Factors determining website rankings on search results in 2016

Google always changes the elements that they use on algorithms that rank page rankings on search results but never publish them, where should SEOers identify?

SEO Searchmetrics recently published an annual report on the factors that Google bases on ranking websites in search results (*). The website ranking measure shows that these factors are becoming more and more specialized and personalized with the content still playing the leading role. Technical factors are also more important than before, while backlinks are no longer promoted.

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For details about these factors, please read more in the article below.

1. Content elements

As stated in the report, Searchmetrics said that the appropriate content element (quality, content of the page that is right for searchers' needs) is very important to users. On a scale of 0-100, the data show that the higher the appropriate score, the higher the website ranking.

The number of words in each article is also an important factor. The articles displayed on the top of the search are all about 1,000 words long .

The level of detail of the article is also higher than the length of the content. The top pages are also rated as having a higher level of detail than the following pages with the percentage of user-searched keywords equivalent.

Saying that means the level of detail of the articles on the site will now be assessed by Google higher than the percentage of related keywords appearing in the article. In fact, only about 53% of the top search results pages are tagged with keywords at the end of the article.

2. Signals from users

Signals such as website click rate (click through rate - CTR), page time, page bounce rate, etc. are all factors that Google included in its sophisticated search engine. These factors are the simplest way for Google to know if users are really interested in certain sites or they just go over it and then go out? Some parameters can itself say everything:

1. Sites that rank 1-3 in the average search result have a CTR of about 36%.
2. Sites displayed on the first page of search have an average bounce rate of about 46%.
3. Sites that rank the top 10 search sites have an average readership of about 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

3. Technical factors

The number of pages in the top 20 search results has articles presented at the beginning of H1, H2 increased compared to last year. In particular, the use of H2 titles has increased significantly among the product introduction landing pages . Because the URL links take advantage of H2 headlines, we recommend that you use them to your advantage.

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Some interesting things about this technical aspect are:

1. More than 45% of the pages in the top 20 search results are encrypted using HTTPS.
2. 86% of pages in the top 10 use .com domain names.
3. Sites in the top 10 average take about 7-8 seconds to load pages.
4. Top 10 sites often have longer URL addresses, averaging about 53 characters or more.
5. Pages in the top 100 have mobile-friendly interfaces.

4. Elements of user experience

Although often underestimated, the website internal links are one of the most important factors in the user experience. Searchmetrics said that internal site links are becoming less and less used than last year. Besides game links from websites, videos, . external links, internal links not only help users but also search engines to easily view relevant content in a page.

5. Signals from social networks

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According to Searchmetrics, the higher ranking sites on Google have more signals (posts, activities, .) on social networks.

Facebook is still a major social network that has the greatest impact on page rankings on Google. Signals from Google, the " home " social network of the search engine are clearly favored by Google in terms of importance, but when Google is "going down" because no one uses it, Facebook takes the throne. . After Facebook, social networks like Twitter and Pinterest play the next important role in ranking page review.

6. Signals from backlink

Backlinks (links from other websites pointing to your site) are losing their place in SEO realms. Backlink is now only an auxiliary element behind factors such as appropriate content and the amount of time users spend on the page. In fact, with specific professional topics such as on technology product review sites or programming tips, sometimes you don't need backlinks can also achieve high rankings in search results already. .