What are ranking factors

The term “Ranking Factors” refers to the criteria that search engines employ to evaluate web pages and determine their placement in search results. These factors encompass various aspects such as content quality, technical implementation, user signals, backlink profile, and other features deemed relevant by search engines. Understanding these ranking factors is essential for effective search engine optimization (SEO).

Since 2012, Searchmetrics has been publishing its annual “Ranking Factors Study,” a comprehensive report that requires considerable effort from statisticians, mathematicians, senior management, and ranking/search experts. This study gathers data from around the globe to analyze the factors influencing website rankings. But what exactly do we mean by a “Ranking Factor”? How do we analyze it? What is correlation, and why should you pay attention to this report? Misinterpretations often arise regarding data interpretation and causal relationships, so here’s a clear explanation of our methodology and approach to interpreting the data.

Each year, we analyze the top 30 search results for 10,000 keywords, totaling nearly 300,000 URLs, in our Ranking Factors study. We evaluate these URLs based on various factors, which we expand upon each year, such as backlink quantity, text length, and keyword/content features. The fundamental question we aim to answer is: What sets apart pages that have ascended the rankings from those that lag behind in the SERPs?

To determine the relationship between ranking positions and the presence or absence of each factor, we calculate the “rank-correlation coefficient” using Spearman correlation. This statistical method allows us to assess the correlation between two variables: ranking position and the occurrence/existence of each factor.

By plotting the average values of each factor against search result positions on a graph, we can visualize and analyze the differences in correlation. This graph effectively illustrates how the relationship between specific factors and search result positions varies across the top 30 positions.