Ranking factors are a contentious issue! There are varying opinions across social media about what impacts ranking and what doesn’t, including the validity of studies trying to measure ranking factors.
Correlation or causation – it’s the eternal question.
We asked our audience of SEO professionals what they thought had the most impact on ranking.
These results are a reflection of what 2,800 working SEO professionals have experienced over the last 12 months.
| Ranking Factor | Percent | Volume | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | On-page (meta titles/descriptions, H1) | 32.8% | 763 |
| 2 | Organic user behavior (CTR, bounce, time on site) | 30.9% | 720 |
| 3 | Depth & accuracy of content | 24.6% | 572 |
| 4 | Structured data (schema) | 21.1% | 490 |
| 5 | Content freshness | 19.0% | 442 |
| 6 | Mobile-friendliness | 17.9% | 417 |
| 7 | Brand awareness | 17.8% | 413 |
| 8 | Topic relevance | 17.5% | 406 |
| 9 | Links | 17.4% | 404 |
| 10 | Site speed | 13.8% | 320 |
| 11 | Internal linking | 13.7% | 318 |
| 12 | Domain authority | 12.4% | 289 |
| 13 | Site security (HTTPS) | 11.9% | 278 |
| 14 | EAT | 9.4% | 218 |
| 15 | Social signals | 7.1% | 164 |
(Data source; Search Engine Journal)
What are the Top 7 Ranking Factors for Google?
In no particular order, the top factors for ranking on Google are:
- High-quality content.
- Mobile-first.
- Page Experience.
- Page speed
- On-page optimization.
- Internal links
- External links