200+ Ranking Elements

How to quickly rank your website in Google’s Search Engine

By Ralphie Albert

This guide is a copyrighted work, provided to you with “All Rights Reserved.”
It may not be redistributed, given away, or sold.
You may, of course, use what you learn here to grow your business.
 2

Today we are exploring the primary ranking elements that Google uses in its algorithm.

Some are familiar concepts while others are new or speculative theories. These are important
for you to understand and for you to keep in the back of your mind when creating your website
and getting it indexed properly with Google.

You want to play by the rules, but you also must do things to beat your competitors. No one
wants to give up free traffic to their rivals. That’s why I wrote this ebook. Because these elements
will help quickly get your website ranked in Google so that more visitors discover your site. You
want to be in the good graces of Google. You want them to look at your site, approve of it, and
think that your site is a valuable commodity that more people should see.

Not all of these elements, or factors, are equally as important though.

Some are more important than others. But, if you can ensure that you meet even 1/4 of these,
then you should be light years ahead of your competitors.

Domain Elements
1. Keyword As First Word in Domain: A domain that starts with their target keyword has the
edge over sites that either doesn’t have the keyword in their domain or have the keyword in the
middle or end of their domain.

2. Keyword in Subdomain Name: Moz’s 2011 panel agreed that a keyword appearing in the
subdomain could boost rankings.

3. Keyword Appears in Top Level Domain: weight and emphasis are given to keywords appearing
in the domain, but the impact is low on the ranking results.

4. Domain Age, whether new or old, has little to no effect on the impact your website will have.
Quality subject matter and proper redirect links play a much bigger role than having an old
domain or a brand-new domain. This is an item that is considered when ranking, but the weight
placed on this factor is Public vs. Private Domain Ownership: Anytime domain ownership is set
to private will throw up a red flag about the domain’s intended purpose.

5. Domain reservation period: To help reduce the amount of illicit or low-quality sites from
appearing the algorithm will favor sites with registrations longer than a year. As a rule of thumb,
low-quality sites do not intend to remain active for more than a year, so extended registration
periods will be favorable in the rankings.

6. Inconsistent Domain Ownership: Domains that have exchanged hands several times in the
past or have been dropped with no owner will be viewed less favorably by the algorithm.

7. Exact Match Domain: Exact Match Domains favor quality sites, but everything else will get
bumped down the rankings for quality subject matter.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 3

8. Public vs. Private Domain Ownership: Anytime domain ownership is set to private will throw
up a red flag about the domain’s intended purpose.

9. Country Specific Extension: Country Specific Extensions allow sites to be listed favorably in
that country but reduce their chances of favorable rankings globally.

10. Spammer Network Effect: If a domain’s owner is flagged as a spammer then other registered
domains owned by the individual will also be treated as suspicious.

Page-Level Elements
11. Subject matter Changes: Updating the sites subject matter frequently can help to boost
search results.

12. The size of Subject Matter Changes: The addition or subtraction of elements helps the site to
be continually viewed as new and relevant.

13. Historical Changes: Frequent and consistent changes over the lifespan of the site help keep
its rankings high.

14. Grammar and Spelling: Grammar and Spelling are important to site quality, keyword impact,
and relevance rankings.

15. Useful Additional Subject matter: Interactive tools for helping visitors solve problems are
deemed useful and will boost the site’s favorability in the rankings.

16. PageRank: Higher page rank will be given more weight than pages with lower rank.

17. URL Length: Shorter URL’s are both easier to remember and regarded more favorably.

18. URL Path: Pages adjacent to the homepage are weighted higher than other pages.

19. Human Editors: Possibility that human editors will be a component of search rankings.

20. Keyword in Title Tag: A critical component of SEO and ranking is based the on keywords in
the title tag.

21. Keyword at the beginning of Title Tag: Title tags that begin with a keyword perform better
than it being placed further in the tag.

22. Keyword in Description Tag: Less critical than the keyword in the title tag but some weight
will be given to keywords in the description tag.

23. Keyword in Header Tag: The header tag or H1 also supply weight to the keywords placed in
them. Header tags are just behind title tags in importance.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 4

24. Keyword Frequency: Keywords that are used the most often in the subject matter will be
ranked higher than other keywords.

25. Keyword Crawling and Indexing: Subject matter and keywords that have been categorized by
latent semantic indexing will be given weight towards rankings based on quality and relevance.

26. LSI Keywords in Title and Description Tags: Latent semantic indexed keywords used for page
tags will help with signaling relevance.

27. Keyword Standing: Keywords that are used sooner in the sites subject matter are given more
weight than those appearing later.

28. Keyword in Subheading Tags: Much less weight is given to keywords that are used in
subheadings like H2 or H3.

29. Keyword Arrangement: Keyword’s arranged in the same order as the search query will
usually perform better than those same words being used in a different order. Serious
consideration needs to be given to the order of keywords expected to be used by users
searching for sites like yours.

30. Keyword Density: Used to determine the primary focus of the subject matter with lower
weight placed on determining site ranking.

31. Keyword in URL: Adds to the sites perceived quality and ranking.

32. Reading Level: Sites reading levels are determined and used to determine relevance to the
user.

33. Low-Quality Code: Coding errors on the site are a red flag and will have an adverse impact on
the sites perceived quality.

34. Internal Links Directing to Page: Importance is determined based on how many internal sites
links directly to a particular page.

35. The value of Internal Links Directing to Page: More weight is given to links from more
prominent pages directing to other pages.

36. Broken Links: Having several broken links will be a signal of low site quality and will negatively
affect your rankings.

37. Associated Links: these will not impact anything, but if your site contains too many then this
may be a signal for the entire site to be examined more carefully for quality.

38. Canonical link: If the site must have duplicate subject matter then the use of a canonical link
will help reduce the adverse effect of the repeated material.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 5

39. Outgoing Link Quality: Linking to more trusted and reputable sites will contribute to the site’s
trust and rankings.

40. Outgoing Link Theme: Linking to relevant sites related to the subject matter of the site will
help boost the sites rankings.

41. The size of Subject Matter: Subject matter with more content and keywords is given more
weight than shorter pieces.

42. Loading Speed: Weight is given to sites with better loading speed.

43. Matching Subject Matter: Sites full of matching or repeated subject matter will be given less
weight in search results.

44. Image Optimization: Image metadata used on the site will be given weight and used to
determine the relevance of the site.

45. Reposted Subject matter: Copied or reposted subject matter will negatively affect the site’s
ranking.

46. The Number of Outgoing Links: A site having too many links directing off the site will
negatively affect the site’s ranking.

47. Multimedia: Relevant images, videos, and other multimedia will help indicate quality.

48. Page Host’s Domain Authority: A page on an authoritative domain will be held in higher
regard than one that has less authority.

49. Page Category: Keeping pages in the correct category and consistent with the topic and
subject matter are deemed more favorably than messy pages with random content.

50. URL String: Will be analyzed for relevance and to determine what the site contains.

51. References and Sources: Citations are always necessary when using other creators content
but also add to the sites perceived quality when determining ranking.

52. Bullets and Numbered Lists: Proper formatting with information that is easy to follow will
add to the sites perceived quality. Bullets and numbered list can help boost this.

53. Priority of Page in Sitemap: The pages location on a sitemap will help give weight to pages
and the keywords they contain.

54. Multiple Keywords: It is important for a site to rank high on multiple keywords to help show
quality.

55. User-Friendly Layout: A logical and easy to follow site layout is important for determining the
sites overall value.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 6

56. Parked Domains: These are being excluded or lowered in the search results.

57. Useful Subject matter: Rankings can also be boosted by having the site’s content be deemed
useful. High-quality content that is not deemed useful will be ranked lower than content that is
deemed useful.

Site-Level Elements
58. Site-Level Elements

59. Use of Search Engines Tools: It is possible that sites with analytical tools installed on them
that were provided by the search engine will give the site a more favorable rank.

60. Reputation and Reviews: The more positive and credible data that can be found on your site
the better. Sites with good reviews and good reputations will be favored in the search rankings
over other sites.

61. A Sitemap: Search engines can present your website more efficiently with a well-designed
sitemap.

62. Site Downtime: Excessive site downtime for maintenance or other reasons can lead to a
reduction in rankings.

63. Server Location: Your sites results may be affected depending on where your servers are
located. Rankings could be better in areas closer to your server locations.

64. Site Security: Search engines index SSL certificates and use HTTPS to signify quality.

65. Demonstrating Trust: Other relevant pages to include on a site to build trust would be terms
of service and privacy pages.

66. Duplicate Meta Descriptions: Keep meta descriptions unique across your site. Otherwise, this
will reduce the optimization of pages with duplicate descriptions.

67. Contact Us Page: The more legitimate your contact information is on your site, the better
your chances are for being deemed a legitimate site.

68. Domain Trust/TrustRank: Critical to ranking, being closer to trusted sites through links and
references help boost your site’s credibility.

69. Mobile Optimized: Depending on how the site performs on mobile will affect its rankings
when a mobile search is used. Sites that are optimized for mobile will get rankings boost in these
searches.

70. YouTube: Google searches will display YouTube links more predominantly than other search
engines.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 7

71. Site Usability: Sites that are difficult to use will reduce rankings over time because of the
negative data that will result from fewer users, time on site, bounce rate, etc.

72. Site Architecture: Well designed sites can be optimized for compatibility with search results.

73. Number of Pages: Although it is not very important, sites with more pages are considered
more serious and send a greater signal of being legitimate.

74. Provide Value and Insight: Site’s that do not present any real value are being treated much
less favorably.

75. Breadcrumb Navigation: Provides easy navigation for both a site’s user and the search
engine.

Backlink Elements
76. Nofollow Links: As long as you maintain a normal balance of link types then including a few
Nofollow links shouldn’t produce a negative effect.

77. The diversity of Link Types: Having links from many different sites is considered normal.
Therefore, try to limit the number of links to the same site.

78. “Sponsored Links” Or Other Words Around Link: Advertisements and clearly stated sponsor
links can adversely affect your site’s ranking.

79. Contextual Links: Including links inside the subject matter boost the weight of the links
versus placing them elsewhere on the page.

80. Excessive 301 Redirects to Page: Links coming from 301 redirects dilute some (or even all) PR,
according to a Webmaster Help Video.

81. Backlink Anchor Text: Used to derive relevance from a site.

82. Internal Link Anchor Text: This is another relevance signal but is weighted differently than the
backlink anchor text.

83. Link Title Attribution: Another small relevancy signal is the link title which is the description
that appears when your cursor is over the link.

84. Page Level Relevancy: According to the Hilltop Algorithm, links to pages related to the
subject matter carry more weight than unrelated links.

85. Text Around Link Sentiment: Links that are mentioning your site favorably carry positive
boost while negative mentions that link your site damage your score.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 8

86. Keyword in Title: Including links that include your keywords in them are treated more
favorably and get a boost from Google.

87. Positive Link Velocity: This is deemed a very good thing and will help boost SERP.

88. Links from Top Level Domains: There is some speculation that links from top level domains
help boost a site’s credibility.

89. Linked Page Authority: The more prominent the linking page is to your site the more
influence it will have on your score.

90. Linked Domain Authority: The importance of any linked domain will have a varying impact
depending on how high or low the level domain.

91. Links From Competitors: Pages that link to your site that also show up in the same search
results as you will help boost your rank.

92. Linking to Established Domain’s: Same as with your site, linking sites with age, track record,
and credibility will also help your rankings.

93. Links from Separate C-Class IPs: Links from separate class-c IP addresses suggest a wider
breadth of sites linking to you.

94. The Number of Linking Pages: The total number of linked pages to your site will influence
your rank.

95. Alt Tag (for Image Links): Including an Alt tag with your image links will help add to your site’s
visibility.

96. Guest Posts: These can send a mixed signal or hurt a site’s credibility if not placed correctly
on the site.

97. Links to Homepage Domain: Any link will be weighted by the importance of the content that it
links to.

98. Country TLD of Referring Domain: Links from country specific extensions can help boost your
rank in those countries.

99. Linking Domain Relevancy: Always include links that are relevant to your content and stick
with the message you are presenting. Unrelated links on pages can damage a site’s rankings.

100. Negative Link Velocity: The opposite of positive link velocity, negative will reduce your site’s
ranking.

101. Links from “Hub” Pages: Links from top sites in specific areas linking to your site are believed
to receive preferential treatment.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 9

102. Chrome Bookmarks: More data being collected through Chrome. Sites that are bookmarked
in Chrome may receive a boost.

103. Google Toolbar: Google collects data from its toolbar, but it is not clear exactly what this
data is. Most believe that it includes malware or page loading speed.

104. Number of Comments: Lots of user interaction helps to demonstrate usefulness. Having
lots of comments on a site is can help in perceived quality.

105. Dwell Time: Having users spend a lot of time on a site help signify the quality of the site.

106. Site-wide Links: Using the same link in repetition over a site will be considered only one link.

107. Organic Click Through Rate for a Keyword: By having pages achieve a higher click-through
rate will help boost SERP for keywords on that page.

108. Organic CTR for All Keywords: Organic click through rates for a site assist in determining the
importance and rank of different keywords on your site.

109. Direct Traffic: Google monitors the Chrome browsers users to track direct traffic to a site
better.

110. Repeat Traffic: Sites with repeat visitors also sends a strong signal that users like the site.
This leads to better rankings

111. Backlink Age: Same as with domain age, older backlinks are believed to be held in higher
regard than new backlinks.

112. Links from Real Sites vs. Splogs (spam blog): Google works to determine whether the link to
your site is a legitimate site or face site setup to help boost SEO.

113. Natural Link Profile: Working to make everything on your site normal or standard helps
Google determine to rank you favorably. Having a diversity of links that are considered normal
and match the industry standard will give your site a boost over time.

114. Reciprocal Links: Google does not favor sites that exchange an excessive number of links
back and forth.

115. Provide Value and Insight: Site’s that do not present any real value are being treated much
less favorably.

116. Breadcrumb Navigation: Provides easy navigation for both a site’s user and the search
engine.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 10

Backlink Elements
117. The Number of Linking Root Domains: One of the most important elements in influencing
your site rank.

118. Social Shares of Referring Page: Pages that reference your site and are being shared on
social media are more valuable as reference links.

119. Links from Less Desirable Sites: On the contrary, links from known problem sites will hurt
our score from reference links.

120. Link Location In Subject matter: Links in more prominent locations or appearing earlier in
the subject matter are given more weight.

121. Link Location on Page: Links that appear in the subject matter carry more weight than links
in other areas.

122. Link from Authority Sites: The higher profile the site linking to you the more weight it will be
given.

123. Linked to as Wikipedia Source: Despite being Nofollow links, being listed as a Wikipedia
citation is believed to carry extra weight.

124. Co-Occurrences: Google will use the text around your backlinks to determine what a page is
about.

125. User Generated Subject matter Links: Google can tell what is generated by users and what
has been created by the site owner.

126. Links from 301: Direct links still carry more weight but 301 redirect links are considered the
next best thing.

127. Schema.org Microformats: Being able to support different formats such as microformats will
give a site an edge over sites without the format.

128. DMOZ Listed: DMOZ listed sites are believed to display a bit more trust and are treated
more favorably.

129. TrustRank of Linking Site: TrustRank can come from quality links. Alternatively, sites with low
trust scores can damage your score.

130. The number of Outgoing Links on Page: An excessive number of outbound links can have a
negative effect on a page’s rank.

131. Forum Profile Links: Forum links are not considered valuable because of an association with
spam.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 11

132. Word Count of Linking Subject matter: Links included in longer subject matter carry more
weight than links from a small piece of content.

133. The quality of Linking Subject matter: Even if included links are on topic and contain
relevant subject matter they are only as valuable as the actual content they bring. Poorly written
or small pieces of linked content do not provide much value as links.

134. Bounce Rate: Bounce rate where users leave quickly can send a signal of a problem with the
site.

135. Blocked Sites: Having a site blocked can signal a lower quality or content and may not be
ranked as favorably, if at all.

Special Algorithm Rules

136.User Browsing History: This also demonstrates repeated visits to a site which will boost the
site’s ranking.

137. User Search History: Depending on what you have searched for in the past will help Google
try to put new searches into context and work to match your known search history.

138. Geo Targeting: Sites that are only targeting a specific country or geographic area will be
displayed higher in search results to IP addresses in those areas.

139. Domain Diversity: With the Bigfoot update more domains were added to each search results
page.

140. Transactional Searches: Products for sale will show up in search differently than other
search items.

141. Local Searches: Google+ Local will show higher in results than other results.

142. Shopping Results: Occasionally Google will show Google Shopping results in search results.

143. Easter Egg Results: Google has several Easter Egg results that can be found with certain
phrases.

144. Single Site Results for Brands: It is possible for all of the top search results to be from the
same site. This usually occurs when users are searching for branded content.

145. Query Deserves Freshness: In some searches new pages will be displayed higher by Google
in search results.

146. Query Deserves Diversity: Very vague search terms may yield a random assortment of sites
in the search results.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 12

147. Safe Search: This will filter search results, so any site which is deemed to have adult
language or content will be filtered out.

148. Google+ Circles: Using Google products will always give you preferential treatment.

149. DMCA Complaints: Sites with DMCA complaints will be downgraded.

150. Google News Box: With certain keywords, you will be linked to Google News.

151. Big Brand Preference: Google gives preference to big brands in search results.

Social Signals
152. Facebook Shares: A share can be considered a form of backlinking.

153. Authority of Facebook User Accounts: Facebook shares and likes coming from more
prominent pages will carry more weight.

154. Some Facebook Likes: Most Facebook data is not visible to Google, but they will take page
likes into consideration.

155. Pinterest Pins: Another popular site with public data so any pins of your site will have some
influence.

156. Number of Tweets: Any shares or tweets a site receives will be treated as a positive signal.

157. Authority of Twitter Users Accounts: More prominent Twitter users tweeting about your site
will carry more weight than a random tweet.

158. Votes on Social Sharing Sites: Any other shares of your site on other social and posting sites
will influence your sites rank.

159. Social Signal Relevancy: It is believed that Google will also examine the surrounding content
of any social share to check for relevancy.

160. Site Level Social Signals: Demonstrating the site’s social connectivity will help demonstrate
quality.

161. Some Google+1’s: Using any Google product effectively will carry some weight with Google
search.

162. Authority of Google+ User Accounts: Same as with facebook and twitter any prominent user
will carry more weight.

163. Known Authorship: Verified accounts are going to carry much more weight than random
accounts on any social site.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 13

Brand Signals
164. Official Linkedin Company Page: If you are running a business then it is considered normal
to have a LinkedIn business page.

165. Employees Listed at Linkedin: Alongside your LinkedIn company page, it is important also to
have some attached employee pages.

166. The legitimacy of Social Media Accounts: Anything considered abnormal on social accounts
will send a red flag to search rankings about your credibility.

167. Brand Mentions on News Sites: It is normal for big brands to be frequently mentioned on
news sites and most have their own search channel.

168. Brick and Mortar Location: Businesses have physical addresses and having a registered
address on Google will help show your legitimacy.

169. The Website is a Tax Paying Business: Another important note is you a registered tax paying
business which is another step in showing you are a real business.

170. Brand Name Anchor Text: Having anchor text which is branded sends a strong signal.

171. Branded Searches: Any keywords added to a search query alongside your brand will be
noted by Google when determining what is associated with that brand.

172. Site Has Facebook Page and Likes: Always a good idea to have a working Facebook page that
shows lots of user interaction.

173. The site has Twitter Profile with Followers: Having a Twitter with lots of followers sends a
strong signal.

174. Co-Citations: Brands can be mentioned as keywords rather than links. This is believed to
send a strong signal since it means your brand is being written about, not just linked to.

175. Some RSS Subscribers: Another Google product which if used properly can have a positive
influence on your search rank.

On-Site Webspam Elements

176. Popups or Distracting Ads: Any use of excessive advertising will hurt your sites perceived
quality.

177. Site Over-Optimization: Over optimizing your site can get you flagged or lowered in the
rankings. This would come from keyword stuffing or obvious abuse of optimizing for certain
keywords.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 14

178. Page Over-Optimization: Google is believed to be analyzing not just a site but single pages
for abuse.

179. Excess PageRank Sculpting: Anything that appears to be attempting to trick the search
system will result in flagging or penalties.

180. IP Address Flagged as Spam: Having your servers IP address flagged for spam can hurt all of
the sites on the server.

181. Meta Tag Spamming: If you are stuffing keywords into meta tags then this can also result in
a penalty.

182. Ads Above the Fold: Pages with more ads than content will be ranked lower.

183. Hiding Associated Links: You can be penalized for trying to hide associated links.

184. Associated Sites: Sites that’s primary revenue stream comes from associated links are
monitored m Panda Penalty: Any site with the low-quality subject manager has been penalized
and moved lower in the rankings.

185. Links to Bad Neighborhoods: Any links to known problem sites can damage your site’s
reputation.

186. Redirects: These can get your site into trouble and even possible removed from search
results.

187. Auto-Generated Subject matter: While high-quality original content will give your site a
boost having auto generated content can cause serious problems for your site more closely.

Off Page Webspam Elements

188. High % of Low-Quality Links: An excessive amount of links to low quality and historically
problematic sources can have a negative effect on your site.

189. Linking Domain Relevancy: Sites with excessive links have been known to be affected
negatively by the Penguin update.

190. Unnatural Links Warning: Google will send out a warning of abnormal or excessive link
usage which generally will be followed by a decrease in rankings.

191. Links from the Same Class C IP: It is considered suspicious to get an excessive amount of
links from IP addresses on the same server.

192. Manual Penalty: In the past, Google has given out manual penalties.

193. Selling Links: This will result in decreasing your site’s visibility.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.

 15

194. Google Sandbox: A special system in place to reduce new sites rankings if they get a
suspicious amount of links early on.

195. Google Dance: Used to determine whether or not a site is deliberately trying to trick the
algorithm.

196. Disavow Tool: Helps to fix sites that were affected by updates that dropped their rankings.

197. Reconsideration Request: If successful will lift any penalties on a site.

198. Temporary Link Schemes: Google is now searching for users who create spam links and
then quickly delete them.

199. Unnatural Influx of Links: Any sudden increase of linking to your site will be flagged and
examined.

200. Penguin Penalty: After this update sites that were effected dropped much lower in search
rankings.

201. “Poison” Anchor Text: Any Poison anchor text directing to your site will signal that something
is wrong.

This guide is a copyrighted work, provided to you with “All Rights Reserved.”
It may not be redistributed, given away, or sold.
You may, of course, use what you learn here to grow your business.

© 2017 Anak. All Rights Reserved.