59 SEO Ranking Factors

#	Factor	Description	"+ / -" Attribute
1	Keyword in URL page name	(Google patent) Order of keywords is important. First word is most prominent, etc.	+
2	Keyword in domain name	Same as above	+
3	Keyword in page title	The keyword that is closest to the beginning is the most important. For best results, the title tag should be 10 to 60 characters and have no special characters.	+
4	Keyword in description meta tag	Search engines used to rely on this tag pretty heavily, but do not do so any longer because of spammer abuse. This tag will help users find content in search results however. Sometimes search engines will use it, sometimes they wont. For best results, the description should be less than 160 characters.	+
5	Keyword in keyword meta tag	Search engines (it doesn't seem like Google uses it at all) hardly ever use this tag for ranking results. It can help the search engine determine content theme, however. The keyword should be on the page somewhere and shouldn't appear more than twice. If this is not done content will be penalized for irrelevance.	+
6	Keyword density in body text	For best results the density (all keywords within phrase/total words on page) should be between 5 - 20%. Care must be taken to avoid to high of a density. The density rate at which search engines consider content spam depends on the topic. It is better to be safe than sorry and remain on the side of caution.	+
7	Individual keyword density	For best results the density (keyword/total words on page) should be between 1 to 6%. Care must be taken to avoid to high of a density. The density rate at which search engines consider content spam depends on the topic. It is better to be safe than sorry and remain on the side of caution.	+
8	Keyword in H1, H2,….. Hx	Use Hx tags when possible, but don't overdo it. Include the keyword in these tags. This is an important factor.	+
9	Keyword font size/style	Bold and italic font styles on the keywords are considered more important than other words on the page. (This is according to a Matt Cutts blog entry from July 2006)	+
10	Keyword proximity when phrase contains more than one keyword	Words that are directly adjacent are considered more related.	+
11	Keyword phrase order	It is important that word order on the page matches the word order of the search term. For example, if a common search term is chromatography columns, then the word order on the page should be chromatography columns, not column chromatography.	+
12	Keyword prominence	How close to the top of the page does the word appear? The earlier the better.	+
13	Keyword in alt text	The alt tag should describe photo and when possible it should have the keyword.	+
14	Keywords in links to site pages (title tags on links)	If there are links to other pages on the site, anchor text should be used to describe the link. When possible this link should contain the keyword.	+
15	Keyword in internal links (keyword within link text)	Link should contain keyword. The file that the link is pointing to should have the keyword(s) and multiple keywords should be separated by hyphens.	+
16	Navigation structure	How deep are the pages in the web site content? For best results, it should only take 2 clicks/at most 4 clicks to go to any page from the main navigation.	+
17	Contextual / intra-site links	Contextual links should be used appropriately. For example, if a page is talking about formulation but mentions chromatography, then the word chromatography can link to the chromatography section for more information.	+
18	Keywords in outgoing links/quality of outgoing links.	Recent Google patent. Only link to web sites with good reputation. If you don't want the link to count as a vote for the external sites content, use no-follow tags. Outgoing links should be checked periodically to make sure they are still active. Broken links can harm SERPs. Do not link to link farms.	+
19	Outgoing link anchor text.	Should be on topic and descriptive. When possible they should include the keyword/keyword phrase.	+
20	Link stability over time	Google patent. Outgoing links shouldn't change frequently. Frequently changing links are considered "Link Churn."	+
21	External link validation	Are outgoing links still valid?
22	Less than 100 links out total	Google recommends that a web site have no more than 100 outgoing links, but this number depends on the web site size.	+
23	Domain name extension	????????????? Check
24	Page file size	For best results, pages should be under 100K. Files smaller than 40K are preferred. The reason for this is that larger pages require more search engine resources and search engines prefer to crawl pages that take as little time as possible.	+
25	Hyphens in URL	Hyphens are the preferred method of separating words in a URL. For best results only one or two should be used. If there are more than four or more, search engines think it looks like spam.	+
26	Freshness of pages	Google patent. Google and other search engines like content on pages to change frequently over time. Pages that have fresh content get placed higher than those that remain the same.	+
27	Freshness of overall content	This is a measure of the ratio between fresh content and old content. The more new pages/content the better.	+
28	Freshness of links	Google patent. For highly trusted sites this is a good thing, but for new sites and low trust sites it's a bad thing.	+
29	Frequency of updates	The more frequently pages are updated, the more frequently the pages will get spidered by the search engine. The more content gets spidered, the newer the content will be in the search engines cache.	+
30	Page theming	Do pages on the entire web site or web site sections exhibit a consistent theme? Are there a lot of pages within a section that have this theme? If there are more pages with content on a consistent topic those pages will rank better when searches are made for that topic.	+
31	Keyword stemming	For example, stem, stems, stemmed, stemmer, stemming, stemmist, and stemification.	+
32	Semantics	Synonyms and related terms are beneficial.	+
33	URL length	Try to keep URL length short. For best results use less than 100 characters.	+
34	Site size	Google and other search engine usually prefer content from larger web sites. Exceptions to this would be web sites with computer generated pages.	+
35	Site age	Google patent. Old sites are considered more trustworthy than newer sites.	+
36	Age of page vs. age of site	Newer pages on older sites will get faster recognition than newer pages on newer sites.	+
37	Text presented in graphics form	Pages that only have text presented in graphic form do not perform well in search results. Most of the time they don't even get indexed.	-
38	Affiliate sites	Sites with affiliate content are treated negativly by search engines. The content on affiliate sites is usually identical with very little unique content.	-
39	Over optimization penalty (OOP)	Penalty for over-compliance with generally accepted optimization practices. Also includes things like the keyword to content ratio being to high and over use of H1 tags.	-
40	Links to low trust/banned sites	Check Google's status on all sites you link to. Not only when the link is first made, but also periodically. Remove all links to web sites that have lost good status with Google.	-
41	Redirect thru refresh meta tags	Refresh meta tags are generally considered negatively by search engines. When ever possible there use should be avioded.
42	Banned/bad words	Do not use words search engines consider bad.
43	Poison words	Some words are used frequently in spam and poor content. For example, having the word "Click here" and "Links to" in content could make the page place lower. Do not use phrases that are associated with spamming (Google patent).
44	Over linking between sites	Excessive linking between a few sites, especially between sites from the same web host/similar IP addresses, is viewed negativly by most search engines. Search engines consider this type of linking an attempt to trick the search engine. According to Matt Cutts this doesn't apply to a small number of sites.
45	Copying copyright protected imagry and text from other domains	If reported, Google will give strong penalties.
46	Keyword stuffing threshold	Excessive keyword repetition in body and various tags will result in demotion.
47	Keyword dilution	Including to many unrelated terms in your content reduce the strength of your content theme. The topic should focus on specific keywords/phrases and not include unrelated information.
48	Consistency in page edits	Google patent. When page content is changed, does it contain information about the old topic? If the theme changes frequently, Google may reduce it's SERP.
49	Changing content to often	Google patent. Changing content is usually a good thing, but if it is changed to often it can be a bad thing. Changes should be done in a consistent manner. If Google thinks the change is done only to improve SERP, the content will be penalized.
50	Anchor tag changes	Anchor tags shouldn't be changed frequently.
51	Dynamic pages	Dynamic pages aren't search engine friendly. Search engines do better when there are only a few variables. For best results, pages should have at least some hard coded links and no more than 2 or 3 variables.
52	To much Javascript	Search engines don't like Javascript. If Javascript is used, it should be called from an external file.
53	Flash	Search engines have a hard time indexing flash. If it is important for a page to perform well in search results, it is better to have HTML content. If flash is needed, provide an HTML alternative.
54	Frames	Spider bots have trouble indexing frames.
55	"No index" tag	This tag is used to keep the search engine from indexing a page. Do not use for pages that you want the search engine to index.
56	Single pixel links	Creating a single pixel link is seen as an attempt to hide a link. Google advises against any attempts to hide content or links.
57	Invisible (cloaking) text	Invisible text is text that is intentionally hidden from view. This could be done in a variety of ways, including making the text color the same color as the background. Cloaked text can't be seen by web site visitors, but it can be seen spiders. Since this is seen as an attempt to manipulate SERP, this is penalized by search engines.
58	Gateway/doorway pages	??????????????
59	Duplicate content	Google doesn't penalize for this, but it will only display one version of the content in search results. Usually the oldest content is chosen when ranking results.