BrightHaus Digital Marketing Agency

10 Old School Ranking Factors that are Still Major Factors Today

July 10, 2013

Search engines change their algorithm and update their index on what seems like a monthly basis. Some updates are so big they affect 2% of all the search results (which is huge, considering the top 10 results of 10 million pages is only 0.000001% ) and some so subtle, no one even even notices.

When the search engines make these updates, they are actually increasing or decreasing the weight of various variables in the algorithm, sometimes they add new variables, other times they remove variables.

Historically a top 10 SEO rankings factor list looked different than today’s top SEO ranking factors list. However not as different as you may think. Below are 10 rankings factors that were top 10 factors of yesteryear and are at least top 25 ranking factors of today.

  1. Keywords in URL – Yes, naming your pages after keywords still works
  2. Keywords in Domain Name – Still effective, but not top 3 effective (like it used to be)
  3. Keywords within Anchor Text of Backlinks – Loss some weight and not to be confused with exact match anchor texting
  4. Page Authority – Can sometimes be translated as PageRank or MozRank. Not a top 5 factor anymore, but easily a top 10 factor.
  5. Number of Linking Domains – Considering that all your backlinks are quality, whoever has the most quality backlinks still wins.
  6. Number of Links to Page – Total links pointing to a specific page (not to the domain in total) is still a major factor
  7. Keywords in Linking Domains – Keywords in the domain name or in the URL of link pointing to website – a long time and still very effective factor
  8. Document Character Count – The more words you have on your website, the better. Assuming the content is intriguing and keeps the users reading, referencing, sharing, and coming back for more
  9. Keywords in Title Tag – This for years was a top 3-5 ranking factor. May have dropped off the top 5 (or even top 10) factors. But is still very effective
  10. Age of Site – One of the oldest and still one of the most important factors, EVER

There you have it, 10 SEO rankings factors that you can find on almost any top rankings factors list, past and present. Please don’t get this mixed up with a current top 10 rankings factors list. This is just 10 ranking factors you can find on a top 25 ranking factors list. Only several of the above rankings factors are still in the top 10.