This signals to Google that your content is trusted, which helps improve search result rankings. SEO ranking factors are important to provide users with the most helpful and relevant information for a search query. These best practices include compressing images (which improves page experience) and adding image alt text (which helps search engines and users understand the visual). SEO marketing for small businesses can be daunting, but it’s also one of the most effective ways to grow.

Search intent refers to the purpose and motivation behind a search query. It describes what a searcher is trying to accomplish by entering a particular search term or phrase. This caliber of content satisfies users, is factually correct, and easy to navigate. High-quality content offers original insights, helpful information, or unique first-hand experiences.

+ Positive Social Signal Ranking Factors

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can seem overwhelming due to the amount of information and techniques involved. However, by breaking it down into manageable steps, you can create a strong foundation for your website’s visibility and performance. If you put in the work, your startup business will see growth and success. Also, follow Google’s intrusive interstitial guidelines to avoid penalties. Google Page Experience (UX) is a set of metrics and factors that evaluate how users perceive their interaction with a web page. Also, create a site structure where users can quickly access pages within three clicks.

Here are the top 12 SEO ranking factors (not ranked in order of importance). Multitask Unified Model (MUM) is an AI system capable of both understanding and generating language. We have various systems that understand how pages link to each other as a way to determine what pages are about and which might be most helpful in response to a query. Among these is PageRank, one of our core ranking systems SEO Anomaly used when Google first launched. Those curious can learn more by reading the original PageRank research paper and patent.

• In Darren’s excellent talk on the 2020 Local Search Ranking Factors, he also shared the most important GMB conversion factors that the experts believe are most likely to affect user behavior.
• This is a crucial Google ranking factor, as websites that aren’t mobile-optimized risk losing traffic and rankings.
• Yet some SEO experts also consider somewhat controversial factors.
• It comes to no one’s surprise, considering most users expect a website to load in no more than two seconds.
• Hence, by optimizing for semantic search, you’re essentially ensuring that your content comprehensively addresses the nuances of your audience’s needs.

Resolve Duplicate Content Issues

This is another one of the top Google ranking factors because it directly helps you rank higher on SERP. After Google’s mobile-friendly update, mobile responsiveness has joined the list of top Google ranking factors. Everyone knows that good content is one of the top Google ranking factors. A lot of SEO beginners think that good content enriched with keywords and backlinks is all they need to rank on the first page of Google’s search results. All major search engines give more credit to websites that load faster.

Search engines would absolutely have less data from where they can infer what the image is about so at least in some cases that might have significant impact on Google Images traffic. Keyword stuffing is a practice of spamming keywords on the page in order to manipulate the ranking of that page. To assume that there is some magical number of words you must use (or even worse, that the more words you use, the better rankings you’ll get) would be a big misunderstanding of the concept.

The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the higher it ranks. Google prioritizes high-quality, in-depth, and relevant content that aligns with user intent. Of the three, inbound links are the most important for boosting E-E-A-T signals. High-quality, relevant inbound links, especially from authoritative and experienced sources, can help demonstrate your site’s expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Pursue relevant keywords that don’t attract much competition from other websites to maximize your chances of earning high SEO rankings. Basically, backlinks from relevant and reputable websites can signal that your website/webpage is trustworthy and useful.

Search engines look at your social media activity to gauge brand relevance and authority. SEO is critical for small businesses in 2025, where online visibility can make or break success. Search engines like Google are the gateway to most online experiences, with 68% of all website traffic coming from searches. And with over 92% of the search market owned by Google, ranking high isn’t just important—it’s essential.

They can appear before the page loads, when the page loads or when a user scrolls. “Some pages have way, way too many links, obscuring the page and distracting from the Main Content”. Our own AI content detection tests show that AI-written content can be heavily plagiarised, leading to duplicate content. Having a keyword-stuffed title tag or meta description will negatively affect you. Which is backed up by Yoast’s study which show’s a lot of the time Google actually using sentences from the beginning of your content as the meta descriptions.