{"id":30919,"date":"2016-08-17T12:36:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T12:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandignitybeta.com\/demo\/brandlatest\/2016\/08\/17\/200-google-ranking-factors\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T12:36:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T12:36:25","slug":"200-google-ranking-factors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/brandignitybeta.com\/demo\/brandlatest\/200-google-ranking-factors\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Google Rank Pages, Websites, Or Subdomains? 200 Ranking Factors Discussed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Google<\/p>\n

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Google is enthralled with search engine results. They hire world-class engineers, tweak complex algorithms, and enroll remote search engine evaluators<\/a> to improve them. Google has the most robust search engine on the planet, and it\u2019s getting better every day.<\/p>\n

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How does Google deliver such splendid results? You know Google considers more than the content on the page as a relevancy signal. New websites don\u2019t top organic search for ultra-competitive keywords, even if they have amazing content. On the other hand, Google doesn\u2019t only rank websites (domains) either. It\u2019s not possible to deliver reasonable search results without evaluating at the page-level.<\/p>\n

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Pages and domains make up the bulk of relevancy signals. Compared to these two behemoths, subdomains are niche. So, we\u2019ll touch on the limited impact of subdomains toward the end.<\/p>\n

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Google uses over 200 factors<\/a> to determine search engine results. Each one of these factors is called a relevancy signal. Some of these factors have a large impact, and some have a minuscule impact. For some search results, Google may not actively apply all 200 factors. The exact algorithm is their secret sauce, and only high-level employees have access to it.<\/p>\n

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Most of these factors relate to pages, but many signals occur on a domain or website level too. Let\u2019s take a look at a few examples from the Backlinko<\/a> list. These aren\u2019t necessarily the weightiest factors. We\u2019re simply looking to see if certain signals on the list relate to pages or domains.<\/p>\n

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Relevancy Signals for Pages<\/h2>\n
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  1. Content Length-<\/strong> The idea is simple. A longer page is going to have more (and ideally better) information than a shorter page.<\/li>\n
  2. Early Keyword Prominence- <\/strong>It\u2019s a strong page-level relevancy signal if your keyword appears in the first 100 words of your article.<\/li>\n
  3. Keyword in H2 or H3 Tags-<\/strong> If your keyword appears in an H2 or H3 heading tag, that\u2019s a page-level relevancy signal. Backlinko <\/a>agrees it\u2019s probably a weak one though.<\/li>\n
  4. Keyword Word Order-<\/strong> A page optimized for certain phrases will rank differently than a page optimized for other keywords. This is true even if the searches are extremely similar. For instance, consider a search for \u201canimals that live in cold weather.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    \"Ranking<\/p>\n

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    \"Ranking<\/p>\n

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    Those two searches are virtually identical. Yet, the highlighted article shows up as the number one article in the first search and the number two article for the second search. In other words, \u201cAnimals that live in cold weather\u201d brings up a different number one website than \u201canimals that live in cold.\u201d As you might expect, keyword order has a large effect on search engine results.<\/p>\n

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    URL Length-<\/strong> Search Engine Journal<\/a> notes that a drawn-out URL can hurt the visibility of a single web page.<\/p>\n

    Bounce Rate-<\/strong> Pages that everybody bounces from quickly aren\u2019t useful. Google takes this into consideration when ranking pages.<\/p>\n

    Google Caffeine- <\/strong>Google prefers pages that are recently updated. The idea is info from 2016 is more relevant than info from 2006.<\/p>\n

    Number of Comments-<\/strong> Pages that have lots of comments are looked upon as more relevant.<\/p>\n

    Site Speed-<\/strong> If one page is overloaded with dense images, Google will downgrade that page. This also ties into bounce rate. If a page takes too long to load, people are going to leave.<\/p>\n

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    Relevancy Signals for Domains + Websites<\/h2>\n
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    Some SEO\u2019s like to say Google ranks pages, not websites. Ultimately this is an moot point. If you have a well-respected site, it\u2019s easier for your page to rank.<\/p>\n

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    Let\u2019s say you have a marketing blog. You and Kissmetrics<\/a> both write an awesome marketing piece, trying to rank for the same keywords. They are probably going to rank higher than you, even if your article quality is the same. Actually, sites with a high PageRank may outrank you even if your article is better.<\/p>\n

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    This is not to say websites with a high PageRank are unbeatable. The point is a esteemed or valuable domain will give you an advantage. Here are some examples.<\/p>\n

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