What are the changes in Google ranking factors this year? Every experienced SEO expert will agree to the fact that search engine optimization is not what it used to be in the earlier days. In fact, the rules and ethics of SEO keep changing or are rather rewritten every year. While the fundamental aspects remain the same, you will still find significant changes that you cannot ignore if you want to rank higher.

Ranking Factor #1: Backlinks

It’s 2022 and backlinks still remain one of the most important Google ranking factors to focus on. They give Google a clear signal about how good your website is in terms of quality and relevance. This means Google will always give more weight to quality backlinks than poor backlinks in high quantity.

The reason marketers fail to gain the right kind of backlinks is:

1. They don’t produce content that their audience wants.
2. They don’t promote their content consistently.

Getting more authority sites in your niche to link to your content tells Google that your page is worth ranking. The more quality links you have, the better.

Ranking Factor #2: Content Length

Long form content isn’t as common as short form content. Because it’s not easy to produce on a consistent basis unless you’re working with a content marketing agency. However, from an SEO point of view, it’s totally worth creating it.

Content that is in-depth and relevant is simply…

1. More engaging because it gives more details and delivers real value
2. Highly shareable because people like sharing useful content that answers their questions
3. Better overall according to Google because it gives search users what they are looking for

If you analyze the top-ranking pages, you’ll find that long form content almost always performs better.

Ranking Factor #3: URL, Domain Age and Authority

While Google has penalized spammy websites (with thin content) whose domain name consists of target keywords. Some studies still show that exact match domains can boost a website’s ranking. That is, if that website has high quality and relevant content. Now if your website has been up for a while now and you’ve been optimizing it, then you already have a good chance in the ranking. And lastly, authority is also one of the factors for Google rankings. It is usually achieved by having a combination of high-quality content and off page SEO.

Ranking Factor #4: Mobile-First User Experience

The search engine optimization industry has come a long way, and so have the many Google ranking factors that impact it. Today in 2022, if you want your website to rank above your competitors, you need to worry more about its user experience than other smaller aspects.In fact, the reason why Google created it’s now infamous RankBrain algorithm was to de-rank websites that don’t offer their visitors…