Search Engine Marketing Blog

by seomoz

Top 5 Ranking Factors

Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links:73% very high importance,

External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links):71% very high importance,

Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains):67% very high importance,

Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag:66% very high importance,

Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. TrustRank, Domain mozTrust, etc.):66% very high importance

Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors

Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent:68% very high importance,

Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers:56% high importance,

Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages:51% moderate importance,

Cloaking by User Agent:51% moderate importance,

Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility:51% moderate importance.

Top 5 Most Contentious Factors

Cloaking by Cookie Detection:16.3% strong contention

Cloaking by JavaScript/Rich Media Support Detection:15.4% moderate contention

Hiding Text with same/similar colored text/background:15.3% moderate contention

Cloaking by IP Address:15.3% moderate contention

Cloaking by User Agent:15.2% moderate contention