Content Marketing

SEO Ranking Factors [Infographic]

CopyPress

September 24, 2020 (Updated: February 12, 2023)

How your website is positioned in search engines is referred to your ranking in SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the way you implement keywords and other ranking factors into your website to make it more easily visible on search engines like Google or Bing. Your website’s SEO rank is determined by complex and ever-changing algorithms. While it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact formula that gives your page its rank, there are several well-known elements that are part of the equation.  

Types of SEO Rankings Factors

Domain Factors

Domain factors are how the use of keywords in the domain and subdomains impact your page rankings. 

Page-Level Factors

Page-level factors are the aspects of your site that gauge whether your content is recently updated and optimized with images. They also check up on the loading time for any given page on your website. 

Site-Level Factors

Site-level factors are looking at the bones of your site like the privacy statement, terms of service page, and contact information. If your site is well-organized it will be more likely to rank higher on Google, or Bing. 

Backlink Factors

Backlink factors are how the sites that link to your page affect your page ranking. It is important that the site that links back to your content has quality, reliable information on it and they are linking back to your content with the right context. The linked anchor text is important as it tells search engines what your content is about and should entice the reader to go to your site. With quality also comes quantity, which relates to the number of backlinks you will need to gain authority and aid your content to rank well for any given keyword. The higher keyword density that any given keyword has, the more links you will need to prove your authority. Link building services can help improve your backlink factors, but can also hinder your site as well. Make sure you follow best practices for any link building campaign.

User Interaction Factors

User interaction factors are used to favor sites with better engagement. So if your visitors stay on the page for longer or leave a comment, you will have better user interaction rates. The user interaction factors tell search engines that people found what they are looking for at the given URL destination. If a reader bounces from your site because they cannot find the information they are looking for, it shows the search engine that your site does not have valuable authority regarding the search term used. 

Penalization Factors

Lastly, you will want to be aware of the penalization factors so the errors on your site do not negatively affect your SERP rankings. 

Our graphic below breaks down the domain factors, page-level factors, site-level factors, backlink factors, penalization factors, and user interaction so that the rating factors are easier to remember. Keep it handy to help you visualize and understand the SEO ranking factors of your website.

Jill Conway

CopyPress writer

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