Technical page layout, quality content, back links and social influence positive signal quality and number of very important links / content factors strengthened / Keyword existence in the link text, domain name or URL devalued
Ranking factors 2013_Infografik
(BUSINESS WIRE) (Berlin, 13.06.2013) Who or what determines what position a URL is displayed in search engine results? In the background of specific searches search engines work with special algorithms, which evaluate websites by topic and relevance, and put together on the basis of this evaluation the optimal ranking of the results. Already in 2012 examined the pioneer and leading provider of search and social analytics software that this assessment as well and created a summary of the most important "ranking factors". In 2013 sat the industry expert discusses the so-called rank correlation coefficients and examined on a database of March and June 2013, a total of 10,000 Keywordset of top search terms.
The main findings: A good technical side structure is a prerequisite, content is still king, backlinks remain enormously important social signal and take even further. To have lost its importance, however keywords appear in their function as the link text, or domain name.
Keyword links and domains are not a ranking factor more
The positive influence that had the existence of the keyword in the URL for years, and especially in the domain name is decreased significantly - the quality of the keywords in the URL / domain as a ranking factor is no longer present virtually in this form. "This is also the backlinks in the form of plain text keyword link," explains Marcus Tober, CEO and founder of Search Metrics. "The days of" hard keyword optimization "for left over. Google now puts much more emphasis on natural link profiles. Keyword hard links losing so much influence and can, for example, even detrimental when Google updates against bad links. "However, this does not mean, conversely, that the basic requirements about the existence of keywords that are obsolete. "The placement of topics relevant terms is still a must - just not necessarily as prominent in the domain or URL. The implementation in the page title or the Description is just as successful. "
Brands are the exception to all rules
Google has implemented it very well, the factor "fire" the factor "keyword" decouple and both components relevant to separate from each other. On a large part of the front positions in the SERPs are brands - and sites that do not meet some of the most basic principles (often on-page factors) indicated. "Many correlations have here in the detail view partially distinct rashes on, for example, brands often have less text on the page, the keyword is often not in the title, and even more rarely sub-headings - and still position themselves in the first positions in the search results" Tober describes the "fire" factor. This may be due among other things to the significantly better values for individual off page factors. Thus Brands reported more visible on the left of a better quality and were also much more social signal to unite as the URLs on the following places.
Good content is always important, it comes to quality
Another important ranking factor is the content, the meaning has been upgraded this year. Compared to last year show good rank URLs much more text and a higher number of integrations media (images, videos, etc.). "We also noticed that also, for example, a moderate incorporation of advertising - even outside of AdSense -. Less negative again ranking effect as anticipated" The advantage is also a good internal link structure, interestingly, when among other things about which a URL for a particular keyword related domain with the exact same keyword will be linked internally in addition to itself.
The number of backlinks remains immensely important
Unbroken since 2012 is the importance of the number of backlinks. "That has changed little in 2013, the relevance of this factor has rather increased even further:" pages with more links have grown better, "Marcus Tober summarizes. "However, not only the quantity matters, but more and more the quality." The more natural link profile, the greater the prospect of a positive ranking. For example, the portion of the no-follow links is increased, as well as the proportion of back links with a stop word or the number of words in the anchor text. Also takes influence the visibility of SEO Link Source. The more important the page is derived from the link, the more valuable is their link to their own page.
Social signal continues to correlate very well with better rankings
The tendency over the years has been very positive period of time - and thus confirms the trend that became evident as early as 2012. Well positioned URLs have a high number of likes, shares, tweets and PlusOnes, with particular URLs stand out on the top places of the search results with a very high mass of signals. This means on the one hand, that the activity on social networks continues to increase, on the other hand, that frequently shared content always correlate strongly with good rankings.
Social signal directly influence the ranking or not, but mainly because the previous analyzes show that better gerankte URLs on social signals have more than the worse positioned, the crucial question remains? This question also went to search and social analytics experts and supplemented the analysis by some detailed analysis. Two identical content articles observed at two allied subjects, which were first published on the same domain (in a neutral environment without a sitemap, links, comments, etc.) and - It was several weeks - with strict separation of and compliance with the neutral environment was then referred to specifically with social signals. The result is that even isolated seem to influence the ranking of URLs social signal.
About the Study
What is a ranking factor?
Search engines work with algorithms to evaluate websites by topic and relevance. On the basis of this evaluation is to structure the totality of all the pages in the search engine index, which results in user queries in a best possible ranking of the results display. The criteria for the evaluation of websites and the creation of this ranking are generally referred to as ranking factors.
In the present study is based on a sound interpretation of comparisons of features of websites with the sum of their top positions in the search results of Google and the resulting rank-structured list of qualities.
Data base and timeliness
As a result of the investigation "ranking factors 2012", the data were first collected in March and again in June 2013 (after the roll-out of the Penguin updates in week 22). The overall analysis is based on the basis of search results for a Keywordset of 10,000 search terms for Google Germany. Output pool were the top 10,000 search terms to search volume, specifically oriented navigation keywords have been previously excluded to a large extent. The selected database represents about 90 percent of the records of the previous year, and also very fresh keywords such as "Samsung Galaxy S4" or "iPhone 5" were incorporated into the setting that were not yet known, 2012.
The analyzed 10,000 top keywords generated in the evaluation of about 150 GB of data, specifically: 30,000 SERPs 300,000 titles, descriptions and websites, approximately 5.3 billion backlinks, 4.15 billion Facebook shares, a 12.95 billion facebook likes, 600 million Facebook comments, tweets, and about 1 billion 330 million and 14.5 million Google PlusOnes pins.
