7 Most Powerful Google Ranking Factors for SEO

you need to understand the most important

Google ranking factors.

And in this video, I'll show you what's working right now

to drive number one rankings

in Google's traditional search results,

AI overviews, and even AI mode.

I'm Nathan Gotch, and over the last decade,

I've led hundreds of successful SEO campaigns,

and my SEO systems have helped thousands of SEO agencies

produce predictable number one rankings for their clients.

Like this video to show me you're ready,

and let's begin with Google ranking factor number one,

which is indexation.

It's simple, your page can't rank if it isn't indexed.

So here are four ways to improve crawling and indexing

on your website so you can rank better

in traditional search engines,

which are the number one source of retrieval

for AI platforms like ChatGPT.

Number one, nail the basics by making sure

your robots.txt file allows all crawlers,

you have an updated sitemap,

and you're not using a noindex tag

on the page you're trying to rank.

Number two, focus on intelligent internal linking

by leveraging your site-wide navigation and footer.

The goal is to make sure that all of the pages

on your website are no more than three clicks deep.

You also want your most important pages

to have sufficient internal link coverage.

Just run a screaming frog crawl,

go to the crawl depth column and unique in-links columns

to see both metrics.

For crawl depth issues,

consider adding critical commercial pages to the navigation

and then add internal links on that commercial page

to send crawlers to more relevant pages.

This is what I've done for RankAbility's AI Analyzer.

It sits in the site-wide navigation,

then I have internal links

going to each rank tracking page.

Number three, use HTML.

So vibe coding platforms like Lovable and Repl.it

are awesome, but they have one flaw.

Out of the box, they use JavaScript

and AI platforms like ChatGBT can't crawl JavaScript.

So HTML is proven to be crawlable

so you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Number four, optimize your loading speed.

Loading speed is more of an indirect ranking factor

because it influences user experience.

However, from an indexation perspective,

crawlers are intolerant of slow websites.

So if your pages are loading slower than three seconds,

it may get skipped by LLMs.

And now for Google ranking factor number two,

matching search intent.

The best way to think about this

is to pretend you're stepping into the shoes of a searcher.

What do they actually want

when they're searching the perspective query?

For example, if someone searches for SEO,

what do they want?

Well, the possibilities are endless

and that's why head keywords like SEO

are bad keywords to target

because it's nearly impossible to match search intent.

But with more context, it gets easier.

For example, best SEO tools for agency

has much clearer intent and context,

which allows you to create a perfectly relevant page.

When in doubt, just go to Google.

And within seconds, we can see that listicles are common

for this keyword phrase.

Just match the format that's already proven to work.

Which brings me to Google ranking factor number three,

content relevance.

Uniqueness matters because of information gain,

which is built into Google's algorithms.

To dumb it down, Google and LLMs might reward pages

that add something new to the discussion for a topic.

But here's the deal,

being too unique can have adverse effects.

And that's why I recommend starting with relevance

and then thinking about differentiation.

Open RankAbility's content optimizer,

enter a keyword phrase you wanna rank for,

select whether you wanna use AI or do it manually,

then open up the report.

On the right-hand side, you'll see relevant topics

that your competitors have covered on their pages.

You need to cover as many of the same topics

if you want your page to perform well.

Focus on topic coverage, not just injecting keywords.

And the word count range in RankAbility is a target

based on the median word count for the competitors,

which serves as a target for your writer,

but not because a specific word count

is a Google ranking factor.

Aside from topic coverage,

you should also place your primary keyword

in your URL, title, meta description, H1 tag,

first sentence, and a variant in your first H2 tag,

and one last time in your conclusion.

And now for ranking factor number four, topical authority.

Now, let me start by saying

that you have to avoid random acts of SEO content.

Every time you commit to creating SEO content,

it needs to fit within a broader strategy.

I recommend focusing on one topic cluster at a time.

For example, we have a new tool coming to RankAbility

called the AI Analyzer,

which tracks your brand's visibility and rankings

in AI platforms like ChatGBT.

So first, you'd optimize your core product page,

then strategize how to build support around this page.

For example, we created a pillar listicle asset

that targets best AI search rank tracking tools.

From a pillar asset like this,

you can create supporting assets like best,

competitor, alternatives, competitor review,

or even competitor versus your brand.

Then just repeat this process

for five to 10 of your top competitors,

and you'll start to build authority for a specific topic.

Plus, by creating more topic support,

you get more opportunities for internal links.

That means if one page earns a backlink in your cluster,

it'll lift the performance of the entire cluster.

And now for Google ranking factor number five,

which is backlink quality.

You can do everything perfect in this video,

and your website still won't reach

its full SEO potential without backlinks.

But not all backlinks are created equal,

and as cliche as it is,

you wanna focus on quality over quantity.

In fact, one backlink from a trusted entity

is more valuable than 100 mediocre links.

Now there are three mechanisms

for determining backlink quality.

First is authority.

Does the prospective website

have a high-quality backlink profile itself?

Use a tool like Ahrefs to study the backlink profile

by going to referring domains.

Do they have links from strong,

trusted websites that have traffic?

Getting a backlink from Forbes,

even if it's nofollow, is worth it.

Second, is the website an LLM feeder?

Look at the overview tab in Ahrefs.

Do they have AI citations?

If so, the website is used as a source of retrieval for AI,

and that means if your brand gets mentioned or linked to,

you're increasing your odds

of getting brand mentions in AI platforms.

Third, is the target website relevant?

If it's a local campaign,

relevance could be a softball league website

that's in your target city.

For national campaigns,

it'll be relevant blogs and news websites within your niche.

In a perfect world,

your link opportunities could have all three,

which is authority, LLM feeder, and relevance.

But you can sacrifice relevance

if the site is extremely trustworthy.

For example, Wikipedia targets millions of topics.

It's not 100% relevant to any website,

but getting a citation is extremely valuable.

The next Google ranking factor is overall domain strength.

So getting one high-quality backlink is awesome,

but you need consistent backlink growth over time

to narrow the gap between you and your competitors,

and you have to continue acquiring high-quality backlinks

to maintain your position.

There is no end to this SEO game,

and your competitors wanna beat you,

and that's why you can never let your foot off the gas.

So just compare your DR from Ahrefs

or authority score from SEMrush

against your top three competitors,

and also see how many referring domains they have.

This is your target.

And the final Google ranking factor is brand signals.

So good old followed backlinks from high-quality websites

are still one of the most powerful factors

for ranking in Google and AI platforms.

However, you also need secondary signals

that prove your brand is legit.

Every business that sells products and services

should be working to acquire reviews

on the most relevant platforms.

If you're local, focus 90% of your effort

on your Google business profile,

then sprinkle in two to three niche relevant platforms.

For example, if you're in home services,

it would be Angie or Thumbtack.

If you're in the legal space, it's AVO or Superlawyers.

Review diversity is critical

because ChatGBT doesn't use Google business profiles

for retrieval as of right now.

Instead, it uses authoritative directory platforms like Yelp.

So when in doubt, just run some of your commercial queries

like who are the best personal injury lawyers in Chicago,

click on the citations,

and see what third-party platforms

are being used for retrieval in the AI platform.

These are your targets for driving reviews

and visibility for your brand.

So that's all I have for you today.

And if you're running an established SEO

or digital marketing agency

and wanna dominate the new era of AI Search,

apply for Gotch SEO Academy

because you and your team will get first access

to my new AI Search Expert Certification Program.

This is where I'm sharing what's working right now

in AI Search and SEO.

I'll have a link below for your agency to apply.

Thank you so much for watching

and subscribe for more AI Search and SEO videos coming soon.