking signal since 2010 – it measures how fast are the pages loading to the users. HTTPS encryption is a small ranking signal for the search engine that was announced by Google in 2014.

This suggests that YouTube’s approach to keyword targeting may differ from Google’s, which avoids keyword cannibalization. Bing also had it’s own version Authorship after they integrated Klout verified snapshots. Google famously introduced (and then killed) Authorship allowing people to claim content they have written. Bing also measures click-through rates from its search results BHS Links pages.