The phrase “Just Google It” has become one of the most popular phrases in the world since the advent of the internet.

Anything and everything can be googled and you will be absolutely sure of getting an answer from Google. That’s how much this powerful search engine has altered our human existence and way of life.

But have you ever stopped to ask yourself what goes on behind the scene every time you “just Google it”?

Google’s 200 Ranking Factors

For every time you query Google for any particular word or phrase or term, there are over 200 ranking factors that the Google algorithms consider before rendering the search results. These 200 ranking factors are what determine the ranks or positions of the websites that are listed on the search result page.

As digital marketing strategists, these are the factors we constantly pay attention to and strive to achieve when doing Search Engine Optimization [SEO] for client websites. By integrating all these 200 ranking factors and several others, we are able to increase our client’s website visibility on search engines like Google and attract more traffic back from them to their websites.

So below are the lists of Google’s 200 ranking factors broken down into their respective categories. At the end of these lists, is a detailed infographic that explains each of the items on the list.

Domain Factors

Domain Age
Keyword Appears in Top Level Domain
Keyword As First Word in Domain
Domain registration length
Keyword in Subdomain Name
Domain History
Exact Match Domain
Public vs. Private WhoIs
Penalized WhoIs Owner
Country TLD extension

Page-Level Factors

Keyword in Title Tag
Title Tag Starts with Keyword
Keyword in Description Tag
Keyword Appears in H1 Tag
Keyword is Most Frequently Used Phrase in Document
Content Length
Keyword Density
Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords in Content (LSI)
LSI Keywords in Title and Description Tags
Page Loading Speed via HTML
Duplicate Content
Rel=Canonical
Page Loading Speed via Chrome
Image Optimization
Recency of Content Updates
Magnitude of Content Updates
Historical Updates Page Updates
Keyword Prominence
Keyword in H2, H3 Tags
Keyword Word Order
Outbound Link Quality
Outbound Link Theme
Grammar and Spelling
Syndicated Content
Helpful Supplementary Content
Number of Outbound Links
Multimedia
Number of Internal Links Pointing to Page
Quality of Internal Links Pointing to Page
Broken Links
Reading Level
Affiliate Links
HTML errors/W3C validation
Page Host’s Domain Authority
Page’s PageRank
URL Length
URL Path
Human Editors
Page Category
WordPress Tags
Keyword in URL
URL String
References and Sources
Bullets and Numbered Lists
Priority of Page in Sitemap
Too Many Outbound Links
Quantity of Other Keywords Page Ranks For
Page Age
User Friendly Layout
Parked Domains
Useful Content

Site-Level Factors

62. Content Provides Value and Unique Insights

63. Contact Us Page

64. Domain Trust/TrustRank

65. Site Architecture

66. Site Updates

67. Number of Pages

68. Presence of Sitemap

69. Site Uptime

70. Server Location

71. SSL Certificate

72. Terms of Service and Privacy Pages

73. Duplicate Meta Information On-Site

74. Breadcrumb Navigation

75. Mobile Optimized

76. YouTube

77. Site Usability

78. Use of Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools

79. User reviews/Site reputation

Backlink Factors

80. Linking Domain Age

81. # of Linking Root Domains

82. # of Links from Separate C-Class IPs

83. # of Linking Pages

84. Alt Tag (for Image Links)

85. Links from .edu or .gov Domains

86. Authority of Linking Page

87. Authority of Linking Domain

88. Links From Competitors

89. Social Shares of Referring Page

90. Links from Bad Neighborhoods

91. Guest Posts

92. Links to Homepage Domain that Page Sits On

93. Nofollow Links

94. Diversity of Link Types

95. “Sponsored Links” Or Other Words Around Link

96. Contextual Links

97. Excessive 301 Redirects to Page

98. Backlink Anchor Text

99. Internal Link Anchor Text

100. Link Title Attribution

101. Country TLD of Referring Domain

102. Link Location In Content

103. Link Location on Page

104. Linking Domain Relevancy

105. Page Level Relevancy

106. Text Around Link Sentiment

107. Keyword in Title

108. Positive Link Velocity

109. Negative Link Velocity

110. Links from “Hub” Pages

111. Link from Authority Sites

112. Linked to as Wikipedia Source

113. Co-Occurrences

114. Backlink Age

115. Links from Real Sites vs. Splogs

116. Natural Link Profile

117. Reciprocal Links

118. User Generated Content Links

119. Links from 301

120. Schema.org Microformats

121. DMOZ Listed

122. TrustRank of Linking Site

123. Number of Outbound Links on Page

124. Forum Profile Links

125. Word Count of Linking Content

126. Quality of Linking Content

127. Sitewide Links

User Interaction

128. Organic Click Through Rate for a Keyword

129. Organic CTR for All Keywords

130. Bounce Rate

131. Direct Traffic

132. Repeat Traffic

133. Blocked Sites

134. Chrome Bookmarks

135. Google Toolbar Data

136. Number of Comments

137. Dwell Time

Special Algorithm Rules

138. Query Deserves Freshness

139. Query Deserves Diversity

140. User Browsing History

141. User Search History

142. Geo Targeting:

143. Safe Search

144. Google+ Circles

145. DMCA Complaints

146. Domain Diversity

147. Transactional Searches

148. Local Searches

149. Google News Box

150. Big Brand Preference

151. Shopping Results

152. Image Results

153. Easter Egg Results

154. Single Site Results for Brands

Social Signals

155. Number of Tweets

156. Authority of Twitter Users Accounts

157. Number of Facebook Likes

158. Facebook Shares

159. Authority of Facebook User Accounts:

160. Pinterest Pins

161. Votes on Social Sharing Sites

162. Number of Google+1’s

163. Authority of Google+ User Accounts

164. Known Authorship

165. Social Signal Relevancy

166. Site Level Social Signals

Brand Signals

167. Brand Name Anchor Text

168. Branded Searches

169. Site Has Facebook Page and Likes

170. Site has Twitter Profile with Followers

171. Official Linkedin Company Page

172. Employees Listed at Linkedin

173. Legitimacy of Social Media Accounts

174. Brand Mentions on News Sites

175. Co-Citations

176. Number of RSS Subscribers

177. Brick and Mortar Location With Google+ Local Listing

178. Website is Tax Paying Business

On-Site WebSpam Factors

179. Panda Penalty

180. Links to Bad Neighborhoods

181. Redirects

182. Popups or Distracting Ads

183. Site Over-Optimization

184. Page Over-Optimizaton

185. Ads Above the Fold

186. Hiding Affiliate Links

187. Affiliate Sites

188. Autogenerated Content

189. Excess PageRank Sculpting

190. IP Address Flagged as Spam

191. Meta Tag Spamming

Off Page Webspam Factors

192. Unnatural Influx of Links

193. Penguin Penalty

194. Link Profile with High % of Low Quality Links

195. Linking Domain Relevancy

196. Unnatural Links Warning

197. Links from the Same Class C IP

198. “Poison” Anchor Text

199. Manual Penalty

200. Selling Links

201. Google Sandbox

202. Google Dance

203. Disavow Tool

204. Reconsideration Request

205. Temporary Link Schemes