2015 search ranking factors · clients and followers with the best tools for effective search...

2015 Search Ranking

Factors

2015 Search

Ranking Factors

2

Introduction

Abstract

Technical

User Experience

Content

Social Signals

Backlinks

Big Picture Takeaway

Here, at ZED Digital, our primary concern is equipping our

clients and followers with the best tools for effective search

engine optimization and lead generation.

Digital marketing encompasses a great deal of factors, both

technical and content-based. Companies hoping to gain

success in their online portals have to expect that all factors

play a part in garnering user attention and should be

approached with only the greatest concern and care.

With this in mind, we have chosen to focus on a ranking factors

study by Searchmetrics.

2015 Search Ranking Factors

Title of the book

Search metrics investigated ranking factors for Google with this

year’s focus being technical, user experience, content, backlinks and

social signals. The study is based on desktop search results and

corresponding ranking factors with the goal being to provide

webmasters, SEOs and content marketers with concrete and detailed

insights into which areas are most important for 2015 search

rankings. The study asked these 3 questions:

1. Which ranking factors are the most important in 2015?

2. How have these factors developed compared with previous years?

3. What values for the individual factors can provide useful insights?

What are the benchmarks for top 10 search results?

We have taken the most important ranking factors and broken them

down into summarized takeaways based on the conclusions from the

Search Rank Study. Based on the answers to these five topics, we

hope to shed light on facts that will in-turn change the way you

approach your SEO and content marketing strategies.

Title of the book

Overall Takeaways:

• Technical factors continue to

be important consideration for

achieving good rankings with

good content.

• Online documents are

becoming larger while loading

time is falling and both factors

correlate with better rankings.


Technical SEO is

concerned with

on-page factors

that are mostly

technical and not

directly linked to

a page’s content.

Faster site speed is correlated with higher search rankings.

Overall Takeaways:

• Increasing numbers of pages are optimized and described with

components like H-labeling of headers. This will result in

enhanced user experience.

• The significance of the factor “keyword” continues to decline.

Instead, it is a question of optimizing topics like rationally

associated groupings of keywords and the concept of entities.

• Good URLs are worth more than hundreds of keyword

rankings


The presence of meta descriptions, H1 tags, and H2 tags in the top 30 results is more

common this year than last year.

Overall Takeaways:

• Even though number of

images used on websites has

increased since last year, the

number of pages with video

integration in SERPs has

fallen.

• Embedding of images and

videos is a factor that can help

the user experience as well as

user signals on websites. The

number of images and duration

of videos is therefore strongly

dependent on user intention.

7 2015 Search Ranking Factors



This section shows

the primary aspects of

design and usability

with user experience

being related to on-

page optimization and

fitting between

technical and content.

Overall Takeaways:

• Content on higher ranking pages is better structured, has more

interactive elements, and is more understandable for the users

and bot.

• Top sites were dominated by responsive sites and sites that

don’t use flash.

• User signals are needed for content and rankings. Reaction of

users offers search engines direct feedback about user

satisfaction with content.

• Internal link structure and optimum page information structure

are important rankings factors.


On April 21, Google announced a ranking penalty for sites that are not optimized for

mobile.

Overall Takeaways:

• Content of top 30 webpages

is more comprehensive; the

average text length has

increased compared to 2014

by a quarter.

• However, content has

become more holistic. While

popularity of proof terms is

unchanged, percentage of

relevant terms on higher

ranking websites has

increased.

• Focusing optimization on

single keywords or keyword

lists without giving truly

relevant content for user wont

result in long-term success.


This section focuses on the importance of good,

quality, relevant content. This includes word

count and Flesch readability with the aim being

to give clear insight into which aspects of

content can improve overall website ranking.

Overall Takeaways:

• Besides longer and holistic

content, complexity of content

has decreased. Texts are less

demanding to read.

•Importance of keywords in

internal and external links has

declined.

• Webpages with most relevant

content for a search query take

the top positions.


The average word count of HTML documents has increased significantly.

Don’t just write

more. Use

information about

the structure and

context of topics to

optimize your

content. -Searchmetrics

Overall Takeaways:

• Social signals are factors that directly relate to better rankings

• How social signals directly affect rankings is still a question. Higher-

ranking URLs have more social cues than sites further down the

ranks, but Google has said that it is not using social signals as a direct

ranking factor.

• A high number of social signals imply the site is a brand or regularly

adds new content.

• Social signals play a role in direct traffic, brand awareness, and

overall online performance of a domain. Good content performs better

on social networks and search engines want to recognize and display

good, up-to-date content.

11 2015 Search Ranking Factors



This section is about top URLs incorporating

more social signals like Facebook and Twitter

to increase recognition in the online community.

Overall Takeaways:

• Backlinks are still a factor

connected to high rankings.

• Connections between

respective individual link and

ranking factors are high but are

decreasing.

• “Mentions” play an increasing

role especially in relation to

thematically related domains.


This section is about

how links are changing

to semantic contexts

and machine learning

with the user in mind.

The best and most

relevant content is vital

to search optimization.

Faster site speed is correlated with higher search rankings.

Overall Takeaways:

• In the anchor text of the backlink, domain name occurs instead of

keyword. Still, fewer backlinks have the homepage as the link target

and increasingly refer to subpages.

• These changes are related to attempts by Google to combat

“unnatural” link formation. It includes penalties against link networks

and their customers along with rollout of Penguin and its repetitions.

• Proportion of nofollow backlinks has increased strongly compared to

previous year.

•Since introduction of disavow tool, it has no longer been possible to

determine which links to a page are weighted by Google.


Useful and informative content is the best way to generate backlinks.

The breakdown of search rankings is vast and often more complicated

than companies realize. Our job is to try and make it clear as to what

steps need to be taken moving forward. Here are just a few suggestions

for those willing to change digital marketing strategy.

• Create relevant content based on search intention and type of user:

• Query Type- transactional/informational etc.

• End device (desktop/mobile)

• Stop thinking in keywords. User search is incredibly diverse, even though

they may have similar intentions.

• Structure topics in clusters of closely related terms and decide which

topics belong together on a landing page, and which should have their

own page. It isn’t wise to work with lists but rather with topic clouds.

• Offer content to users at highest possible technical specifications.

Content should be designed for readability and ease of interpretation

through appropriate structuring for optimal user experience. Readers need

to grasp what you’re trying to say and want to know why you’re saying

what you’re saying.

• Post (relevant and appropriate) content on a regular basis. Users interact

with those willing to interact. Share what matters most and avoid over-

sharing. You want to be present in your portal but not to the point where

the reader is overwhelmed. It’s all about quality, not quantity.


ZED Digital provides digital marketing

services that help businesses become

the online authority in their market.

Contact us for a free consultation.

700 Taylor Rd. Gahanna, OH 43230

614-523-3974

[email protected]

2015 search ranking factors · clients and followers with the best tools for effective search...

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