In the last article we wrote about how top seo gurus narrowed down almost 200 google ranking factors and voted on the top 5 which held most importance. If you missed the last article then feel free to have a read by clicking the link above.

Google top ranking factors

Google have so many ranking factors that its hard to keep up, many of these factors when compared by importance have different values. So its fair to say that if you cant keep up with them all then try and focus on the main factors with the highest of importance. Below we dig deeper into some more ranking factors.

Keyword usage in the title tag

We discussed this to be amongst the top 5 ranking factors in the previous article – again i cant stress enough how important it is to spend some time and optimise your titles. Better still if you can use your keyword as the first word in your title tags then your on your way to a great start.

Using your keyword in your domain name.

This is something you need to consider before registering a domain name. Its clear that domains that are using keywords as the name have a better chance of ranking for the given keyword. This is important but not the end of the world if you dont have your keywords in the domain. Ive worked on many sites and have outranked keyword rich domains for their own keywords. If you pay close attention to other ranking factors then you will be fine.

Using your keywords in your <h1> tag

A great deal of emphases is placed on <h1> tags – using your keyword within this tag will not only help search engines understand you website better but it will also make sure your giving the robots the right message as to what keywords your website should rank for.

Using your keywords as anchor text when linking internally.

linking internally using your anchor text is a great way to show search engine robots what your webpages are about. In the same way that its important in using your keywords for your backlinks its just as important to link back to your pages internally using your keywords.

Using anchor text when building backlinks

Again this was mentioned in the previous article, but just to emphasis that its important to use your keywords as the anchor text when building backlinks. Dont always use the same keywords – vary them and use the LSI structure.

Keyword use in the first 50-100 words in the html of the page 

Its also important to continue with the usage of varied keywords in the first paragraph of your body text.

I will continue this subject and explore deeper into more ranking factors in our next article to come.

Related posts:

1. Googles top 5 ranking factors
2. Googles top 4 most negative ranking factors
3. googles-ranking-factors-offsite

In this article I will be writing about the top 5 ranking factors. These ranking factors have been voted to be of the most importance by a poll voting system which was completed by top SEO agents.

So lets get cracking

Googles Top 5 Ranking Factors

Using your keywords as the anchor text from External links 73%

73% of the poll results showed this to have the most importance. I always knew that using your keywords as the anchor text is important but didnt realize that so many other SEO agents felt this to be the most important factor. 

Please note that in order for any SEO strategy to work then it must look natural. If you will be using the same anchor text over and over again then that looks spammy. Vary your anchor text and use a LSI structure in the same way that is needed for onsite optimisation.

External link popularity 71%

This was voted to be the 2nd most important ranking factor. Your link popularity refers to the quantity and quality of the backlinks. I would say that link quality plays a bigger role then quantity but its no good having just 2 or 3 good quality backlinks you will need loads.

The diversity of link sources 67%

This was voted as the 3rd most important ranking factor. This is a very important area to focus on. Its no good just getting backlinks from directory sites or blog comments – you really need to diversify your backlinking methods.Use the many web 2.0 sites – article sites – high profile sites – rss promotions – blog comments and the many more areas in which you can get backlinks from.

If tomorrow Google turned round and devalued certain backlinks then this could harm your rankings if you relied on this method of backlinking only. Dont hold all your eggs in one basket!!

The usage of your keyword in the title tag 66%

This was voted 4th most important ranking factor.  The title tag is a very important area for your onsite optimisation. It will be shown in the SERPS and it also helps the robots understand what your page is about. If you dont spend much time on onsite optimisation then this is one area I would advise to concentrate on.

Trustworthiness of the domain 66%

This was the 5th most important ranking factor. Its not very clear as to what makes a trustworthy domain however its important that Google trust your domain in order to get higher rankings.

There are many areas which will help towards making your domain trustworthy – such as the age of the domain. The older it is the more chance its not going to be a spam site. Getting backlinks from already trustworthy sites with high page rank. These websites have already earned their trust and if they link back to you then Google will pass trust to your site in the same way that authority will also be filtered down to your site.

There are many more ranking factors. I have only named the top 5 in order of importance. I have not built the order that they are in but they have been voted in this order of importance.

Please note that concentrating on the above factors alone will not guarantee you a high rank as many more factors are also considered. As mentioned about 200 in total. These ranking factors are split between onsite and offsite factors. 

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This is a set of many more articles to come. The next will be the top 5 negative ranking factors and then we will split the onsite and offsite details and look at them in more detail.

Related posts:

1. Googles top ranking factors continued
2. Googles top 4 most negative ranking factors
3. googles-ranking-factors-offsite