Previously we have discussed the Top Ranking Factors in 2012 for Google Updates. This article is the followup of my previous article – 2012 Top Google Search Ranking Factors For Google Panda Update. Now in this article, we will discuss the google search engine ranking factors which are loosing importance, and sometimes they may have a negative impact on your search engine ranking.
Here Are The Factors Which Are Loosing Importance:
Facebook Likes
In recent times, there has been lots of news emerging that Facebook likes don’t count at all or as much for Google rankings. Up until now, following a disclosure some months ago, this was thought that Google reckons public likes from those profiles which are visible to all like mine for instance.
Exact Match Domains
For ages, so called exact match domains such as seo.com intended for your query [seo] has been the safest bet to stay on top and rank quickly. The delightful spell seems to be over, though; branding is getting more prominent, besides even an exact keyword match, generic domain doesn’t guarantee rankings nowadays.
Backlink Anchor Text
When all links to your website from the internet has the identical anchor text, like “seo agency”, it will be easily spotted by Google. These anchor texts of incoming links get monitored more carefully, so using this in an over optimized way may even harm you.
H1 Headlines
Few already old studies recommend that the h1 tags have lost most of the influence it once may have on the Google results. h2 headlines or even smaller headlines are probably counted until now. Other experts tend to shelve h-tag altogether now. I am not certain here; however, headlines are not the place anymore to fill keywords in.
Top Level Domain
The top level domain, .i.e. .com, .uk, .co or .fr, closing of your domain name does not quite count that considerably these days. Sites with.me, .is or .ly and other equally striking top level domain could rank well now with no major disadvantages. Look at Good.is, now it even out ranks Good.com.
Server Location
My personal SEO blog over on SEO 2.0 is been ranked for years in US, in spite of being hosted from Germany. So although hosting locally remains an appropriate thing, this won’t prevent you from ranking if you are getting your strategy for SEO right and getting links from the target market. I thought of moving it; however, I decided that this change wouldn’t be significant enough to support the risks of relocating.
Content Length
I recall that when amongst the most common piece of advice from SEO was to write your content that is no less than 200 words long. Moreover, over the years, webpages with unusually extensive on-site copies have usually ranked better than ones with short copies. Now that, Google is cracking down on content works that focused on the size and not quality, this would appear that the content length isn’t a signal of the highest importance anymore.
Backlink Number
I similarly remember a period when you looked by the total number of links that a website had. Rapidly the number became totally useless since a number of footer links many websites got from ”partners”. Google is taking measures to curb this footer link game, with the emergence of widely operated CMS systems such as WordPress and Drupal.
Keyword Density
Higher your keyword density, more likely you are to get reprimanded by Google for the keyword stuffing. These days, keyword density isn’t a metric that most grave SEO practitioners used in 2011. Although it is beneficial to state your actual keyword density on the page, but any proposed density of some per cent is rubbish and is barely readable.
Meta Keywords Tag
These days no leading search engine aids the meta keywords tags as their ranking factor, still some blogs advise you to exercise it for SEO. Few SEO experts believe that it could be an even negative ranking factor. Also, Google might check whether the keywords you mentioned in tags are also on the page, but if they are not, you may get down-ranked.
Of course, ranking on itself isn’t the only thing essential in SEO, however, if your SEO approach is based on obsolete ranking signals that don’t matter anymore, at the same time you ignore the fundamental and current ones, you might be heading in a wrong direction.
Make sure you remain on top of the developments. Then again, you might have to emphasis on the actions which works in search owing to the actuality that they’re popular. In this way, you’re in front of Google in several cases.
