200+ SEO Factors To help You Optimize Your

Ranking
This is the most extensive list of possible Google search ranking factors. based on an Article by Brian Dean and BACKLINKO
1. Domain Age Google uses domain age but it’s not very important
2. Keyword Appears in Top Level Domain This doesn’t
A domain thatgive thewith
starts boost thattarget
their it used to. But has
keyword having a keyword
an edge in your
over sites thatdomain still acts
either don’t haveasthat
a relevancy
keywordsignal
in
3. Keyword As First Word in Domain their domain (or have the keyword in the middle or end of their domain)
4. Domain registration length The date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain
5. Keyword in Subdomain A keyword appearing
site with volatile in the subdomain
ownership or several can boost
drops mayrankings
tell Google to “reset” the site’s history, negating links
6. Domain History pointing to the domain
Exact Match Domains may still give you slight edge. But if your EMD happens to be a low-quality site, it’s
7. Exact Match Domain vulnerable to the EMD update.
8. Public vs. Private WhoIs Private
If Google WhoIs information
identifies may person
a particular be a sign asof “something
a spammer to hide”.sense
it makes GooglerthatMatt
theyCutts
wouldisscrutinize
quoted asotherstating
sites
9. Penalized WhoIs Owner owned by
Having that person
a Country Code Top Level Domain (.cn, .pt, .ca) can help the site rank for that particular country… but
10. Country TLD extension it can limit the site’s ability to rank globally
11. Keyword in Title Tag Although
Title tags not
thatas important
starts with a as it oncetend
keyword was,toyour title tag
perform remains
better an important
than title tags with on-page
the keyword SEOtowards
signal the end of
12. Title Tag Starts with Keyword the tag.
Google doesn’t use the meta description tag as a direct ranking signal. However, your description tag can
13. Keyword in Description Tag impact
H1 tagsclick-through-rate,
are a “second titlewhich is a key
tag”. Along ranking
with factor
your title tag, Google uses your H1 tag as a secondary relevancy
14. Keyword Appears in H1 Tag signal, according
appears on a page, to results
the more from oneit correlation
likely studyis about that word. Google likely uses a sophisticated
is that the page
15. TF-IDF version
Contentof TF-IDF.
with more words can cover a wider breadth and are likely preferable in the algorithm compared to
16. Content Length shorter, superficial articles
17. Table of Contents Using a linked
Although not astable of contents
important as it oncecan help
was,Google
Googlebetter
may use understand your page’s
it to determine content
the topic of a webpage. But going
18. Keyword
19. Latent Semantic Density
Indexing overboard
Keywords in LSI keywords canhelphurt search
you engines extract meaning from words that have more than one meaning. The
20. LSI Keywords Content (LSI)
in Title presence/absence
and Description As with webpage content, of LSI probably
LSI keywords also acts as ameta
in page contenttagsquality signal.
probably help Google discern between words with
Tags multiple potential meanings
21. Page Covers Topic In-Depth Pages that cover every angle likely have an edge vs. pages that only cover a topic partially
22. Page Loading Speed via HTML Both Google and Bing use page speed as a ranking factor
23. Page Loading Speed via Chrome Google also uses Chrome user data to get a better handle on a page’s loading time
24. Use of AMP AMP
Does may be a content
a page’s requirement
match totherank in thethat
“entity” mobile
a userversion of the Google
is searching for? If News
so, thatCarousel.
page may get a rankings boost
25. Entity Match for that keyword
26. Google Hummingbird Thanks tocontent
Identical Hummingbird,
on the sameGoogle sitecan
(evennowslightly
better modified)
understand can the topic of ainfluence
negatively webpagea site’s search engine
27. Duplicate Content visibility
Identical content on the same site (even slightly modified) can negatively influence a site’s search engine
27. Duplicate Content visibility
28. Rel=Canonical When used
Images sendproperly, use of this
search engines tag may
important prevent Google
relevancy from penalizing
signals through their fileyour
name,sitealtfor duplicate
text, content. and
title, description
29. Image Optimization caption.
Google Caffeine update favors recently published or updated content, especially for time-sensitive searches.
30. Content Recency Highlighting
The this factor’s
significance of edits importance,
and changesGoogle showsasthe
also serves date of a page’s
a freshness factor. last update
Adding for certain
or removing pages
entire sections is
31. Magnitude of Content Updates moreoften
How significant
has the than
pageswitching around over
been updated the order
time?ofDaily,
a fewweekly,
words or fixing5 ayears?
every typo. Frequency of page updates
32. Historical Page Updates also play a role in freshness.
33. Keyword Prominence Having a keyword
your keyword appear
appearin the
as first 100 wordsinofH2
a subheading a page’s contentmay
or H3 format is correlated
be anothertoweakfirst page Google
relevancy rankings.
signal. In
34. Keyword in H2, H3 Tags fact, Googler
Many SEOs think JohnthatMueller states:
linking out to authority sites helps send trust signals to Google. And this is backed up by
35. Outbound Link Quality a recent
For industry
example, study.
if you have a page about cars that links to movie-related pages, this may tell Google that your
36. Outbound Link Theme page is about the movie Cars, not the automobile.
 Proper grammar and spelling is a quality signal, although Cutts gave mixed messages a few years back on
37. Grammar and Spelling whether
Is the contentor noton this was
the page important.
original? If it’s scraped or copied from an indexed page it won’t rank as well… or
38. Syndicated Content may not
Often get indexed
referred at all.
to as “Mobilegeddon“, this update rewarded pages that were properly optimized for mobile
39. Mobile-Friendly Update devices.
40. Mobile Usability Websites that mobile
content. However, users can
a Googler easily stated
recently use may thathave
hiddenan edge
contentin Google’s
is OK. But“Mobile-first
also said thatIndex”.
in the same video,
41. “Hidden” Content on Mobile “…if it’s critical content it should be visible…”.
of a page’s quality (and therefore, Google ranking). Examples include currency converters, loan interest
42. Helpful “Supplementary Content” calculators
Do users need and to interactive
click on arecipes.
tab to reveal some of the content on your page? If so, Google has said that this
43. Content Hidden Behind Tabs content “may not be indexed”.
44. Number of Outbound Links Too many
Images, dofollow
videos andOBLs
other can “leak” PageRank,
multimedia elements may which actcan
as hurt that page’s
a content qualityrankings.
signal. For example, one industry
46. Number of 45.Internal
Multimedia:
Links Pointing to study found a correlation between multimedia and rankings
The number of internal links to a page indicates its importance relative to other pages on the site (more
PageLinks Pointing to
47. Quality of Internal internal links=more important).
Page Internaltoo
Having links
manyfrombroken
authoritative
links onpages
a page onmaydomain
be ahave
sign aofstronger
a neglected effectorthan pages with
abandoned site.no
Theor Google
low PageRank.
Rater
48. Broken Links Guidelines
There’s noDocumentdoubt that uses Google broken links as
estimates theone was to
reading assess
level a homepage’s
of webpages. quality.
In fact, Google used to give you
49. Reading Level reading level themselves
Affiliate links stats probably won’t hurt your rankings. But if you have too many, Google’s algorithm may
50. Affiliate Links pay
Lots of HTML errors to
closer attention orother
sloppy quality
coding signals
may be to a
make
sign sure you’re
of a poor not a site.
quality “thin While
affiliate site“.
controversial, many in SEO
51. HTML errors/W3C validation think
All that being
things a well-coded
equal, apage pageisonusedan as a quality signal.
authoritative domain will rank higher than a page on a domain with less
52. Domain Authority authority.
53. Page’s PageRank Not perfectlylong
Excessively correlated.
URLs may Buthurt
pages with lots
a page’s of authority
search engine tend to outrank
visibility. In fact,pages
severalwithout much
industry link authority
studies have found
54. URL Length that short URLs tend to have a slight edge in Google’s search results.
A page closer to the homepage may get a slight authority boost vs. pages buried deep down in a site’s
55. URL Path architecture.
Although never confirmed, Google has filed a patent for a system that allows human editors to influence the
56. Human Editors SERPs
The category the page appears on is a relevancy signal. A page that’s part of a closely related category may
57. Page Category get a relevancy boost compared to a page that’s filed under an unrelated category.
58. WordPress Tags Tags
Another are relevancy
WordPress-specific relevancy
signal. A Google rep signal.
recently called this a “a very small ranking factor“. But a ranking factor
59. Keyword in URL The categories in the URL string are read by Google nontheless.
and may provide a thematic signal to what a page is
60. URL String about
topic where expertise and/or authoritative sources are important…”. However, Google has denied that they
61. References and Sources use external
Bullets links as a ranking
and numbered lists helpsignal.
break up your content for readers, making them more user friendly. Google
62. Bullets and Numbered Lists likely agrees and may prefer content with bullets and numbers.
63. Priority of Page in Sitemap The priority
Straight froma thepage is given via theQuality
aforementioned sitemap.xml file may influence
rater document: “Some pages ranking have way, way too many links,
64. Too Many
65. Quantity Outbound
of Other Links
Keywords Page obscuring the page and distracting from the Main Content.”
Ranks For If the page ranks for several other keywords, it may give Google an internal sign of quality.
66. Page Age Although
Citing theGoogleGoogleprefers
Qualityfresh content,
Guidelines an older yet
Document page that’s“The
again: regularly
page updated
layout onmay outperform
highest a newer
quality pages page.
makes
67. User Friendly Layout the Main Content immediately visible.”
68. Parked Domains A
AsGoogle
pointedupdateout by in December
Backlinko of 2011
reader Jareddecreased
Carrizales,search visibility
Google of parked domains.
may distinguish between “quality” and “useful”
69. Useful Content content.
70. ContentSite-Level
Provides Factors
Value and Unique Google has stated that they’re happy to penalize sites that don’t bring anything new or useful to the table,
Insights especially thin affiliate
The aforementioned sites. Quality Document states that they prefer sites with an “appropriate amount of
Google
71. Contact Us Page contact information”. Make
Many SEOs believe that “TrustRank” sure that your contact information
is a massively importantmatches your whois
ranking factor. And ainfo.
recently-filed Google
72. Domain Trust/TrustRank Patent
A titled “Searchsite
well put-together result ranking based
architecture on trust”,
(for example, a seems to backhelps
silo structure) this up.
Google thematically organize your
73. Site Architecture content. Itfreshness
site-wide can also helpsfactor.Googlebot access and
Although Google index all denied
has recently of yourthatsite’s pages.
they use “publishing frequency” in their
74. Site Updates algorithm.
 75. Presence of Sitemap A sitemap
Lots helps search
of downtime from siteengines index your
maintenance pagesissues
or server easiermay
and hurt
moreyour
thoroughly,
rankingsimproving visibility.
(and can even result in
76. Site Uptime deindexing
Server if notinfluences
location corrected). where your site ranks in different geographical regions (source). Especially
77. Server Location important
Google has for confirmed
geo-specific thatsearches.
use HTTPS as a ranking signal. According to Google, however, HTTPS only acts
78. SSL Certificate as a “tiebreaker“
These two pages help tell Google that a site is a trustworthy member of the internet. They may also help
79. Terms of Service and Privacy Pages improve
Duplicate your
metasite’s E-A-T. across your site may bring down all of your page’s visibility. In fact, the Search
information
80. Duplicate Meta Information On-Site Console
a warnsSearch
site: Google you if youuseshave too manymarkup
breadcrumb of these.
in the body of a web page to categorize the information from
81. Breadcrumb Navigation the
Withpage
more in than
search halfresults.”
of all searches done from mobile devices, Google wants to see that your site is optimized
82. Mobile Optimized for mobile
Google ownsusers. In fact,
it). In fact, Search
Google Engine
now penalizes websites
Land found that aren’t mobile
that YouTube.com friendly
traffic increased significantly after
83. YouTube Google Panda.
A site that’s difficult to use or to navigate can hurt rankings indirectly by reducing time on site, pages viewed
84. SiteAnalytics
85. Use of Google Usabilityand Google and bounce
may rate (in
also directly other words,
influence RankBrain
rankings by givingranking
Googlefactors).
more data to work with (ie. more accurate bounce rate,
Search Console whetheraor
posted not you
rarely candidget outline
referralof
traffic
how from
they your backlinks
use online etc.).after
reviews Thatone
said, Google
site has denied
was caught this
ripping offas a myth. in
customers
86. User reviews/Site reputation an effort to get press and links.
Backlink Factors
87. Linking Domain Age Backlinks
The number from ofaged domains
referring domainsmayisbeonemore powerful
of the than new ranking
most important domains. factors in Google’s algorithm, as you
88. # of Linking Root Domains can see
Links from from this industry
separate class-c study of 1 million
IP addresses GoogleaSearch
suggest results.of sites linking to you, which can help with
wider breadth
89. # of Links from Separate C-Class IPs rankings.
90. # of Linking Pages The total number
As noted of linking pages
in this description — even
of Google’s from the
original same domain
algorithm: — has an
“First, anchors impact
often on rankings.
provide more accurate
91. Backlink Anchor Text: descriptions of web pages than the pages themselves.”
92. Alt Tag (for Image Links) of Edu links. However, that doesn’t stop Alt text
SEOs actsfrom
as anchor
thinkingtext
thatfor images.
there’s a special place in the algorithm for
93. Links from .edu or .gov Domains .gov authority
The and .edu (PageRank)
TLDs. of the referring page has been an extremely important ranking factor since Google’s
94. Authority of Linking Page early days and still is.
95. Authority of Linking Domain The
Linksreferring
from other domain’s
pagesauthority
ranking in maytheplay
same anSERP
independent
may berole morein valuable
a link’s value
to a page’s ranking for that
96. Links From Competitors particular keyword.
Although speculative, some SEOs believe that Google won’t fully trust your website until you get linked to from
97. Links from “Expected” Websites a set of “expected” sites in your industry.
98. Links from Bad Neighborhoods Links fromlinks
Although so-called “bad neighborhoods”
from guest may hurt
posts still pass value, theyyour site
likely aren’t as powerful as true editorial links (plus,
99. Guest Posts “large-scale” guest posting can get your site into trouble).
According to Google, links from ads should be nofollowed. However, it’s likely that Google is able to identify
100. Links From Ads and
Linksfilter
to aout followed
referring links homepage
page’s from ads. may play special importance in evaluating a site’s — and therefore a
101. Homepage Authority link’s follow
don’t — weight. them.” Which suggests that they do… at least in certain cases. Having a certain % of nofollow links
102. Nofollow Links may also indicate
comments) may bea anatural
sign ofvs. unnaturalOn
webspam. linktheprofile.
other hand, links from diverse sources is a sign of a natural link
103. Diversity
104. “Sponsored of Link
Links” TypesWords
Or Other profile.
Around Link Words like “sponsors”,
Links embedded inside“link partners”
a page’s andare
content “sponsored
considered links”
moremay decrease
powerful than a link’s value.
links on an empty page or found
105. Contextual Links elsewhere on the page.
106. Excessive 301 Redirects to Page Backlinks
Internal coming
link anchorfromtext301 redirects
is another dilute some
relevancy PageRank,
signal. That said,according to a Webmaster
internal links Help less
likely have much Videoweight than
107. Internal Link Anchor Text anchor text coming from external sites.
108. Link Title Attribution The linklinks
Getting title (the
fromtext that appears top
country-specific when youdomain
level hover over a link) (.de,
extensions may also be usedmay
.cn, .co.uk) as ahelp
weakyourelevancy signal.
rank better in
109. Country TLD of Referring Domain that country.
Links in the beginning of a piece of content may carry slightly more weight than links placed at the end of the
110. Link Location In Content content.
Where a link appears on a page is important. Generally, a link embedded in a page’s content is more powerful
111. Link Location on Page than a link in the footer or sidebar area.
112. Linking Domain Relevancy A link from a site in a similar niche is significantly more powerful than a link from a completely unrelated site.
 113. Page-Level Relevancy A link from
Google givesa relevant
extra love page also from
to links passes more
pages thatvalue.
contain your page’s keyword in the title (“Experts linking to
114. Keyword in Title experts”.)
115. Positive Link Velocity AOnsite
thewith
flippositive link velocity
side, a negative linkusually
velocitygetscanasignificantly
SERP boost as it shows
reduce rankingsyourassite
it’s is increasing
a signal in popularity.
of decreasing
116. Negative Link Velocity popularity.
The Hilltop Algorithm suggests that getting links from pages that are considered top resources (or hubs) on a
117. Links from “Hub” Pages certain topicaare
A link from sitegiven specialan
considered treatment.
“authority site” likely pass more juice than a link from a small, relatively
118. Link from Authority Sites unknown the
Although site.links are nofollow, many think that getting a link from Wikipedia gives you a little added trust and
119. Linked to as Wikipedia Source authority in the eyes of search engines.
120. Co-Occurrences The words that tend to appear around your backlinks helps tell Google what that page is about.
121. Backlink Age According
Due to the to a Google patent,
proliferation of blog older links Google
networks, have more ranking
probably power
gives than
more newlytominted
weight backlinks.
links coming from “real sites”
122. Links from Real Sites vs. “Splogs” than
A sitefrom
withfake blogs. They
a “natural” likely use
link profile brand
is going to and
rankuser-interaction
highly and be more signals to distinguish
durable to updates between
than onethethat
two.has
123. Natural Link Profile obviously used black hat strategies to build links.
124. Reciprocal Links Google’scan
Google Link Schemes
identify UGCpage lists “Excessive
vs. content publishedlink by exchanging”
the actual site asowner.
a link scheme to avoid.
For example, they know that a link
125. User Generated Content Links from the official WordPress.com blog is very different than a link from besttoasterreviews.wordpress.com.
Links from 301 redirects may lose a little bit of juice compared to a direct link. However, Matt Cutts says that a
126. Links from 301 301s
Pagesare that similar
support to direct links
microformats may rank above pages without it. This may be a direct boost or the fact that
127. Schema.org Usage pages with microformatting have a higher SERP CTR
128. TrustRank of Linking Site The trustworthiness
PageRank is finite. Aoflink
the onsitea linking
page with to you determines
hundreds how much
of external links“TrustRank”
passes lessgets passedthan
PageRank on toa you.
page with a
129. Number of Outbound Links on Page handful of outbound links.
130. Forum Links Because of industrial-level spamming, Google may significantly devalue links from forums.
131. Word Count of Linking Content A link from a 1000-word post is usually more valuable than a link inside of a 25-word snippet.
132. Quality of Linking Content Links from poorly written or spun content don’t pass as much value as links from well-written, content.
133. Sitewide Links Matt Cutts has
RankBrain confirmed
is Google’s AI that sitewide
algorithm. Manylinksbelieve
are “compressed”
that its mainto count as
purpose is a
tosingle
measure link how users interact with
135. Organic134. RankBrain
Click Through Rate for a the search results (and rank the results accordingly).
Keyword AAccording
site’s organicto Google,
CTR for pages that get clicked
all keywords it ranksmorefor mayin CTR
be a may get a SERP
human-based, boost
user for that particular
interaction signal (in keyword.
other
136. Organic CTR for All Keywords words, a
testers “Quality
(after Score”with
all, pages for the organic
a high bounce results).
rate probably aren’t a great result for that keyword). Also, a recent
137. Bounce Rate study by
often). SitesSEMRush
with lotsfound a correlation
of direct traffic arebetween bounce
likely higher ratesites
quality and vs.
Google
sitesrankings.
that get very little direct traffic. In
138. Direct Traffic fact, the SEMRush study I just cited found a significant correlation between direct traffic and Google rankings.
139. Repeat Traffic Sites with repeat
“Pogosticking” visitors
is a special may type getofabounce.
Google In ranking boost.
this case, the user clicks on other search results in an attempt to
140. Pogosticking find the has
Google answer to their query.
discontinued this feature in Chrome. However, Panda used this feature as a quality signal. So
141. Blocked Sites Google
We know maythatstill use acollects
Google variationChromeof it. browser usage data. Pages that get bookmarked in Chrome might get a
142. Chrome Bookmarks boost.
Pages with lots of comments may be a signal of user-interaction and quality. In fact, one Googler
143. Number of Comments saidcomments
Google search.can Thishelp “a lot”
is also with rankings.
sometimes referred to as “long clicks vs short clicks”. In short: Google measures
144. Dwell Time how long Google searchers spend on your page. The longer time spent, the better.
Special Google Algorithm Rules

145. Query Deserves Freshness Google gives newer pages a boost for certain searches.
146. Query Deserves Diversity Google may add
Search chain diversity
influence to a SERPfor
search results forambiguous keywords,
later searches. such as if“Ted”,
For example, “WWF”for
you search or “reviews”
“ruby”. then search
148. User Search History for “toasters”,
According Google
to an is more
SEMRush likely
study, to rankchooses
Google toaster review sites
Featured higher content
Snippets in the SERPs.
based on a combination of
149. Featured Snippets content length, formatting, page authority and HTTPs usage.
150. Geo Targeting Google gives preference to sites with a local server IP and country-specific domain name extension.
 151. Safe Search Search resultsGoogle+
Even though with curse words
is soon to or
beadult
dead,content
Googlewon’t appearhigher
still shows for people with
results forSafe Search
authors and turned on.you’ve
sites that
152. Google+ Circles added to your Google Plus Circles.
153. “YMYL” Keywords Google has higher content quality standardsfor “Your Money or Your Life” keywords.
154. DMCA Complaints Google “downranks” pages with legitimate DMCA complaints.
155. Domain Diversity The so-called “Bigfoot Update” supposedly added more domains to each SERP page.
156. Transactional Searches Google sometimes displays different results for shopping-related keywords, like flight searches.
157. Local Searches For local searches, Google often places local results above the “normal” organic SERPs.
158. Top Stories box Certain keywords trigger a Top Stories box
159. Big Brand Preference After the Vince Update, Google began giving big brands a boost for certain keywords.
160. Shopping Results Google sometimes displays Google Shopping results in organic SERPs
161. Image Results images
Google has sometimes
a dozen appearEgg
or so Easter in the normal,
results. Fororganic
example, search
whenresults.
you search for “Atari Breakout” in Google
162. Easter Egg Results image search, the search results turn into a playable game (!).
163. Single Site Results for Brands Domain or brand-oriented keywords bring up several results from the same site.
164. Payday Loans Update This is a special algorithm designed to clean up “very spammy queries“.
Brand Signals
165. Brand Name Anchor Text Brandedsearch
People anchorfortext is a simple
brands. — but
If people strong
search for— brand
your signal.
brand in Google, this shows Google that your site is a real
166. Branded Searches brand.
factors” or “Backlinko SEO”)? If so, Google may give you a rankings boost when people search for the non-
167. Brand + Keyword Searches branded version of that keyword in Google.
168.169.
SiteSite
Hashas
Facebook
Twitter Page and
Profile Likes
with Brands tend to have Facebook pages with lots of likes.
Followers Twitter profiles with a lot of followers signals a popular brand.
170. Official Linkedin Company Page Most real
verified businesses
online profiles have
will becompany Linkedin
ranked higher pages.
than content without such verification, which will result in most
171. Known Authorship users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results.”
10,000-follower strong account with lots of interaction. In fact, Google filed a patent for determining whether or
172. Legitimacy of Social Media Accounts not social
Really big media
brandsaccounts were real
get mentioned or fake.
on Top Stories sites all the time. In fact, some brands even have a feed of
173. Brand Mentions on Top Stories news from
Brands get their own website
mentioned without getting linked to. Google likely looks at non-hyperlinked brand mentionsas a
174. Unlinked Brand Mentions brandbusinesses
Real signal have offices. It’s possible that Google fishes for location-data to determine whether or not a
175. Brick and Mortar Location site is a big brand
On-Site Webspam Factors Sites with low-quality content (particularly content farms) are less visible in search after getting hit by a Panda
176. Panda Penalty penalty
177. Links to Bad Neighborhoods: Linking to spammy sites — may hurt your search visibility
178. Redirects Sneaky redirects
The official Google is Rater
a big no-no.
GuidelinesIf caught,
Documentit can says
get athat
site popups
not just and
penalized, but de-indexed
distracting ads is a sign of a low-quality
179. Popups or “Distracting Ads” site.
180. Interstitial Popups Google may penalize sites that display full page “interstitial” popups to mobile users.
181. Site Over-Optimization This
A includes:
Google keyword
Patent stuffing,
outlines headercan
how Google tagidentify
stuffing,“gibberish”
excessivecontent,
keywordwhich
decoration.
is helpful for filtering out spun or
182. Gibberish Content auto-generated
people to anothercontent
page, from
that’stheir index. Page”. Needless to say, Google doesn’t like sites that use Doorway
a “Doorway
183. Doorway Pages Pages.
184. Ads Above the Fold The “Page Layout Algorithm” penalizes sites with lots of ads (and not much content) above the fold.
185. Hiding Affiliate Links Going
A too fargiven
nickname whentotrying to hide
a series affiliateupdates
of Google links (especially
starting inwith cloaking)
2017. can to
According bring on a Engine
Search penaltyLand, Fred
186. Fred “targets
It’s low-value
no secret contentisn’t
that Google sitesthe
that put revenue
biggest above helping
fan of affiliates. their users.”
And many think that sites that monetize with affiliate
187. Affiliate Sites programs are put under extra scrutiny
 Google understandably hates autogenerated content. If they suspect that your site’s pumping out computer-
188. Autogenerated Content generated content,
Going too far it could result
with PageRank in a penalty
sculpting or de-indexing
— by nofollowing all outbound links — may be a sign of gaming the
189. Excess PageRank Sculpting system
190. IP Address Flagged as Spam If your server’s
Keyword IPcan
stuffing address is flagged
also happen for spam,
in meta tags.itIfmay affect
Google all sites
thinks on that
you’re server
adding keywords to your title and
191. Meta Tag Spamming description tags in an effort to game the algo, they may hit your site with a penalty.
Off-Site Webspam Factors
192. Hacked Site If your site gets hacked it can get dropped from the search results
193. Unnatural Influx of Links A sudden
Sites (and unnatural)
that were hit by Google influx of linksare
Penguin is asignificantly
sure-fire sign ofvisible
less phonyinlinks
search. Although, apparently, Penguin
195. Link194. Penguin
Profile with Penalty
High % of Low now focuses more on filtering out bad links vs. penalizing entire websites
Lots of links from sources commonly used by black hat SEOs (like blog comments and forum profiles) may be
Quality Links a sign of gaming the system
196. Links From Unrelated Websites A high-percentage
Google has sent out ofthousands
backlinks from topically-unrelated
of “Google Search Console sitesnotice
can increase the odds
of detected of a manual
unnatural penalty This
links” messages.
197. Unnatural Links Warning usually precedes a ranking drop, although not 100% of the time
198. Low-Quality Directory Links According to Google, baclinks from low-quality directories can lead to a penalty
199. Widget Links Google
Getting frowns on links
an unnatural that are
amount of automatically
links from sites generated
on the same when user IP
server embeds a “widget”
may help Googleon their site that your
determine
200. Links from the Same Class C IP links are coming from a blog network
Having “poison” anchor text (especially pharmacy keywords) pointed to your site may be a sign of spam or a
201. “Poison” Anchor Text hacked
A site. Either
2013 Google way,describes
Patent it can hurt howyour site’s ranking
Google can identify whether or not an influx of links to a page is
202. Unnatural
203. Links Link Spike
From Articles and Press legitimate.
Articles Those unnatural
directories and press links may become
releases has been devalued
abused to the point that Google now considers these two link
Releases building strategies a “link scheme” in many cases
204. Manual Actions There are several types of these, but most are related to black hat link building
205. Selling Links Getting
New caught
sites selling
that get links can
a sudden hurt
influx ofyour
linkssearch visibility put in the Google Sandbox, which temporarily limits
are sometimes
206. Google Sandbox search visibility
According to a Google Patent, this may be a way for them to determine whether or not a site is trying to game
207. Google Dance the algorithm.
Use of the Disavow Tool may remove a manual or algorithmic penalty for sites that were the victims of
208. Disavow Tool negative SEO
209. Reconsideration Request A successful
Google reconsideration
has caught onto people request can lift—a and
that create penalty
quickly remove — spammy links. Also know as a temporary
210. Temporary Link Schemes link scheme