In this article, you’ll discover the most important Google ranking factors that make a difference in 2025. In addition, we looked at some grey areas and debunked some fake ranking factors. If the domain has many backlinks, and a number of those are from authoritative sites like news media, government, or universities, it’s likely to have a good domain authority score.

#11 – Unnatural Link Profile

Google considers sites that use HTTPS to provide a better user experience than those that do not and thus prioritizes them in search rankings. Search engines may view many low-quality links as a manipulation attempt, potentially leading to a decrease in your site’s visibility and ranking. With search engines like Google, the process consists of crawling, indexing, and ranking. The crawler is an online bot that scours the web to collect all the pages out there and save them in a gigantic database called the index. This index is constantly updated with new pages or updated versions of existing ones. When someone searches online, the search engine calls on the index and uses complex algorithms to determine which pages are relevant to show.

Top AI Search, SEO & Content Trends To Prioritize In 2025

Understanding the individual factors that are most likely to move the needle is far more useful than looking at improving a whole group. How these areas are ordered in importance has remained broadly similar to previous years, meaning every discipline should still be accounted for in your strategy. To summarize the whole facts, the following has to be considered if you want to climb to the top of the YouTube ranking. While one can argue that longer videos have an advantage over shorter ones in this respect, you shouldn’t forget that it’s ultimately the video content that matters.

If multiple competitors are using a category you haven’t added, it may be worth including to expand the pool of people seeing your business online. If you’re still not certain, try looking at your competitors and the categories they’re using. Using a Chrome Extension like GMB Everywhere allows you to see the categories they’re using on their business profile. The higher your business ranks, the more likely customers are to find and choose you. This increase, as reflected in recent SEO statistics, contributed to better overall traffic and improved results.

Quality over quantity is key for building backlinks and maintaining SEO health. Quality backlinks from authoritative sites tell Google your content is valuable. However, the linking site’s relevance and authority are important for ranking improvements. Criteria that search engines use to improve your website and determine where to show you our pages in search results are called SEO ranking factors. Note that these factors are not “proof” of what search engines use to rank websites, but simply show the characteristics of web pages that tend to rank higher. Combining this understanding with both experience and knowledge of search engine algorithms can help lead to better SEO practices.

I have found that organic clicks are a stronger sign of progress than impressions. When I notice a steady increase in clicks, it shows that our improvements are connecting with real searchers. Organic impressions count how many times your site appears in search results, regardless of whether users click on it. In the same example as above, you will see that two of the three top-ranking posts have the exact keyword at the beginning of their meta descriptions. The idea is that if a user finds your content useful, they will spend more time reading it and would also check out other related content.

• In my role as Chief Revenue Officer at Insivia, I am at the forefront of driving transformation and results for SaaS and technology companies.
• Linking to relevant content enhances user experience by providing deeper insights or complementary information.
• As search algorithms continue to evolve, it is also essential to stay informed about the latest ranking factors and best practices.
• You’ll also need to decide whether you will post your content on the purchased domain or use it to redirect to another domain.

If you see a high Spam Score, chances are high that the site is bad news and you should not try and get a backlink from the site. Try also to use your city’s name in approximately two spots on your website pages, and be sure to use relevant keywords in your site’s Title and Description metadata/tags. Please remember that Google isn’t the only review site that matters. Historically, third-party review sites have also affected local rankings – and have a strong influence on conversions from customers. After a successful SEO Anomaly upload, you have to make sure that the video gets a certain degree of popularity to get many views.

But the good part is, by understanding these factors and optimizing your site, you can improve your rankings, attract more visitors, and grow your online presence as well. An SEO and content marketing specialist working on websites within the itrinity portfolio. I’ve been an SEO fanboy and online marketing enthusiast since high school. Focus keyword in the URL of the page may serve as a ranking factor – it makes the URL more user-friendly and relevant for the search engine.

Google rankings play an important role in the online success of businesses. Moreover, Google’s algorithm is continually updated to improve the accuracy and relevance of search results, making it essential for you to stay informed and adapt the strategies accordingly. Websites that appear on the first page of search results are far more likely to be clicked on, with the top positions gaining the majority of user attention. As the world’s most popular search engine, Google processes billions of queries daily, making it an important gateway for online visibility and success. Google has announced in 2014 that it has started using HTTPS as a ranking signal. HTTPS is a protocol that provides a secure connection between user and server by using an SSL certificate.