Ranking factors are the parameters which decide whether a website is valuable enough for 1st page listing of SERP or not. Unlike other search engines, Google has its own SERP ranking factors. Being the major contributor of web traffic, Google SERP ranking is the most desirable outcome of SEO. Therefore today we will have a discussion over Google’s Ranking Factors.

 

Based on correlation data analysis from our successful client’s websites along with other competitive domains, we have came across some vital SEO statistics that directly affects Google’s SERP Ranking.

 

For simplicity, we have focused our analysis over few important factors like Page authority, Domain name, Backlinks and Response Time, by assuming all other factors as constant.

 

1. Page Authority:

Page Authority is directly correlated with domain age. The more the older your domain will be the more authority trust it will have. So if you are planning to build a website then the first things you need to do is purchasing the domain as early as possible. You can also acquire an older domain if possible.

Correlation Score: 0.3

 

2. Exact Domain Name Match:

Domain name plays a very crucial role in today’s Google SERP ranking. If you go through Google search result for any competitive keyword, you will notice that most of the results are having keyword in their domain name or url structure. As per Google’s point of view, a keyword ( say Indian seo company) based domain name (say “indianseocompany.co.in“) can be more trust worthy for delivering relevant information (say SEO services based in India) rather than any “abcd-xyz.com“(by neglecting all other SEO factors).

So always try to use Keyword based domain name while choosing your domain. You can also take help from any seo friendly domain name suggestion tools for choosing your desired domain name.

Correlation Score: 0.25

 

3. Linking Root Domain:

Link structure and referrals contributes a lot in Google SERP Ranking. We have seen webmaster’s concern about collecting backlinks from other domains. But the best effect of backlinks comes from link through root domain. A broad diversified list of root domains referring to your website can add a valuable SEO credit which inturn boost up your keyword ranking.

Correlation Score: 0.22

 

4. Response Time:

Website loading time or response time is another important aspect of Google SERP Ranking. Visitor’s Bounce Rate highly correlated with Response time. Faster response time increases user’s interest for page view thereby reduces your website bounce which in turn creates a positive impression for search engines. We have noticed that websites with low loading time ranks higher than that of similar type of websites with high loading time.

So it is advisable to use css instead of images. By using HTML 5 we can do a series of operation which reduces the need of images and animated flash. Don’t use unwanted elements like external ads, using huge jquery elements which can be compromised or using a series of style sheets etc.

Correlation Score: 0.20

 

Overall statistics about the contribution of Ranking factors in Google search result is as follows: