7 things that are not ranking factors for Google

7 things that are not ranking factors for Google

As we all know, Google uses more than 200 ranking factors in their algorithm to determine the position of a website on the Google search results page. In brief, some of the most important ranking factors that can help you improve your rankings are quality content, backlinks, user experience, page speed, mobile-friendliness, search intent, website security, keywords optimization, domain authority and so on.

So, you might wonder now out of these 200 ranking factors which factors are important for your website? As some are proven significant while some of the factors appear to be not so important. There are plenty of things connected with ranking factors that may not be considered ranking factors themselves. But, many website owners spend too much time or attention on them and do not get the expected results.

Therefore, in our blog, we’ve tried to explain why these non-factors are insignificant. So, here goes the list of seven things that are not ranking factors according to Google’s SEO experts.

1.Domain age and registration length

Domain age and registration length are not ranking factors

Firstly, domain age is not an SEO ranking factor. Even Google’s John Mueller has confirmed that it is not a ranking factor while responding to a Twitter user saying that ‘domain age helps nothing’. Usually, older domains are likely to get more signals that go into ranking as they build authority as the website gains backlinks from other websites and not the domain age that is important for its search ranking.

Similarly, no search engine has ever committed that they use registration length as a ranking factor in indexing.

2. Page content length

Does page content length impact your SEO? The answer is no. However, more useful, relevant content is effective but the minimum word count for improving SEO is nowhere mentioned in Google’s quality guidelines. Content is an integral part of SEO. It is not the content length but the quality of the content on-page that is important to rank better in search engines. The content length should be such that it can deliver the required message to the visitors or answer their queries.

3. AMP

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is completely different from page speed. It improves page speed, but it is not a part of the ranking algorithm. It gives mobile users a -fast, and more engaging experience. Google’s John Mueller has specifically confirmed that AMP is not a ranking signal but implementing AMP is beneficial for the mobile version of your website for greater visibility and extremely faster loading speed.

4. Social signals

Social signals are not a direct ranking factor. However, they are a powerful approach for the presence of your website in SERPs. The more users communicate, the greater is the level of awareness of your business and thus have an indirect impact on the SEO ranking.

5. LSI keywords

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords are the keywords that are semantically linked to the main keyword. They help to add more context to the content and make it easier for both search engines and users to know what your domain is all about. It’s a myth that LSI is an important ranking factor for Google.

6. All caps in site URL

Google’s John Mueller also cleared that capital letters in URLs do not have any impact on its search ranking. Google also does not recommend using special symbols in the domain address. It considers URLs as case-sensitive and can create duplicate content issues if you don’t handle them properly and can hurt your SERP performance.

7. Pogo sticking

Pogo sticking is not a ranking factor but it acts as an indirect metric that impacts your ranking. It is an act of a user visiting your page and then clicking back to the SERPs immediately. It can be linked with factors like bounce rates, CTR and dwell time but doesn’t turn up to be a ranking factor in the Google algorithm.

Conclusion

To summarize, you can note that the factors mentioned in the blog are not directly important for Google but it does not mean that they can be completely ignored. Always optimize your site for users rather than for the search engines.

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

1. Factors appear to be not so important., Search Engine Journal
2. Content Length, Semupdates
Top 5 Factors That Influence The Webpage Quality

Top 5 Factors That Influence The Webpage Quality

What we cover in this blog?

The Webpage works like a platform to dispense information with the end-users in the digital space. How well the information is perceived and accepted by the audience depends on the quality of the webpage. So it’s only becoming more relevant to focus more on the quality of the web page to garner the right amount of attention from the target audience.

What is Page Quality?

There are certain factors that go into determining the quality of a webpage. These search engine optimization (SEO) or the Google ranking factors are crucial to make your website achieve its success ratio. The Page Quality (PQ) rating is a value given to evaluate how effective the webpage is in achieving its purpose. In plain terms, the purpose of a webpage is nothing but the intent with which a website was created.

The purpose may be varied, like communicating or sharing information with the users, or generating monetary benefits, or it could be for harmful actions.
Some of the key points to note here are the focus on high levels of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T), high quality main content etc.

Top five Factors that Affect the Page Quality

1. Purpose of the Webpage

As we learned before, the purpose of the webpage is the reason the page came into existence. The purpose of the webpage is evaluated in relation to the user’s search inputs. Google applies semantic search and breaks down the real intent of a search query. It then matches it with the purpose of a webpage. Hence the purpose of the webpage must be always aligned to the real intent of the end-users to score high on the PQ ratings.

2.Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)

A webpage with high Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness ranks higher in the PQ ratings. So what’s this E-A-T all about?

  • Expertise

The credibility of the creator of the website content in the eyes of the audience is termed as expertise. For example, an article by James Lewis, a top-rated SEO expert in the US region, on SEO will rank higher than an article written by a novice writer.

  • Authoritativeness

Authoritativeness is defined by how powerful the website is, where the content is published. For example, a news article on world affairs published on the BBC website will be deemed more authoritative than the content in a local newspaper website.

  • Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is defined by how trustworthy the website is that is hosting the information.

Factors influencing main content quality

For example, news information on COVID vaccines’ efficacy published on the WHO website will be more trustworthy than published by independent bloggers.
So the E-A-T factors put together affect the google ranking of a webpage.

3.Amount and Quality of the Main Content

The quality of the main content is another important factor that people need to focus on while doing the page SEO planning. From Google’s standpoint, the below factors contribute majorly to the main content quality and in turn towards the PQ ratings:

  • Grammatically correct and error-free content
  • Clear and well-defined content. The long-form content ranks higher as they gain more backlinks.
  • Factually correct content
  • Easily navigable sites

Functional videos With overall content meeting E-A-T requirements;4.Explicit Website Information The information on who is responsible for the website should be a part of the information packageon the website. Appropriate contact details, addresses, phone numbers add to the credibility of a website and make it more likeable from the end user’s perspective.

5.Website Reputation

The reputation of a website is assessed based on references made by other websites or experts about a particular website. This is analyzed by articles published in the media about a particular website. The awards and recognition harnessed by a website, user ratings, any mention of the website on Wikipedia, reputed forums or niche blogs, also drive the PQ ratings of a webpage.

Take Away

The webpage quality as a determining factor for the success of a webpage is a key workable item in SEO. Quality is a subjective view, but keeping the end-user in mind while creating content is sure to reap maximum benefits for any committed website.

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

1. Page Quality (PQ), Search engine journal
2. High quality main content, Search engine journal
Factors that trigger Website wide quality Re-evaluation

Factors that trigger Website wide quality Re-evaluation

At certain times when webmasters make major changes to a website, such as restructuring a website, change in content, change in site appearance, change in URL and internal links or a CMS, then a sitewide re-evaluation is needed. At this point, the publishers or webmasters have to submissively wait for the search engine to crawl their website and come across considerable changes during the process.

Therefore, here comes the question of how webmasters or publishers can let Google know that there were significant changes to their website and they require a quality re-evaluation. Is there any way to trigger a re-evaluation when the entire website has gone through a rapid change?

Google’s John Mueller has recently answered this question in the latest Google SEO office-hours on August 6, 2021. He also talked about how re-evaluation works and its impact on the SEO of the website.

John Mueller explained that there is no technical approach for the webmasters to trigger a re-evaluation and it is also not required because if Google’s systems see any significant changes in the site, then from a quality or technical point of view Google would definitely consider re-evaluating the site as everything on it looks different now. Mueller also added that publishers or website owners would have to perform many incremental changes to keep their website re-evaluated.

Here are some factors that a webmaster can improve so that it might probably speed up Google to notice your website and trigger re-evaluation from a quality point of view.

Factors of content quality that can trigger sitewide re-evaluation

  • Content quality

Improve sitewide quality by publishing high-quality content with correct spelling, grammar, and depth. Ensure that the content is useful and implement EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) which is an important thing considered by Google when crawling and indexing pages.

  • Natural and quality backlinks

To build high-quality links for your site, you need to develop quality content. PageRank is an algorithm developed by Google that gives each page of the website a score of authority and importance by evaluating the quality and quantity of its links.

  • Mobile experience

In recent times all users prefer to use mobile devices to find information on Google. Hence, website owners should consider developing a responsive and adaptive website design with the fast loading speed, easy navigation, and shorter forms to provide users with the best mobile experience.

  • Page experience

The page experience or the user experience of a website is more important for Search engine optimization. The speed and ease of navigation of a website provide a better experience for users. Engaging content with images and charts improves dwell time.

  • Content freshness

Update your website with valuable and up to date content to provide necessary information for visitors. Make sure to use relevant keywords and new content as Google favours fresher results in their SERPs.

Take away

An SEO expert doesn’t need to trigger re-evaluation manually because if there are any significant changes in the site Google systems will essentially consider re-evaluation.

An interesting idea revolves around the discussion that if Google should consider a re-evaluation tool or rather recommend a manual way to trigger a sitewide re-evaluation because there are many instances where webmasters make changes to their websites. Therefore, it may be helpful for them to set off a re-evaluation if their website has gone through any major change.

Watch John Mueller’s answer the query in this latest Google SEO office-hours video below:

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

1. Sitewide re-evaluation, Search engine journal
Is your website deindexed by google? Here is what you can do

Is your website deindexed by google? Here is what you can do

Website owners make all possible efforts to get Google to index their web pages. They try hard to get high ranking, visibility and enough traffic to their websites. But suddenly your ranking and visibility are lost in a moment. This indicates that the website is de-indexed by Google due to some reasons. In this blog, we will discuss some of the reasons that can push Google to de-index your website along with some remedial actions. To get started, let us first discuss what is the meaning of de-indexing?

What is de-indexing?

De-indexing is an SEO process of pulling off a website, or a webpage, or some content of the page from the search engine’s index and therefore it does not show up in the SERPs of any search portals like Google and Bing.

How do you know if a website is de-indexed?

To identify whether your website or certain pages are de-indexed by Google is by checking manually on Google search. The other best way to keep track of the errors on your domain is by using online tools like the Google search console where you get useful information such as server errors, number of indexed pages, backlinks to your site, and affected URLs, etc.

How will de-indexing affect the website ranking?

If the pages where most of your content is posted are deindexed, it will hurt your site’s overall quality and rankings. Users can find your website online through search engines and so if your website does not show up in search results then this will have a severe impact on your SEO rankings. However, if low-quality pages are de-indexed then it might help too.

Why does Google de-index certain pages and How to recover from it?

Google may permanently or temporarily exclude some websites or certain pages from its index and search results if the sites do not meet Google’s webmaster guidelines. Below are some of the main reasons why Google might have de-indexed your WordPress website from search engine result pages.

  • Keyword stuffing
  • Duplicate content
  • Page cloaking
  • Unnatural backlinks or improper link building practices.
  • Poor quality content
  • Server issues

Important recovery steps to deal with de-indexing issues

To recover from de-indexing issues your first reflex should be to check the cause of the errors. Once you have identified the reasons, make sure you take the necessary steps to rectify them. Here are some of the recovery steps to be implemented.

  • Perform an audit to identify the list of natural and unnatural or spammy links. Once identified, disavow the unnatural links. The best strategy for building natural links organically is to provide quality and unique content.
  • Uncover low-quality, thin and duplicate content pages by using an SEO crawler. Check your spelling and grammar, improve the quality of the content and make sure you keep consistency.
  • Check with your web host server for any crashes recently. If any, determine the bottleneck that is impacting and stabilize them. Also, include a website monitoring service to get alerts about server crashes.
  • Check for any new algorithm updates or guidelines and modify your website accordingly.
  • Never buy links or use linking software to generate artificial links.
  • Identify spammy links redirected to your site and clean up the malware.
  • Use link checker tools or Google webmaster tools to identify broken links and make sure you fix them.

Finally, make sure you follow the guidelines while crafting your site and submit a sitemap or reconsideration request to Google along with steps that were taken to resolve the issues to get your website re-indexed.

Take away

Search engines like Google’s bots crawl through every WordPress page or post that is available on the web and is indexed. Therefore, if your site or certain pages of your site are de-indexed then there seem to be several reasons to be considered. Check the above-mentioned factors and review your entire site SEO.

If you are concerned about your website’s SEO or rankings, check out our SEO Strategy and Services. Our leading digital marketing agency is a one-stop solution for your multiple problems. Contact us today to get a quote on our SEO Services.

Top 10 things to check out when your website traffic is dropping

Top 10 things to check out when your website traffic is dropping

If you are a blogger or a digital marketer or a website owner, you might have experienced a noticeable drop in your traffic on multiple occasions. Therefore, it is important to investigate the reasons and tackle this problem to get things back on track.

The first step is to take an in-depth look at your website analytics by using Google Analytics or SEMrush or Google Search Console, to get a much better idea about lost traffic sources and whether your website was hit by any google penalty or is it due to bad SEO?

After analyzing your web analytics, ask yourself a few questions: Is there a sharp decline or a slow and steady decline or a sudden drop-off in your website traffic rankings? Did my site’s traffic drop for a few days or is the traffic recovering on its own? This will set you in the right direction in discovering the possible reason behind the traffic drop.

Let’s take a look at the ten things you should check for when you notice a significant drop in your organic traffic. Go through!

  1. Hit by Google algorithm updates

Google constantly rolls out updates every once in a while. Unfortunately, these changes may have impacted your website. However, keep in mind that this traffic decline can be temporary lasting for at least a week or two. Make use of algorithm-tracking tools like Mozcast or SEMrush or Algoroo to get information on up-to-date algorithm releases and analyze the factors triggering the decline.

  1. Crawl errors

Crawl errors prevent search engine bots from accessing your pages. These errors are caused due to server, redirect and 404 errors, which negatively impact the crawling, indexing, and ranking of your website.

 

Crawl errors prevent search engine bots from accessing your pages

 

  1. Manual penalties

If your website ranks high on other search engines and a significant drop in rankings on Google could indicate that you are suffering from the Google penalty because the content on your site is against Google’s guidelines. To fix the problem, check for penalty warning messages in Google search console and take necessary action.

  1. De-indexing of URLs

When Important URLs are removed from the indexing causes a sudden website traffic loss. Check whether the important pages are still in the index using the URL inspection tool, or else use the request indexing option in the Google search console.

  1. SERP layout changes

SERP layout changes impact the way Google displays organic results like showing knowledge graphs, featured snippets, suggestions and advertisements, etc. Thus, it can decline your traffic levels. So, make sure you are adaptable to changes.

  1. Page speed

Page load speed not only affects your rankings but also visitors’ user experience. When page speed is slow, the bounce rates are higher. Check your page speed using the PageSpeed tool.

  1. Server issues

If the website encounters server issues because of a broken caching function, then look for errors in your server logs and resolve them quickly.

  1. Redesign of website

Substantial website changes, like redesign or content migration, may have potentially reduced traffic and rankings. Pay close attention to the concerning aspects like 301 redirects, site audit, etc. to avoid negative impact.

  1. SEO technical issues

Technical SEO issues are the baseline of your website that can stop you from ranking. It affects how the search engines crawl and index your page. Make sure you fix the issues to keep your rankings up.

  1. Cannibalisation

When a website appears for a keyword with multiple URLs due to keyword cannibalisation, it results in link losses, which may hurt your visibility and traffic. Make sure you track the lost inbound links to get them back.

Final thought

Organic traffic decline can be greatly damaging to your website rankings if unaddressed. However, carefully analyze with the right tools and follow a proper approach to uncover the reasons behind the issue. Take time to fix things with a strategic plan and restore your website rankings and organic traffic.

1. Lost Traffic Sources, Vudu Marketing
2. Possible Reason Behind the Traffic Drop, Search Engine Watch

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