Key takeaways
- Google confirms only some of the commonly cited ranking factors. We classify all 99 into four levels: confirmed, indirect, suspected and not a factor.
- The strongest levers remain content quality, search intent, links and a clean technical foundation. Google says it uses Core Web Vitals, but there is no single “page experience” signal.
- Google uses aggregated, anonymized interaction data to assess the relevance of results. Bounce rate and Google Analytics data are not part of it.
- According to Google, AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same ranking and quality systems. There's no need for special rules, special structured data or an llms.txt file.
There is no shortage of ranking factor lists. Most mix what Google itself documents with observations from practice and assumptions Google debunked long ago. If you prioritize based on them, you can easily spend time and budget on things that make no difference.
We compiled 99 factors and assigned each to one of four levels. The classification is based on Google's own documentation as of October 2026. At the end, we look at what AI search changes about this picture.
| Level | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Confirmed | Google documents that this signal or system feeds into rankings. |
| Indirect | Not a direct ranking signal, but has an effect through crawling, presentation or user behavior. |
| Suspected | Not officially confirmed, but plausible in practice. |
| Not a factor | Google has stated that this feature does not feed into rankings. |
These 20 factors lay the foundation of your ranking
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quality and relevance of the content | Confirmed | Helpful, original content written for people that answers the query precisely. The former “Helpful Content System” has been part of core ranking since March 2024. |
| 2 | Backlinks (number and quality, PageRank) | Confirmed | Links from trustworthy websites show Google that others reference a piece of content. PageRank is still part of core ranking. |
| 3 | Fulfilling search intent | Confirmed | The content matches what the searcher wants to do: learn, compare, buy or find a place. |
| 4 | E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) | Indirect | Not a single signal. Google's systems look for indicators of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, such as whether other reputable websites reference the content. |
| 5 | Mobile-friendliness | Confirmed | Google indexes the mobile version of a page. Anything missing on mobile is missing from the index. Google explicitly cites mobile-friendly, fast-loading pages as a sign of good usability. |
| 6 | Core Web Vitals (loading time, responsiveness, visual stability) | Confirmed | Google uses Core Web Vitals in its ranking systems. There is no single “page experience” signal, and good scores don't guarantee top positions. |
| 7 | Crawlability and indexability | Confirmed | A prerequisite for any ranking. A faulty robots.txt, a noindex or technical errors keep a page from appearing at all. |
| 8 | Title tag | Confirmed | The page title describes the topic and contains the most important terms. It helps Google understand the page and influences click-through rate. |
| 9 | Headings (H1 and structure) | Confirmed | Search terms in headings and body copy are a basic relevance signal. A clear main heading states the topic of the page. |
| 10 | Freshness | Confirmed | For queries where recency matters, Google favors newer content. |
| 11 | Keywords in the URL | Suspected | Short, descriptive URLs give users and Google context. For rankings, they play a minor role at most. |
| 12 | Backlink anchor text | Confirmed | Anchor text influences which terms the linked page is considered relevant for. Manipulated anchor text does harm. |
| 13 | Diversity of linking domains | Suspected | Links from many different domains look more natural than lots of links from a few sources. |
| 14 | Internal linking and site architecture | Confirmed | Internal links help Google find all your content and signal which pages are important. |
| 15 | Content depth | Suspected | Content that covers a topic comprehensively often ranks better than thin pages. According to Google, there is no ideal length. |
| 16 | Structured data (Schema.org) | Indirect | No ranking boost, but a prerequisite for many rich results. According to Google, AI search doesn't require any special structured data. |
| 17 | Image optimization (alt text, file names) | Confirmed | Alt text and descriptive file names describe images for Google, improve accessibility and help in image search. |
| 18 | User interaction data | Confirmed | Google uses aggregated, anonymized interaction data to assess whether results match a query. A single page's click-through rate is therefore not a direct lever. |
| 19 | Dwell time | Suspected | If users quickly return to the results page, that counts against the content. Dwell time is not confirmed as a signal in its own right. |
| 20 | Bounce rate | Not a factor | Google does not use bounce rate from analytics tools for ranking. It remains a useful indicator of dissatisfied users for you, though. |
Local rankings depend on your Business Profile, proximity and reviews
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Google Business Profile | Confirmed | A verified, fully completed Business Profile with address, opening hours and category is essential for local results. |
| 22 | Distance from the searcher | Confirmed | The distance between the searcher and the business affects placement in local search. |
| 23 | Reviews | Confirmed | The number and content of reviews contribute to local prominence. |
| 24 | Consistent business data (NAP) in directories | Suspected | Identical name, address and phone number across directories strengthens trustworthiness. |
| 25 | Local relevance on the website | Suspected | Place names and local landing pages with location-specific information make a website relevant for regional searches. |
In Discover and AI search, images, clear language and direct answers matter
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | Large images (Discover) | Confirmed | Articles with large, high-resolution images appear more often in Google Discover. Google specifies a minimum width and recommends the setting max-image-preview:large. |
| 27 | Avoiding clickbait | Confirmed | Exaggerated or misleading titles reduce the chances of being shown in Discover. |
| 28 | Compliance with Discover policies | Confirmed | Content that violates the Discover policies is not shown there. |
| 29 | Relevance to user interests | Confirmed | Discover selects content based on each user's individual interests. |
| 30 | Clear, plain language | Suspected | Clearly written copy is easier for both people and language models to process and cite. |
| 31 | Direct answers in the text | Suspected | Sections that answer a question directly stand a better chance of earning featured snippets and citations in AI answers. According to Google, there's no need to break text into small chunks. |
Security, language and personalization change what your customers see
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | HTTPS | Confirmed | Google counts secure delivery as part of a good page experience. The ranking effect is small, but without HTTPS, browsers warn visitors. |
| 33 | User's search history | Confirmed | Google tailors results to previous searches. If someone has visited a page several times, they are more likely to see it ranked higher. |
| 34 | User's interests and settings | Confirmed | Settings and known interests influence which results appear, especially in Discover. |
| 35 | SafeSearch | Confirmed | With SafeSearch active, Google hides explicit content. |
| 36 | Language and location of the search | Confirmed | The language of the query determines the language of most results. Location influences which meaning and which providers Google shows. |
These violations cost your website visibility
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | Keyword stuffing | Confirmed | Stuffing copy with search terms violates the spam policies and leads to ranking losses. |
| 38 | Cloaking and sneaky redirects | Confirmed | Showing different content to Google and users, doorway pages and deceptive redirects are penalized. |
| 39 | Unnatural or purchased links | Confirmed | Google's spam detection (including SpamBrain) neutralizes manipulative links. The former Penguin update has been part of core ranking since 2016. |
| 40 | Malware and hacked content | Confirmed | Hacked or malicious pages lose almost all visibility until they are cleaned up, and Google warns users. |
| 41 | Thin or mass-produced content | Confirmed | Content created primarily for search engines is demoted. Mass-produced pages without real value are considered spam, no matter how they were produced. |
| 42 | Duplicate content | Confirmed | Google picks one canonical version from duplicate content and shows the others less often. Duplicates also eat up crawl capacity. |
Google understands your content at the level of individual passages and topics
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Passage ranking | Confirmed | Google identifies individual sections of a page and can surface them for specific queries. |
| 44 | Language understanding (BERT, RankBrain, neural matching, MUM) | Confirmed | AI systems match the meaning of queries and content. You can't optimize for them directly; they reward clearly written content. |
| 45 | User-generated content (forums, comments) | Confirmed | Comments and forum posts count as part of a page's content. Spam in these areas can harm the entire page. |
| 46 | Clear page structure and navigation | Confirmed | Menus and categories help users and Google navigate and understand how content fits together. |
| 47 | Topical authority of the website | Suspected | Websites that cover a subject area with plenty of relevant content and links often rank better in that area. |
| 48 | Brand awareness | Suspected | Well-known brands earn more clicks, mentions and links, which indirectly affects rankings. |
| 49 | Quality of product reviews (reviews system) | Confirmed | In-depth reviews based on first-hand experience and expertise are rated higher than superficial summaries. |
The context of the search determines which of your pages appears
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | Diversity of websites in the results | Confirmed | Google usually shows no more than two pages from the same website in the top results. Subdomains generally count toward the main domain. |
| 51 | Type of topic (YMYL) | Confirmed | For health, finance or safety topics, Google gives more weight to authority and reliability. |
| 52 | Local news sources | Confirmed | For news with a local connection, Google highlights local sources. |
| 53 | Keyword in the domain name (exact match domain) | Confirmed | Google deliberately limits the advantage of domains that consist of nothing but a search term. |
| 54 | hreflang | Confirmed | On multilingual websites, hreflang controls which language or country version appears in which market. |
| 55 | Server location | Suspected | Can play a small role when other country signals are scarce. With CDNs, this factor is barely relevant anymore. |
Stable technology and minimal disruption protect your user experience
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 56 | Reliable uptime | Confirmed | Frequent server outages disrupt crawling and can hurt rankings. |
| 57 | Publishing and update frequency | Suspected | Regularly maintained websites can have an edge on time-sensitive topics. |
| 58 | AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) | Not a factor | AMP is neither a ranking factor nor a requirement for Top Stories. You can build fast pages without AMP. |
| 59 | Videos and multimedia | Suspected | Videos can keep users on the page longer and add visibility through video search and video carousels. |
| 60 | Field data from Chrome (CrUX) | Confirmed | Core Web Vitals are based on data from real Chrome users, so improvements only take effect once they reach those users. |
| 61 | Ads that distract from the content | Indirect | Excessive ads, especially above the fold, degrade the page experience. Google lists this as a checkpoint, but only Core Web Vitals are explicitly used as a ranking signal. |
| 62 | Intrusive interstitials | Indirect | Pop-ups that cover the content make it harder to access. They are one of the page experience checkpoints. |
Many technical details have an indirect effect or none at all
| Rank | Ranking factor | Level | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63 | Manual actions | Confirmed | If a Google reviewer finds a spam policy violation, the website loses a massive amount of visibility until the action is lifted. |
| 64 | Legal removals (e.g., copyright) | Confirmed | Websites with many valid removal requests are demoted. |
| 65 | Nofollow links | Confirmed | Google treats links marked nofollow, sponsored or ugc as hints, not endorsements. As a rule, they don't pass link equity. |
| 66 | Readability and writing style | Suspected | Readable, error-free copy comes across as higher quality and is more likely to earn links. |
| 67 | Optimization for voice search | Suspected | Answers phrased naturally are more likely to be read aloud. The markup speakable is available only to a limited extent. |
| 68 | JavaScript content | Confirmed | Google has to be able to render content generated by JavaScript. Many AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript and never see such content. Learn more in our article on the JavaScript problem with AI crawlers. |
| 69 | Canonical tags | Confirmed | Correct canonicals consolidate the signals of duplicate content on a single page. Google treats them as a strong hint. |
| 70 | Lean HTML code | Suspected | Compact code improves load time. For very large HTML files, Googlebot processes only the first part, so important information belongs near the top. |
| 71 | Progressive web app | Not a factor | Not a signal in its own right. A good mobile user experience can, however, increase engagement. |
| 72 | Social signals (likes, shares) | Not a factor | Google doesn't count likes and shares. Popular content, however, often attracts more links and visits. |
| 73 | URL length | Suspected | Long, cryptic URLs are off-putting for users. The direct effect on rankings is small. |
| 74 | Meta description | Not a factor | Not a ranking factor, but it often shapes the snippet and therefore the click-through rate. |
| 75 | CMS or technology | Not a factor | WordPress, a store system or a custom build makes no difference. What matters is the code that's actually delivered. |
| 76 | “LSI keywords” | Not a factor | The concept plays no role at Google. Still, covering a topic comprehensively with related terms aids understanding. |
| 77 | Internal link anchor text | Confirmed | Descriptive internal anchor text helps Google understand the target page. |
| 78 | Branded searches | Suspected | A high volume of searches for a brand indicates strong interest and trust. |
| 79 | Links from universities and government agencies | Suspected | Google doesn't give a blanket boost to particular domain extensions. Such links, however, often come from trustworthy sources. |
| 80 | Author pages | Suspected | Information about the author's expertise and background builds trust, especially for YMYL topics. |
| 81 | Legal notice and contact details | Suspected | Mandatory in Germany. They signal transparency and indirectly contribute to trust. |
| 82 | General user experience | Suspected | Good design and ease of use increase user satisfaction and have an indirect effect as a result. |
| 83 | Specifics of vertical search | Confirmed | In image search, alt text and image attributes count; in video search, titles and descriptions. |
| 84 | Google News | Suspected | News sources appear in Top Stories for current topics. Outside of news, this offers no advantage. |
| 85 | Expert voices and testimonials | Suspected | Independent expert opinions make content more trustworthy, especially for YMYL topics. |
| 86 | Domain history | Suspected | Domains previously used for spam or penalized may face trust issues at first. |
| 87 | Structured data for rich results | Indirect | Rich displays increase visibility, not rankings. Google has retired several formats, including HowTo and FAQ results. |
| 88 | Optimization for featured snippets | Suspected | A concise paragraph or list improves your chances of winning a featured snippet. |
| 89 | Age of the content | Suspected | For fast-moving topics, older content that hasn't been updated looks less relevant. For evergreen topics, age barely matters. |
| 90 | Click depth | Suspected | Pages that are many clicks away from the home page receive less internal link equity. |
| 91 | Breadcrumb navigation | Suspected | Breadcrumbs help Google understand the hierarchy. Google no longer shows the path in mobile search results, but still does on desktop. |
| 92 | Embedded Google services (e.g., Maps) | Not a factor | An embedded map helps users but is not a ranking signal. |
| 93 | Crawl budget | Confirmed | For very large websites, Google limits how much it crawls. Minimal duplication and fast servers help important pages get indexed sooner. |
| 94 | XML sitemap | Indirect | Helps Google find all important URLs. It doesn't come with a ranking boost. |
| 95 | Subdomain or subdirectory | Not a factor | Google generally treats both as equivalent. What matters is a consistent structure. |
| 96 | Domain age | Not a factor | A new domain can rank just as well as an old one. Content and links are what count. |
| 97 | Website size | Not a factor | More pages don't mean a bonus. A small, high-quality website can outrank a large one full of thin pages. |
| 98 | Original images or stock photos | Suspected | Barely relevant to the page's ranking. Original images, however, are more likely to earn links and stand out in image search. |
| 99 | Use of Google Analytics or Google Ads | Not a factor | Running Google Ads or using Analytics neither helps nor hurts you in organic search. |
The same factors apply in AI search
According to Google, AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on the same ranking and quality systems as classic search. In its July 2026 guide, Google states explicitly that optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO. The prerequisite is that a page is indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet.
According to Google, there's no need for special structured data, an llms.txt file or breaking content into small chunks. What counts is content with its own perspective and first-hand experience. A summary of what's already everywhere gives a system no reason to cite you in particular. We explain how language models outside Google choose their sources in our article on Generative Engine Optimization.
Conclusion: A few factors determine most of your ranking
Of 99 factors, only a few deserve your full attention: helpful content that matches search intent, links from trustworthy websites and a technical foundation that reliably supports crawling and indexing. Many of the remaining points have only an indirect effect, and by Google's own account, some aren't factors at all.
That is why we prioritize by impact. We start with pages that drive revenue and inquiries and fix the problems with the greatest expected impact there first. You can see how we work on our SEO page.
