Search Engine Ranking Factors

Top 5 Ranking Factors

1.
Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links
73% very high importance

2.
External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)
71% very high importance

3.
Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)
67% very high importance

4.
Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
66% very high importance

5.
Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. TrustRank, Domain mozTrust, etc.)
66% very high importance


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Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors

1.
Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent
68% very high importance

2.
Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers
56% high importance

3.
Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages
51% moderate importance

4.
Cloaking by User Agent
51% moderate importance

5.
Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility
51% moderate importance


See all negative ranking factors
Top 5 Most Contentious Factors

1. Cloaking by Cookie Detection 16.3% strong contention
2. Cloaking by JavaScript/Rich Media Support Detection 15.4% moderate contention
3. Hiding Text with same/similar colored text/background 15.3% moderate contention
4. Cloaking by IP Address 15.3% moderate contention
5. Cloaking by User Agent 15.2% moderate contention