Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Latest Google Ranking Factors


Note -
Patent
Claim
#
Factor
#
POSITIVE
ON-Page SEO Factors
Brief Note
50
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KEYWORDS
Google patent - Topic extraction
For keyword selection,
try Google Ad Words - Google Trends
HOT
1
Keyword in URL
First word is best, second is second best, etc.
HOT
2
Keyword in Domain name
Same as in page-name-with-hyphens
-
Keywords - Header
HOT
3
Keyword in Title tag
Keyword in Title tag - close to beginning
Title tag 10 - 60 characters, no special characters.
-
4
Keyword in Description meta tag
Shows theme - less than 200 chars.
Google no longer "relies" upon this tag, but will often use it.
-
5
Keyword in Keyword metatag
Shows theme - less than 10 words.
Every word in this tag MUST appear somewhere in the body text. If not, it can be penalized for irrelevance.
No single word should appear more than twice.
If not, it may be considered spam. Google purportedly no longer uses this tag, but others do.
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Keywords - Body
-
6
Keyword density in body text
5 - 20% - (all keywords/ total words)
Some report topic sensitivity - the keyword spamming threshold % varies with the topic.
-
7
Individual keyword density
1 - 6% - (each keyword/ total words)
HOT
8
Keyword in H1, H2 and H3
Use Hx font style tags appropriately
-
9
Keyword font size
"Strong is treated the same as bold, italic is treated the same as emphasis" . . . Matt Cutts July 2006
-
10
Keyword proximity (for 2+ keywords)
Directly adjacent is best
-
11
Keyword phrase order
Does word order in the page match word order in the query?
Try to anticipate query, and match word order.
-
12
Keyword prominence (how early in page/tag)
Can be important at top of page, in bold, in large font
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Keywords - Other
-
13
Keyword in alt text
Should describe graphic - Do NOT fill with spam
(Was part of Google Florida OOP - tripped a threshold - may still be in effect to some degree as a red flag, when summed with all other on-page optimization - total page optimization score - TPOS).
-
14
Keyword in links to site pages (anchor text)
Links out anchor text use keyword?
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NAVIGATION - INTERNAL LINKS
SITE
15
To internal pages- keywords?
Link should contain keywords.
The filename "linked to" should contain the keywords.
Use hyphenated filenames, but not long ones - two or three hyphens only.
SITE
16
All Internal links valid?
Validate all links to all pages on site.
Use a free link checker. I like this one.
SITE
17
Efficient - tree-like structure
TRY FOR two clicks to any page - no page deeper than 4 clicks
SITE
18
Intra-site linking
Appropriate links between lower-level pages
54
-
NAVIGATION - OUTGOING LINKS
55
19
To external pages- keywords?
Google patent - Link only to good sites. Do not link to link farms. CAREFUL - Links can and do go bad, resulting in site demotion. Unfortunately, you must devote the time necessary to police your outgoing links - they are your responsibility.
56
20
Outgoing link Anchor Text
Google patent - Should be on topic, descriptive
61, 62
21
Link stability over time
Google patent - Avoid "Link Churn"
-
22
All External links valid?
Validate all links periodically.
-
23
Less than 100 links out total
Google says limit to 100,
but readily accepts 2-3 times that number. ref 2k
-
121
(added)
Linking to Authority
Some say this gives a boost -
Others say that is absurd. However, it certainly is the opposite of linking to trash, which WILL hurt you.


By Mukul Fugaat