The 11 Best SEO Ranking Factors to Focus On in 2025

Do you see a steady fall in your website rankings? Why did your website appear at varying positions on different search engines when searching for a website? These are all being determined by various SEO ranking factors which can make or break your search engine optimization efforts.

Thousands of companies across several sectors are jostling for positions in the online marketplace in an effort to attract the discerning and self-reliant shoppers of today. If a company wants to keep up with the competition and expand, it has to invest in dynamic, customer-focused online marketing. The algorithms used by search engines—where users enter their needs and where companies vie for prime real estate on the first page of results—are constantly evolving in response to user feedback and the need to provide the best possible experience for users.

Google, the most widely used search engine, regularly updates the logic behind how it finds the most relevant and valuable websites to display at the top of search results. Local SEO strategy can also boost the ranking for your local searches.

In order to maintain a competitive edge and maximize the return on investment from SEO efforts year after year, businesses need to be up to speed on the latest industry standards as soon as they emerge. Small-scale businesses trying to implement Digital Marketing Tools Used by Experts to help them compete in this Digital world. On the other hand, if we talk about PPC Campaign, this method helps you to reach your target audience. This can also be one of the best ways to rank in the paid market. Although the organic market is evergreen as always.

Companies need advanced notice of upcoming updates and variables affecting SEO and rank to remain on top of the ranking game. You have arrived if you are a forward-thinking company that values future planning. 

Top search engine optimization (SEO) ranking elements that will affect your site’s position in search results in 2025 and beyond are discussed below. It’s time for you to take the benefits Of technical SEO. Find out what you need to know about search engine optimization (SEO) in the future so you can start incorporating it into your SEO strategy right now and gain long-term financial rewards.

SEO Ranking Factors: Your Website Infrastructure

Let’s being with the structure of your website and make sure it is optimized for the following SEO ranking factors:

1. The Mobile-First Strategy

Google has been utilizing mobile usability as a ranking factor for at least a decade, and the company has been promoting responsive website design since 2012 (if you didn’t know previously). 

Now is an excellent opportunity to upgrade your company website with a solution that will last long and continue to give a robust mobile user experience in years to come if it doesn’t now.

For instance, if a mobile website version provides less information than its desktop counterpart, Google will have less context when determining a page’s ranking.

Your site’s search engine rankings might suffer if mobile users have a worse experience than those who access it from a desktop computer.

A successful user experience relies heavily on a responsive mobile design. It’s a core part of Google’s 2020 overhaul of their page-experience algorithm.

The user-friendly content and navigation features are rewarded in the page experience update, as the name indicates. It’s reasonable to assume that Google will penalize non-mobile-friendly websites in search results.

In keeping with the idea that mobile-first indexing is just a “part of life” (an idea we heartily endorse), it is helpful to include this aspect in your successful SEO strategy to be familiar with its development and current state.

For instance, Google has prioritized Page Experience, which is a ranking criterion that heavily integrates mobile, in the years after the launch of the mobile-first index.

According to Google, there is no dedicated mobile-first index.

Instead, the mobile version of the website is used for indexing and ranking in Google’s search results.

In 2018, Google detailed how the mobile-friendly URL of your site gets indexed using mobile-first indexing.

Google displays the mobile URL to mobile visitors and the desktop URL to desktop users if your site has a mobile and desktop URL.

The mobile version will be used for indexing purposes, nonetheless.

Experiences on mobile devices and desktop computers should be equivalent. In January 2020, Google introduced improvements to its mobile-first indexing guidelines, focusing on making mobile and desktop experiences consistent.

Experts offered an excellent rundown of what Google meant by “similar experience.”

• Make sure Googlebot can read and process the content of mobile and desktop versions of a website.
• Checking that all of the features and information are seen on the regular site can also be found on the mobile version.
• Both the mobile and desktop versions of the site use identical meta-robot tags.
• Both the desktop and mobile versions of the site have the same headlines.
• The process of checking that the same structured data is present on both the mobile and desktop versions of a website.

2. Web Fundamental: Core Web Vitals

These are analogous to a person’s physiological parameters, thus the name. An essential subset of Web Vitals is known as the Core Web Vitals. Every website on the web should adhere to these standards.

Essential Web Metrics are a simple way to gauge a site’s effectiveness and learn about its users’ experiences. Three primary indicators make up Core Web Vitals:

LCP: Time to load the page’s primary content is measured by a statistic called Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Google states that LCP load times under 2.5 seconds are acceptable, between 2.5 and 4 seconds require improvement, and beyond 4 seconds are unsatisfactory.

FID: First Input Delay (FID) is the time it takes for the browser to respond to the user’s first input after the page has loaded. According to Google, if the FID is less than 100 milliseconds, it is fine; if it is between 100 and 300 milliseconds, it requires improvement; and if it is more than 300 milliseconds, it isn’t good.

CLS: The stability of a webpage’s visual design during user interaction is quantified using a statistic called Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). It shows how often and drastically the website’s layout changes without the user’s knowledge or consent, such as when a button’s location abruptly shifts without needing to scroll. In this case, a lower CLS is preferable. Anything below 0.1 is considered excellent by Google, while anything beyond 0.25 is considered flawed; in between, there is an opportunity for development.

3. Page Experience

Google defines “Page experience” as “a collection of signals that capture how people feel about their time on a web page beyond the content itself.”

Core Web Vitals, mobile friendliness, safe surfing, HTTPS, and invasive interstitial standards are all examples of signals that describe a page’s experience.

While page experience is crucial, Google still strives to rank sites with the most awesome content overall, even if the page experience is terrible. Excellent user experience is only as necessary as premium content. In contrast, page experience might be considerably more significant for visibility in Search when several pages are potentially comparable in relevancy.

Further Reading: The 6 Meta Tags That Can Help Improve Your SEO

4. Structure for Internal Links

Proper internal linking is another important SEO ranking factor that should be part of your website architecture.

An internal link is any connection from one page on your website to another page on your website. Search engines and human visitors alike rely on links to navigate your site.

Google and other search engines place a premium on internal links. The question is, why?

The links on your site allow people to go where they need to go and discover the information they need. The links on your site are used by search engines as well. If there are no references to the page, they won’t find it.

As the owner of the site, you may manage the internal links.

Connecting related sections of text is what internal links do. Google’s bot, Googlebot, navigates the web by following connections both inside and across web pages. The bot loads the webpage, looks for the first link and clicks it. Google can determine the association between multiple pieces of material by following their connections. By doing this, Google can determine which of your site’s pages deal with the same topic.

SEO Ranking Factors: Your Content

Search engines exist to give its users the best content for their search query. Since content is the currency of SEO, its importance as an SEO ranking factor cannot be understated!

5. Adopting an Effective Strategy for Using Keywords

You’re losing customers because you don’t know how to employ keywords for search engine optimization (SEO).

The numbers support such an interpretation.

Almost 75% of search engine users never scroll beyond the first page of results, according to studies. The top three results on that page get 50% of all clicks. Let’s look at these SEO statistics, which demonstrate the volume of people visiting the first page of results.

This implies that improper usage of keywords might devastate a company’s bottom line. That’s because you won’t be able to reap the advantages of having visitors discover your site via natural means (i.e., people clicking through to it from a list of search results).

Not having any natural visitors implies having fewer potential customers interested in your product. That’s obviously too much money for any company.

Keywords, words, and phrases that characterize your article’s subject matter are essential to search engine optimization.

Google then uses the data to establish how highly a page should rank in results for a given search phrase and which material on the page is most relevant to that query. That is what determines how high a page appears in search results.

6. Create Something Unique, Engaging, and Lively

Because of the rise of “new ways of performing SEO” and content marketing, a flood of fresh material has emerged. If you want your material to be read, it must be different from the others.

Don’t just copy and paste content from elsewhere on the web. To get people’s attention, you need to offer the material in a manner that stands out from the crowd and immediately appeals to your target audience. Not only will this improve your SEO, but it will also increase the likelihood that people will read, share, and appreciate your material.

If you want your material to strike a chord with the reader amidst dozens of pieces, consider the following:

• Create a consistent tone for all of your material, drawing on real-world or internal examples.
• Take a fresh tack on a familiar topic.
• You should try to make your article more comprehensive than similar ones.
• Make it more accessible to your target audience than similar works by your competition.
• It’s also essential that your material is compelling and fun to connect with. That way, visitors will stay on your site for longer, share your content more, and enjoy it more.
• As a reminder, your content should always be aligned with your positioning in marketing.

Google gives extra credit to websites that keep visitors on them for longer. You should be able to grab their interest and then keep them hooked all through. If you want them to explore your site more, connect to the related sites inside it.

Make sure your writing is engaging and approachable. Doing so may transform even the driest topics, like taxes or plumbing, into something interesting and worthwhile to read.

Further Reading: What is SEO Content Writing? 27 Tips to Help You Adapt Your Writing Style to Better Rank

7. Content Word Count

Longer articles are what SEO specialists recommend writing more of each year in the hopes of reaching Google’s first page. Marketers are on edge because of Google’s continuous algorithm upgrades, such as the May 2022 core update, which leaves them wondering what they can do to get content up to the top spot.

SEO experts have advised different word counts. Databox, a business that makes analytics software, surveyed various SEO and content marketing professionals in 2021 to determine the ideal number of words for online articles. It was discussed in these meetings that the following minimum and maximum word counts should be used for various content types:

• Word count for landing pages: 300–600
• 500-800 words for evergreen content (like service pages).
• Online diaries
• Articles in the 300-600 word range are ideal for social media sharing.
• Word count for a typical blog post or web page: 1-2 extensive pieces should be at least 2,000 words.
• Instructional Manuals: 4000 Words in Length

According to HubSpot, the longer your content is, the better. HubSpot is a popular CRM platform, and they feel that longer content is more effective.

According to the firm’s study of optimal blog post lengths for SEO, marketers should compose posts that are between 2,100 and 2,400 words in length. However, when it comes to blog postings, HubSpot suggests varying word counts for various categories. 

For instance, pillar pages (web pages providing an in-depth analysis of major themes) are recommended to be about 4,000 words in length. On the other hand, “How-to” blog pieces may be anywhere from 1,700 to 2,100 words long.

The developers of the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress concur that long-form articles are the way to go. They claim that Google’s first page may be reached via lengthy, high-quality blog entries. According to Backlinko’s data, the average length of the top 10 results on Google is 1,447 words.

Google Discusses the Possible Impact of Length on SERPs

Google has denied the claims made by certain SEO practitioners that a higher word count would improve a website’s search engine rankings. 

According to John Mueller, the company’s senior webmaster trends analyst, the number of words in a piece does not factor into how well it does in search engines. Quote: “Just naively adding text to a page doesn’t make it better.”

Put another way; Google does not attribute any value to the quantity of text on a website when determining its relevance to a search. In its place, the search giant’s algorithms prioritize fresh, unique, and high-quality material.

8. RankBrain

RankBrain optimization is a must if you care about search engine rankings.

Why?

RankBrain is now officially the third most significant ranking indicator in Google’s arsenal.

Moreover, its significance is growing daily.

Google’s search rankings are organized using a machine learning (AI) system called RankBrain. It aids Google’s processing and comprehension of search requests, as well.

RankBrain makes autonomous adjustments to the algorithm.

RankBrain adjusts the weight given to the various SEO ranking factors, including link popularity, content age, article length, domain authority, and more, based on the query string.

Then, it analyzes how Google search users respond to the updated results. The new algorithm is kept if people find it to be an improvement. In such a case, RankBrain reverts to the previous method.

RankBrain primarily serves two purposes:

1. Recognizing search-engine requests (keywords)

2. Assessing users’ reactions to the findings (user satisfaction)

In the past, Google would attempt to find a match between your search terms and existing text on the page.

RankBrain now makes an effort to interpret your intent. That is to say, in a human way.

How? Using a system that compares new keywords to existing ones Google has already indexed.

Just what kind of data is RankBrain collecting?

It keeps a close eye on how you interact with the search results. In particular, it investigates:

• Organic CTR (Click-Through-Rate)
• Dwell Time
• Bounce Rate
• Pogo-sticking

We refer to them as “signals” of the user experience (UX signals).

And the notable thing is:

The search giant polled its employees, the Google Engineers, to determine which page yields the most outstanding results. RankBrain was consulted as well.

And RankBrain was 10% more effective than Google’s own brilliant engineers.

9. The Essence of New Content

Even though it’s evident that content may increase website traffic by responding to common consumer inquiries, many companies fail to appreciate the value of content in search engine optimization.

In human terms, new material keeps people coming back to your website. You would surely be disappointed if you visited your favorite news website and found nothing fresh to read, right? Though news sites, in particular, rely heavily on regular content updates to attract and retain readers and drive search engine optimization (SEO), all websites benefit from regularly publishing new material.

More visitors and a better position in search engine results pages are the results of good content marketing. We’ll go through how new material may boost your successful SEO strategy to assist you in better grasping how the two concepts are intertwined in content marketing.

• Organic Keyword Optimization
• Search Engine Crawlers
• Consistent User Activity
• Web Page Authority and Link Building

Further Reading: Is WordPress or Shopify Better for SEO? 7 Important Things to Consider

Off-Page SEO Ranking Factors

While off-page SEO ranking factors are outside of your total control, there are actions you can take to positively influence them.

10. Authoritative and Relevant Backlinks

There are many various sorts of link acquisition strategies that you may combine into your overall SEO plan at any given moment. There are some simple ones and other more challenging ones. However, the most valuable connections are the ones that are the most difficult to get since they have the maximum potential to move search engine rankings and bring targeted visitors to your site.

We’ve decided to write about the six traits of a reliable source in today’s article. If you’re looking to establish linkages with tremendous weight, then you should definitely check off all of these features before committing any effort to the endeavor.

Is there any use for what the website offers?

Before deciding to obtain a link from a specific website, it is crucial to assess whether or not the site genuinely gives value to its readers. For example, a link from a site created to host ads from Google’s Adsense program or a thin affiliate site will not benefit your site in the long run. It’s still a link, but when search engines update their algorithms, it may affect you in the long run, so it’s better to avoid it if you can.

It is crucial to understand the importance of links in content marketing that provide consumer value without complications. You might be surprised to know how individuals may be detached from the components of acquiring a link created for Adsense or affiliate programs, which is one of the finest methods to earn money. More potential customers may constantly be attracted to a company via such connections.

Further Reading: Backlink Building Hacks & Secrets Revealed: How We Got 12,000 Backlinks in One Year

11. Branding Signals

One of the essential methods for companies to gain recognition and credibility online is using brand signals.

The truth is, if you want to raise brand recognition via SEO in the present day, you need to focus on your brand signals.

When establishing a site’s relevance and authority, search engines consider brand signals.

Consumers get brand signals regarding the product’s category, country of origin, quality, and cost.

They have a vibe that’s consistent with the brand in question.

Packaging, names, and other identifiers help consumers pick their preferred brands in a crowded marketplace.

The purpose of brand signals is to educate, inspire, and motivate the target audience, whether that audience is internal or external. However, branding is rapidly becoming an essential part of SEO. This is because search engines are increasingly relying on brand signals to evaluate the reliability and credibility of websites.

New data from Search Metrics supports the idea that well-known companies have a search engine optimization advantage.

It’s not hard to see that Google gives higher rankings to popular, well-known companies. A company or its product will be seen as more credible and valuable by Google if it is cited often by other parties.

Further Reading: Social Signals and SEO: What You Need to Know (and 7 Steps to Take)

Who is the Hero of These SEO Ranking Factors: Target Audience or Search Engine?

The answer is both. You can reach your intended demographic by optimizing your site for search engines. Google is constantly improving so that you get the most remarkable search experience. You can remain ahead of the competition by implementing these benefits Of Technical SEO, for instance, if you pay attention to Google’s algorithm upgrades and make sure your content is optimized for a wide range of Google algorithms, from page ranking to spam detection. 

Keep a watch out for sudden shifts in themes or information that might alter the content’s relevancy, and check that any link schemes align with Google’s guidelines before publishing them.

In this approach to website optimization according to these SEO ranking factors, you can guarantee that your material will be seen in Google’s index.

Author Bio

Bharat Patel is the Department Head, Digital Marketing at Brainvire. Previously, Bharat was SEO Manager at The Tech guys. Bharat holds a Master’s degree from the Mumbai Institute Of Management and Research.

Hero photo by Myriam Jessier on Unsplash