- Trust is the new bottleneck: real authors, first-hand experience and a recognized brand set your content apart from the flood of AI-generated text.
- According to Google, standard SEO fundamentals apply to AI search. No special structured data is required, and key facts belong in the visible text.
- Many commonly cited factors are unconfirmed, such as dwell time, brand search volume and C2PA provenance credentials. Confirmed factors include helpful content, links, Core Web Vitals and the limit of usually two results per website.
- Technical fundamentals such as crawlability, content in the HTML and fast server response remain a prerequisite for ranking.
In 2026, Google judges content not only on whether it provides an answer, but also on whether it can be trusted. At the same time, part of search is moving to AI answers and AI assistants that research on users' behalf. That is changing SEO in noticeable ways.
In this article, we cover seven trends we consider decisive in 2026 and what you can do about each. We clearly separate what Google has confirmed from our own assessment. At the end, you'll find 99 ranking factors and their current status.
Real authors and verifiable provenance make your content credible
The web is filling up with generated content. Users and search engines are finding it harder to tell a genuine first-hand account from a fabricated text or a manipulated image.
Provenance credentials are one answer. The C2PA standard embeds tamper-proof credentials in images and videos, such as which camera took a photo and whether it has been edited since.
Google is a C2PA member and displays this information in features such as “About this image.” However, Google has not confirmed that provenance credentials improve rankings. What is confirmed is that Google's systems favor trustworthy sources and original content.
Turn your authors into “entities”: in 2026, if you don't link your author profiles directly to a verified digital identity through precise schema markup (Person), Google will simply overlook you in the sea of anonymous AI content.
Felicitas Bürger, SEO Team Lead at UnitedAds
What you can do:
- Add provenance data to images and videos: Use CMS or image editing tools that preserve provenance data on export.
- Make authors clearly identifiable: A byline isn't enough. Use structured data to link the author profile to their professional network profiles, and show their experience and role.
- Disclose AI assistance: A note such as “Created with AI assistance, reviewed by [Name]” builds transparency.
We make your facts unambiguous for AI agents
Some research now happens through AI assistants: “Find me a hotel in Munich with an EV charger.” An agent doesn't read your website like a person; it looks for unambiguous facts. If the charging station isn't clearly mentioned anywhere, it doesn't exist as far as the agent is concerned.
Google's guide to AI search makes clear that standard SEO fundamentals apply: AI Overviews and AI Mode don't require special structured data or extra files.
What matters is that facts are stated clearly in the visible text. Structured data is still valuable, for example for rich results, Merchant Center product data and systems outside Google Search.
Turn your website from an advertising space into a complete, schema-based database, because AI agents only recommend what they can extract straight from the code as hard fact, with no room for interpretation.
Felicitas Bürger, SEO Team Lead at UnitedAds
What you can do:
- State facts in full: Amenities, shipping terms, scope of services and opening hours should appear as clear text on the page and, where appropriate, in schema.org structured data as well.
- Keep data consistent everywhere: Discrepancies between your website, Business Profile and directory listings make your information unreliable for agents.
- Answer common questions directly: Short, factual answers without marketing fluff are most useful for people and machines alike.
Your brand becomes your strongest trust signal
In a flood of content, users filter by familiarity. Someone searching for a specific brand wants that provider, and a mention in a respected trade publication carries more weight than a link from an unknown site.
We see brands with their own search demand ranking more consistently for generic terms too. Google has not confirmed an official “brand search volume” ranking factor. We also see language models favoring companies that many independent sources describe consistently.
If you still treat brand building and SEO as separate disciplines, you're ignoring today's strongest ranking signal: the trust Google derives directly from users actively searching for a specific brand.
Felicitas Bürger, SEO Team Lead at UnitedAds
What you can do:
- Show up across channels: Make sure people talk about your brand in videos, on social media and in podcasts.
- Describe your company clearly: Keep your Google Business Profile and relevant directory listings up to date so it's clear who you are and what you do.
- PR over link buying: A trade article that mentions your company is usually worth more than a paid backlink. Read more in our article on Generative Engine Optimization.
Video and images win you space in search results
Many users want to see a solution, not just read about it: most people watch a how-to on changing a tire as a video. Google mixes text, images and video in its results.
If you show the solution on video, Google can display the relevant segment as a “key moment” right in Search. Without video, you miss out on that space.
In 2026, content is no longer just something to read but an experience: if you don't present solutions across formats, you lose the battle for attention right at the search bar, because Google has long defined relevance through visual proof and instant consumability.
Felicitas Bürger, SEO Team Lead at UnitedAds
What you can do:
- A short video for every key article: Produce a 30- to 60-second vertical video summarizing the core message and embed it at the top of the article.
- Lead with the key message: State the topic and the solution in the first few seconds so the video can be clearly understood and categorized.
- Publish in two places: Upload the video to major video platforms and embed it on your page as well, with a transcript.
Pages that complete a task for users gain value
Dwell time alone says little: did a user stay on the page because the content was good, or because they were struggling to find the information? Google has not confirmed using dwell time as a signal. But the US antitrust case against Google revealed that Search interaction data feeds into rankings through a system called “Navboost.”
In practice, pages that help users quickly and noticeably have the edge.
Move beyond dwell time toward “return on attention”: in 2026, Google no longer rewards users passively lingering on a page, but measurable engagement through interactive value and immediate, tangible solutions.
Felicitas Bürger, SEO Team Lead at UnitedAds
What you can do:
- Interactive elements: Calculators, configurators and checklists complete a task for the user.
- Fast orientation: A summary at the top and a table of contents help users find what they need right away.
- Stable layout: Elements that jump around while loading frustrate users. The metric for this, Cumulative Layout Shift, is one of the Core Web Vitals.
Live inventory data brings local buyers to your store
Many customers only head out once they know a product is in stock. The question is no longer “Where's a hardware store?” but “Where can I pick up this drill right now?”
With local inventory data in Merchant Center, Google can show which products are available in your store, both in Search and in Google Maps.
Google has not confirmed that inventory data helps a store rank higher, but it makes the listing far more attractive. Read more in our article on Local Inventory Ads.
The era of vague discoverability is over: in 2026, rankings are no longer decided by a location's mere presence, but by the digital certainty of immediate availability, backed by deeply integrated live inventory data.
Felicitas Bürger, SEO Team Lead at UnitedAds
What you can do:
- Send inventory data: Connect your merchandise management system to Merchant Center so local availability stays current. Our page on product data feeds shows how we approach this.
- Location pages: Create a dedicated page for each store with the brands and services available there.
- Business Profile posts: Use posts for time-sensitive updates such as “Fresh in today.”
Lean pages load faster and win users over
Many websites load far more code and data than their content requires. That costs load time and responsiveness.
Google has no dedicated metric for “green” or energy-efficient websites. What is confirmed is that Google's systems consider Core Web Vitals: load time, responsiveness (INP) and layout stability, based on real user data. Lean code improves all three and reduces the load on crawlers.
If you don't radically streamline your site architecture for code efficiency and fast load times, you'll lose the goodwill of resource-hungry AI crawlers.
Felicitas Bürger, SEO Team Lead at UnitedAds
What you can do:
- Cut the bloat: Many themes load CSS and JavaScript you never use.
- Modern formats: Replace GIF animations with video and use modern image formats that are much smaller at the same quality.
- Solid hosting and caching: A fast server with caching eases the load on your infrastructure and cuts response times.
- Serve content without JavaScript: Many AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript. Read more in our article on AI crawlers' JavaScript problem.
The 99 ranking factors that count in 2026
The table summarizes what Google has confirmed, what has an indirect effect and what is a myth. “Confirmed” means Google names the factor in its documentation. “Indirect” means the factor works through other signals or through users, not as a signal in its own right.
| No. | Factor | Status 2026 | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Helpful content | Confirmed | The Helpful Content System has been part of Google's core systems since March 2024. Content must be written for people and deliver real value. |
| 2 | Backlinks | Confirmed | Google uses links to understand what pages are about and how important they are. Relevance and quality count; link spam is discounted. |
| 3 | Search intent | Confirmed | Does the content match the intent behind the search (purchase, information, navigation)? Without that match, there's no strong ranking. |
| 4 | E-E-A-T | Indirect | Not a single factor, but the guiding principle behind quality assessment. Google's systems look for signals of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. |
| 5 | Mobile-first indexing | Standard | Google crawls and indexes with the smartphone Googlebot. Anything missing on mobile doesn't count. |
| 6 | Core Web Vitals | Confirmed | Load time, responsiveness and visual stability. INP has replaced FID as a metric. |
| 7 | Crawlability | Prerequisite | If Google and AI crawlers can't read it, it can't rank. |
| 8 | Title tag | Confirmed | A strong signal of what a page is about; Google sometimes rewrites titles in the results. |
| 9 | Headings | Confirmed | They clarify page structure. The H1 should state the main topic naturally. |
| 10 | Freshness | Confirmed | Important for news and trending topics. For evergreen content, a genuine update counts, not the date. |
| 11 | URL structure | Low | Keywords in the URL have little impact. A short, logical structure matters more. |
| 12 | External anchor texts | Confirmed | A signal of what the target page is about. Too many exact-match anchors look manipulative. |
| 13 | Diversity of referring domains | Not confirmed | Links from many different domains carry more weight than many links from a single domain. |
| 14 | Internal linking | Confirmed | Helps Google find pages and understand topical relationships. |
| 15 | Content depth | Indirect | Complete answers help. According to Google, there is no preferred word count. |
| 16 | Structured data | Not a direct factor | The basis for rich results. According to Google, AI Overviews and AI Mode don't require special structured data. |
| 17 | Image optimization | Image search | Alt text and surrounding context help Google understand images and show them in image search. |
| 18 | Click-through rate | Indirect | Interaction data feeds in through Navboost. Click-through rate for an individual page is not confirmed as a direct factor. |
| 19 | Dwell time | Not confirmed | Often claimed, not confirmed by Google. Better: get users to their goal quickly. |
| 20 | Bounce rate | Not a factor | Google does not use Google Analytics data for ranking. |
| 21 | Google Business Profile | Confirmed locally | Key for local search: completeness, categories and freshness. |
| 22 | Distance | Confirmed locally | Proximity to the searcher is a core factor for local queries. |
| 23 | Reviews | Confirmed locally | Review count and rating feed into local rankings and affect conversion. |
| 24 | Local listings (citations) | Indirect | Consistent name, address and phone number are basic hygiene. |
| 25 | Local terms | Confirmed locally | Mentioning the city or neighborhood in content, title and headings helps Google match you to the location. |
| 26 | Image size in Discover | Discover | Google recommends images at least 1,200 pixels wide. |
| 27 | Sensational titles | Discover | Google discourages clickbait in Discover; the content must deliver what the title promises. |
| 28 | Discover policies | Confirmed | Violations lead to removal from Discover. |
| 29 | Personalization in Discover | Confirmed | Discover is driven by user interests, not search terms. |
| 30 | Formatting for AI | Not a factor of its own | Clear structure helps readers. According to Google, there's no need to chop content into small pieces. |
| 31 | Direct answers | Indirect | Leading with the answer helps with featured snippets and AI summaries. |
| 32 | HTTPS | Confirmed | A minor signal and the standard. Without HTTPS, browsers show users a warning. |
| 33 | Search history | Personalization | Results are partly tailored to previous searches. Hard to optimize for. |
| 34 | User interests | Personalization | Google personalizes some results. Largely outside your control. |
| 35 | SafeSearch | Filters | Explicit content is filtered out unless users switch this off. |
| 36 | Language and region | Confirmed | Hreflang and regional signals make sure users get content in their language. |
| 37 | Keyword stuffing | Negative | Violates the spam policies. |
| 38 | Cloaking | Negative | Googlebot and users must see the same content; otherwise the site risks demotion or removal. |
| 39 | Link spam | Negative | SpamBrain detects and discounts paid links and link networks. |
| 40 | Hacked content | Negative | Triggers warnings and loss of visibility. |
| 41 | Mass-produced content | Negative | Since March 2024, scaled content abuse violates the spam policies, whether the content is produced by people or AI. |
| 42 | Duplicate content | Filters | No penalty, but Google shows only one version. Wastes crawl resources. |
| 43 | Passage ranking | Confirmed | Google can assess individual sections of a page. |
| 44 | Semantic understanding | Confirmed | BERT, RankBrain and neural matching capture meaning. Synonyms and topical breadth count more than exact terms. |
| 45 | Forums and first-hand accounts | Confirmed | Google surfaces discussions and personal experiences more prominently when users are looking for genuine opinions. |
| 46 | Site architecture | Indirect | Flat hierarchies help crawling; important pages should be reachable within a few clicks. |
| 47 | Topical authority | Indirect | Sites that cover a topic comprehensively are more readily recognized as a source for related searches. |
| 48 | Brand strength | Not confirmed | Well-known brands often rank more consistently; a dedicated brand factor is not confirmed. |
| 49 | Product reviews | Confirmed | The reviews system rewards reviews based on real hands-on experience and original evidence. |
| 50 | Diversity of results | Confirmed | Google usually shows no more than two results from the same website in the top results. |
| 51 | YMYL topics | Confirmed | Health and finance topics face especially high reliability standards. |
| 52 | Local news | Confirmed | Regional news sources are favored for local events. |
| 53 | Exact-match domains | Low | Google limits the advantage of domains that consist only of the search term. |
| 54 | Hreflang | Technical | Required for multilingual or country-specific websites, for example for Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH). |
| 55 | Server location | Low | Largely irrelevant thanks to CDNs; latency affects Core Web Vitals. |
| 56 | Availability | Prerequisite | Frequent downtime slows crawling; extended outages cost visibility. |
| 57 | Publishing frequency | Not a factor | Except for news, depth and freshness of individual articles count. |
| 58 | AMP | Not a factor | No longer necessary for Top Stories. |
| 59 | Videos | Indirect | Videos appear in dedicated result sections and as key moments. |
| 60 | Chrome user data (CrUX) | Confirmed | Core Web Vitals are based on real user data, not lab tests. |
| 61 | Too much advertising | Negative | Excessive ads above the content hurt the page experience. |
| 62 | Intrusive interstitials | Negative | Pop-ups that cover content on mobile hurt; cookie notices and age verification are exempt. |
| 63 | Manual actions | Negative | Cause major visibility losses; check for them in Search Console. |
| 64 | Copyright complaints | Negative | A high number of valid removal requests leads to the website being demoted. |
| 65 | Nofollow and sponsored | Hint | Google treats these attributes as hints. Paid links must be labeled. |
| 66 | Language quality | Indirect | Not a direct signal, but part of the overall impression of quality and care. |
| 67 | Voice search | Indirect | Natural language and direct answers help with voice assistants and AI chats. |
| 68 | JavaScript rendering | Technical | Google renders JavaScript; many AI crawlers don't. Server-side rendering is the safer choice. |
| 69 | Canonical tags | Technical | The key tool for handling duplicate content and syndicated articles. |
| 70 | Code-to-text ratio | Not a factor | What matters is load time and content. |
| 71 | Progressive web apps | Not a factor | Can improve the mobile experience. |
| 72 | Social signals | Not a factor | Likes don't rank, but reach can earn links. |
| 73 | URL length | Low | Very long URLs are truncated in the results. |
| 74 | Meta description | Not a factor | Not a ranking factor, but important for click-through rate. |
| 75 | CMS | Neutral | Google doesn't care which system you use, as long as the code it outputs is clean and fast. |
| 76 | Semantic coverage | Indirect | Related terms and subtopics aid understanding. “LSI keywords” are a myth. |
| 77 | Internal anchor texts | Confirmed | Descriptive anchors such as “men's running shoes” instead of “click here” help both Google and users. |
| 78 | Brand search volume | Not confirmed | Often assumed, not confirmed by Google. |
| 79 | Links from .gov and .edu | Myth | The domain extension doesn't count, but such sites often carry high authority. |
| 80 | Author profiles | Indirect | Author bios and profiles build trust in the content. |
| 81 | Legal notice and contact | Indirect | A sign of credibility, especially for YMYL topics; legally required in Germany anyway. |
| 82 | User experience | Indirect | Clear, well-organized pages help users and have an effect through user behavior. |
| 83 | Vertical search | Context | Alt texts for images, transcripts for videos. |
| 84 | Inclusion in Google News | Context | No advantage in web search, but extra reach for current topics. |
| 85 | Expert input | Indirect | Expert-reviewed content builds trust, especially for YMYL topics. |
| 86 | Domain history | Relevant | If you take over a domain with a spam history, you inherit its problems. Expired domain abuse violates the spam policies. |
| 87 | Rich results | Indirect | Stars, prices or event dates in the results can lift click-through rate. |
| 88 | Featured snippets | Opportunity | Short definitions or lists at the start of a section improve your chances of winning a snippet. |
| 89 | Age of the content | Context | Outdated guides lose ground. Show an updated date only when the content has genuinely changed. |
| 90 | Click depth | Indirect | Deeply nested pages are crawled less often. |
| 91 | Breadcrumb navigation | Structure | Helps users and Google understand the site's structure. |
| 92 | Embedded maps | Not confirmed | Helps users find their way to you; no ranking advantage has been proven. |
| 93 | Crawl budget | Technical | Only relevant for very large or fast-changing websites. Clean sitemaps and internal links help. |
| 94 | XML sitemap | Confirmed | Helps Google discover new URLs, but doesn't guarantee indexing. |
| 95 | Subdomain or subdirectory | Debated | Google generally treats both the same; many SEOs see advantages in subdirectories. |
| 96 | Domain age | Not a factor | What matters is the site's track record of quality and links. |
| 97 | Number of pages | Not a factor | Volume doesn't help. Improve or consolidate weak pages; Google sees deletion as a last resort. |
| 98 | Original images instead of stock photos | Not confirmed | Original images demonstrate experience and set you apart; a direct ranking advantage is not confirmed. |
| 99 | Google Ads and Analytics | Myth | Ad spend and Analytics have no effect on organic rankings. |
Conclusion: Substance covers the most important factors at once
Most of the 99 factors come down to three questions: Does the content help the user? Can the source be trusted? Is the page technically sound and accessible? That is exactly the standard Google applies to the content it uses in AI answers.
We recommend prioritizing the levers that move inquiries and revenue for your business: real authors and proprietary data, a recognized brand and a fast, clean technical setup. For more on individual factors, see our article on the 99 Google ranking factors.
