Google’s top 3 Search Ranking Factors; all SEO companies must know about.

Yes, we know that Google has its own search algorithm which it uses to decide the rankings for the webpages. So, in order to get maximum traffic on  your site, you need to work according to that search algorithm. This article will certainly help all the top SEO companies to improve the rankings of your clients.  Now, the question arises, which search algorithm is  Google using? Why is the need for using it ?

Google’s “Hummingbird” - The name of the search algorithm used by Google is Hummingbird. A search algorithm is basically a programmed approach which tends to increase the efficiency of search results for the users. So, this algorithm exactly provides what Google needs, by providing the best and precise search results to its users. As the name Hummingbird suggests, this algorithm is very accurate and fast, according to google itself.

Although many algorithms have been used by Google in the past, but out of them Hummingbird is the most efficient and updated one. This algorithm has over 200 ingredients in its recipe, all those 200 factors work together collectively to give results. Each and every factor is important in deciding the ranks by Google. However, we have come to know about the top three search ranking factors. These ranking factors play the most important role in deciding the rankings of different web pages all over the internet.

So, in order to be the best all the SEO companies must have a good knowledge about them.  

What are those Top 3 ranking factors ? 

 Although, nothing can be said about the exact order, but yes we now certainly know about the top three ranking factors. Recently in an interview, Google’s Search Quality Senior Strategist, Andrey Lipattsev revealed that  Links, Content and RankBrain are the top 3 most important factors for deciding the ranks.

Moreover, Google itself officially stated that its new factor “RankBrain” has significantly become the third most important factor in search rankings. So, now let us learn about these ranking factors in detail.

1. LINKS -  As mentioned above, Links are one of the most important ranking factor. The link building acts as a vote of confidence for your site. Google counts the number of links directing to your website and each of that link works as a vote for you. The more the number of links pointing towards your website, more are the chances to get high ranks in search results. However, it is important to know how link building works. Let us have a quick understanding about it -

• If any other site mentions or links to your site, then it is certainly good for you.

• If many other websites links or point towards your site then it is even better.

• Links coming from the sites which are already ranking high are the most precious ones.They are your biggest vote banks.

• Make sure that all those links are authentic and relevant to your site and irrelevant and fake link might cause a damage to your reputation.

• However, if any site if pointing to your site but at the same time it is pointing to different other sites then, such linking is not that useful for you.

2. Content -  Getting links alone will not help there is something more you need to take care of i.e. the content. Yes, link building and content goes hand in hand, the content plays an important role similar to the link. Infact, the content present in the links also is very important. Content is basically the text part of your page and that text has to be fresh, unique and at the same time it should include exactly the points which the users are seeking.So, how to put a tick in all those check boxes of freshness and uniqueness ?

One of the most important thing is the use of Keywords, i.e. the words which directly relates the user to your content. Let’s have a look on things we need to know about using the keywords:

• The Keywords should be present in your title.

• The Keywords should not be repeated again and again.

• The Keywords should be present in your meta description too.

• The Keywords should directly relate the user to your content. For example- if i want to search for best icecream parlour in my city, then the keywords should be “Ice Cream” and whatever the city name is.

3. RankBrain- However, we all had some idea about the above two factors but not everyone is aware about the third factor, i.e. the RankBrain. So let’s see what is RankBrain all about and how does it plays an important part in search result rankings.

RankBrain is another important ingredient of HummingBird, is basically uses semantic artificial learning or we can say it uses machine learning to provide “best results”. Machine learning is a technique in which a machine learns about different trends on the basis of previous facts and experiences. Similarly, RankBrain learns about the user experiences and rates the websites based on that. For example, if any site is very user friendly so naturally a user will spend a lot of time there, this will increase the average span time of the site. Once the average span time is increased, google will learn about it through RankBrain and that will increase the website’s ranking. However, it is important to know that RankBrain focuses on user interaction with the site. It was basically created to specialize  in rare query searches. Google introduced RankBrain on 26 October, 2015 and since then it has almost influenced 15% of query results. It became  the 3rd most important ranking factor and is still playing a major role in it.

All in all we can say that this “RankBrain” is surely the next big thing for all the top SEO companies to master. So, these were the top three ranking factors by Google and it is really important to excel in all the three if you want to see your site on the top.