What Are Google Ranking Factors?

The Five Pillars Of Search Discovery And Visibility

Before diving into granular optimisations, we must understand the high-level ranking framework Google uses to evaluate every query:

1. Semantic Meaning: Google utilises advanced language models to interpret what a user actually wants, moving beyond keyword matching to true intent recognition.
2. Content Alignment: This is the mechanical side of SEO, ensuring your headers, body text, and metadata signal that your page is a direct answer to the query.
3. Quality Quality Quality: Google prioritises content that exhibits high levels of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
4. Technical Usability: If a page is slow, unstable, or challenging to navigate on a phone, it fails the usability test regardless of the content quality.
5. Contextual Personalisation: Search results are fluid. Factors like geographic location, past search history, and device settings mean that “Ranking at #1” is a moving target.

It is important to note: Google maintains a degree of secrecy regarding its ranking factors to prevent search engine manipulation, officially confirming only a select few. Consequently, understanding how content is ranked requires a combination of Google’s public disclosures and industry insights derived from extensive testing and observation industry-wide. Plus, while commonly discussed as a single “algorithm,” Google actually employs a complex network of multiple algorithms to determine search results.

How To Improve Your Search Visibility  

So what exactly can you do to push those rankings up and get your business seen? Let’s dive into the core fundamentals of SEO/AEO for 2026 and what you can do right now to boost your rankings.

1. Focus On Content Quality, Freshness, And Intent

The primary foundation of any ranking strategy is the content itself. However, “good content” is no longer a sufficient goal; we must aim for more helpful content that more closely matches searcher intent. Google has provided guidance pivoted toward rewarding ‘helpful content’ - the E-E-A-T standard. To align with this, your content strategy must prioritise:

• Evidence-Based Originality: Don’t just aggregate existing articles. Google favours primary research, unique data sets, and first-hand professional experience over “thin” content.
• Topic Comprehensiveness: You don’t need the most words; you need the most complete answer. High-performing pages typically address all secondary questions a user might have.
• Freshness: For news, trends, or recurring events type topics, Google prioritises content updated within hours. However, even for evergreen topics, routinely refreshing your data is vital, as Google’s AI Overviews increasingly favour “last updated” timestamps to verify accuracy.
• Search Intent/Reader Value: If you target “Best CRM Software” with a guide on what a CRM is, you will struggle to rank. Why? Because the intent for that keyword is Commercial, meaning the user wants to compare tools, not learn definitions. Always audit the SERP to ensure your content format matches the current leaders.

Content Boosting Action Steps

1. Write long-form content that caters to user search intent, not just for Google Search bots
2. Update your content regularly to maintain accuracy and freshness
3. Create original content based on your own data, research, experience, or insights
4. Add publication dates to your pages to make it clear that your content is up to date and when it was written
5. Research your topic before creating the content to ensure you deeply understand the user’s intent
6. Understand the search intent of your target keywords

2. Build Authority And Backlinks

Backlinks remain the ‘currency’ of the web, serving as third-party votes of confidence and a form of social proof of existence and confidence in the ‘real world’. But the volume of links is now secondary to their nature. A single link from a relevant, respected business typically carries far more weight than many links from spammy, low authority directories.

• Topical Relevance: A link from a niche-specific publication is often more powerful than a link from a generic high-traffic news site.
• Domain Diversity: Growth comes from expanding your footprint. 100 links from 100 unique domains will almost always outperform 500 links from the same 10 sources.
• Digital PR: Modern link building is about being reference-worthy. Focus on expert contributions and proprietary data that industry leaders want to cite.

Back Link Boosting Action Steps

1. Avoid link building schemes, paid links, and low-quality link tactics (these can be more detrimental than helpful)
2. Guest post on topically related sites
3. Check your backlink profile to monitor the distribution of referring domains that link to your website
4. Prioritise quality links from multiple domains (not multiple links from the same source)

3. Don’t Forget Technical Performance

The on-page experience still matters! Technical SEO isn’t just about “fixing bugs”, it’s about removing the barriers between the user and your content. How easily can Google can crawl, index, and serve your content to users? Google can’t rank pages that it can’t see or understand (crawl or index); this is why sites with technical issues may struggle to rank well even if they publish high-quality content. Technical SEO encompasses a range of small tasks that all combine to help the algorithm match your pages to relevant search queries.

• Mobile First Indexing Is A Thing: Google sometimes evaluates your site based on its mobile version.
• Security: HTTPS is a baseline requirement, unsecure sites will trigger browser warnings that kill your engagement metrics.
• On-Page Elements Matter: These help Google understand what your content is about and how it’s organised. For example, internal linking, title tags and meta descriptions.
• Keep An Eye On Google Metrics: Google measures three specific metrics (Core Web Vitals) to determine the “health” of a page, these are an important baseline for all websites.
  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How fast does the primary content appear?
  • INP (Interaction to Next Paint): How responsive is the page to a user’s first tap or click?
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Does the layout “jump” while images or ads load?

Technical Boosting Action Steps

1. Use tools like PageSpeed Insights to identify specific issues affecting your Core Web Vitals
2. Compress images to improve your page speed
3. Ensure your site uses a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes
4. Install an SSL certificate (ask your hosting provider)
5. Update all internal links to use the HTTPS version of your site rather than HTTP
6. Minimise JavaScript and CSS
7. Keep page titles under 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results
8. Write page titles that accurately describe page content (use primary keyword in title tag)
9. Use descriptive anchor text that indicates what the linked page is about not just “Click Here”
10. Minimise orphan pages by ensuring every page on your site has at least one internal link pointing to it or is accessible within 3 clicks through website menus
11. Link from higher-authority pages to other pages across the site

4. Dominate Locally - Proximity And Reputation Matter!

For all businesses with a physical footprint, local SEO is also a prominent factor in Search Visibility, especially in smaller countries like New Zealand. There are four main focus points of Local SEO these are:

• GBP Dominates The Local Search Space: Think of your Google Business Profile as your second homepage. Do not underestimate the importance of your GBP - complete every section possible, from category selection to business hours and ensure this information is consistent across your online presence.
• Reviews Are Paramount: This is all about your digital reputation. Businesses with more positive 5-star reviews will likely rank higher than competitors with fewer or lower-rated reviews. Therefore, the quantity, quality, and recentness of your Google reviews are direct signals of your business’s importance to the local community.
• Optimise For Proximity: Google prioritises businesses that are physically close to the searcher’s location, and while you cannot control where a searcher is standing, you can optimise for distance. Creating location-specific landing pages for the areas you serve, adding location specific details to your website, using location targeting phrases about your city, such as nearby landmarks, local knowledge and language.
• Citations Matter: Citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites like Finda, Yellow Pages, and Hotfrog directories. Quality citations from authoritative directories can improve your local rankings. Again, ensure this information is consistent across your online presence.

Local SEO Boosting Action Steps

1. Create location-specific pages optimised for relevant local keywords
2. Complete your Google Business Profile with detailed information
3. Include your service area in your Google Business Profile to rank for nearby searches outside your immediate location
4. Create systems and processes to ask customers to leave you Google reviews
5. Respond to all reviews (positive and negative) to show engagement
6. List your business on major directories like Finda, Hotfrog and Apple Maps (more on relevant NZ directories here)
7. Ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) match across your website, Google Business Profile, and all existing directory listings to help Google verify your business information as accurate (build trust).

Which Google Ranking Factors Are Most Important?

The short answer is that there is no definitive answer on this one. SEO professionals will work to cover all the bases for you over time (SEO is an ongoing process that requires gradual tweaking and maintenance), but if you are looking at some immediate changes, the factors you should prioritise depend a lot on your specific business’s situation. For example, an e-commerce site should begin by focusing on the more technical aspects and core web vitals, while a more established local business would be looking at maintaining their online presence for NAP consistency and building fresh and relevant locally orientated content updates.

Google’s algorithms are complex, but their goal is simple: reward content that is useful, fast, and trustworthy. By focusing on these core ranking factors, you are building a digital asset that Google wants to show its users. Ready to make some changes to your website and improve Search Visibility? Contact Digital Influence today for a comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy Session.

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