Master Digital Marketing, WordPress, SEO
Unlock your potential with expert tips and in-depth guides. Stay ahead with the latest strategies in digital marketing, WordPress optimization, SEO.
Best practices, and essential tools to grow your online presence. Learn, apply, and thrive!
Being a website owner, you might always tend to have a query how do I rank higher on Google and what the Google ranking measurements are?
Every skilled content creator goes through a lot and has their own SEO checklist and follows while writing.
But, how correct is that? Not sure, isn’t it?
According to SEMrush study with more than 6,00,000 keywords worldwide ranking websites. They have come to a conclusion on how does Google rank the websites.
Though, Google never reveals their algorithm behind it. But, they have come with a case study of how Google ranks the web pages.
And it’s interesting to see SEMrush Analysis on Google Ranking Factors. Few are absolutely known and many are surprising elements too which you might haven’t thought Google could give it so much weight in a short span of time.
Want to know it closely? I am sure you don’t want to miss and optimize your website to rank higher.
SEMRush strike first into the mind, when it comes to the SEO tool. No wonder, it is one of the best SEO tools in the industry.
But, here we are not about to talk about the SEMRush Tool features, in fact, we are about to discuss its case study on Google ranking factors.
This looks like an Amazing SEO checklist to follow.
Surprisingly Direct Traffic is always in the top squad of Google Ranking Factors Checklist.
That means, there is no other way now, Clickbait images and Titles won’t work. Along with those, you should have better content on your website.
Tip: Helpful Content in the form of words and along with that great visual content(Images and Videos)
Not, only time on a page, but page per session has almost the equal importance of ranking the pages.
Tip: Internal linking for better navigation will enhance the user experience and rankings too.
There could be several reasons for the increase in bounce rate.
Tip: Simply, avoid Doing it!
By looking at the first four ranking factors from the checklist, we can realize that Google is more into making the user experience the best.
Links are and always will be playing a vital role in boosting the rankings. So, it did prove in the SEMrush Case study as well. And found the second place after user experience.
those are been categorized,
This is one of the factors which is popular in the SEO industry. What does referring Domains mean?
The answer is pretty much simple the number of domains are attached to your website. It is good for your website if it is being referred to by domains globally.
To get it in simple words, other domains are recommending your website to Google. If your website is linked to well-authorized domains, Google considers it and improves your page rankings.
Referred by the diverse domains throws more trust signals to Google about your website.
Backlinks are the backbone of your website. The more backlinks to your website and better. Doesn’t matter whether you follow or No follow, all works great if you look into the SEO perspective.
Both have their advantages.
This indicates, where your website is linked from. The more referring IPs you have, the better your website stands in the SEO perspective. Links should come from various IPs, instead of a few.
It tells Search engines, where your website is popular and helps them to show in the SERP’s.
If your website has a huge number of links from a single IP from multiple domains, Google considers that as a Blackhat SEO strategy. And might think of PBN(Private Blog Network) attached to it.
And Google never encourages such a strategy at all, and your website might get penalized. So, it’s quite wise to analyze.
Do-follow links are the most used word by webmasters and SEO Gurus. A valid reason behind it is that it passes the link juice directly from other websites.
And if the links are strong with high authority, then your website will just fly away on top. You will find your web pages in the Top search results, hence more revenue.
Tip: Make sure you build backlinks from Authoritative and relevant websites.
A lot of debate goes into it, as it is one of the aspects to get ranked. But, what is the actual content length for getting better rankings?
SerpIQ has already written an article on their practical study what is the length of content which ranks in the top 10.
It is interesting to see why longer than 200 words are ranking well on Google. That means the more information you provide to the user, Google will rank you better.
If you think in other ways several aspects can be connected with content length. Especially user experience and backlinks.
The longer the content, the user spends more time on the site, bounce rate decreases, doesn’t it? OnPage SEO improves. And all come into consideration for better rankings.
In addition to it, longer content tends to get more backlinks from other websites.
In 2014, Google officially confirmed HTTPS as a ranking factor. So there is nothing to say about here just get that green padlock for your WordPress website.
If you have installed one, here is the step-by-step guide to install Cloud Flare SSL for your website for absolutely free.
OnPage SEO will always be there. Without proper strategic content with a keyword, cannot be ranked well. Let’s dive in and see what SEO strategy you need to follow while creating a post.
Having more and more Anchors will be beneficial and provide an SEO boost. Doesn’t matter whether the linking is internal or external. Multiple anchor texts, always help.
Tip: Use Synonyms of your main focus keyword.
It is the old days when people used Keywords in the Anchor all over. Now according to the SEMrush case study, most of the domains that are ranking at the top have multiple anchor texts. Not just the focused keyword.
Anchor texts are less considered compared to the other backlinks factors.
Tip: Better not linking to the same anchor text everywhere.
Compared to the above, on-page SEO has less importance. But, still has a significant role and is on the list of 17 prominent ranking factors.
OnPage SEO is not just about inserting a lot of keywords in the content. Keyword density boosts your ranking to a certain level, but when the pages contain only keywords, it will look creepy and ranks will drop considering the above bad user experience.
Tip: Plan the entire content strategically using synonyms for a focused keyword.
You may also look for Google’s People also search for the feature at the bottom of the search page. alternatively, tools like Uber Suggest and LSI Keywords will work great
Keywords in the title play a vital role in rank boost. However, according to the study, for low search volume, the pages that contain the keyword in the title remain in the same position.
On the other hand, the keywords that have a higher search volume and are included in the title ranks just climb higher.
Tip: It’s always advisable to include the keyword in the title.
Meta descriptions are always important for any blog post. According to the SEMrush study, the pages that are ranking for the high-volume searches had a keyword in their meta description.
Though only 15% of the pages have included keywords in meta, which are ranking for lower search volume.
Tip: It’s recommended to add a keyword to your every page.
Apart from that, embedding a video in the blog post will make the rankings better. I think the reason behind, the time on site. People are more into visual graphics these days, instead of going through the wall of text.
So, placing a video helps out in ranking, which proved in the SEMrush case study too. If you using WordPress, then embedding responsive videos is simple.
But, if your blog is on Blogspot, then you might want to follow this tutorial to embed responsive videos into the posts.
Hence, now you know the perfect SEO checklist for your website, might be wondering what gave them these results.
Now, you might be wondering how they compile the whole list, and what is the methodology behind it.
Curious? Every webmaster will be.
So. what kind of methodology they have used to know top Google Ranking factors?
SEMrush states that they did it with the help of Random Forest a machine learning system. And able to categorize and put them in order. And those are the factors according to its weight, which matters for Google to show up in SERPs.
Check out the Methodology behind the Analysis.
As discussed above they have compiled 600,000+ keywords. And then gathered the Top 100 search ranking positions for each keyword.
That huge!
After extracting the huge data, they deeply analyzed on,
Source: SEMrush
This study has definitely, put a lot of light on ranking signals and a few surprise elements too. User experience and security are two of the main factors. Content tends to be always the king, and OnPage SEO will always going to matter.
Low quality and thin content websites, need to take a U-Turn to modify things accordingly. Certainly, a website that provides good information is safe.
Hope this helps! Consider sharing for better reach if it does.
Thanks for sharing this case study Navin!
I find that reading articles like this help me refocus on what really matters for my online business.
Thanks again:)
Certainly Nikola, Everyday is a new day and a blogger should work on what really matters for the search engines and Users too. Seldom I feel, if we follow google algorithm, then we are automatically making it better for users too. As search engines like google change the algo for the better user experience.
It is another well written and interesting article I enjoyed reading, thank you. Now I will have to make time to go through this and apply it where I can.
Thanks Naveen Sir for sharing this case study each and every research make Blogging easy and worthy.
Yes, Divesh blogging is not just about writing, it more than it. understanding how Google ranks the websites are similarly important to rank the web pages higher and to get more footprints in.
great article bro.
everyone wants to rank their articles on google.
but some people study about how this google actually ranks the article
reverse engineering.
I come to new things via this article
Yes, Venkat, doing some research are always fruitful.
best article for beginners, Thanks bro for sharing.
Hi Naveen thanks for sharing awesome and informative article which helps new bies to rank in google who are struggling for same….
Thanks Basha!
Hey Navin
Awesome article. With the new updates in algo Google looks and verifies a lot of things and then let you rank for a keyword or phrase.
Thank you for such an informative article.
Hey Andy,
Yeah, algos will and should be kept on changing. And i do feel that is when a blogger will dig and learn more things. After experiencing ups and downs has a huge role to be successful.
Hello Navin,
We have been using SEMRush to do our keyword research for our business and it has been performing exceptionally well.
Your report is really through and one should really pay attention to small things as they are the ones which can bring a big difference.
I have also read an article from Brian. (Backlinko)
More or less one should pay close attention if they want to succeed
Optimization content for both SEO and readers would always make sense and that’s the way to go. Thanks, Bhawna for stopping and dropping by.
Hi Navin,
These are the ranking factors that a blogger must focus on. It is necessary to keep an eye on the changes of Google updates as well. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Rich, Good to see you!
Certainly, none of the above points could be ignorable for a better blogs SEO and stand strong in the search engines. UX and UI do matter a lot all the above.
Have a great day ahead!
Hi,
When you work to rank high in Google search, it is necessary that you should work on most of the ranking factors if not on all.
Exactly! and if as considering the whole 200 ranking factors can be a bit tedious task so these Semrush case study could help a lot.
User experience, Awesome and thorough content, Backlinks are the key as of now and it would be.
Thanks for expressing your thoughts, I appreciate it…
Have a great day ahead!
Navin
if your content is unique and covered sufficient word then you will get more traffic from search engine
Not Exactly, if it not well optimized.
Saying optimized doesn’t mean only inserting the keywords. Making it readable, using synonyms to the seed keyword too, to make good understand the content is traveling around a certain zone. I hope this helps!
It is another great article I enjoyed reading.
Thanks Navin for your valuable ideas.
Just tweeted this excellent guide to my twitter friends and followings.
Hey Buddy, Thanks for the kind words and tweeting too…
Nice article.
Thanks Arbab!
Great article you’ve impressed me truely, your on-page seo is just boom
On page, SEO is always a factor of ranking… And always be one.
Thanks, for the kind words Nisar.
Have a great day ahead!
Hey Navin,
Great Post. SEO is very dynamic world. Google changes its algorithm frequently and we have to adapt it for better ranking. HTTPS is definitely a part of ranking factors. If you search something in Google, You will find that 90% of the site that are within top 5 pages are of HTTPS. So, its definitely a ranking factor. Thanks for sharing these great insights.
Have a great day 🙂
Vishwajeet
I agree, Vishwajeet, Its observed the most of the ranked website on top is having an HTTPS protocol…
Inspite that, I am always astonished when still I see few websites haven’t had one. Though, as proved Content is going to master the web.
Have a great day ahead!
Some people still don’t believe that https might be a ranking factor. А few years ago Google made an announcement, and I decided to move all my websites to https protocol.
But I see, a lot of online marketers till don’t use it, because, as they say, they don’t collect personal information.
Well, from my personal experience, it’s not that important ranking factor. But it still is a factor!
As you said its pretty strange few sites still haven’t installed an SSL, which is so easier. As Google announced on HTTPS site to get rank higher already. And as above SEMrush study to make it in the limelight, HTTPs is as Ranking factor. It quite reasonable to believe so.
Have a great day ahead!