There are a number of articles that discuss the factors that influence your ranking. However, it is just as important to be aware of the factors that do not influence your ranking at all or only indirectly. It is for this very reason that I have decided to write this article. In the following, I will discuss the various things that are not directly or not at all part of search engine optimization.
1. likes, shares, tweet counts and plus-ones of your website
Let's say you've managed to get your content shared several thousand times on Facebook, for example. In itself, the number of shares is not a relevant ranking factor for Google, because Google doesn't even take this aspect into account.
However, if it is the case that many of the people who have shared the content have also carried out other activities that bring increased browsing and search activity, click-through activity, stronger branding, lower pogo-sticking rates, brand preference for you in search results and links, then this can have an indirect positive impact on your ranking.
Accordingly, this factor can have an impact on your ranking - but only indirectly.
So it's advisable to stop wasting time and money on Facebook shares.
2. the age of the website
Google is absolutely not interested in the age of your website - so it is completely irrelevant whether your website was created in the early 2000s or in 2017. This is because Google only looks at whether your page content is relevant to the user and whether your page is equipped with various links and authority signals etc.
Of course, if a site was created a few years ago, it will be of interest to Google if it has consistently good traffic, as it has certainly been able to accumulate a few links and some authority. However, this does not mean that newer sites that have collected the same amount of links and authority as an older website within a very short time will not be noticed by Google and rewarded for this.
Therefore, the age of your website has no real direct influence on your ranking.
3. keyword bounce rate or dwell time
This is a relatively interesting factor. The dwell time and bounce rate will not affect your ranking. So as long as everything remains within limits in terms of pogo-sticking activities, everything is fine.
4. the technology behind the scenes
Google simply doesn't care about the technology behind the scenes of your website in terms of your ranking. As long as Google is able to crawl each of your URLs and see the unique content there, and as long as the content appears the same way to both Google and visitors, it is irrelevant to Google what technology is used to achieve this.
5. the use of default settings that Google already expects
If Google crawls a page and you don't have a robots.txt document, don't have a robots meta tag or have a robots.txt document but it doesn't contain any extensions or disallowances, then Google assumes that it can crawl everything and follow all links.
Using things such as the meta robots "index, following" or other special features in robots.txt will have no effect on your ranking. Google will simply assume that these things have been set as default settings. Ergo, Google does not care.
6. the use of H1, H2, H3 headlines
Google is focused on the content of your website. Accordingly, Google does not pay attention to whether the headline is in H2 instead of H1 or other. From the perspective of the website visitor and the website designer, it is of course important that the page content is provided with a headline in H1 and that use is generally made of the various headline formats, as this brings a certain structure to the page and the page has clean HTML and CSS.
But from Google's point of view, this is absolutely irrelevant.
7. adding meta keywords
By increasing the speed of your website, you can strongly influence your visitor's opinion of your company and your website. It is therefore a sensible way to optimize your search ranking.
Meta tags, on the other hand, are not an option that you can use to improve your ranking. Meta keywords have no influence whatsoever on your search ranking and are therefore no longer relevant in terms of modern search engine optimization, as they are an outdated practice.
It doesn't matter what industry you're in - what matters is that you take the time to get a better picture of your audience, rather than wasting your time trying to squeeze the relevant keywords into your page content. You have to look at the user experience instead of just focusing on keyword targeting. These days, meta keywords are simply no longer relevant. You can improve your click-through rate with a meaningful meta tag description, but it won't affect your ranking in the first place.
8. The Use of schema markup
In recent years, more and more use has been made of schema markup to improve one's ranking in search results. However, this is not a factor that influences search rankings. It is merely a means of increasing your click-through rate, dwell time and branding.
This is therefore only an indirect factor for the ranking and does not in itself bring any ranking advantages. However, organic traffic can be greatly increased by this means. Incidentally, you must be careful not to violate the Google guidelines, otherwise you will be penalized.
9. the repeated use of keywords
The use of keywords in title tags can have an impact on your ranking. However, like all good things in the world, this is to be enjoyed in moderation, as overuse of the Keywords can lead to problems and penalties. Instead, you should make sure that the content is presented to the reader in an attractive way and that it is easy to read. Texts that are stuffed with keywords often appear unnatural to the reader, which is not a positive aspect for the reader. When designing your page content, it should be important to provide your visitors with answers and thoughts on topics that interest them. It is also better to focus on long-tail keywords in your headings and titles, as this is more likely to result in a good ranking. Ergo, the repeated use of keywords is by no means a positive thing and is actually a negative ranking factor for Google.
10. the integration of rich snippets
Rich snippets are a good way to improve your click-through rate. They can also increase qualified traffic and improve the respective conversion rate.
Just like schema markup, rich snippets help to convey the content of your website to search engines. Schema markup defines the respective content type, whereas rich snippets provide more information about your website.
The dwell time can also be increased thanks to rich snippets and it should be noted that Google threatens to impose penalties if superfluous rich snippets are present.
However, the fact is that rich snippets have no influence on your ranking, so it is not relevant for Google in this respect.
11. the knowledge panel on the right-hand side of the search results
Sometimes the so-called knowledge panel appears while you are browsing the internet. The knowledge panel is in no way related to your ranking.
While this aspect will most likely result in a greater number of clicks, which is a nice thing, it won't affect your search ranking at all. For this reason, the knowledge panel is not the aspect of SEO you should be focusing on.
