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A complete guide to the 3 factors in search rankings

Let’s review the basics of SEO (search engine optimization). This is a high-level look at the three main factors involved in search, the art and science of attracting qualified visitors from search engines. It’s a big topic, so we’ll start with a video summary.You’re about to learn the big concepts: how to do SEO for a website, the tools and techniques, the skills and the job. This article is perfect for you if: You’re about to learn the big concepts: how to do SEO for a website, the tools and techniques, the skills and the job. This article is perfect for you if:

SEO vs. SEM (search engine marketing)

First, there are two kinds of traffic from search engines: paid and organic. Paid search is often called PPC (pay per click) or CPC (cost per click). It’s advertising and it typically appears at the top and bottom of a search results page. Google’s PPC program is called AdWords.

But SEO is all about the “organic” rankings, which appear in the middle of the search results page. no amount of money can buy these positions here. They aren’t rented, like ads. They are free, or rather, they are earned and won, through search engine optimization.Search engine marketing (SEM) includes both organic and paid. So you can think of it this way: SEO + PPC = SEM

Quiz! The basics of search engine optimization

Let’s confirm our understanding of SEO basics with a one question quiz about the factors in search rankings: pages, links and keyphrases.

There is a page on your website. It’s focused on a keyphrase. It links to a page on another website. Finally, there is another page on a third website. It is also focused on a keyphrase. It links to both your site and the second site.

Which of these keyphrases and links affects your search rankings?

A. Keyphrase A (on your website)

B. Keyphrase B (on the other website)

C. Link 1 (the link to your website)

D. Link 2 (the link from your website to another website)

E. Link 3 (the link from the second site to a third site, neither of which are yours)

The answer is A and C.

Keyphrases on your site affect your search rankings. Keyphrases on other websites do not.

Links to your website affect your search rankings. Links from your website to other sites do not.

So we’re going to break down SEO into to these two main factors, links and keyphrases. Toward the end, we’ll add a third key factor, “user signals.”

Google famously considers 200+ search ranking factors, but really, there are really just two big ones:

1. Authority: links and credibility

Google is the most popular search engine because of one truly original innovation from its co-founder Larry Page. The late-1990s were dark days for search engines. Search results were terrible. Researchers were experimenting with all kinds of algorithms, trying to figure out how to improve the relevance of search results.

What were the most important factors to consider? Was it the title of the page? Was it the number of times the phrase appeared in the body? The amount of traffic the website seemed to be getting?

Larry’s brilliant insight was to consider a completely separate factor, one that wasn’t on the website at all. His idea was to consider links to the website from other sites. And link popularity (aka “authority”) was born as a search ranking factor.

Suddenly, Google’s search results were so much better than those of Excite, Lycos and AOL, that within a few years, it beat all the other search engines. To this day, links are the most important ranking factor.

It makes sense. A link is like a vote of confidence. If many websites link to a page, that page is probably good. Otherwise, why would those editors, bloggers and journalists have linked to it? Google made the editors of all the websites into the arbiters of quality.

Example: “Jetpacks for kids”

If there are one million pages on the web about “jetpacks for kids,” but one of those pages has been linked to from 100 other websites, that page is probably a credible result for the topic.

And if the links to the kids’ jetpacks page are from sites that are themselves very credible, with many inbound links of their own, then it’s even more likely that the jetpacks page is a good one. It’s getting votes from authoritative sites …and it’s even more likely to rank.

Competition and Keywords

Next, it’s important to understand what is actually ranking here. Google doesn’t rank websites. Websites never rank. Only web pages rank. Relevance is built page by page.

Google is trying to bring the visitor to the best page on the web for the topic. This is why “sprinkling” phrases around a website is a waste of time. But building rich, deep, super useful pages works really well.

Every phrase is a competition. Every page is a competitor.

Tip! Ever wondered why you don’t rank for a phrase? Ask yourself: which page on my site is the most relevant page for that phrase? Then, look carefully at the page and ask yourself: why would Google believe this page to be the best page on the internet for that topic?

So the likelihood of ranking for any phrase depends on the competition for that specific phrase.

If the other high-ranking pages for a phrase are very authoritative (high link popularity) then it’s unlikely you’ll rank unless you are in that same range of authority. This is why famous brands dominate the rankings for many of the most valuable keyphrases.

Keyphrases generally fall on a spectrum of competition, popularity and length.

Measuring Authority

Back in the day, the authority of websites was measured on a scale of one to ten, as designated by Google. This metric was called PageRank (named after Larry Page) and using the Google Toolbar, you could look it up for any website.

But Google no longer shares that information, so SEO software companies have stepped in and created their own estimates of authority by trying to emulate Google’s own algorithm. These are scores from 1 to 100.

Moz: Domain Authority

SEMrush: Domain Score

Ahrefs: Domain Rating

Alexa: Competitive Power

Searchmetrics: Page Strength

They are all essentially the same thing: an estimate of link popularity and likelihood of ranking.

“Off-Site SEO”

There are dozens of ways to win links and mentions from other websites. Some SEO companies focus on “link building” and increasing the authority of their clients’ websites. The best are both very creative and very good at reaching out. Others are simply traditional PR firms that have learned SEO and the value of links.

Here are some of the activities that may have authority benefits:

Digital PR

Guest blogging

Blogger relations / influencer marketing

Learn more with our complete guide on how to increase domain authority.

The job of the SEO is to create high-quality content and then win the attention, the love and the link from a blogger or editor. Content marketing can do wonders for the authority of the website. But that authority is only helpful if you also focus on the second aspect of SEO as well: relevance.

2. Relevance: keyphrases and content

Websites are like people. Some you don’t listen to because they aren’t credible. But other people you don’t hear because they don’t say much. They’re too quiet. So next we’ll look at the ways in which a page can speak up.

Everyone knows you need to use your target phrase on the page. But some people seem to think that there is some formula as if the secret is to use the phrase in just the right place or the right number of times. Meanwhile, they publish pages that no search engine (or human) would ever consider useful or good.

Before you start counting keywords, think about the big picture. Let’s consider what kinds of pages we tend to see at the top of search results.

Ultimately, the goal is to make a great page, but also to indicate that it is relevant. Every time you see or hear the phrase “search engine optimization,” substitute the words “create quality and indicating relevance” and you’ll have the right mindset for good SEO work.

“On-page SEO”

There are lots of places you can use a target keyphrase, but the most visible places are the more important. Here are the four most important places to indicate relevance and some very general guidelines for using your target phrase in your content.

3. User Signals …do visitors like your page?

Authority and relevance might determine if you rank. But how your visitors are interacting with the page determine if you’re going to keep ranking. This is the third key factor.

Is your page getting clicked in search results?

Do visitors who land on your page stay for a few long minutes or just a few short seconds?

Do visitors quickly hit the back button and go back to search results to try another page?

Google knows the answers to all of these questions. Each is a different “user interaction signal” and they help Google decide if your page is good or not, if the page is worthy of its ranking.

So we add user signals as a third, major search ranking factor.

“Black hat SEO” and spam

Some search optimizers try to trick Google by using aggressive tactics that go beyond the basic SEO techniques. They stuff pages full of keyphrases. They to hide text behind images. They buy links from private blog networks.

These are all considered “black hat” techniques, as in web spam. If you violate Google’s quality guidelines you risk having your domain blacklisted from Google’s index. Once blacklisted, pages on your domain won’t rank even when people search for the business name.

Anything that you do purely for the sake of Google, with no consideration for human visitors, is spam.

Stick to the ethical, sustainable “white hat” techniques. Create great content (quality), indicate your relevance (keyphrases) to your audience and build genuine connections (links) with related websites.

Google famously has 2,000+ Mathematics PhDs on staff. They’re smarter than me, so I want them on my team. I don’t want a small army of geniuses working against me. So here’s how I think about SEO:

If you made the best page on the internet for your topic, there are 2,000 Math PhDs trying to help you.

If you didn’t make the best page on the internet for your topic, there are 2,000 Math PhDs trying to stop you.

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