30 Most Important Google Ranking Factors

Link to main Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Web page

This post by Pawel Grabowski on Unamo.com is a great Google SEO to do list to have handy, especially for SEO beginners.

I love the way Pawel has segmented the list into On-Page Factors, Site Factors, Off Page Factors and Domain Factors.

For example here are several of his On-Page Factors:

“The way your page is optimized has the most profound effect on its rankings. Here are the page optimization factors that can affect its search visibility

1. Keyword in the title tag. The title meta tag is one of the strongest relevancy signals for a search engine. The tag itself is meant to give the accurate description of the pages content. Search engines use it to display the main title of a search result. Including a keyword in it will indicate to search engine what to rank the page for. Ideally, the keyword should be placed at the start of the title tag. Pages optimized this way will rank better than those with keyword closer to the title’s tag end.

2. Keyword in meta description tag. The importance of the meta description tag today is often discussed in SEO circles. It is nonetheless still a relevancy signal. It is also crucial for gaining user clicks from search results pages. Including the keyword in it makes it more relevant to a search engine and a searcher

3. Keyword in H1 tag. H1 tag is yet another relevance factor, serving as a description of the pages content. In spite of an ongoing discussion about its importance, it is still a good practice to include your keyword in a unique H1 tag on a page.

4. Using keywords in the pages copy. Up until recently, stuffing your page with keywords was a surefire way to increase its rankings for a particular keyword. That’s not the case anymore. Using the keyword in the copy still sends a relevancy signal of what the content is about. How you place it, however, has changed drastically.

5. The length of the content. These days searchers want to be educated and won’t satisfy with basic information. Google, therefore, looks for authoritative and informative content to rank first. And it’s common sense that the longer your content is, the greater the chance that you can cover more aspects of your topic. Don’t be shy of writing long but highly useful copy then.”

Those are just the first 5 of Pawel’s 30 Important Google Ranking Factors!

This is a great Google SEO tips sheet that should be reviewed before starting a new Web site or Blog or when adding new content to an existing Web site or Blog.

Here’s a link to Pawel’s post:

30 Most Important Google Ranking Factors A Beginner Should Know