Ranking Factors
Signal categories and their relative importance, grounded in patent analysis. Note: Google's weighting is query-dependent and never disclosed — these are signal categories, not absolute weights.
Signal Tier 1: Site-Level Gates
These signals are evaluated BEFORE query matching. Failing here suppresses all page rankings.
| Signal | Patent Source | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Site-level quality score (Panda ratio) | US9031929B1 | Very High — suppresses entire domain |
| Content uniqueness (uniqueness ratio) | US8707459B2 | Very High — first Panda decision tree gate |
| Web decay (site maintenance signals) | Historical Data patent | High — reduces crawl frequency and trust |
| Crawl budget allocation | Crawl Rate patents | High — unimportant pages can limit crawl of important pages |
Audit to run: Panda Quality Score, Duplicate Content Risk, Crawl Budget Optimizer
Signal Tier 2: Page-Level Quality
These signals determine whether an individual page is eligible to rank for relevant queries.
| Signal | Patent Source | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Content depth and topical completeness | Phrase-Based Indexing (US7536408) | Very High |
| Entity clarity and disambiguation | NER + Knowledge Graph patents | High |
| Expert authorship (Agent Rank) | Agent Rank patent | High for YMYL; Moderate otherwise |
| Freshness relative to query type | US 8,549,014 B2 | High for QDF queries; Low for evergreen |
| Structured data accuracy | Schema.org integration patents | Moderate (enables rich results) |
Audit to run: Phrase-Based Optimizer, Entity Extraction, Agent Rank Author, Content Freshness
Signal Tier 3: Query-Specific Relevance
These signals are evaluated per query — how well does this page match this specific query?
| Signal | Patent Source | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic keyword alignment | NLP semantic patents | Very High |
| Query intent format match | Query classification patents | Very High |
| Featured snippet format eligibility | Search UI patents | High (for zero-click visibility) |
| Local geo-relevance signals | Local search patents (109 articles) | Very High for local queries |
| Brand search / navigational readiness | Search UI + sitelink patents | Very High for navigational queries |
Audit to run: Semantic Keyword Scorer, Query Classification, Featured Snippet Scorer, Local Geo-Relevance, Sitelink Optimization
Signal Tier 4: Authority and Trust
These signals validate quality claims — confirming the page/site is what it says it is.
| Signal | Patent Source | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| PageRank (link authority) | US6285999 | High |
| Reasonable Surfer-weighted internal link equity | Reasonable Surfer patent | High |
| Temporal link profile health | US 7,346,839 (Historical Data) | High (risk: manipulation flags) |
| Anchor text distribution | Historical Data + PageRank | Moderate |
| Social trust signal propagation | Social TrustRank patents | Moderate |
| Co-citation patterns | Entity/social patents | Moderate |
Audit to run: Reasonable Surfer Links, Historical Data Risk, Social Trust Signals
Signal Tier 5: Behavioral Validation
These signals are measured after a page achieves rankings — they validate or override the signals above.
| Signal | Patent Source | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Click-through rate vs. position expectation | Click feedback patents | High — over/underperformance adjusts rankings |
| Dwell time / selection quality | US9558233B1 | High — pogo-sticking suppresses rankings |
| Post-click engagement depth | User behavior patents | Moderate |
| Query satisfaction signal | Click feedback patents | High — determines if user need was met |
Audit to run: Click Feedback CTR
Query Type Signal Weights
Signal importance varies by query type:
| Signal Category | LOCAL | NAVIGATIONAL | TRANSACTIONAL | INFORMATIONAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geo-relevance | Critical | N/A | Moderate | Low |
| Brand entity signals | Moderate | Critical | Moderate | Low |
| E-E-A-T / author | Low | N/A | Moderate | High (YMYL) |
| Content depth | Low | Low | Low | High |
| Freshness | Moderate | Low | High | Varies |
| Schema markup | High (LocalBusiness) | Moderate | High (Product) | Moderate (FAQ) |
| User behavioral signals | Moderate | Low | High | High |
The Signal Cascade
Signals interact — don't treat them as independent:
- Site-level quality gates — failing here caps how well ANY page can rank
- Page-level quality — determines indexation eligibility
- Query relevance — determines which queries the page is a candidate for
- Authority signals — determines ranking position among candidates
- Behavioral validation — confirms or adjusts the ranking based on actual user satisfaction
An excellent page on a low-quality site (Tier 1 failure) will underperform. A clean site with poor page quality (Tier 2 failure) won't rank even with strong links. Fixing signals in order from Tier 1 → 5 is the most efficient path.